I'm headed out the door of a plane at about 14,500 ft and letting go of sanity for sixty seconds. With Stewart (tandem partner) and Chad (videographer) of Skydive USA along for the ride, making my first skydive wasn't as scary as it should have been. I knew I couldn't fly, but I I was hoping I would be able to fall quite well.
When the door flies open 3 miles high above
the drop 
zone, cold air floods
in and you finally get a good sense of what excitement, anxiousness
& fear all bunched into one brief gush feels like. There's
no time for second guessing or profound thoughts at this point,
when you're hanging out of the plane with your arms to your chest,
you know it's time to go! Zero to 120 mph ten seconds later and
it's too late to turn around. The tremendous rush of air is deafening
as I plummet groundward. It's one heck of a trip.
The next one full minute jets by as I freefall nearly two miles toward the earth.
The jump
got a bit rocky due to my knees hanging down, but that's why I
was strapped to a professional. After some of his adjustments,
we stayed in the right position until the critical point (that
would be ripcord time.) Wow! I think I even managed a smile despite
the fact that my lips were pasted to my teeth.
No specail adaptive devices were used besides the typical tandem rigging.
And yes! the chute opened at 5,000 ft and everything suddenly went silent. The view was spectacular. With the sun setting beyond the horizon and a nice full parachute above my head, it's the best seat in the house. It took 8 quick minutes to glide softy down, but there's no way they'll ever be forgotten.
A perfect landing followed with plenty of helping hands ready to play catch.
Thanks to all my knew friends at Skydive USA at Wharton, Tx., (281) 561-JUMP. Doing something like this sure does make the other challenges seem pretty miniscule.
