Jumping out of a plane

Now that i have jumped from a scary height of 150ft, i thought i should push a 'little' harder now that i know how it feels to jump off a bridge. Thoughts led to ideas, ideas led to plans, and plans led to actions - now i wanted to jump off a flying plane.

13,000 ft - that is how high the plane was flying when i jumped out of it. It was a short flight - lasting roughly 10 minutes. Flying us was a pilot, except he was not dressed with flashy pilot apparell, but was in a tank top and shorts. He taxied the plane like a car, i guess this being his job, he might have made very short up-down trips like a 100 a week.

Seated inside the plan was a crew of 10 (three sky divers, three jump instructors, three cameramen, and one supervisor). Obviously only three out of the 11 souls (Baskar, Bala, and myself - the first time divers!!) inside the plane were trembling at the sight of the nothingness and depth when the supervisor slid open the door as the plane reached a height of 13,000ft.

it was a terrific view - never seen except in movies. One after another, people started getting out of the plane, thrown into open air into a moment of free fall where mother earth starts pulling anything and everything towards her.

Baskar was first to do the jump - i happened to see the look on his face seconds before he made the jump, and i have very rarely seen a deathly expression before. Bala was next; when he slid into the edge of the window, he was holding on to the plane for dear life (we were asked to cross our hands on to the shoulders) . But he finally let go, and down he went with his instructor tied to his back.

I was the last to leave the plane. the drop was painless because i didnt have even a second to pause and think about the depth and the craziness of the task ahead. It was just slide, slide, slide, and ok - get out of the f***g plane.

Out i went, and my whole body was feeling something really unique - it was a free fall and it lasted for roughly 40 seconds !!. There was a little bit of suffocation, little bit of pain (later on, when i look at the photographs i realize what was happening - i was falling down so fast the fat and muscles were being pulled up due to air resistance; i mean, physically pulled up). In the vicinity was the photographer doing all kinds of acrobatics and making sure he caught me in the video and camera.

While i was still enjoying the G, a knock from my flight instructor told me that it was time to open the chute. I felt a sudden, sharp pull upwards and i must have moved up 20 ft. The chute opened ok, and that was a big relief. Also, i didnt have to maintain a flat position anymore - it was time to enjoy the view.

it was an awesome view - very close to what you see out of a aircraft window, but in open air. Buildings looked like dots on a map, and large pieces of land revealed their boundaries all at once. With every seconds, things were getting bigger and bigger, and when we were like a hundred foot away from the ground, i practiced 'foot up' - which is, simply raise your legs letting the instructor making a safe landing all by himself. We landed seconds later, and it was the smoothest landing i have ever seen before.

The whole experience was simply awesome and the memories came back on and on as we drove back home. Two things really humbled me -(1)when i heard that it was roughly the 2000th jump for the tandem jump instructor that i was 'tied' to, (2) when i saw a 74 year old lady do a tandem jump - she had her first jump when she was 70 years old and she is still enjoying it !!.