Kids dropping from the sky

For his 18th birthday, Adam wanted to go skydiving again.

He did this about 5 years ago in New Zealand and has wanted to do it again as soon as possible. The only problem is that in the States you have to be 18 to do it.

So the first Saturday after his birthday the folks and Adam packed off to the only tandem skydiving place within 100 miles of Washington, DC.

The sign over the hangar entrance did not exactly instill a sense of calm in Adam's mother.

It was a beautiful day with only a few clouds coming in and out of the area. So there were a lot of jumpers that day.

After checking in about 11 a.m. Adam and family waited and waited. But eventually Adam was called up for a briefing on what to expect and what to do while in the air.

Then it was back to waiting while the two gals in the briefing session with him went up and while the video/picture operator for the dive got his gear ready.

Then came the magic moment when Adam got ready for his jump and headed out to the plane with Chuck, his jump partner.

Just a real quick explanation, Adam is attached to Chuck with a four-point harness. Chuck has the parachute and Adam is attached to Chuck.

The original plan for the jump was to go to 13,500 feet (what the company calls the 2.5 Mile Club) but some fast moving clouds came in. Adam had to jump at 9,000 feet.

The difference in the jump height meant he only got about 20 seconds of free fall instead of 50-60 seconds. (In New Zealand he jumped at 15,000 feet and got 90 seconds of free fall.)

He was a bit disappointed at the reduced time but still REALLY enjoyed the jump.

So with a successful jump done, Adam and Chuck headed back to the barn to finish up the paperwork to prove that Adam had indeed jumped out of a perfectly healthy airplane and survived.