Aeroplanes & Parachutes

Although the first recorded successful parachutist occurred in 1797, skydiving didn't become an international sport until 1951.  Many a people have said, "I don't see the point in jumping out of a perfectly good airplane." Its funny because the chances of dying in an airplane crash are 1 in 1.6 million, chances of dying in a skydiving accident are 1 in 100,000 (significant difference); however, comparatively the chances of dying in an automobile accident are 1 in 6,000 (wow) and those same people don't think twice about getting into their car every day.  Basically you'd have to jump out of a plane 17 times in a year to equal the same odds as driving your car.

As you might guess I recently jumped out of "a perfectly good airplane."  Although, perfectly good is questionable considering we didn't really have seats and there wasn't a real door on it...so I guess its relative.  However, the experience of free falling from 13,000 for 60 seconds was incredible.  The best part was stepping out the door and watching the plane fly away (or watching me fall away depending on your perspective).  The weightlessness, the wind blowing in my face, the confusion at the fact that it didn't cause an unnecessarily crazy adrenaline rush, the experience as a whole was incredible.  In fact, my thought was I was falling, besides, "this is incredibly awesome," was something akin to, "how does this compare to other things I love to do."  As many know, the thing I love doing the most is Alpine skiing in powder.  In comparison, I'd take a day of skiing in 24" of fresh powder at Snowbird in a fraction of a second over jumping from a plane.  Not because I'm worried about safety, but the enjoyment factor, the marginal benefit I receive from skiing in powder is significantly higher than the benefit I receive from jumping from a plane.  Will I jump again?  Absolutely, will I jump enough to get my United States Parachute Association certification, probably; but given the opportunity to spend a weekend jumping out of planes or dropping into the Bookends or Great Scott will have me donning my helmet and skis every time.

So here's a tribute to what I love most: