13,500 feet in the air, I crouch down with my tandem partner and get ready to jump out. The sight below is very unnerving.

Whatever possessed me to try a skydive? Well, some coworkers did it last year. I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) join them due to a personal aversion of falling from great heights. After hearing about their experience and seeing their photos, I promised I would join them a year later. And so, it has come to pass this last weekend. Two fellow coworkers (Frank, who had skydived a couple times before, including the one from last year, and Justin) and I went to the Napoleon Airport in Jackson, MI to jump with the Parahawks.

What am I? Some kind of nut going through some mid-life crisis looking for a cheap thrill to try to cheat death? No, I don’t think so. I mainly wanted to see what it felt to be a bird and to see the earth from way up. I always looked out of the window whenever I flew in a plane and stared down below at the tiny houses and the patterns made from fields, roads, and buildings, but could only see a small portion due to the small size of the window. I was also often hampered by things like strong sunlight, a plane wing, or an unclear window glass. I knew this way nothing could block my view. My boss Tom did it last year and said the feeling of falling is very minimal. Since we both hate roller coasters, this convinced me to give it a try.

Nothing below us during our freefall except for the clouds.

The 3 of us arrived at Napoleon Airport around 9 a.m. hoping to do the jump at about 10. We watched the obligatory tape with the proper warnings and disclaimers and signed the form which said we couldn’t sue them if something wrong happened. And then we waited around for a while, due to a rain pattern the day before that made the sky too cloudy to jump from. Parahawks goes out of their way to make sure conditions are clear and very safe before they’ll allow anyone to jump from one of their planes. We had to sit around with the guys who jump with us until 1:00 in the afternoon before the planes would allow us to jump.

What we signed up for was a tandem jump. One of their licensed skydivers are attached to you the whole time to guide you down. They tell you what to do up there and when to do it. They’re fun guys with great senses of humor, but very no-nonsense when we’re up there. Justin and I each had an extra guy up there for the sole purpose of filming a video and taking the photos on this page from our experience.

My cheeks are pressed back due to me falling 110 mph. Note the gauge in front of me to measure what altitude we’re at. I never took the time to look at it during my descent. Somehow details like that weren’t important to me while I was overwhelmed with the view around me.

I was paired up with Mike. I was suited up in a jumpsuit which he tightened up on me and attached my cap and goggles, as well as a gauge to determine altitude. He uses his gauge to determine when to open the parachute. The video guy starts interviewing me. I wasn’t my usual smart-ass self since I admit to being nervous. I was very quiet on the plane ride up. It’s a small plane with only two long benches inside. We sit facing the tail of the plane with the bench between our legs. At the rear on the pilot’s side is the opening with a roll-up door where we will jump out of. As the plane takes off and the gauge starts reading 6 or 7,000 feet high, it starts sinking in.

After about 15 or 20 minutes of flying, we arrive at 13,500 feet. We’re above the white clouds you see from the ground. The spectators below can still see the plane but it’s very small at this point. I breath slowly to calm my nerves down and make a silent prayer or three.

A tiny yellow light turns on and the pilot behinds us yells, “OPEN DOOR!” Mike instruct me to put the goggles over my eyes. The door opens, some wind blows in and roars loudly. My adrenaline is pumping. I continue to breath slowly. Three licensed skydivers who don’t work for Parahawks go first to jump solo. Then Justin with his tandem partner and his camera man. Then it’s my turn. We slide up to the open door and crouch down while I grabbed the front of my harness tightly ready to jump at my guide’s order. My cameraman, Dan, is at the door videotaping us for when the three of us do our jump. I get my first look down below. YIKES!

You can see some of Mike above me. He’s attached to me securely and was in charge of our fall, including the opening of the parachute. Thanks to him, it was a safe and thrilling experience.

All I can see is dark bluish gray and a floor of cloud. I can maybe make out a little bit of ground formation. I try not to think about it as we rock and do the count to two. ONE! We rock forward once crouched in a catcher’s position. TWO! The three of us roll out.

There’s nothing to describe the feeling you get when you somersault those first couple times before you get in a horizontal position. My hands are even shaking as I write this. It wasn’t fear so much as exhilaration. My stomach jumped a bit, but I was okay. It’s nowhere near the nausea I get from a roller coaster or carnival ride. As we straighten out we arch our backs so that our knees and arms are behind us as we face the ground. We’re falling at a rate of 110 mph. It doesn’t feel like it because we’re so high up, the ground doesn’t look like it’s getting any closer.

Then I see Dan zoom towards us. He coaxes me to look into the lens and we shake hands on camera. It’s hard to concentrate when there’s an overwhelming view around me, but I welcome his intrusion. It gives me more confidence when I see him cheering me on. He shakes my hand again and moves away from me.

That’s the two of us about to land on the ground about 10 minutes after we jumped out. The time went by very quickly.

That’s when I feel a string jerk upwards from our parachute opening and Dan quickly disappears below. He will free-fall a little more to make it to the ground before us so he can capture my landing. Mike and I are spinning a little until the parachute opens up completely. Although it’s a shocking feeling at first, I get a strange feeling of security. The harness is secured so strongly I don’t fear falling. Mike continues to instruct me telling me what’s happening, what he’s doing to steer the parachute, and where we will will land below. He tells me to take over the reins and I steer it myself. We do a test of how we’re going to land. First I bring my knees up and then I pull down hard on the reins. Immediately the parachute slows down incredibly. Hey, this really works!

After Mike is assured that I understand the landing procedure, I check out the view at as many angles as I can. I see the horizon everywhere I turn. The ground below is starting to turn from a bluish color to greens, yellows, whites, reds, and whatever colors they appear from the ground. I see a couple large lakes, farms, silos, the supermarket, our runway, lots of trees, and skinny roadways and highways.

They keep getting bigger and bigger. I see the parachutes on the ground from the divers who jumped before us. The ground is coming up very fast. At Mike’s command, we both bend our knees up and then pull down hard on the reins. The parachute slows us down and land easily on our feet. Dan is there on the ground snapping photos and walks up to congratulate me. He asks me what I thought. I’m in a daze. I’m overwhelmed by what I just did and saw. I don’t know how to respond and he laughs. He knows. He’s been there too.

It was a very smooth landing. I thought it would be much harder, but the parachutes they make this day have advanced far from the old days when you had to roll when you landed.

Mike and I get unhooked and I walk crookedly back to the office. My legs are a little wobbly. I don’t know if it’s because I’m exhilarated, freaked out, or if my legs are just not used to being on land. The entire jump lasted only 10 minutes. Mike proceeds to put a fresh packed parachute on and gets on the next plane with his next tandem jumper. He and the other guys working there will jump many times that day.

Meanwhile inside, Nora gets my certificate ready as she takes in the orders of more people who come in for their skydives. It’s very busy in her small room at that point. The next batch of nervous first-time jumpers ask me what it’s like. Naturally, I tell them it was great. I couldn’t come up with a better or more descriptive adjective at the moment. Heck, it’s still sinking in on what I just did!

Now that I've thought about it, I have a better idea of what it felt like. Tammie had the right word for it later that night after she watched the video and cried. Awe. I felt true awe. I feel like I didn’t conquer Mother Nature, but that I worked within her boundaries. I am humbled by her. The sight of her vast lands without the comforting walls of a plane or building surrounding me makes me appreciate her so much more.

Just in case you think the photos above were just phony composites of my head on someone else's body, here's my certificate. They don’t award these to just anybody, you know!

All that said, I’d like to thank the folks at Parahawks. I highly recommend them and encourage you to check out the Parahawks website. Some experienced skydivers there said they wouldn’t go anywhere else for their jumps. These are people with their licenses that own their own gear and use Parahawks just for the plane ride up. They raved about the safety precautions taken there, how empty the skies are of plane routes, and how qualified the employees are. I echo that last point and also want to say the folks at Parahawks are a friendly, enthusiastic group who make you feel very secure. Thank you, guys, very much for an experience I’ll never forget!

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