FLY AWAY - FLY AWAY

Wow what a day! We got up today and our plan was to head to Gatlinburg to do some indoor skydiving. Well, we got to do that and more!!!!! While sitting in IHOP enjoying some good ole pancakes Angie said "why don't we stop by the DZ and I can get a jump in". Great!! we proceeded home to get her rig and we were off. We arrived and the first load of the day was just landing. We seen the last guy just over the trees right after getting off the interstate. Angie got her chute packed and we suprised Austin with a spot that was available as a passenger. He had to wear a rig "just in case". They positioned him in the rear of the plane with Angie. They fired it up and they were off to the wild blue yonder. It took them about 25 minutes to get to altitude. Then I see Angies chute open and I got to watch her manuever her way to the ground,it was awesome! A few minutes later the plane came around and landed. Austin got out with a huge smile on his face. His ears were also popping pretty bad too. That was the first time he has flown in any plane so he was pretty stoked. He has said that he wants to skydive but after they threw the door open and the first dude jumped out I think it scared him a little. Hes not talking about it as much now. Anywho Angie packed up and we were off to Gatlinburg for the wind tunnel. We arrived and went through the 10 minute training class, got fitted for gear and then we were standing in the front of the door to the entrance of the tunnel. Our instructor was full of energy and after a couple of instructions the blades were rumbling loud. Angie was first and had no problem getting up and flying. Next was me, I had done this before several years ago. I laid out on the mesh floor, got into proper position and the wind lifted me about 6ft into the air. I remembered! Just relax! Thats the whole key to this. After me it was Austins turn, only weighing a measly 95 lbs, the huge fan had no problem getting him aloft. He did really well for his first time too. We all got 2 rounds and then it was over. Jumping out of a plane at 12K feet you only get about 45seconds of free fall time. They gave us about 90 seconds X 2. It goes by really fast but it was soooooo fun. I have a few pics I will post later, get'n late........



Later G .......................................