Skydiving

As most of you know I am an avid skydiver. It all started about six year ago when I was at the St. Mary's Airport for "Wings Over Camden", an event designed to introduce children and the community to aviation. There were free airplane rides for the kids and lots of food and fun. But what caught my attention was the parachutes in the sky.

I had always wanted to jump from an airplane since childhood. I can remember watching Superman and thinking: "if I only had a cape like that, I could fly too". So I went and got mom's biggest towel. I tied it around my neck and I was set, or so I thought. I ran hard from one side of the porch to the other and dove right off. Needless to say I was not superman, and I did not fly. I took a 5' plunge to the dirt. I found out that day that the cape wouldn't work, but it did not stop me from dreaming about flying.

I grew up near Ft. Benning, Ga which is home of the Army's Airborne School. I had been to the jump towers and had saw their training apparatuses, but had never had the opportunity to jump. That was about to change.

As I approached the St. Mary's Airport that day my eyes were glued to the sky as Glenn Bangs flew his canopy over St. Mary's with the American Flag in tow. Bobby Owens, owner of Skydive St. Mary's at that time asked me, "Pastor, when are you going to jump?" At the moment I was looking at a picture of President Bush (41) in free fall with an Army Golden Knight. I told her jokingly that I would jump today, if I could jump with that man. The one jumping with the president. She responded: hang on just a minute. She disappeared for an moment then returned saying: "He said to give him about 45 min to repack, etc."

Glenn Bangs was the man that had jumped twice with the president Bush (41), and was towing the American Flag earlier that day. He would also be the one that I would be attached to as I took my first plunge from 11,000 feet. I comforted myself by reasoning that: "If he was trusted to jump with the President of the United States, I would probably be alright.

It turned out to be a wonderful jump. I will never forget the scariest four-letter word I've ever heard. It's not what you may think. As the pilot turns on jump run he/she will usually turn and say "2 minutes". That's when you know it's real. In two minutes you will be leaving the security of this airplane. At the end of the two minutes the pilot barks out the word "Door"; it's the sacriest four-letter word you'll ever hear. The door is then opened and you feel and hear the wind.

Once the door was opened you take a look outside, turn and put your feet on the step, then it's "Ready-Set-Go". As soon as you leave the plane everything seems better, but after free-falling for a while you start to wonder when this thing is going to open. We opened the parachute at 5000 feet and had about 4-5 minute parachute ride after the 45 second free-fall. Then a picture perfect landing and I was hooked.

Now I have almost 300 skydives. The most memorable ones are jumping with my children. I have jumped with all of them. Adam completed jump school shortly after I did and we have jumped together over 100 times in various locations from various aircraft.

I jump regularly with Adam, Eddie Martinez, Mark Presley, and Dan Dickson. We have had over 30 people from the church jump since I started six years ago. If you have any interest give me a call, or visit http://www.thejumpingplace.com/ .