Today I arose at 9:30ish, got into the shower, ate some breakfast and headed out for an 11:30 appointment at SkyDown Idaho. This is a Sky Diving facility at Caldwell Airport. Paul is my co-pilot this morning, Amanda, Phil, Keegan, Mindy and Tristan will join us at noon. We arrive five mins. early and Denise greets us and has me go sit down and watch a video and fill out all these papers agreeing to not sue them should something go wrong. Next it is off to be advised how to depart from the plane, a visit to the rest room, and them we are choosing my jump suit. After I am suited up we are sent to the viewing area to watch a couple of jumpers who are up already.
As the jumpers come into view a young man, don't remember his name, comes over and fits me into a harness and goes over the instructions with me. The plane taxi's in the jumpers are landing and I am being hustled toward this plan that doesn't look very safe. One of the jumpers runs across the strip grabs a chute and heads for me, he checks all my belts and pulls a couple of them tighter tells me he is Mark and asked if I am ready. As we approach the plane he goes over the instructions for departing the plane one more time. He them tells me to get in and sit on my bottom next to the pilot with my legs stretched out, he then gets in and sits facing me on his knees. The plane begins to move, the door is still open and I am thinking "oh shit." are we flying with the door open? We taxi down the strip, turn left reved the engine and begin to get serious about leaving the ground. About the time we are leaving the ground Mark closes the door( I am very glad. As we are soaring higher and higher we exchange some information and make small talk. I find out that Mark makes up to 10 jumps a day, and Ken, the pilot, has been flying for 18 years. They bullshit and tell me funny stories...including that Ken doesn't have a license and that the plane is out of gas. Ken tells me that he wrecked a plane a couple of months ago and he walked away but the plane didn't. Mark is filming most of the conversation and we are flying higher and higher. Just before 10K feet, Mark has me turn with my back to him sitting on my knees. He then latches us together and opens the door, he steps one foot out on this tiny step and I am to do the same. I am thinking God how are going to get out of here? So we both have one foot on the step and I have my head leaned on his shoulder and am grasping my harness and I am momentary scared to death. I take a deep breath and Mark leans sideways and we are soaring thru space. It is the most extraordinary thing I have ever done. In a very short time he taps my shoulder and I can extend my arms, shortly after that he pulls the chute and we stop falling and I drop down below him a few inches. He allows me to hold the guide handles and direct our direction. He sends us in circles and we look and talk all the way down. I told him "I love you, Mark thank you for making this happen." He tells me that at some point soon he was going to have me hold my leg's straight out like I was sitting on the ground and we would be landing. I asked if it would hurt and he said "no" that injuries happen when the legs are allowed to drop and I wasn't gonna do that. What he didn't tell me was that he was gonna sit us down in dirt so fine it was like sugar. When we landed there was this huge cloud of dust and we were both covered with dirt. We laid there on the ground for a very short time talking and letting the dust settle. He asked if I would do it again and I said "in a heartbeat!"
Even though I was very scared when it came to leaving the plane, I have never experienced anything like this in my whole life. It was so free, so beautiful, and we even seen a hawk on the way down. He just soared right by us. This is one thing that I will never forget and hope to do again real soon. I now know why birds sing.
