Taking Flight

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for (drumroll please)

THIS is how I spent March 3, 2007:

Yes, that's me, up above the clouds! I always said I wanted to do it, but I'll be honest, I never knew if I'd lose my nerve. Jay, Margie, Josh, Jen and myself put fear aside, and went skydiving with NZSkyDive in Glenorchy!

The day started out a little scary, as we originally were booked with another company, and were told when we arrived that due to rain, from the previous day, Queenstown air control would not let them go up, and we couldn't dive. You can imagine how we felt at this point, when we had spent a full morning psyching ourselves up - including Josh's blasting musical countdown which included Eye of the Tiger, and The Final Countdown.

In what was somewhat of a blur, we re-booked with another company, found out that the new company had much more scenic vantage points, were bussed out to Glenorchy, and were putting our jumpsuits and gear on.

The next thing I recall is being on this tiny little plane, heading high above the clouds - without question presenting some of the most amazing views we've seen so far. The plane contained 10 people - myself, Margie, and Jay, each of our Tandem Masters, each of our Cameramen, and the pilot. We embarked the plane un-strapped to our Tandem Masters which, of course, left a few wondering questions in my mind, but I decided to let faith (and the fact that my Tandem Master had completed 14,000 jumps) take over.

I watched the dial on my instructor's altimeter go from 0 - 12,000 feet (we jumped from 12,000, pulling the parachute at 5,000). At about 11,500 I started taking some very deep inhales and exhales, but I knew there was no turning back. I was first jump of the 3 of us. I thought that was somewhat of a disadvantage, until I heard Jay and Margie explain what the feeling was like when they looked over, and I was just GONE. I digress.

At 12,000 feet, the door was opened, and my heart began racing wildly. The cameraman jumped first, and I was swung around to the door of the plane to find him holding on to the wing, staring at me with the camera. Next thing I recall is this terrifying 5 seconds of free fall, and then the equalizing shoot pulled (the little white one), and in that 5 seconds I had acclimated to myself to the environment and spent the remaining 40 seconds and 7,000 feet of free fall screaming and pumping my fists and yelling HI MOM into the camera!!!!

At 5,000 feet the real parachute was pulled, and at that point, when my Tandem Master instructed me to look up and watch Margie - it was amazing - these 3 bodies floating through air - and I'm thinking I JUST DID THAT!

It took about another 5 minutes to get to the ground, which was scenic, and overwhelming - the adrenaline was unbearable - to the point where once we had landed and I was unclipped, I ran and tackled Margie (much to the pleasure of the cameramen and tandem masters lolol).

The final result - I appreciate the ground, but will never forget the feeling of being up in the skies.

Enjoy the video -

Here's the full set of pics.