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Jumping out of a perfectly good plane: After several months of false starts and rain outs, Matt and Nike friends Steve, L.J. and Marisa finally found a hot, beautiful summer day to skydive - or as we joking said, "to jump out of a perfectly good airplane". Traveling 1-1/2 hours South of Portland to Skydive Oregon in the small town of Molalla, the group showed up in the late afternoon ready to go. We took a 20 minute class on the basics of skydiving and met our jump instructors. In my case, my instructor was named Archie and had jumped over 2,500 times. I also had a camera operator, named Ryan, who would jump with us and take still pictures and videotape for posterity. We geared up and walked out - in 85 degree temperatures - to the small plane, where 15 people boarded through the same side door we would soon leave. Some jumpers were solo, but 5 pairs of jumpers represented the "newbies" of the crowd. Before we knew it, we were up in the air and rising quickly over the rural countryside of the Willamette Valley. As the plane ascended to 13,000 feet above the ground (about 13,400 feet above sea level), the first-time jumpers were strapped in to dual body harnesses with their instructors. The very tight fit of the harnesses inspired confidence that no one would be having an unfortunate accident that day! At 13,000 feet, a green light signaled the plane's occupants to exit the plane and I watched the solo divers jump out and fall away from the plane VERY rapidly. Before I could even think about being scared, Archie had me hanging out of the door - and then we were gone! At first, I lost all of my bearings, as the drag chute opened and jerked us around violently. However, just seconds later, I entered the "arch position" and began enjoying the ride. Very soon afterward, the camera operator, who had jumped simultaneously with us, was right in my face. You can see some of the resulting photos above. The feeling of free falling is hard to describe. At first, you feel it in your stomach, but then the wind resistance makes you feel like you're not falling at all. If you close your eyes, you could just as easily be in a wind tunnel rather than falling out of the sky. The other big thing is that you feel your nasal passages drying out more and more as you rocket toward Earth. The 50 degree temperatures at jump level were quite refreshing on a hot day. Some people say that they can't really see anything around them, but I was able to view all the Cascade Range mountains from Mount Rainier in Central Washington to the Three Sisters in Central Oregon - that's a long way! I really didn't get a look at the countryside below until we pulled the chute, though. Speaking of pulling the chute, the 5,000-foot "hard deck" came about 50 seconds into the jump and the rapid deceleration really gives you a good jolt. However, the following few minutes of calm floating makes up for that. I looked around and kept commenting on how much the jump "rocked". Archie and I hit the ground lightly, but ended up with the chute on top of us due to a communication problem. Despite that, the jump was an incredible experience and the pictures and videotape have become a keepsake well worth the extra $85 expense. If you haven't jumped before, I highly suggest doing so! -- Top of Page -- |
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