Saturday, I jumped out of an airplane at about 10,000 feet over DeFuniak Springs for my first skydiving adventure, a tandem jump with Richard Carnes through Sky Life Services. My sweetheart, Amanda, bought the jump for me as a Christmas present last year and I can’t thank her enough for such a memorable experience.
I gave myself a long wait before the jump. I didn’t want to go while the weather was still cold, since thousands of feet up would prove colder still. My intent was to jump near April 1, my birthday. However, April showers scrubbed those plans every weekend of the month. By May, the reality of what approached was nearly lost until I made it to the hangar and saw the experts packing chutes and the tiny Cessna 182 Turbo I’d soon be exiting the fast way.
After arriving, I watched a video reiterating the real risk I faced. Amanda said it was good my parents hadn’t arrived as my mother would have been anxious upon hearing the words “injury” and “possible death.” However, Carnes’ 23 years in the Air Force and 20 years of tandem experience meant I had the best chance of a safe jump.
I’m thankful for my previously reported, adrenaline-fueled experiences, which I believe prepared me well for Saturday. In May of last year, drag racer and now 16-time True Street Champion Chris Escobar gave me a ride in his precision-tuned 1986 Ford SVO. In September, I logged my first hour behind the stick of a Piper to give readers an idea what a student’s first day in flight school is like. Thank you, Archie Collum head partner at Peter Prince Airport and my instructor, Alan Buskirk. Finally, Joey Martin, drag race car builder, gave me a ride in his weight-shift trike, essentially a big wing atop an open three-wheeled cart with a large fan in back. Of course, none of these experiences compared to complete freefall.
Despite the noise of the plane and rush of the wind, I remember clearly the transition from standing on the platform above the plane’s wheel to losing contact with anything solid. Thirty seconds of falling toward the Earth was an incredible rush.
The longer parachute ride afterwards was an experience in itself, seeing the world slowly coming upward. Carnes let me take the chute’s reigns and he had me pull a few corkscrews before coming in for a gentle landing in the large grassy field next to the hangar.
I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, I think. I was barely nervous at times and only felt excitement as we dropped. Check out the video in the story online to get a better view of how it all went.
If I can give any advice from my experience, I’d suggest creating real goals from your bucket list. Don’t let skydiving or a trip to Tahiti remain dreams. Plan and make it happen. Figure out what it will take and work in increments to get there. My experience came from a gift, but I’m thinking more about how real dreams can become. The closest bungee jumping facility appears to be in Destin. Step one is done.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Falling from the sky