Have you ever wondered what it’s like to fly? To soar above the clouds and get a bird’s eye view of the world below, as you feel the wind on your face…
My husband, an avid skydiver had described the feeling so many times, that I knew I wanted to experience it for myself. But each time we made plans to book me a slot at the skydiving place about 50 miles from where we live, either the weather was uncooperative or they just didn’t have a free slot for when I wanted it.
Then fate took us on a trip to Zurich for a week in the summer and as I was researching places to explore in and around Zurich, there it was tucked away between the recommendation for a chocolate factory and a waterfall, a place to skydive near Lake Lucerne, about an hour’s drive from Zurich.
Among the many things Switzerland is blessed with, natural beauty tops the list. Once the idea of jumping off a plane above a picturesque Swiss village on a perfect, sunny day took form in my head, it continued to grow and take the shape of a bird just itching to spread its wings and fly. We called the place and managed to score 3 spots for the next day and off we went, the husband and I, accompanied by his cousin who had just moved to Zurich, to get a taste of the Swiss countryside from high above.
We rented a car and programmed in the address for Paraclub Beromunster in Neudorf in the Lucerne region. The hour long journey took us to a lush green picture postcard village and the address on the GPS landed us right in the middle of a farm! A real Swiss farm with large cows grazing lazily, little Swiss kids playing with a wheelbarrow and narrow country roads with fenced meadows on either side and not a sign of a plane or a hangar or anything resembling adventure sports!
After one confusing phone call to Paraclub with instructions to follow the only main road in Neudorf (no detours or turns into farmland) till we come across a signboard clearly marked with the name of the club, we found ourselves backing up on the narrow country road, as a tractor with a puzzled looking farmer went by on the adjacent crossroad. Eventually, we got back on the main road (the only main road in the village of Neudorf, pop. 1196) while Lady Google protested noisily on the GPS about how off we were from our destination and followed the road till we saw little planes flying overhead and came across the signboard as promised!
Once at the club, we saw dozens of people in blue flying suits milling about, talking to the instructors, lying down on the grass, packing and unpacking parachutes and small planes landed and took off barely 100 feet from where we were! A sudden movement in the sky caught my eye and I looked up to see a guy floating down in a parachute with the instructor strapped to his back. That suddenly made it real for me.
Holy Cow! I was here and I was going to jump off a plane and dive into nothingness. We quickly got ourselves registered and changed into the flying suits and introduced to our tandem instructors. Beginners can only jump with an experienced instructor strapped to them. (You need to go through 7 levels of Accelerated Freefall which includes some 25 jumps and completion of certain review items before getting certified to jump solo.)
My instructor Tom was this super funny guy who kept trying to scare me by saying this was his first dive as a tandem instructor and I should wish him luck. But nothing could dampen by excitement. Tom went through the safety procedure and instructions on how to hold my arms and legs as we jump off the plane, what to do when he taps me on the shoulder (one tap on the shoulder to open your arms. Second to brings arms to chest as the parachute opens. Knees bent for landing). At 4000 meters with the wind howling and the helmet strapped around your ear, you can’t hear a word of anything being said.
Finally, it was time for the three of us to get on the plane with our instructors and head up into the blue, blue sky! Thanks to my husband’s repeated ‘briefing’ I was expecting the fear to kick in as I climbed into the little plane. I surprised myself as all I felt was the adrenalin coursing through my body and not a shred of fear!
As the plane gained height Tom kept cracking jokes and Stelio, another instructor who had a GoPro camera strapped to his helmet to record my flight kept shoving the camera in my face trying to capture my expression as we prepared to jump.
‘Sit on my lap’, says Tom, being a bit too familiar for a man who just met me! But that’s how he can strap his harness with mine and we are bound in tandem.
At last, we were at the 4000-meter altitude and ready to jump. I was mentally prepared to jump face down and feel my stomach drop the way it does on a roller coaster. I was the first in line to jump. Stelio perched himself half outside the door, holding on to what seemed like the wing of the plane, to make sure he can record me jumping out.
And suddenly it was time. No going back. Whoosh…into the abyss below…..
But wait….why wasn’t I seeing the greenery below? Why was everything blue and white? The force of the wind had turned us upside down as we jumped, so I was now facing up towards the plane, instead of looking down at what was below. I panicked, flailing my arms trying to hold on to something…anything…but luckily that’s why they have the instructor jump in tandem with you so that you don’t do something silly mid-air! Tom was clearly an expert, and within seconds he had us facing down and suddenly I was flying.
My arms were spread wide, the cold blast of wind whips my face with an unexpected force, and I was weightless. I’m spinning, body and mind, a few thousand meters above ground, every nerve in my being is on fire. Stelio was right in front of me, his helmet camera recording every moment of my flight and he grabbed my hands and started whooping, urging me to smile for the camera!
We laughed like a bunch of crazy people, spinning back and forth in a free fall for what felt like a long time, but was only 15 seconds and then it was time to let go. Stelio moved away, and Tom deployed the parachute and we were now floating above the edge of the beautiful Lake Luzerne with tiny houses and farms dotting the lush green landscape. Tom asks if I wanted to spin around and I decline. I just want to take it all in.
How do I explain what I felt in those few precious minutes…. It’s freedom, it’s intoxicating, it’s an out of body experience, it’s enough to mess with your mind.
Soon, the familiar airfield comes into view with tiny people waving at us, and we sweep into land gracelessly on our asses (apparently the best way to land and avoid injuring your knees).
Here’s the video that Stelio handed to me about 20 minutes after we landed and I was still buzzing from the adrenaline.
After years of talking about it, and several false starts, it took a trip to Switzerland in my 37th year to get on a plane, strap myself to a strange man, fly up 4000 meters and jump out of it into a free fall and live to tell the tale!
