"MOVE FOWARD!" the jump master shouts, as he gives a come hither sign. "right, left, right, left."
shuffling to the door, we know the drill, in fact, we are so well drilled we can even perform it teh neh neh-ly on your regular sbs buses.
it was our first jump and its from a Fokker-50. it kinda looks like a small private twin bip-plane. rather than the charlie you see over here. and it smells just like your regular commercial aircraft. except that there are no SIA girls in that cute little outfit.
"5 seconds, stand to the door!" ranger sng as always takes pleasure in hogging the first jumper slot. with pride as well. i remembered clearly, "what am i doing, no shit man, this is real one, siao liao. hong gan, thats the only way out. siao liao siao liao."
the left hand started to sweat, while clenching to the static line as though our life's depended on it. well, it does actually. "Green On.... GO... Go.. Go.."
with each go, a jumper exits the plane and into the air. shuffling foward like a little packed herd, by the 4th Go, i found myself standing at the door, static line already cast aside, both hands on to the reserve.
"GO!" wooooooosh and i am out. around 3 seconds of free fall that u get to experience in certain theme park rides. this feels almost exactly like that. only better.
then by the 4th second, your parachute would have deployed. and as "well drilled" as i liked to believe i was. i was stunned, fascinated, exhilirated, all rolled into one. i totally forgot to the drill till, "urr, what am i supposed to do ah."
you hear nothing, but the fluttering wind by your ears, you see the millenia tower from paya lebar. for that moment, you feel like this is the best thing in the world and all that crap before the course is all worth it. you feel alive, and at the top of the world even at just 1000 feet. well, it lasted for awhile till someone irritating down below at the safety rover starts to bark instructions over the loudspeaker.
well, i kinda ignored him, i was having too much fun to take notice. hahah, and i nearly paid by drifting towards that big long kang beside the runway. fortunately, i landed around 5 metres from that big nasty looking long kang... phew. GOOD JUMP!
the para-wing's office had a poster made by a previous batch of officers. it goes like this,
''
to run is human, to fly is divine."
the feeling's still as divine one year ago as it is today.
