Definitely not having convinced Char to have a go, I met my instructor for some briefing and prep. Char was more than happy to play 'ground crew' and take the pics!
...Ready for action.
A bit of fun before boarding the plane.
The plane climbed noisily up into the clear skies above Lake Taupo. Unfortunately you face backwards and can't really get much of a view. The instructors were well-practiced at larking about and keeping people's minds off what was to come. After what felt like an eternity, we reached 12000 feet and the door light changed from red to green. The opening door showed the ground impossibly far away. I was 2nd in line. The instructor had me sit on the edge of the plane with my feet dangling into nothing... the seconds waiting felt like hours... then together we jump and I was plummeting towards the ground and seeing the pink plane disappear above me.
After a few seconds the terror had subsided enough to have some awareness of my terminal velocity situation. It was like standing in a gale-force wind so strong that it was supporting my body. There wasn't any falling feeling - the ground was so far away. We did a few lateral spins one way and another and suddenly, only 40 seconds after jumping, its all over - the chute starts to open and we gently decelerate back to normality. In those 40 seconds we've travelled 8000 feet or so (over 2.5km). The wind rush is over and we gently float a few thousand feet above the airfield.
The canopy ride is actually as much fun as the freefall for me, and we gently spiral down to the airfield and zoom in for an undignified but feather light landing.
I think you need to have done a skydive to understand the emotions involved when back on the ground. But bucket loads of adrenalin mixed with abject terror then incredible relief to still be alive and back on the ground is the closest I can come in words!
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