Since I first wrote an account of skydiving a third of the way through my training where I was still terrified of the concept of jumping from a moving place 15,000 feet up in the air I thought I’d recount a fonder experience near the end of my training with 20 jumps under my belt. 

Waiting for the plane to arrive has now become routine. All the gear checks are done. My altimeter is set to 0. An instructor has double checked everything. I know in which order I’ll be exiting the plane. The plane arrives. Engines growing louder and roaring as it comes towards us up the runway. As we walk out onto the concrete it turns to line back up in the opposite direction. We clamber in and assume our seats on two thin wooden benches, everyone facing the rear and mushed in as tight as sardines, with the three people out first taking the floor space closest to the door. As soon as the plastic shutter is rolled into place covering the exit, the pilot urges the plane down the runway.  Everyone straps on their seat belts and braces against the acceleration of the plane as it launches into the air. 

The ground quickly drops away beneath us and we are displayed an amazing view of olive groves stretching on for miles around. As we reach 1,000 feet we all remove our seat belts and helmets. In case of emergency its safer for us to just all jump out and deploy our chutes instead of risking a plane crash. The pilot zig zags the plane across the sky gaining precious altitude as we wait on impatiently. The view out the small oval windows becomes ever more impressive, with more becoming visible the higher we climb, town and cities appear below us. The student dispatcher double checks my equipment and give me a thumbs up to signal everything looks OK. I double-check, just to make sure. As it hits 11,000 feet I slip on my goggles and helmet. Everyone starts to give each other the skydivers handshake. A palm to palm, fist bump and then crazy whatever you want sign. From what I gather its basically everyone saying to each other, jump out, have fun and be awesome. The great thing is everyone participates, you could be a rookie student high fiving a red bull sponsored skydiver with thousands of jumps. There is no ego in the air. 

The speed drops off suddenly and the pilot bleeds off more speed by forcing the plane up another 500 feet to the jumping altitude. The guys closest to the door roll it open. The wind rushes in. The jump light goes red. Everyone waits. It goes green. The first guys out clamber into the doorway together, then suddenly, they fall away. The plane rocks slightly accounting for the sudden lost weight. I make my way to the opening where the dispatcher motions for me to wait another few seconds. Then I get the go-ahead. I get ready to exit. I want to make this exit a forward roll out. I get into a squatting position with my toes over the edge. I take a breath and just let myself fall forwards. 

I roll head over heals once and open myself out. I’m now falling on my back, looking above me I calmly watch the plane moving away. Nothing I’ve ever done beats this…. Pure serenity mixed with adrenalin, happiness, awe and a dash of “is this really happening”.  Nothing but clear blue sky’s surround me. I wait a few more seconds and flip myself onto my belly. I’ve pre-planned on the ground what I wanted to get done in the sky. We are drilled to always, always, have a plan. I find the airfield underneath me, position myself towards the north and slowly move my arms and legs into the tracking position. (basically like Iron Man for you non-skydivers) My speed increases, I feel the air flowing faster around me and revel in the acceleration. Once 8 seconds are up I get back into a neutral position and check my altitude. Still at 8,000 feet, more that enough time to have some more fun. I do a backward flip, followed by a favorite of mine a good old fashioned barrels roll. Each time I recover from these unstable maneuvers I can feel the air grab me and throw me back on my stomach. As I reach my pull height I watch the last few hundred feet count down on my altitude and at 4,000 I wave off and reach with my right hand to the base of my rig where the small handle for the pilot chute is. I pull it out and throw it away from me in the same movement. Straight away I begin counting, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, I look up and go through the checklist to see if the canopy has deployed correctly or if I might need to deploy my reserve. I make sure I have full control and start making my way to my holding area before beginning my landing pattern down to the landing area. Everything looks amazing from 3,000 feet up in the air and as I descend slowly I have time to really appreciate it while also keeping an eye out for any incoming canopies. As you hang there under the canopy you are filled with a feeling that anything is possible and that you can do anything that you’ve ever dreamed of….

The landing is probably the most dangerous part, as everyone is converging on one place(so there is a risk of collision) and you are still going fast enough to be able to break your legs/spine/neck if you don’t land properly. At 1000 feet I begin my landing pattern with the wind behind me. At 500 feet I go cross wind until I hit approximately 300 feet, I then complete my last turn so as to face into the wind which I can use to slow myself down. The ground rushes up to meet me and I wait a precious few seconds until I’m sure I’m about to hit it before flaring slightly by bringing the steering toggles to shoulder level which slows my decent and lifts me up slightly, then I complete the flare when I’m only a few feet above it. Once my feet touch the ground I run off the last bit of speed and the canopy falls to my feet.