Wednesday, August 8, 2007

My First FLYING Experience!


"Jumping is fun! Skydiving is not just falling; it is flying—the closest we have been able to come to free, unencumbered, non-mechanical individual flight," says Mike Turoff in the book The Skydiver's Handbook.

I totally agree with him because skydiving provides the maximum liberty that one can ever experience. In this post, I'd like to describe to you my first jump in order to show you how much fun skydiving is.
First of all, I learned about skydiving from my dear friends who have sky dived recently. Their video was mesmerising! When I told G about it, he also expressed interest and next I knew was we were on our way to our first FREE FALL Adventure ;)

After reaching an hour late than the reserved time, we ended up waiting for more five long hours. We were shown a DVD warning us what we were about to experience and were asked to sign our lives out (waivers) stating the clauses of death warning and "no sue" deeds. Man! that was tough. When our name was called, we went in for training on how to fly. Then came the gear-up part! We put on our diving overalls, altimeters which are used to watch the altitude during the skydive,and goggles. Instructors put over their parachutes. Next step was to board the airplane which would take us 13000 feet high!! It was a big airplane with capacity of about 20 people. I was sitting right between my instructor and my camera woman. They were all asking me if I was feeling worried or scared. I wasn't. At that point, not at all. G was very excited and had cheered me up before even entering the airplane. My camera woman was sweet enough to talk to me continuously so that I feel comfortable. She would encourage me to watch the altimeter myself and say when was I ready to fly. My whole attention was on G who was all charged up and excited. He was well aware what he was going to experience in a few minutes would be the most memorable moments of his whole life. Our only concern was that we were flying at 7.00 pm in the evening and it had started getting darker and darker. So the videos and pictures would not be that great and clear. And that's exactly what happened. But we couldnt afford flying for the first time and possessing no digital memory of the same.

Finally, all the altimeters were saying thirteen thousand feet. The instructors opened the door. I felt the cold air touching me and encouraging me to come in its arms. I gathered courage and as soon as I started nearing the door, I realised G was ahead of me and it was his chance first to dive. In no time he flew off with his instructor and disappeared in the clouds in no time. Now, that's what psyched me off. I could have seen anyone else but him dive.....I can't express how nerve-wracking that sight was!!!
However, it was my chance now. I neared the door, took my positon as directed by my instructor and next I knew was, I' am flying...like a bird, freeeeee!! Those were the most interesting and enjoyable seconds that I have ever experienced. After a while, after about the first ten seconds, I could see my camera woman filming my free fall.There was no longer any sense of falling and speed. It was mostly like floating in the air and hearing the wind deep in your ears. My instructors were holding on me in case of any emergencies, but luckily there were none. :) I thoroughly enjoyed those fifty seconds of my free fall and they are indeed the most memorable moments in my life. After dropping down to about 5000 feet, my instructor unlocked the parachute with a warning which I was too busy flying to understand. The parachute experience was also very good but slow. Sudden fall in speed decreased my interest in flying with a parachute. After about 5-7 minutes of parachuting, we landed on the ground safely.
Both me and G had an amazing experience and are looking forward for an opportunity to sky dive again. The videos and pictures of this beautiful experience are one of our most valued possessions now. It always wonderful to know, see and believe that we can fly!!

I now know how Hanumanji feels! :-)

I would like to give one more personal message: Skydiving is a must-do activity, and everyone must try it at least once in his or her life. I guarantee you that it will be an unforgettable experience for you, too!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

wowwwwwwww....great start to finish descreption!!!!!11..i love adventure sports!!!!!!..don't know mera no. kab ayega??? :(

Unknown said...

yaayyyyyyyy i kno what is it like flying :D

great post.. reading it made me visualize my first skydive :) awesome!

Anonymous said...

wow thats so brave!!! well done look forward to seeing the video!!

Unknown said...

wow!!looking fwd to see video also..

Anonymous said...

Saritha
I can feel myself flying in your words. It was so brave.