Free Fall, Expensive Landing

The Story of a First and Last Skydive

Crack! It sounded like a rifle shot on a deer lease. The two of them landed in a pile on the hard Texas earth. A moment later the parachute settled lightly on the grass.

“Are you okay?”

“No!”

“What hurts?”

“My leg.”

The whole thing had started out as a great gift idea. His wife, Jane, knew that Mike had always liked to do thrilling, exhilarating, dare-devil kinds of things. He had just turned 50, so why not a tandem skydive for his birthday?

Mike and Jane had gone to the skydiving club the day before – Saturday – but rain had made the landing strip so muddy that the plane couldn’t take off. So, they came back on Sunday to try it again. The bad weather had cleared up and transformed into a beautiful day. Bright blue sky and almost no wind made for perfect skydiving weather.

Tandem dives harness a novice to the front of the body of an experienced skydiver, so that they both jump together. The beginner just goes along for the ride. The experienced diver does all the work. Easy enough, right?

At the counter the man assigned Mike a guy named Brad. Brad tipped the scales at about 250 pounds. Mike and Brad together weighed in at about 440 pounds.

The owner told Mike that the first step involved watching an instructional video about tandem skydiving. He emphasized that the lessons to take away included forming a bow with your body during the free-fall, and keeping your legs drawn up to your chest during the landing. The video even showed some hapless folks who had not kept their legs up when landing.

After the video Brad fitted Mike with a jumpsuit – a light blue one that fitted over his clothes. Mike looked in the mirror and thought he looked completely ridiculous. Brad and Mike went through some practice moves and everything went well.

Finally, the airplane returned from dropping the previous divers, and a group of five went out to the landing strip to board. An skydiving instructor, a student, a camera-lady (to tape Mike’s skydive), Brad, and Mike rounded out the passengers for the next trip.

Mike had never ridden in a small plane before; it surprised him that the plane took so long to reach 12,000 feet. After about a half an hour the pilot told the instructor and student to get ready. They moved over to the doorway, and suddenly the instructor yelled, “Cut!.” The pilot cut the engine and the student went out followed quickly by the instructor. The engine started again, and now came Mike and Brad’s turn.