Skydiving and hot air ballooning meet lofty expectations
A special occasion in your life is bound to make your heart soar and put your head in the clouds. Particularly so if you jump out of a plane for a skydive or fly in a basket for a hot-air balloon ride.
Two local companies, No Limits Skydiving and Balloons Over Virginia, Inc., know what it takes to make a celebration truly get off the ground.
Matthew Fitch of No Limits Skydiving noted, “In the last few weeks we have had two marriage proposals and one actual wedding. A student of ours made a jump then put a huge ‘Will You Marry Me’ banner in the landing area for his intended fiancée to see under her parachute. I was with her when she was able to read what the banner said at about 1,000 feet. She started crying under her parachute, she was so happy. When she landed he was on one knee with the ring. It is so cool to be a part of these special moments.
“The one occasion we get the most clients for is their birthday. People make a skydive for many different reasons. I have been involved in skydiving for 20 years and have taken thousands of people on their first skydive. There are so many different stories with why people want to jump. A few years ago our company took an 86-year-old man who had flown in World War II. He said all the hours he had flown during the war he always wanted to know what it would feel like to jump so he came to us to answer that question. In what other job do you get to help a WWII pilot fulfill his dream? It makes being a skydive instructor a very special job.”
Fitch attested to the indelible experience of skydiving. “One of my favorite things is to be somewhere in the city and have someone I took on a tandem skydive come up to me and tell me how much fun they had. I was in a restaurant in Carytown a week ago and met a woman I had jumped with for her 50th birthday a few years back. She told me she still watches the video all the time. Things like that, being a part of someone’s special memory is my favorite thing of being a professional skydiver.”
Gilbert Martin of Balloons Over Virginia, Inc. noted the same positive feedback from his clients. “I believe that is because we do a great job and we create a memory of a lifetime. I have people that have flown years ago who come up to me and tell me they still tell people about their flight. They usually know where we took off, where we landed and the details of the flight.” The most common response from clients, commented Martin, is “simply that they had a great time and totally different than what they thought. Another is ‘I can’t wait to tell someone what I just did.’”
Martin noted the many reasons why people choose to fly in a balloon. “It ranges from ‘It was on my bucket list’ (the oldest person to fly was 98) to ‘I just wanted to something fun and exciting’. I’ve done a fair amount of proposals, perhaps too many to count. I’ve done several weddings—at least a dozen over the past 25 years—and flown far too many engagement flights to remember and [flown couples]out of numerous receptions. One of these days I hope to do a divorce flight—just kidding!
“I’ve done retirement parties, birthday parties, graduations, etcetera. Perhaps one of the best was a memorial flight and an ash-drop for a family whose father / grandfather was scheduled to fly as part of his bucket list. Unfortunately, he passed before he had the chance.”
Martin said that there have been a few odd requests, “from customers who do not understand hot air ballooning. The most common is ‘Can you deliver us to a certain location at a certain time?’ The answer is no because we can only go the way the winds take us.”
Both men have a technique to calm nervous first-timers.
Matthew Fitch explained, “People are most scared while sitting in the plane. The anticipation of jumping is the scary part. I will lean over and talk to people. All of our instructors have had thousands of skydives, so knowing you are attached to a professional for the whole skydive calms people down and lets them enjoy the moment. Makes no difference if you are a man, woman, or how old you are, as soon as you leave the plane, all your nerves disappear. It makes a great video when you can see the minute their face lights up with a smile the second they are in free-fall. We have had people who would not even look outside the airplane during the ride up, but as soon as they jump they are smiling, waving, and having the time of their lives. Skydiving is not for everyone, we understand this. For the people who make the jump, who take a leap of faith, they are rewarded with the experience of a lifetime. They will never look at the sky the same again.”
Gilbert Martin emphasized, “During my pre-flight briefing I tell everyone that the last question I ask myself before I let the balloon leave the ground is ‘would I fly my daughter on this flight’? If the answer is no, we pack up the balloon and reschedule the flight. I’ve never had anyone disagree with that. That policy has served me well for over 25 years as Balloons Over Virginia has a spotless safety record.”
He referred to the complete experience as being “launched on a magical voyage” and added that from that day forward an individual will be known as an aeronaut; one who has flown in a hot-air balloon. Martin posed the question and answer: What should you expect from a balloon flight? “The answer is simple: a memory of a lifetime.”
via – Times Dispatch
