Flying High

Editor’s Note: Here’s your chance to be an armchair sky diver! Hang on! 

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I remember as a child flying in a small private airplane with an uncle who was a pilot and manager of a small airport in Missouri. I can recall the thrill and excitement of being off the ground for the first time and seeing the world from a different perspective. I did not know that this would be the first step toward an interest in jumping out of an airplane.

As a young adult, I had considered taking flying lessons, but the cost was prohibitive, there was not a flight school nearby, and it did not fit into my busy schedule.

Years passed and my interest in skydiving remained covert. When my son-in-law’s
father went skydiving, I spoke with him about his experience and determined to
look into it. And, for my 60th birthday, my children helped me accomplish the feat
of my initial jump when they purchased a jump plus a video at Twin Cities Skydive in Baldwin, WI.

Watching the required legal video was intimidating, stating how dangerous skydiving could be, and how initialing the accompanying document would relieve my jump experience of any legal ramifications in case of the failure of harness equipment, canopy, airplane, pilot, tandem jump master, the skydiving company, the airplane, the landing, etc. (42+ items to initial)

The tandem partner helped to put on the harness and explained in detail each piece and how they functioned. He talked me through the entering of the plane, the connections before jumping, the importance of not grabbing anything or anyone on the way out of the plane, and for following his instructions in the process of falling out of the plane.

We entered the Cessna Supervan 900 plane single file and sat on a bench that ran between our legs, my back to his front. My thoughts were jumbled as the plane began taxiing for takeoff. There were about 20 people in the plane, and it was crowded and somewhat hectic.

The connecting process started at about 10,000 feet – the partners are connected with clips at both shoulders and both hips. Before we moved toward the door, the
instructor reminded me of the things to do and not to do as we proceeded. When the door opened at 13,000 feet altitude, I wondered what I was doing.

There was a rush of hesitation and caution combined with excitement and exhilaration, seeing everything on the ground looking small and distant.

When my tandem partner and I exited the plane, there was an immediate somersault in the air before the drogue chute was deployed. The immediate vista was the farm fields surrounding the jump zone – the Baldwin high school, water treatment plant, Interstate 94, and the city of Baldwin were all visible.

After free-falling for 6,000 feet, the main chute was engaged resulting in a slight
jerk. Then the clips connecting our hips were released. Gliding through the air, drifting, and breezing seemed effortless. The chute could be maneuvered using steering lines which were connected to the parachute canopy. My tandem partner allowed me to guide the chute during the descent, right, then left, then in a corkscrew. My jump companion took control of the chute as the ground rose to
meet us.

The landing was easy – sliding to a stop on my backside in the grass. What I remember is having a crotch filled with dandelions as we scooted on the grass.

Immediately after stopping, the instructor disconnected our shoulder clips, and we stood up. He gathered the canopy and ropes and congratulated me on a successful jump.

The entire event took around five minutes of beautiful, breathtaking, adrenaline-filled exhilaration.

While walking back to the training facility from the dropzone, I was offered a second jump for a sizeable discount, which at that point, I could not resist. And so began a new challenge of jumping as often as I could convince my wife of my desire to do so.

That initial experience developed into an aspiration to jump in as many states as
possible. To date (end of 2024) I have jumped a total of 19 times in nine different states – Wisconsin, Nevada, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma. And when visiting my daughter and her family in New Zealand, I jumped in Queenstown, NZ.

The majority of my jumps have come at an altitude of 13,000 feet. One jump was at 14,000 feet and a few at 10,000 feet. The lower altitudes were because of concern for the wind at the higher elevation.

The scenery in each of my jumps has been picturesque and stamped in my memory. One of my jumps in Wisconsin was on a cold day in September, and when falling through a cloud, I could see the sleet/ice crystals. In Nevada, the rocky scenery was dotted by the green oases of the casinos and golf courses. In Texas, I could see both downtown Houston and the Gulf of Mexico. In Missouri, I landed in a big water puddle. In Oklahoma, the temperature when we jumped was 10 degrees. In Minnesota there were lakes and corn fields.

I have jumped with one of my granddaughters, two of my cousins, and twice with a ninety-two-year-old friend from my senior condominium. Several in my family will do no such thing as ‘jump out of a perfectly good airplane.’ And some I may be able to persuade to jump at some point. Maybe. 

Copyright © 2025 by Steve Melvin