First Night Jump & Why Intuition Is So Important

Welcome to Darshan with Doug.

Today I'm going to share with you the most amazing journey I went on yesterday.

It was my first night jump.

My very first night jump.

I've avoided this for many years.

Really scared to do a night jump,

But someone got into me and said,

You've got to face your fears and you've got to do this.

So we're going to learn two lessons today.

One is about using and trusting your intuition.

And I've talked about that in other audio tracks before,

But today it really hit home.

So I'm going to share that with you guys.

And the other is missing the target.

Okay,

Both literally and subjectively.

Missing the target is definitely a good thing to bring up in your lives.

So before we get into that,

I wanted to give a shout out to my followers and say thank you very much for supporting me.

Thanks for signing up as a follower.

Thank you if you've left a donation for me.

It's very much appreciated.

Every little bit helps in these trying economies.

But anyway,

Let's get into it.

I went to skydive space land.

That's where I jump usually in the daytime.

And signed up for the night jumps.

You have to do a day jump that day and then you do your night jump after the briefing.

And they give a briefing and they go over all the details of what you should do and what procedures to follow and altitudes to pull at.

They try to make it as safe as possible.

But I think the drop zone could have done a little bit better job of lighting up the drop zone.

They only had one floodlight,

Like light tower floodlight out to try to light up as much of the yardage as they could.

But from the air,

When we climbed up the altitude up to 14,

000 feet,

That little floodlight looked minuscule.

It looked so small and everybody kept saying,

That's it.

That's the drop zone right there.

That's it.

But we had two big markers,

Two companies,

Like Centerpoint Energy to the south of us and Schlumberger to the north of us.

And we were like snap dab in the middle.

And it was the only light in the middle.

So anyway,

I bought all kinds of lights.

I bought,

I went to the bicycle store and I bought rope lights,

LED rope lights to go around my legs.

And I bought three flashlights and three of the red,

Flashing red,

Very bright signals that you put on your chest strap.

We put these things on our chest straps and turned them on when we leave the plane so that when you're under canopy,

Under free fall you can't see nothing.

You can't see any jumpers below you.

It is pitch black.

But anyway,

I bought all these lights and I was super stoked and super ready to go jump.

And I think that everybody else was kind of stoked.

But we're all scared too.

Some of us,

It was our very first jump.

And one young lady that was sitting across from me,

She's like,

Why am I doing this?

Why am I doing this?

I said,

Yeah,

Because you paid for it.

So first I'll discuss trusting intuition.

Okay,

So I bought all these lights from a bicycle store.

I bought two flashlights and three of the red reflectors that are very bright.

They're not reflectors,

But they're lights.

And they're made so you can see a bicycle at nighttime.

I figured those would be pretty good.

I didn't know much about flashlights,

But the flashlights were only 60 lumens,

Which isn't much at all.

And probably if that's all I had,

Then that wouldn't have been suffice to see the ground if I ever needed to be able to see the ground.

Now the flight instructors told me that those lights probably won't help.

But luckily,

On the way to the drop zone,

I stopped off at Home Depot.

Just my intuition said you need a brighter light.

You need something that you can see the ground really well.

And I stopped at Home Depot and I found a 650 lumen flashlight,

A small,

Almost like pocket-sized flashlight,

But it's super bright.

And you can focus the beam pretty straightforward.

And anyway,

So I got all the lights on me when we geared up on a 15-minute call.

I got my chest strap light.

I strapped one of the red lights to my foot.

And the other red light I actually gave to a friend of mine,

A new friend that I met out there at the drop zone.

He didn't have a red light for his chest strap.

And I said,

Yeah,

I don't need three.

You just take one of mine.

Anyway,

So yeah,

So we got all the lights on.

And my intuition,

Even though the instructor told me that the light probably won't help you or anything to see the ground at the drop zone,

My intuition said,

You know,

I'm carrying this light.

I bought it.

I'm bringing it.

I didn't tape it to my helmet.

I stuck it inside my flight suit up above the chest strap.

Now on the ground,

The chest strap is tight.

And the flashlight wouldn't go below it.

But what happened was in the air was a little bit different story.

But I'll get to that in a second.

So anyway,

We're climbing up the altitude.

And the jumpmaster is showing everybody,

Hey,

There's the airport.

There's the airport.

You know,

And we're like,

I could see the light,

The one little light between the two big fields.

And that was cool and all.

But you know,

We got up to altitude and there was only one four way ahead of me and then I was the next one out.

And I didn't know this,

But basically the pilot turned the light on a little bit too soon.

And you know,

When we were jumping,

When I jumped out of the plane,

I was a little farther away from the airport than I thought I was.

But anyway,

But I got to tell you,

And I must share with you,

If you're Scott Aver and you haven't done this,

This is something that you really should at least try at least once because it is so beautiful.

I mean,

It is just amazingly wonderful.

I mean,

I've been jumping for many years and I don't think I've experienced anything in any of my jumps this beautiful before.

But we got up to altitude and the four way went out ahead of me and then it was my turn.

I jump out and I mean,

It's just,

You don't see anything.

I couldn't see any of the four way below me.

I knew they were down there somewhere,

But until they open their canopies,

You don't see the light.

One of the lights I bought,

I put tape to the back of my helmet and it's a flashing white strobe light and it flashes into your canopy as you're flying so other people can see your canopy.

I didn't see anybody else's canopy.

I pulled it,

The four way pulled at 3,

000,

I pulled at 3,

500 and the person after me was supposed to pull at four and then the person after them at four or five.

So I don't mind pulling low and they say the less amount of turns the better at night jumps.

In the daytime you can do all kinds of turns,

It don't matter because you can see,

But at night they said keep the turns down to a minimum.

So anyway,

The free fall was wonderful.

I mean,

Just frickin' amazing feelings and just,

I mean,

Not just the adrenaline rush,

Just the beauty.

I mean,

The full moon and no clouds in the sky and all the lights on the ground.

You can see all of Houston,

You can see all of Galveston.

Both of them are very visible from our drop zone.

And anyway,

At 3,

500 I pulled my parachute and it opened up just fine.

I had that flashing strobe on the back of my helmet so I could see the parachute was good to go.

And I thought I was in good position.

I thought I was in good position and I kind of flew around the airport.

But the winds on the uppers were a little bit stronger than what we expected.

And I went past the hangars in the dark and there's just nothing out there.

It's completely black.

But I figured I had enough altitude to make it around the field and over the hangars and into the drop zone.

But I got a little disoriented in the dark and for one second,

It seemed like maybe about 10,

15 seconds,

I'm like,

Where's the drop zone?

Where's the drop zone?

Where is it?

And I was actually flying a little bit farther away from the drop zone than I thought.

The one single light that I thought was the drop zone was actually something else.

But I saw the drop zone and I started beelining in the dark towards it.

And what's scary is that if you don't make it back to the drop zone,

There's several different fields you could land into.

But there are power lines running along the whole perimeter of the drop zone.

So you don't want to ever as a skydiver get entangled in power lines.

So at about 900 feet,

I was so far away from the airport and the winds were pushing me straight back.

I wasn't getting any frontal speed.

It was just like I was just stopped,

Suspended and floating downwards.

So at about 600 feet,

I said,

Shit,

This sucks.

I'm not going to make it back.

But I couldn't see.

I couldn't see the ground.

I couldn't see anything.

So I'm like,

Screw this.

So I got both my toggles in one hand and I reached down into my suit and the chest strap got a little bit looser because I wasn't free falling anymore and the flashlight fell down a little bit.

So I'm actually reaching into my flight suit and I grabbed the flashlight,

Pulled it out and turned it on and boy,

That thing worked like a charm.

So that's your intuition.

If your intuition tells you to do something,

You should listen to it.

So luckily,

I was able to see the ground and I could see that I was in a field,

An open field that wasn't too brushy and it did have some thorn bushes in it and stuff like that,

But it wasn't too bad.

I wasn't that far away from the airport,

So I was safe and I had the flashlight and I was able to see the ground from about 400 or 500 feet away very well.

That just could have saved my life,

But it was just a godsend,

Stopping at Home Depot and trusting my intuition and getting it on to me and carrying it with me and then using it when I needed it.

There was another fellow,

Some young fellow that jumped with us.

He was on the jump run with me.

I think he did the second pass,

But he got away from the airport too.

I guess the upper winds caught him too.

He didn't have a flashlight.

He couldn't see the ground at all.

So he just did a PLF,

Parachute landing fall in the dark.

And I think there was probably about six,

Seven people that actually landed off.

I think there could have been improvements on the drop zone side to identify the airport a little bit better.

Most airports have a strobe light above them,

But we're a private airport,

So we don't have to have that strobe light.

But it would have been nice.

I mean,

It sure would have been a lot easier if you had an airport strobe light.

And that's what pilots use at night to identify airports.

I used to be an air traffic controller,

So I know these things.

And anyway,

So a military strobe light has a split beam.

So there's two lights that go in a circle and they 360 and they keep going.

And that's how you identify a military airport versus a civilian airport.

A civilian airport is just one solid beam.

And it would have been nice.

I'm just saying,

I'm not complaining,

But it would have been nice to be able to identify the airport a little bit better.

A lot of people were very confused.

And also,

Night vision,

The ground looks different.

I mean,

In the daytime,

You get a reference to when you're supposed to put your parachute and everything.

But at nighttime,

The ground looks a lot different.

And I will say that I started flaring what looked like 15 to 20 feet above the ground.

And I still hit the ground pretty hard.

Not hard enough to hurt me.

But you know,

The landing they did on the movie Point Break,

Where Bodhi and Keanu Reeves are falling and sharing the same parachute in the desert.

That's about how hard I landed.

It was like,

Ugh.

But I was fine.

It didn't,

You know,

I was hurt just a little bit.

But the miner scrapes and cuts,

You know,

Things like that from landing on the thorn bush.

But yeah,

It was good.

It was good.

And I'm glad I did it.

And I'm,

You know,

I'm getting a little bit older in age.

So I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do these things like this.

So that,

So that brings us to the next point.

And the next point is that in life,

Missing is probably the most horrible thing that can happen in your life.

Whether it's missing a rock concert that you love from a band that you love or missing meeting a famous person or,

You know,

Missing out on life in general.

If you miss the actually definition of the word sin,

The literal definition of the word sin is called,

Is really means missing the target.

As if like when an arrow is shot from a bow and it misses the target.

So that's the literal meaning of the word sin.

And to me,

Doing the skydive is just something I didn't want to miss.

And yeah,

I missed the target.

I missed the drop zone by,

I missed the drop zone probably by about half a mile.

But like I said,

I knew there were power lines.

I couldn't see them.

I knew I was okay landing out in the field.

And luckily I was facing into the wind the entire time coming back.

So you know,

It was it was not that bad.

Would I recommend doing this to any other jumper?

I think when you're ready to do it,

Yeah,

It's a pretty damn amazing thing to have experienced and have done.

But now I want to do another one.

Next time the drop zone offers night jumps again,

I think I'll sign up and do another one.

I think I'll do a little bit better the next time.

I might even bring like a heavy duty strobe and just put it on top of my car in the parking lot.

If they don't want to light up the drop zone,

Then I will put a heavy duty strobe on top of my car that could be seen for at least three miles.

I'm like,

Okay,

No,

No,

That because there was one guy that landed out in the parking lot.

You know,

It's just crazy.

It's just crazy.

You know,

You cannot see at night.

Is this pitch black?

It's like,

Pretend you're doing a skydive with your eyes closed and you can't see shit.

Luckily,

I had my altimeter that I bought a couple years ago lights up at night.

And that was it.

I wear two altimeters when I jump and that was basically the saving grace,

Having a lit altimeter.

The chest strap I had on was so bright that you could see my other altimeter too.

It's always good to have a fail safe when it comes to altimeters because many years ago,

I had one of my altimeters stick at 3000 feet.

And I'm like,

What the hell?

I thought I might as a skydiver,

I'm sitting there going,

It can still be 3000 feet.

I've been falling for for a minute now under canopy.

But yeah,

So it's always good to have two altimeters.

And that's just a good thing to do in life.

Trust your intuition.

Don't miss the target.

Don't miss life.

Don't miss this opportunity.

Before you get too old and you wish that you would have done these things.

Do these things now.

Live your life for the moment,

Live in the present moment and do these things for now.

So I want to take a moment and say thank you very much to all my new followers.

I have a new follower from London named Ralusha.

I hope I'm not butchering your name.

Ralusha,

Thank you for joining.

Nicole's new,

Crystal's new.

Susan,

Stephanie.

Who else here?

I also want to thank Hedy from South Africa.

Wow,

That's a long ways away from here.

But thank you for joining and thank you for listening to me.

And Misty,

Chrissy Gross.

She's a fellow Galvestonian friend of mine.

But thank you,

Chris,

For showing up and listening to everything we got to say.

Marini,

Pete Z is from Galveston.

Bridget's from Tuscumbia.

We have Pasak from Indonesia.

That's pretty far away.

But thank you for joining us from Indonesia.

Helen Ashford,

Leah is a friend of mine on Facebook.

Hey Leah,

How you doing,

Sweetie?

Thanks for listening to and supporting me all these years.

And actually she's the one that helped me get into this Insight Timer.

Janice Lens is a friend of mine that I surfed with and go to Mexico with all the time.

We take surf trips down to Mexico and we've shared a few laughs and a few tears before.

But yeah,

Thanks very much,

Janice,

For listening.

Lisa,

Heather,

Alexandria,

Debbie.

And my very first follower is from South Africa too.

Dipio Modis.

I'm probably butchering your name.

But hey,

Thanks for being the first one to come aboard and support me.

And like I said,

I have so much to share with you guys.

And I think we're just scratching the surface.

And there's so much depth and so much more that we can share with each other.

I'll try to get onto the Insight Timer live one of these days and give you guys a chance to have a personal talk and share your life history about spirituality or how you've grown and maybe how these recordings I made,

How they changed your lives.

That'd be great to hear too.

But anyway,

Thank you everyone for supporting me.

And like I said,

If you left a donation,

That was very much appreciated.

So very much appreciated,

Like I said.

And thank you very much.

And wow,

Skydive number two at night.

Looking forward to it.

And when I do,

Hopefully I'll post something about that too.

I love posting all my adventures and how they connect to spirituality and to life and how they intertwine between the two and help you to grow and live a beautiful life and say,

When you die,

You should die saying that was kick ass.

That was the best thing that could have ever happened to anyone.

That's how life should be.

It should be,

You know,

You can look back at it and say,

Wow,

I really lived.

So anyway,

Thank you very much,

Folks.

Take care of yourselves.

Goodbye.