Added: 07/20/2005 |
Traveling in the air?You probably hundreds of times saw dreams of flying like a bird in your childhood. It was either pleasant or scary, but never real. Could you ever think that it CAN come true? And it's traveling by air in a comfortable plane - it's traveling IN the air, flying with a parachute. It always happens unexpectedly: a call of a girlfriend, accidentally overheard conversation, some old friends connected with that business or just search for something new. First, you spend all the days in the training center. It's not the final goal (a jump), but a special atmosphere of adventure, careless gaiety and gripping life that is important.
Although all the instructors are very serious when coming to training - no wonder, YOUR LIFE will depend on the way you are trained, and it's already not a joke. Before you start your first travel, you need to know everything: what is the right way to go out of the plane, what to do, if the parachute doesn't open (!), how to land properly. Landing is very important - what if you fall into some swamp, stuck in the tree or entangle in electric wire, not talking about the possibility of breaking your leg. That's why you need to reach the level, when you do everything mechanically.
Here are the requirements you need to meet to be able to jump: 1.Anybody can jump, but look at the following points; 2.You need to be over 14-16 years old (although, there is a parachutist who is 7 year old, according to some witnesses); 3.If you are under 18, you should have parents' consent in a written form. 4.There are no upper age limit (they say, there is one cheerful old lady of 78, who still jumps without outside help). 5.Before the jump you need to have medical inspection. They won't let you jump with heart, neuropsychic diseases, problems with musculoskeletal system, eyesight, or high blood pressure. Besides, the person in alcoholic or narcotic intoxication won't be permeated.
You can do it any time of the year - it all depends on the weather. All the information you can find on special websites. The training is not very expensive and there is an individual approach to every person. You have two options when are ready for jumping with a parachute: single jumping or in tandem. To say the truth, the risk is the same in either choice, but tandem costs five times more and the pleasure you get is less.
And now you are ready, you remember all the rules, you passed all the tests and only one step is left - the step into abyss, into emptiness, forgetting about your instinct of self-preservation. Anybody feels like that, no matter how many jumps they did before. Every time is like the first one. You step into the gap and the wind noise that seemed so loud inside now has turned into silence. And nothing matters, only this sky, this silence, this intimacy with the whole world. A traveler in the air. The land somewhere far-far below looks so tiny as if on a map. A blow, a fall and I'm back to earth, so dear and near. But part of your heart will stay in the sky forever... You will be walking along the streets looking into the sky and thinking that you were THERE, and you will never forget that.
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