Sky Diving.

After a couple of hours reading stories from others going through their first dives and reading about the latest equipment, safety devices and the courses I decided to go for it. 

A tandem dive was out of the question. If I was going to do this I was going all out. I was going for an Accelerated Free Fall. You have two Jump Masters at your side to guide you through your Free Fall. If you can't pull your chute, They will! 

After searching the web, I decided to go to Taft, CA www.skydivetaft.com for my AFF-1 course. After five or six hours I was the first in my class to go. After suiting up and going over the exit procedures a couple times it was my turn to go. A shiny chrome Cessna 182 with Sky Dive Taft painted on the side. At this point I was still pretty calm. The two Jump Masters Corky and Bethany , camera man Mike and I board the aircraft and begin the ascent. 

It's a nice 20 minute climb up to the 11000' altitude and the air gets cooler as we climb. It was 102 degrees at ground level. I keep checking my altimeters as we climb. 500' feels more like 2000'. 

As we reach our final level I am getting a bit more anxious but still no fear, that is until the door opens. There is a big difference between looking out a window and a gaping hole with air rushing in. OK it's not that bad, but is a little scary. The first Jump Master climbed out of the plane, then the camera guy hung out the doorway. I waited for the OK then carefully, remembering my instructions, climbed out under the wing. 

At this point it's kind of like standing up in the bed of a pickup truck, only at 11000'. So far so good. I look in to my JM and she shakes her head, I look out to my other JM and he does the same. Just like in training a quick hokie pokie (right leg out in out and go)..... This is the point where I go from ace student to bumbling fool in about 10000000000000 of a second. I am thinking to myself what the @#$% did I just do? Then this a actually pretty cool, enjoying the ride for a few seconds before realizing that I am dropping at 120 MPH and I have things to do and there are two other people with me.  

At this point I start my circle of awareness and get the legs out sign which I ignore at first until I get a good shake from my JM. He then gives me the hand signal to check my hands. I also had trouble reading my altimeters at first.

I regrouped. I got the altimeter sign and looked hard at my chest altimeter and realized I was all ready at 6000' I locked on it until 5000' gave my clear signal a with a little searching for the rip cord (with help from my JM) pulled.  

This is where the biggest adrenaline rush of my life turned into the most peaceful moment. My chute opened I looked up to see it was a white one. ( like a toy inside a cereal box, you don't know until it's opened). I did my canopy check did a few turns and looked down at my Jump Masters and Camera Man floating below me. I took time to really enjoy this part of the ride and make it last as long as possible. I was talked down by radio to an almost perfect landing. I have done a lot of fun sports in my life - Skiing on water and snow, Motor bikes, ATV's and others but nothing even comes close to the thrill of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

I did three more jumps until I got it out of my system. This has definitely been the highlight of my life for an adrenaline rush and nothing else will compare. There is an atmosphere to the family of sky divers that can't be explained, only felt and enjoyed by those that have experienced it. I'm not sure if I will ever do it again but I will never forget that I actually did it or the bond I made, no matter how brief, with the people I shared my time flying through the sky with.

One day I want to try hang gliding. Like a said before, the freefall was something I will never forget but once the chute opened I felt I had more control and have never felt better. I think the hang gliding will give me more of that feeling and will last as long as I want to stay in the air.