On reaching my friend and I had to fill out a form and sign the waiver of liability. The waiver is written in such a way that it seems like I'm giving them permission to kill me because the words "death", "danger", and "dangerous" are used frequently. This filling process happens in a room which has a television on one side and a lawyer who was talking about how the institute was not responsible for anything that could happen during the jump. On a second thought, being in that room and reading/signing the waiver was much scarier than the actual jump!
After the paper work, an instructor fitted me with the diving gears and briefed me about the entire process. There are a lot of things which needs to be taken care off like as soon as you jump out, you have to arch your back as much as possible and throw your head back at the same time. This will help nature find your center of gravity, and after you initial roll, you’ll automatically wind up in the correct falling position.
There were about 4 other people along with Vidyut and me who were jumping from the same flight, each one of them had an instructor and a camera person who captures the entire free fall on camera. The camera man controlled his SLR by blowing through a tube whose other end was connected to the camera attached to his forehead.Once we were at 12,000 feet, the pilot cut the plane's engines back, someone yelled, "Door!" and the tiny door flew open. It was pretty chilly up there. When the wind starts to hit you, even if you aren't afraid, you know it's the point of no return!
The camera man got out of the plane and held on to one of the bars by the wing. We shuffled on our butts to the door and this is the point when all of your control and trust is given to the stranger strapped to your back.
He grabbed me with both hands and asked if I was ready. I was. He rocked me back and forth, counting one, two, and then on three we were gone into a vertical drop. I arched my neck and back like I was told, and after a couple seconds, we were in position. He tapped me on the shoulder and I let go of my harness, regained my sense of direction and giddily waved to the camera man who jumped moments before we did. During free fall the camera man came close to us and held my hand and we did a couple of 360 deg turns and then he let go off me.You know how when you dream about falling, or when you're on a ride at an amusement park and you get that gut feeling that that you are falling. Here you don't feel that sensation at all when you jump out, you are in control...flying, not dropping like a rock, even though that's technically what you are doing during the freefall stage, which at 13,000 feet lasts for about a minute.
Meanwhile, since it's your first time, your trying to remember to keep in the correct position as instructed on the ground and before you know it, the parachute deploys and you aren't ready for it your first time. The harness digs into your thigh, and it does hurt quite a bit - enough that 2 days later I was still bruised, but the pain is nothing compared to the awesomeness of the experience of slowing down from 120 MPH to only a few miles an hour.
The rest of the way down is eerily quiet and peaceful compared to the roar of the Cessna's engine going up to 13,000 feet, and then the roar of the wind as you freefall. The rest of the descent gives you time to get comfortable and play around a little. My instructor allowed me to take control and taught me how to go left and right. Then he helped me do some sort of a corkscrew trick, first wildly swinging to the left and then immediately back to the right.
It was the only time I got a little queasy - again, most likely because I wasn't prepared, but the nausea immediately went away once we were level again. That trick was so much fun. I felt more out of control doing that than I did in the freefall.
Before we landed, we had plenty of time to go over the landing technique. He showed me how to slow down the parachute by pulling hard on both handles at the same time. We did this mid-air and we all but stopped dead in our tracks. It was a killer sensation.
He lined us up for our landing, I raised my legs at my hips to a 90 degree angle, we both pulled down on the handles and we had the softest landing possible. The entire fall lasted for almost 9 to 10 minutes. When I stood up and finished my video interview and finally had a moment to take everything in, my first thought was, "When can I do that again?"
