Skydiving
I jumped off a plane today.
The nervous energy was laid well to sleep last week… literally.
I was to jump in the second shift. The plane was a single-seater. Yep – there was only one seat in the plane – the pilot's. Everyone else sat on the floor. Four people could just about manage to cramp into the small space behind the pilots seat. This plane would take off, drop a set of people, come back and the process would continue throughout the day.
In my flight, there were four other people. The guy who was going to tandem jump with me, the cameraman (yep, I opted for the video… that is another story), who would shoot me falling, a Mexican guy who was going to jump off on his own, and of course the pilot.
The flight to 10000 ft was pretty much a first of its kind for me– I mean how many times does one sit on a plane in which if a guy feels hot, simply asks the pilot to open the window… and the pilot obliges. The plane was all shaky… seemed like some passenger train in rural India. I noticed that, of the five in the plane, I was the only one without a parachute. Yep – even the pilot had a chute – gives you an idea on how much they trusted their vehicle. And then all sorts of thoughts began to cross my mind – what if this tandem guy didn’t get the harnesses properly – the one that attaches the two of us - so that I can piggyback on his chute. I mean, I had sort of picked a minor argument with them last week when they refused to return my money (for bad weather) – and the lady I had picked up the argument with was the one who actually got me all strapped up – and I had not seen her strapping anyone else… mebbe she just wanted to make sure… how low could people actually stoop for settling equations… clearly, life is worth far more than $250 – for once, I din’t know what to regret more – picking up the argument or deciding to come back and jump for the sake of $250.
Finally, the door of the plane opened (as if the window wasn’t huge enough for us to leap out). The Mexican guy took a step and leaped out in a flash. I slided towards the door to lean out of the plane - both feet hanging. At this point, the video guy said something, which obviously I dint hear. Before I could realize, I was off the plane. The next 60 seconds or thereabout, are beyond words. My mind wasn't working. I could see the video guy – I waved to him – we kind of shook hands in mid-air… and continued falling… and then the parachute opened around the time I realized I was free-falling. (The scare wasnt really there, coz I could hardly see anything specific on the ground.) Spent another 5-6 minutes in the air floating. I asked the tandem guy to do some tricks… and he obliged. That was fun.
Unfortunately, the video that I had paid for failed at the time it was supposed to shoot me in mid-air. I got a refund… and whatever of the video that was captured (it has the moment when I jump off the plane… for free… I don’t think I can complain!!).
Some trivia:
While I was waiting, I met a guy who was into his fourth jump. He said… ‘Man, this jump will change you life… it is unlike and beyond anything you might have done in your life’ – I think, he was right!
I realized that I have a very difficult name. While waiting for my turn, I made friends with a 4-yr old girl (like I have said before, American kids are cute – they don’t irritate… and are usually on their own). For the want of something better to do, we played a weird form of hide-and-seek. She would tell me that she was going to hide behind ‘that tree’… and asked me to close my eyes… and I open my eyes to find her hiding behind exactly that tree… and as one of Tinaz fwd said, when you play with children, let them win… I would hover around the tree for a couple of minutes and give up on finding her. Anyways, that was not the trivia… Crystal (that was her name) would ask me my name every once in a while… and no matter how hard she tried, she just din’t seem to get it… after calling me weird names (which she believed were variations of what my name was) for some time, she gave up and simply called me sir!!
The Mexican guy on the plane was on his 124th jump. He has been jumping for the last 5 years. He drives down from Mexico – a 9-hour drive, one way – and takes 2 jumps on every visit. So you can do the math to figure out what thrill he must be deriving out of the free fall!!
... like I said... this is how nervous I was
Plane that I jumped off
at the door... ready to jump
In air...
The nervous energy was laid well to sleep last week… literally.
I was to jump in the second shift. The plane was a single-seater. Yep – there was only one seat in the plane – the pilot's. Everyone else sat on the floor. Four people could just about manage to cramp into the small space behind the pilots seat. This plane would take off, drop a set of people, come back and the process would continue throughout the day.
In my flight, there were four other people. The guy who was going to tandem jump with me, the cameraman (yep, I opted for the video… that is another story), who would shoot me falling, a Mexican guy who was going to jump off on his own, and of course the pilot.
The flight to 10000 ft was pretty much a first of its kind for me– I mean how many times does one sit on a plane in which if a guy feels hot, simply asks the pilot to open the window… and the pilot obliges. The plane was all shaky… seemed like some passenger train in rural India. I noticed that, of the five in the plane, I was the only one without a parachute. Yep – even the pilot had a chute – gives you an idea on how much they trusted their vehicle. And then all sorts of thoughts began to cross my mind – what if this tandem guy didn’t get the harnesses properly – the one that attaches the two of us - so that I can piggyback on his chute. I mean, I had sort of picked a minor argument with them last week when they refused to return my money (for bad weather) – and the lady I had picked up the argument with was the one who actually got me all strapped up – and I had not seen her strapping anyone else… mebbe she just wanted to make sure… how low could people actually stoop for settling equations… clearly, life is worth far more than $250 – for once, I din’t know what to regret more – picking up the argument or deciding to come back and jump for the sake of $250.
Finally, the door of the plane opened (as if the window wasn’t huge enough for us to leap out). The Mexican guy took a step and leaped out in a flash. I slided towards the door to lean out of the plane - both feet hanging. At this point, the video guy said something, which obviously I dint hear. Before I could realize, I was off the plane. The next 60 seconds or thereabout, are beyond words. My mind wasn't working. I could see the video guy – I waved to him – we kind of shook hands in mid-air… and continued falling… and then the parachute opened around the time I realized I was free-falling. (The scare wasnt really there, coz I could hardly see anything specific on the ground.) Spent another 5-6 minutes in the air floating. I asked the tandem guy to do some tricks… and he obliged. That was fun.
Unfortunately, the video that I had paid for failed at the time it was supposed to shoot me in mid-air. I got a refund… and whatever of the video that was captured (it has the moment when I jump off the plane… for free… I don’t think I can complain!!).
Some trivia:
While I was waiting, I met a guy who was into his fourth jump. He said… ‘Man, this jump will change you life… it is unlike and beyond anything you might have done in your life’ – I think, he was right!
I realized that I have a very difficult name. While waiting for my turn, I made friends with a 4-yr old girl (like I have said before, American kids are cute – they don’t irritate… and are usually on their own). For the want of something better to do, we played a weird form of hide-and-seek. She would tell me that she was going to hide behind ‘that tree’… and asked me to close my eyes… and I open my eyes to find her hiding behind exactly that tree… and as one of Tinaz fwd said, when you play with children, let them win… I would hover around the tree for a couple of minutes and give up on finding her. Anyways, that was not the trivia… Crystal (that was her name) would ask me my name every once in a while… and no matter how hard she tried, she just din’t seem to get it… after calling me weird names (which she believed were variations of what my name was) for some time, she gave up and simply called me sir!!
The Mexican guy on the plane was on his 124th jump. He has been jumping for the last 5 years. He drives down from Mexico – a 9-hour drive, one way – and takes 2 jumps on every visit. So you can do the math to figure out what thrill he must be deriving out of the free fall!!
... like I said... this is how nervous I was
Plane that I jumped off
at the door... ready to jump
In air...
posted by Animesh Kumar at Monday, March 13, 2006
3 Comments:
very cool..make sure the dive changes your life..dont forget it as we forget everything real fast :)
:-) I will try not to.
good that this dive has changed ur life...
That part abt $250 ur argument with that lady and u going back for the dive was really fully and thought provoking.
Keep posting ur other adventures ;)
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