Two Pilots & an LSW: Skydive Saturday

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Skydive Saturday

Steve got up early and went right out to the Young Eagles rally out at Kokomo, while Kaylee, Alonna and I got going about an hour later. We went out to Kokomo, and met Tre out there, got in the RG, and I flew us to Delphi, where we were set to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

First we did all the paperwork and he gave us all our instructions. One that made me laugh was when he told us that if we fought him or caused him any problems in the airplane in case of an emergency when he was trying to do a fast hook up and get us out, he'd give us one chance, and if we were panicked or fighting him, then he was shoving us out of the way and walking on top of us if that's what it took for him to get himself out of the airplane, and we'd be out of luck. None of us there are panickers, so that was good. ;)

Tre and I went first, so Kaylee and Alonna sat and waited on us. We all got strapped into the airplane, and then that whole "perfectly good airplane" thing made me start laughing, because they couldn't get it started. At all. It wouldn't even crank. They halfway tried to hand prop it too, and then we all had to get back out while they pulled over a car with jumper cables to jump start it. If we hadn't been us, it might have made us nervous. As it was, it just cracked me up. Jump planes are notoriously rough. Finally they got her running, and we got into the plane with the prop running, launched, and away we went, me, Tre, a young pilot, and our two jump instructors.

It took awhile to get up to just over 10,000'. I had a Go Pro camera strapped to my right wrist, and an altimeter strapped to my other wrist. Tre was first out the door, and I took video of her leaving the airplane. Then it was my turn. The free fall was pretty cold to me, and I still have trouble with air shooting up my nose. Once the chute was open, I looked up and realized my camera wasn't recording. I tried to fix it, but couldn't, and then we just floated the rest of the way down under canopy. It is still a really peaceful feeling, and a lot of fun. When we landed, he had me flare a little high, so we dropped in the last few feet, and I landed on top of him. Now everybody there today was tiny except for me, including him. He was much shorter and tinier than I, and he was in his 60s, so I was a little worried about landing on top of him like that. He asked me if I was okay, and I'm like ME, I'm fine, what about YOU?

Next up were Kaylee and Alonna. This is the only time I got a little worried. I was hoping that they liked it, that the free fall wasn't too cold or too hard on the sinuses or too scary or that Kaylee wouldn't back out or something. I needn't have even had the thought cross my mind. They were out, the chutes were open, the girls came down, and they were laughing and grinning and having a great time. Kaylee made a great landing, Alonna had the same jumper I did, and they ended up in a nice landing in the field instead of in the grass, but just fine. I took photos and put them on Kaylee's facebook page later tonight. Tre hurt her ankle on landing, but had a great time anyway too. And of course I enjoyed it. I love everything except the air up my nose. ;)

I flew us back to Kokomo, and by then it was after 2 p.m.! We put the plane away and went to Subway for lunch, just in time for me, because I was starving to death. We ate, I took the girls home, and then Alonna and I went out to Glenndale and had her first official flight lesson. She did the full preflight with the checklist, she started the engine, did the taxi, and when we flew, she started with the basics, and did really well with it. Straight and level, 10, 20 and 30 degree bank turns, climbs, descents, turning climbs, descending turns, and then slow flight. All of that took us 1.7 hours, and it was time to come back down. You can only concentrate for so long, you know! There's just a ton of information and so much going on those first few flights, it's like drinking from a fire hose. After we landed, the sun was going down in a beautiful peach, pink, orange and gold show. Just beautiful, and a great way to end a busy, fun, special day.

We had pizza at our house, and then the girls showed their grandparents their videos (we got them right then, and I will work on getting the videos uploaded tomorrow), I downloaded all the photos I took, and then it's time for us to get some sleep.

Fun day...