To be a flying bird

Once the jumpers were on board, the plane slowly made its way a few hundred yards along the farmland, toward the main road running through this part of Wayne County. After reaching this point, it turned around and, with motors revving loudly, made its way back. After gathering more speed, the plane reached its origin before taking off and disappearing into the cloudy sky.

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Ten minutes later the plane became visible once again from the thick cloud cover and small figures began to appear with parachutes hovering above them. The first to land were the accelerated free fallers, skydiving alone, who came whizzing over onlooker’s heads at tremendous speed before pulling a cord that halted them immediately and allowed them to land elegantly in the small field. Shortly afterwards, the tandem skydivers started to fall toward the field, before landing with a little less grace on their backs to comfort the students.

“It was the most incredible moment of my whole entire life,” said Flickinger, who was among the first to come running away from the landing area with a huge grin on her face.

Flickinger said that the most difficult part of the jump was when she first left the plane and the wind was so cold that ice was forming and striking their faces. The parachute instructors estimated the temperature to be 15 °F, with a wind chill of 100 mph.

“It felt like someone was stabbing you with needles,” Baldwin said shortly after completing his dive a little later.

“It felt like someone was stabbing you with needles.”

Neal was completely taken aback with the whole experience.

“I could not believe when we first jumped out,” said Neal, visibly still shaken from the jump. “It was a real surreal moment. It’s hard to describe what’s going through your head right then. It’s just so overwhelming you don’t even know what you are thinking.”

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Neal was struggling to regain his hearing 30 minutes after jumping and lost a contact lens when he first left the plane. However, he was still too excited about what he had just accomplished to care, and even the plane taking off filled him with delight.

“Watching the plane come off the ground and watching everything get smaller was something I’ve never experienced before, so that was really sweet,” Neal said. “Just seeing everything from that altitude was just amazing.”

McGatha’s composure prior to take-off left her a little as the plane took the skies.

“I was scared to death watching the other people fall in front of me,” said McGatha, who immediately called her boyfriend to describe the experience.

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