THE WILD BLUE YONDER!

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

And so, to celebrate the double nickel, I decided to take a ride in a perfectly good airplane and jump out it somewhere around 14,000 feet! Above “Skydive The Ranch” near Gardiner, New York, just next to the beautiful Hudson River at the Poughkeepsie bridge.

Where did this come from?

I’ve always been adventurous although am now considerably mellowed in terms of what constitutes a thrilling adventure!  Although I have salt water running in my veins, the sky has always fascinated me.  I love to fly, even took flying lessons for a time until I sat down and tried to figure out what I would do with a pilot’s license.  The answer was “not much”.

The paratroopers jumping out of their planes above occupied France during WWII were probably the first real influence on my psyche.  I had no fear of heights.  I jumped off high cliffs into the waters of lakes in the Catskill and Adirondack mountains as a teen ager.  I tried to get as close to the rim of canyons as possible to see what I could see which drove my poor Mother crazy.  Later, in Vietnam, I rode a number of helicopters into battle.  I even volunteered to become a machine gunner on medevac helicopters but my request was denied.  I loved to fly in Piper Cubs and small Cessnas as a passenger. I loved being up in the Empire State building or the Towers.  I loved being on the edge at the Grand Canyon.  Heights and flying were fascinating to me and still remain so to this day.  I am an amateur photographer so I have some spectacular shots from unusual places.

And, so, we return to the “Ranch”.  I arrived without my wife who refused to come over and watch me do the “skydive thing”.  I needed to get this out of my system.  I checked in with a rather beautiful woman who showed me into a room to watch a film.  The room darkened and, .lo and behold, there was the likeness of Charles Manson, beard and all (of course, it wasn’t but……) who proceeded to tell us that we could die.  Then, there were several variations on how we could die.  But, I trucked on….and soon we saw a film on how to pack a parachute and how to do a lot of things!

My “Team” had twelve skydivers.  Eight of them were doing single jumps because they were experienced, four had been US Army Rangers Of the remaining four were three 30 something males, full of bravado, courage, and BS.  The final member was me.  The four of us had to be schooled in actually packing a parachute, although we didn’t for our upcoming skydive.  Most of the session was devoted to what happens when it is time to actually jump;  pulling the ripcord at a certain altitude;  how to land out of the skydive; and, what to do if there was any problem.  One thing our instructor said that I remember with crystal clarity is “When you are coming up to the door, you will hear the wind howling, and your mind will turn to mush.  When that happens just jump out of the door!”.

We then met our tandem partners.  The tandem jump is two people connected together.  My guy had jumped over 1000 times and was an instructor at The Ranch.  He was ex-US Army and was the most experienced tandem jumper there.  He was lanky, long-haired, and very, very professional.  We had quite a discussion about why I was jumping and if I could go through with it.  I convinced that not only could I do it, but I would without hesitation.

Remember our threes macho males?  After they spoke with their tandem partners, the testosterone levels seemed to have receded a bit.  No more braggadocio, much less posturing, and much quieter.  Personally, I had crossed the “line of departure” in my mind and there was no turning back.  We spent the next half hour watching the teams that were to jump before us load into the planes, take off, and pretty soon you saw the chutes way, way, way, up in the sky.  As the skydivers landed, they joyfully whooped, screamed, and cried.  It was all good.

Soon, our turn came.  We lined up in front of our plane.  Being the oldest one on board, I was first in to the plane in position number 1 (first in, last out).  I was a little annoyed with that but there was some history of skydivers over 50 chickening out.  We were soon all sitting in our positions.  Suddenly, with a roar, the propeller started churning and we taxied to the runway.  No one said a word in the plane as it gathered speed and then lifted off into the sky.  I remembered being very, very calm with great anticipation.

Our plane climbed with great circles, each lifting us higher and higher.  We leveled off just under 14,000 feet.  The “flight Commander” announced that we were ready to go.  All that was missing was the klaxon and blinking light from military aircraft.  The pilot gave the command to jump!  The first eight jumpers went out the door, several seconds apart, and you could hear a “whooshing” noise as each jumper cleared the door.  Now, it was our turn.  The first two young males moved to the door with some hesitation but each jumped.  I am sure their tandem partner was encouraging them on as was mine.  Suddenly, the jumper in front of me, froze for a moment.  I kicked his back and motioned that he should jump or get the hell out of my way!  He moved to the door and was gone!

The walk from the back of our small plane to the door was was filled with anticipation for me.  Then, suddenly, I was there.  I looked down and everything looked like a little toy.  My Instructor said to me, “Mr. Davies, are you ready to go?”.  I replied, “Yes, are you?”  I then leaned out of the door and tumbled into the blue.

The first thing I was told to do was to put my hands out just like Superman.  I did and it stabilized us from tumbling to actually flying.  What a sensation!  As we fell, I looked up the Hudson River and was stunned at the number of bridges that I could see.  As I was marveling at the number of bridges, my neck suddenly jerked back.  My Instructor said that I had missed the cutoff point to pull the ripcord!  I replied, “Yes, but look at all the Hudson bridges you can see!”  He laughed and explained that he had pulled the ripcord.  We were in good shape!

As we fell, we started to do left turns, the some right turns, and I think we did a circle.  He was impressed with my handling of the directional cords.  He said, “See that little circle down there?”, I said, “Yes!”.  He said, “think you can land on it”.  I said, “I’ll try” and so we went left, then right, the left, and suddenly we were right on target to actually hit the circle (which when I first saw it looked like a penny).

We walked out of our landing after hitting the circle without falling down.  We later learned that we were the only ones who did.  I was beyond thrilled!

We had to go into a post-jump debrief.  My young male who was in front of me thanked me for “encouraging him”.  My Tandem Instructor said that I could probably become a “certified” skydiver.  I told him that I had now checked something off the life list now known as the “Bucket List”.   I was glad to have had this once in a lifetime experience  over the beautiful Hudson River Valley.