memorable Jump

[DrewB 0]

Hi, I just came across this account I had written a while back of a very special jump and thought soem of you may enjoy it.


A Leap Of Faith.

It took me a second to realize that the drone remained constant, that the change was coming from within; we had fallen silent as, each in our own language, we faced the same realization – it may not happen.

We still had fifteen minutes but we were moving too slowly, heading in the wrong direction, and the old enemy was breathing down our necks again. To have come so far and be so close, yet still face the possibility of it all being for nothing demanded silence. A few optimists amongst us boldly demanded pin-checks but mostly we sat quiet, nurturing the little hope that each of us still clung to.

Well at least it had been an adventure, I told myself, as I thought back over how one late night surfing session had brought me this far from the support line back home.
One lonely post in an obscure newsgroup, “A small group in Maracaibo is planning….”. There were no replies, no comments, but I knew I had to be part of it. What had followed was a week of frantic activity tempered only by the occasional moment of self doubt induced by incredulous colleagues.

Getting the time off work and finding a flight was child’s play compared with the logistics of tracking these people down. I had managed to find a phone number the day before I left but that didn’t clarify much. Language allowed only the simplest of communication, but at least I knew they were still planning to try.

As I fought my way through Miami International the following day, still unsure of my plans beyond the one extortionately priced night at the Maracaibo Grand, the panic set in. What was I doing ? In twenty minutes I was leaving for South America to meet some people. I didn’t know where, I was not sure who, it was Maracaibo, Venezuela and it was tomorrow, that’s all I knew. There was time for only one small moment of doubt and then I was stepping aboard the Smokey ride they call Air Venezuela.

If anything convinced me this had been the right decision it was the little search party that turned up at the hotel shortly after I arrived. The reply I had posted on the bulletin board had taken a circuitous route, but had reached its intended audience pretty much intact. This little band only had my name and flight number but, having missed me at the airport, they had managed to track me down to the hotel where they managed to impart a rough outline of their plans for the following day.

The next morning I walked across the taxiway to what I hoped was our meting place and my isolation melted away. All around me were the sites and sounds of home. Rigs lay spread-eagled on packing mats, yards of Zero-P nylon were carefully laid out, people were arguing in a language I could not understand but I knew it was the longstanding debate on the superiority of flat pack or pro-pack . We may not share a common language but we understood each other, we shared a secret, we could fly !

We had shared only one jump that morning but now we were brothers. We sat squeezed together, groaning through the sky as the engines fought against the overly large payload and we prayed for mans best friend – altitude. Never in the history of skydiving were altitude and bearing monitored so closely on the way up.

The silence eased a little as we finally crawled over the 10,000-foot mark. No one was giving up yet, we were high enough now but where were we ? We had had to stray miles from the airfield to make our climb, could we make it back in time? By my watch we had 2 minutes before this once in a lifetime opportunity passed us by.

I looked out through the open doorway trying to get my bearings, surveying the terrain for landing possibilities if we couldn’t make our target, and froze. Not now, this was too cruel, I could see nothing but cloud cover. Jumping blind with low cloud cover would be breaking every rule in the book and arguably suicidal. That would have been a difficult call that no one wanted to make but moments later our old enemy showed some mercy and like an invitation to the dance the clouds parted to reveal our landing area. Before we had time to appreciate this beautiful twist of fate everything went dark.

Our small group was stunned for a moment but adjusted softly to the new reality. The eerie silver glow that outlined this monochromatic world spoke to the uniqueness of the moment and I knew that the planes were aligned for me today. Seconds later I was out the door and hurtling towards terminal velocity bathed in the silent shadow of the total eclipse.

The whole of the freefall was in darkness. At three thousand feet, 18 seconds from impact, I threw the pilot chute and heard the comforting whip as the air caught and ripped my Sabre 150 from its pouch. With our rolls efficiently reversed I hung suspended under canopy in the darkness – in wonder.

I felt the change before I could see it. Something, almost imperceptible, changed moments before the first glimmers of light were squeezed from the distant darkness. All at once the darkness gave way to a band of light that exploded across the horizon and then started to flow like a tidal wave across the earth. In slow motion it moved from one horizon to the other, pushing back the darkness and breathing new life into a new world.


The language may be a bit over the top but it was one HELL of a day !!!! WHEN IS THE NEXT TOTAL SOLAR - ECLIPSE I WANT TO GO AGAIN !!!

[WatchYourStep 0]

That was awesome! I got chills.

"You start off your skydiving career with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience up before your bag of luck runs out."

[Praetorian 1]

WOW,

Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad
judgment.

[BigSky 2]

Thats good stuff man........way to go!

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, th