Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane? I’ll tell you my answer… because everyone else says “oh yeah, I’ll do it someday” and then they live the rest of their life imagining what it feels like but never actually knowing. So I went ahead and jumped, and I’m here to tell you that the sensation of falling from an elevation of 10,000 feet at 120 miles per hour is NOT like what you’d imagine – at all.
On October 12th, my dad and I went skydiving in Lexington, Texas. For a little backstory, my dad has been a pilot since he was 19 years old and when I was growing up, he used to take me flying in his RV-8. Now, my dad still flies and has added paramotoring to his list of in-air vehicles (paramotors are similar to paragliders, however, they have their own motor attached which allows for the pilot to take off and land on flat ground). So planes and parachutes were no foreign concept to my dad. Given this, it should’ve come as no surprise that when I said I wanted to go skydiving, he’d be all in.
When we arrived, I can’t say I was enthralled by the facility. A pretty old-looking Cessna parked in a field full of llamas wasn’t the scene I expected to arrive at. But the staff was very friendly and after getting us checked in they introduced us to the llamas which were quite nice. The whole process of getting “trained” was fairly simple. Basically, all you need to know is explained in a short chat and the rest is just going along for the ride. While we waited to get loaded up in the plane, the remote location and farm animals were actually very soothing.
I spent about 20 minutes in-flight in order to reach the 10,000-foot altitude for the jump. The seats in the plane were removed to allow space for the jumpers and their gear, but at least you don’t have to worry about the legroom! Haha. Anyways, the panic didn’t set in for me until the door flung open and we prepared to jump. My instructor helped me scooch over to get hooked up to his harness (yes, you have to sit in their lap, but only for a second). And then, just a few short seconds later we were stepping out of the plane onto a tiny platform under the wing.
The sensation of falling never set in. I never felt my stomach drop like it does in the Tower of Terror or in the Rudder Tower elevators. I think that the swiftness of the initial jump, coupled with the immediate free fall just simply canceled that feeling out altogether. It doesn’t feel like falling. I wouldn’t even say that it felt like flying. It was like being suspended in nothing and simply existing. The air is moving around you so fast that you can’t hear anything. The ground is so far away while you’re falling, it seems so insignificant. The fear of actually hitting the ground just disappears.
Free fall time is approximately 50 seconds. In that 50 seconds, you travel nearly a mile. Then out comes the parachute. There was an initial jolt as it slowed our descent, and that moment was the only time I truly felt like I was “falling.” But gliding down to the landing was again, strangely relaxing. I remember thinking as we neared the grass below that something about it felt natural like I had done it before or like humans were simply meant to fall out of the sky.
When we were getting debriefed and out of our harnesses, I overheard a group of instructors talking about the difference between falling and flying. “Falling, you have no control. Flying, you are in absolute control. By that sense, (sky)diving is flying.. but I still don’t know that I would describe it like that.” I thought this was a wonderful way to sum it all up. People who are scared to go skydiving are generally scared of falling, and that is because you have absolutely no control over falling. But someone with a lot of experience (and who wants to live just as much as you do) is in control of your entire jump, from harnessing up to landing safely. I also saw a video by Will Smith (don’t come for me, ikyk) where he talked about his experience skydiving and he described it as the most blissful moment of his life. In the video, he also says that skydiving made him realize that the most blissful things in life are placed on the other side of fear. I think that is true.
I have always been a bit of an adrenaline-chaser. I’ve explored abandoned ships underwater, jumped into chummed waters with sharks, and I’ll never pass up a rollercoaster. But this experience was not like any of those. I wouldn’t even say that it gave me a rush. It gave me a sense of peace and humility. You would never realize how small the world is unless you see it from that perspective, and in a world where all we do is worry about what’s going on around us, it is the most refreshing feeling to be so far away and not have anything around you at all.
My advice is to take the jump and stop wondering what it is that you might be missing out on. Don’t live the rest of your life imagining something unfathomable. Experience it.