vivek sekar

And Maukka shouts 3 2 1 and we are off.

Everything falls silent, there is no wind on my ear, there is no engine noise… The moment we were off the plane, i experienced a state of mind, where i could say my mind found Peace or calmness. Was it weightless for that one fleeting moment ? i don’t know, but it was something that i have not experienced - more of a “out of land experience” :-P.

After those first few seconds i just soaked in the feeling of having jumped off a plane at a height of 4000m and hurtling towards earth. I felt the adrenaline being pumped all over my body, The moment one’s Off the plane one does not reach 250k’s or terminal velocity, it takes time and slowly gravity works up your body to the terminal velocity speed. And I felt every moment of it.

As we were falling down Maukka opened the drogue, to slow down the speed from 250k’s to a manageable 200 odd k’s . This also meant i could move my hand and leg.

I was shaking hands with Yuhis and taking in the view. I was shaking my right palm, then my hands to feel the air through them and my palms. Also i opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue and tasted the air during the free fall.

During the duration of the free fall my body went in for complete change in perspective. I was in complete BLISS. I was in a high with the adrenaline pumping going into over-drive mode, more like instead of the heart pumping blood to all parts of the body it was adrenaline that the heart was pumping. Since the freefall was something i was experiencing for the first time and there has been no similar experience, i am not able to relate the freefall with anything.

Close to 50 seconds into the freefall Maukka showed me the alti-meter and then in the next 5 seconds, he pulls the cord. The chutes open and there is a sudden jerk as we were pulled up and in no time we are floating above the golf course below us and having the open Baltic sea to one side, the innumerable lakes on the other side and a strip of land that forms Hanko in between the two water bodies.

Maukka hands over the controls of the chute to me and directs me on the handling of the chute. After hovering for 20 odd seconds, i request Maukka to start the parachute “rolls”, and he says just pull any one cord on the side i want the roll to begin. Then begins the “rolls”, 4-5 rolls to the left, followed by another 4-5 rolls towards the right. During the “rolls”, me, Maukka and the chutes are on the same plane, parallel to the ground below us. After we end the rolls, Maukka and i bring the chutes to a standstill by pulling both the cords simultaneously. For 5 seconds we stand there in mid air, and the Maukka lets go, saying that holding the chutes for too long will deflate the foils as there would be no air flow through the foils in the chutes, to maintain the flight.

With me back in control, we were flying over the sea for sometime, then headed towards the golf course and then towards the airstrip. And within no time we were close enough to both the ground and the landing area, Maukka took the control and we landed. Bringing an end to a awesome out of the world experience.

After the jump and coming back to land, i realised that i just gained the practical knowledge of “why birds sing”. And the phrase “I know why birds sing” is used by all sky divers to explain and illustrate the feeling of jumping off a plane, and a phrase for the more mature “Having sex with gods” is something they describe their hobby as.