I am at the drop zone, Skydive Sebastian when I get the call from Scotty. “Hey did you know the Space shuttle is going to launch on Friday night? We should go skydive at the same time. Maybe I can get some nice pictures.” I immediately think, a night jump is dangerous by itself, but add on the major distraction of the Space Shuttle launching, and it seems to be a recipe for disaster. Somehow I make the smart decision and say “No I don't want to go.” Shortly after the drop zone asks if I will organize the skydive to make sure everyone has a coordinated plan, making the jump as safe as possible. So I change my mind and decide to go, only to find out Nasa postponed the Launch.
The next day, I found out that the shuttle would launch right after sunset on Sunday evening. The lighting conditions will be a little better than they would while on a night jump, so I was a little more comfortable, not much though.
The familiar rumble of the piston engines in Scotty and Mike's planes signaled their arrival Sunday afternoon. As we were getting ready it started to become clear to me that this would be a jump that I would vividly remember for the rest of my life. Everyone was very excited to be a part of this, it might be the last shuttle launch at sunset.
Our plan was to exit the aircraft at the moment of ignition. We proceeded to figure out the timing of the other skydivers on the plane; we all had different plans. Some were deploying their parachute as they jumped off the plane and most of the others deployed their chute at a higher altitude than normal. This added some danger to our jump as we would have to avoid colliding with them. It was decided that we would lift off 25 minutes prior to the launch, mainly because it takes 20 minutes for the Dehaviland Otter to climb to altitude. Some of the skydivers wanted to jump out of the plane 3 minutes prior to launch, deploy their parachute immediately at 13000 feet, and watch the shuttle from that altitude.
Time is ticking away, it is 25 minutes prior to launch and people are still boarding the airplane. Someone says “It’s not going to launch, I have been chasing this shuttle for 20 years!” The engines fire up and we taxi to the runway. The climb to altitude is exciting, everyone's anticipating what they are about to experience and reviewing their plans. T minus three minutes and the first group is out of the plane. I am busy checking my parachute one last time to make sure everything is in order, while the last group exits this almost perfectly good airplane.
Everyone was finally out of the plane, except for the three wingsuit fliers. Watching north of our position Scotty saw the shuttle and yelled “There it is! Go! Exit! Go!” I reacted immediately jumping the gun a bit, as I flew away from the plane I noticed it was taking what seemed like an eternity for Mike and Scotty to exit. Perfect, here we are about to miss our window of opportunity. I slowed my fall rate while Mike dove and we were flying together in no time, except it was just Mike and I with no outside camera man “Where the heck is Scotty?” Mike pointed down, I laughed and we dove to Scotty’s altitude to set up for the shot.
The first part of the plan was for me to back fly directly under Mike to get a few pictures, so I maneuvered myself into place, saw a few flashes from Scotty’s camera, and flew to Mike’s side. This did not seem to give Scotty a good picture opportunity, so I decided to fly to the next position which was flying vertically above Mike, this is very challenging because it is easy to get pulled into someone’s wake and usually a crash ensues.
So there I am, about to crash into Mike thinking, oh great I am messing up on this, of all jumps. No biggie, a hand plant on his backside, flip over, start back flying and all is well. Except the jump isn’t over, we still have to deploy our parachutes and land safely in semi darkness.
What was I thinking, I told myself I was not going on this jump because it was not as safe, not with 22 skydivers flying around during twilight, being distracted by the the amazing multi colored shuttle vapor trail. I don’t know how I let myself get convinced to go on this crazy jump.
I am sure glad I did though. Hundreds of thousands of people have watched the video already and it’s only been a couple of weeks. I have been interviewed by Barcroft Media, The Jack E Jett Show, and CNN International since.
Yes, that was a great jump, one of my most memorable.
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