When I first saw the parachute, I was only six years old. But it was not just a parachute, it was an attraction in the amusement park of one of the cities of the then Soviet, distant country. Affectionate, June morning, poplar fluff and beautiful people in the best park of my childhood! There are many attractions, cars, carousels, a room of laughter and a tall tower with an open dome of a parachute hanging on ropes somewhere in the skies.
Oh yeah! This giant in the sky made a strong impression on me. I immediately wanted to be allowed to jump down, as the pilots did in the cinema, as adults did. But naturally, they didn’t let me in. And a few years later these towers were closed, and even later completely demolished. So my childhood dream, to parachute from the tower, did not come true. Neither in childhood, nor later.
Even later, having matured, I began to be afraid of heights altogether. Until now, the chill is taken by the scruff of the neck when I go to the edge of the balcony of a high-rise building or to the railing of the fence in some major shopping center. Several times, with my wife and friends, we discussed whether we should jump with a parachute, but I always told them that this was not for me! All these jumping from the towers on an elastic band, parachutes and other extreme entertainment with height - not mine, fire. I’m better off scuba diving in zero gravity.
And the other day my phone rang. My friend’s number was displayed on the mobile screen.
- Hi, I decided to jump with a parachute!
- Wow! When?
- The next Friday!
- Wow! I'll go with you, at least I will see how it happens!
- We jump together!
- No, I have not decided yet! I laughed in response. On that and parted.
Three days passed like one. My wife and I gathered all our equipment and arrived at the local flying club at the appointed time. My friend was already there. He managed to draw up some paper, paid for the jump, and together we went into the hangar, in which some people gathered parachutes, trained lying on special boards with wheels, hung on the straps fixed in the ceiling, and in general, performed a lot of actions that were incomprehensible for the uninitiated, with whom we, in fact, were.
We waited about an hour. During this time, some noisy company escorted his comrade to his obviously first flight and jump. They filmed on the camera, clicked the shutters of the cameras, had fun talking and supported their friend with laughter and smiles. Then they disappeared with the instructors behind the gates of the hangar, the screws of the plane rustled, and after a while there was silence. And after half an hour, their noisy company brought their happy friend back almost in their arms! He was thrilled. They sat down at the TV screen and began to watch a movie about his jump, which, it turns out, was shot by a second instructor.
It was our friend’s turn. An instructor came up to us and began to explain to a friend in good English what kind of jump this would be and what actions would be needed on his part. I asked him, in my English: "How high will the aircraft be during the jump?" To which he received an answer in pure Russian: "Jump from two kilometers!". We all laughed. The instructor was from Russia.
A few minutes later my friend was dressed in a special jumpsuit, wrapped in some kind of straps with durable shiny carbines and locks, and briefly instructed. We rolled it on this board with wheels, explaining how it should behave in the air, then they gave us a picture of it, and together we went out onto the airfield.
Opposite the gates of the hangar was a small white six-seater airplane with wide side doors. The instructor and our friend loaded onto the plane. The second instructor continued filming from his helmet, in which video and cameras were mounted.
“We will rise for about twenty minutes, on the ground - in twenty-five minutes ...”
- Go!
We waved to each other. The engine is noisy. The second instructor jumped onto the plane, and within a minute the liner ran along the runway, taking our friend to the dream, which I never decided to fulfill.
My wife and I prepared photo equipment and, peering into the sky, tried to determine when and where the jump would be, and whether we could shoot it. The little white cross of the plane was getting smaller and smaller in the blue sky, the sound of its engine was getting quieter and quieter, and soon we completely lost sight of it. Fifteen minutes passed. We sat on the grass, peering into the sky, trying to see where this plane is now.
And friend, we distinctly heard the noise of the motor, which was growing and approaching the area where the jump was to be carried out.
- Here he is! - I was the first to notice the white dot. We immediately aimed the camera lenses in that direction, and I clearly examined the white silhouette of the plane through the viewfinder. And also, after a few seconds, I saw how two dark points separated from it. After another thirty or forty seconds, I saw how the first dome began to open. Then the second. We began to wait for a landing.
A few minutes later one of the instructors “fell” from the sky like a stone.
He descended in a high-speed parachute, before our friend, fastened to his instructor in order to have time to videotape their landing.
By the way, this instructor named Stephen is a spilled American actor Dolph Lungren. It could completely replace him in the films!
- Steve! Do you know that you look a lot like Dolph Lungren? Stephen did not answer, and only smiled shyly, collecting the canopy of his parachute, apparently I was not the first to get it with this question.
A few minutes later we met our friend. His dome was getting closer and closer to us, guided by the instructor's confident hand. Our friend landed in tandem with his instructor! There was delight on his face, and happiness shone in his eyes!
The dome of the parachute, like a huge air mushroom, settled above their heads, and then turned into a bouquet of an unknown flower.
- Well, how ?! I asked him.
- Buzz! But, very few, ”he answered with enthusiasm, and we together went to the hangar.
We took pictures, he shared his impressions. And at this time we were already shown on TV a short, but completely finished film, on which his jump was shot. The film was expertly edited, supplemented by music and various video effects, and it wasn't even five minutes before we returned to the hangar. Well done! Good organization of business. Everything in the film turned out to be so fleeting, not at all scary and so delightful that I also thought that it was time for me to make my first jump.
A friend told about all the moments of this adventure: how they rose, how they fastened him to the instructor, how he first saw the earth from the open door of the plane. How he first jumped into the abyss! How breathtaking, when his instructor began to make somersaults with a parachute. How inexorably the earth was approaching, and how sweet 35 seconds of free fall were! And I kept thinking to myself that this is part of my childhood dream, and that I still have a chance to realize it.
Then I began to question him about why and why he, nevertheless, decided to take this jump. To which he replied to me as I myself thought in principle: "We live very monotonously. Day after day, year after year we repeat the same route. Home - work - home - work. And so without a stop. Routine of routine makes life more and more gray. The sky grows dull, life loses all the severity of feelings with which it so pleased us. And now comes the moment that we really want to change it. We want to change our life, but we cannot, or do not know how. Our The "I" did not learn to change so quickly. It is built on such a principle that it is a conscious "I", it’s as if a computer program written by our life according to the rules that we have adopted since childhood, and it’s very difficult to change our lifestyle and attitude that has developed over the years. Our receptors have become dull, our perception has lost the sharpness of colors. We are no longer happy every new day, as it was in childhood "...
If our life already doesn’t suit us with something, if the grayness and inner feeling of the unchanging routine of being makes us weary of this grayness, and it seems that there is no way out, then these are quite sufficient symptoms to shake our “I”. The body needs a thorough biochemical shake.
There are many options! There are less radical, there are more. And one of the many ways - this is a parachute jump! If you haven’t jumped before.
Adrenaline will destroy your long-term chain of relationships "I and not I", rooted in your brain, in an instant. After landing, you will become a different person.
It is not known which one, but it is definitely different. You will become more free! The main thing - let it be your first step to heaven. The first step to the freedom of your spirit.
After the jump, you can safely say to yourself - I conquered the sky!
My friend conquered the sky! And I am sitting, looking at photos of his flight and his jump and I think that only two thousand meters separates me from my childhood dream ...
And I’m sure to parachute!
And I will still see the earth, in full view!
I can!…
/ DeFour /
