Flying

I was the last one in; which meant I was to be the first one out. In addition to that my instructor was running a little late, so while everyone else was strapped and buckled on the ground, I was getting the works while watching the earth through the roll up plexiglass door get smaller and smaller.

John, the instructor, was shouting in my ear, but I couldn't hear him in the tiny packed plane. K2, the photographer was smiling as my face grew paler and paler, as Johns words were lost out the see through door. I remember asking if we were getting close to the jump point, to which K2 and John laughed and said we were a little less than halfway. 

I could feel the plane begin to even out, the packed tin can seemed to get quieter, and you could tell nerves were on edge. John and I were strapped together sitting on the floor, whereas everyone else was on benches, another consequence of being the last one in. As K2 stood up to open the rolling door John shouted in my ear that it would be too difficult to stand up, so we were going to have to roll out. We'd tip to the left, then right, left, then right again, and on the second right we'd roll through the door. Good god, I thought, isn't it enough I'm plunging out of a plane, now I have to roll out of one? The door slid open, air whooshed into the cabin, and K2 stood backward in the open space. John and I scooched up to her feet, and with our first tip to the left K2 was gone. We tip to the right and I try not to look out the door, back to the left, into the safe tin can, then to the right with more gusto and a goodbye to the plane as John kicks off and we're flying. 

Well, really, we're falling, and for the first 10 seconds I could feel the earth pulling at me. In that short amount of time I reached 125 mph, my stomach sinking towards the ground, my arms outstretched like I could fly, and we fell. After those 10 seconds, the wind buffeted against John and I and we started to taper off and move a bit. To glide to the right, and left, to do head dizzying corkscrews, the earth tilting and wobbling beneath us. Finally after about 2 incredibly long minutes of flying through the air, the parachute arrested the fun and we began to slowly descend back to terra firma. 

Once on the ground, the realization of what we'd just done slowly sank in. My hands were shaking, but that didn't detract from the smile on my face. We flew.