Skydiving in Virginia and Washington DC | Skydive Orange
July 2023
When you willingly get pushed out of a perfectly good airplane!
I added Skydiving to my bucket list about 4 years ago and I finally got to check it off.
I scheduled a tandem jump for July 28, 2023, at 0930 with Skydive Orange. An incredible adventure with great staff that made me feel extremely comfortable and prepared. A+, 100 on a scale of 1 to 10.
We arrived at Skydive Orange around 0910 and checked out the aircraft and facilities. They had both a single engine and dual engine aircraft on the tarmac, which looked in good order, well maintained and even fairly new.
While I was the only jumper, my wife was with me the entire time, right up to me boarding the aircraft. Everyone was very friendly and interacted with us both.
We checked in with the office and after watching the “this is dangerous,” “you could die,” “You can’t sue anyone” videos, filling out and signing the same waivers, getting weighed and making the final payment, we were told we could wait in the hanger for my trip.
Within minutes of finishing, I was called by my tandem instructor, John Smith. John greeted me and treated me like he had known me forever. Super friendly, super energetic, super informative and super professional.
As John harnessed me up, he was explaining everything that I would be experiencing. After gearing up, I was also introduced to my videographer, Mikey. Mikey interviewed me for the pre-jump and post jump phase and was smooth at making me relaxed and not sounding like a babbling idiot.
Within minutes, John, Mikey and I were directed to the plane along with 11 other jumpers. As the plane taxied to the runway, John continually explained to me what was all happening and why. Also, multiple times during the flight to altitude, John performed safety checks of our gear and asked if I was ready to go. This was to make sure I had the opportunity to back out, if I so chose.
John and another instructor on the aircraft were very good at answering the multitude of questions I had during the flight. John can definitely read his audience and made me feel very comfortable and prepared.
At altitude and completely secured to John, the time came for the jump. The 11 other jumpers exited the plane first and it was my turn. Mikey was on the outside of the plane capturing all of the action of us getting to the door.
Sitting on the floor, with my feet and legs out of the aircraft, I saw my first glimpse of the ground, 13,500 feet below. And just like John had prepped me, “Ready, steady, spaghetti” we were out the door and in freefall.
This is an incredible feeling of flying. No sensation of falling, just the rush of wind pelting your body and right in front of us was Mikey, filming it all. Waves, thumbs up, yells of excitement were the course of action. I am afraid of heights. Standing at the edge of a 10-foot-high roof makes me nervous. There was no nervousness at all during the freefall and no sense of falling. John assisted me, into, and helped maintain the arch position for free fall.
The next thing was the opening of the parachute. I saw john wave to Mikey, so I waived to Mikey as well. What I did not see was John’s signal that he was deploying the chute. The force of the chute opening against the wind was pretty strong and we were whisked upwards and away from Mikey and the camera.
Once under canopy, John did safety checks and asked if I wanted to fly the chute, which I of course did. At this point, it was a beautiful view, a nice slow meandering ride across the sky. The silence was incredible, and John and I were carrying on a conversation in a normal voice. Again, John answered all of my questions about why things were done and what made stuff work. We could see the other jumpers floating below us, following their flight patterns and down to the landing zone.
The only time I felt any “roller coaster” sensations was when John asked if I wanted to do a hard turn. We did and during the 10 second, 360-degree turn, it felt like we dropped several feet, which put my stomach in my throat until we flared out the parachute and returned to straight and level flight.
The landing was interesting, as I watched the individual skydivers land on their feet and walk forward to stop. Being a tandem, we landed in a butt slide, and it was smooth as butter.
Even though the website said to be prepared to spend 4 to 6 hours, I was scheduled at 0930 and was on the ground by 1058.
Overall, a great adventure, with a very professional, friendly and informative staff and a top-notch facility.
