So you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?

After watching a skydiving segment in a movie, I thought I would like to skydive. I called the Jim Wallace Skydiving School at the Perris Valley Airport (a half-hour from us), and talked to Jim Wallace, who has completed more than 18,000 jumps. I told him about the movie segment, and he said that he had done stunts for that film. He offered to be my instructor.

So, after reading a lot about skydiving on the internet, telling some friends of my intention (most thought I was crazy), getting Bruce's approval, and experiencing rapid heartbeats just lying in bed thinking about doing this, on Thursday, September 8, I called and made an appointment for Saturday, September 10, for a tandem skydive. That is when you don't have your own parachute--you are strapped to an instructor who has the parachute system.

Now I'm all trained, outfitted, and ready to go.

The small airplane was packed with maybe 20 skydivers, sitting on two long benches facing each other, plus one in the co-pilot's seat. Jim and I boarded the plane along with Peter, our skydiving photographer. (There is no point in doing this if you don't have pictures to prove it.) It took 10-15 minutes to get to the altitude of 13,000 feet--about 2 1/2 miles. Then the wide door at the back of the plane was opened, and people started leaving.

At this point, we had more room, and Jim began hooking me up to him with big, strong clips. Then he said to scoot down the bench toward the door. I knelt at the door as we had practiced, and then we were the last ones out of the plane, after smiling at Peter, who was hanging onto the outside of the plane.

Below, you can see one of the four clips that held us together.

Now we're in freefall, moving at a rate of 120 m.p.h.

I didn't scream because I didn't feel like I was falling--I felt like I was on a cushion of air.

We did a couple of flat spins.

Near the end of the 50-second freefall, my glasses and goggles moved up my face and onto the top of my head.

I closed my eyes and grabbed for my glasses; I managed to retrieve them, but the goggles flew away.

Then Jim pulled the ripcord, and we swooped way up. This is probably the scariest picture, because it looks like I'm "slip-slidin' away," but I never felt insecure.

I had already asked him to pull the ripcord because I was afraid I would do it wrong. Anyway, when it was time, at 5,000 feet, I was busy holding onto my glasses.

Bruce took this picture from the ground. He was waiting with my brother, Gary, and some friends.

The little red thing trailing our parachute is the drogue parachute, which Jim released right after we left the airplane.

This is the floating part of the skydive and takes maybe four or five minutes--not long enough. Jim and I were able to talk and look at the scenery. He pointed out a couple of sights, and I asked a really stupid question, "Where is the airport?"

He said, "Right below us." Sure enough, there it was. I could see the grassy drop zone.

All too soon, it was time to land. We had practiced a sitting landing and, in this picture, I'm ready for the landing, but at the last second, Jim called out, "Stand up, stand up, stand up." So we landed standing up. Although I had trouble keeping my balance, I did stay on my feet.

"I didn't want it to be over."

Peter landed before we did so he could film our landing and get my reaction. I was so excited! It was such a thrill to be floating high in the air. I loved every minute of it!

As a side note, I discovered that the Perris facility is very highly regarded; the U. S. National Skydiving Championships were held in Perris from August 23 to September 11 and attracted over 700 skydivers from around the country.