Sound off if you've ever parachuted!!
Yes, I really did jump out of a perfectly good airplane yesterday at an elevation of 14,000 feet (yes, that is 2.65 miles up). A guy I work with (who parachutes all the time) organized a few of us to go jump yesterday afternoon. It was a tandem jump where an instructor was strapped to my back and has the parachute....it was a real BLAST!!!
Flying in a lot of airplanes in my life, the most surreal part came when I was sitting on the edge of the plane's open door, after watching a few people just leap out and disappeared in a flash, when the realization really hits you that you are ACTUALLY, on purpose, about to jump out yourself.....the first few seconds after you leave the plane was a weird feeling indeed, can't describe it well, but a mix between "holy $hit we are out of control" and "WOW"....then you quickly settle into a "controlled" free fall (around 120 mph) for what seemed about 30-40 seconds...didn't really seem that fast though. Then, I got to pull the ripcord and, thankfully, the chute opened. Then we just soared around for 7 or 8 minutes, soaking in the scenery like an eagle who just learned to fly. I got to steer the chute some, and I was surprised at how easy and quick you can turn those things...then the instructor took the reigns and steered us to a completely smooth landing....and there you go, I just jumped out of a plane at over 2.5 miles up, and enjoyed every millisecond.
Now I have a check in that "things I need to do before I die" box
