Does skydiving make your stomach drop?
Picture this: You’re stuck in a chair, sharply climbing up the first incline of a theme park spinner. Your heart beats faster, hands become wet and the feeling of more adrenaline activates when you are lifted up with each click of the chains. Next thing we know, the car goes over the peak and we’re on the other side in what seems like a dangerously high speed, minus the dangers of course. This turns your stomach inside out and you are left with an empty feeling somewhere above the track. Sound familiar? This is the ‘stomach drop’ that thrills are made of and which those courageous enough to seek them out want and actually fear.
Now just try to picture yourself in a plane flying up in the sky and deciding at some thousand feet that you want to open that door and jump down. If this thought prepares one much the same type of qualm as the notion of riding a rollercoaster, then the notion of skydiving is only going to amble that disturbing churning up of the abdomen—albeit on a much more stupendous scale.
But here’s the surprising truth: As for skydiving it has no effect on the stomach in any way or form. However, the feeling of this kind of thrill equals to nothing like the concept of roller coaster or bungee-jumping at all. Why is this so let’s find out more about what skydiving actually entails what the experience being involved in a skydive is like and what you are likely to encounter once you step out of the plane and choice to take the leap into the sky.
Can skydiving really make your stomach drop?
So I asked the obvious question: Many first times skydivers do not really care about height, the free fall or even the canopy – their legacy worry is the feeling of falling. It does, after all, makes sense that falling off a very great height triggers within us the same sensation experienced from sudden drops on rollercoasters or in elevators. In point form, here are my reasons: But skydiving is not the same, and this is why.
Coasters, when you go round them you always experience the feeling of your tummy moving down this is due to difference in acceleration. You gradually rise and then suddenly start falling and your tummy continues to rise owing to inertia. The same occurs in some other thrill rides or bungee jumps where there is a sudden, rapid spinning or flipping about. This change occurs so abruptly that your muscles get a surprise and that uneasy ‘turn over’ feeling is experienced.
Skydiving for its part, does not entail such a powerful acceleration. When you skydive, you start running before you even jump out of that airplane, you are moving fast. It’s important to note that the airplane moves at approximately 80 to 100 mph and so when you jump from the airplane you are not stationary. After being decelerated to the speed of the plane your body is gradually accelerated until you reach terminal velocity, 120mph approximately.
Due to this gradual change in velocity and the force that acts upon your body from the exertion of air on your person, that moment of weightlessness, the feeling of your stomach dropping into your boots, does not occur. But while you are skydiving it is nothing like that because you are actually floating through the air. Coming face to face with the wind can push against your body – with a sudden and utterly liberating sense of weightlessness that is far from being scary.
What does skydiving really feel like?
Well, if jumping off a plane doesn’t stir your biological stomach, what does? The answer: skydiving feels like flying.
The first time someone gets out of the plane, they are thrust into the wind and, instead of being out of control, one has the feeling that they are flying on a cushion of air. The feeling is described more as flying rather than falling free style. The wind resistance lends an impression of slowness and owing to the height that parachute jumpers occupy-that is, between 10,000 and 14,000 feet – the brain cannot relate distance and impending impact.
The first minute or so, you literally float and fall at about 120 miles per hour. However, because of the gradual acceleration and the manner the air resistance is applied, it appears to be smooth and easily controllable. Your body is balanced, and instead of being worried about the terrible situation you are in – you start getting adrenaline and feel so free.
Most skydivers agree and say that despite the moments of terror, the activity is characteristically quiet. Oh, of course there’s some adrenaline, but you do actually breathe and get the pleasure of watching the aerial view on the Earth. The view alters as any aerial view does: it becomes broader and calmer. At times you can witness the Arches, mountain ranges of the Black Sea Basin in Bulgaria, rivers, and forests resembling toys. I really like the sensatation of flying, in a way I can not explain it is not as terrifying as some imagine.
What Follows the Parachute?
A few minutes into the jump your instructor will pull a cord that opens the parachute. As it turns to parachuting, you feel the difference in speed and you don’t feel like you are in free fall anymore. It’s here where the head rush of the freefall is traded for a graceful, somewhat tranquil descent to the earth.
The moment the parachute opens the feeling is completely serene and peaceful. One can hear that the wind noise reduces and you have a very quite way of getting back to the ground. This part of the skydive takes a few minutes and is the best part where you’ll get to have a great view, contemplate, and enjoy the sensation of flying. The person sitting next to you – your instructor, the parachute will be controlled and you might even get the chance to take the wheel for some time.
Flare is generally smooth and the touch down is likewise gradual and again by your trainer’s direction, it could either slide to the ground while seated or you may take several gentle steps.
Freefall Seems the Same as a Rollercoaster to the Brain But Why Your Brain Won’t Let You Process the Two.
The rationale for this lay in the fact that the sensations you experience whilst skydiving are quite unlike those that can be recreated in other adventures in freefall, because the brain simply cannot compute the distance between you and the ground. Another man, who has been flying for years, said that when people are high tens of thousands of feet and they look at the ground it appears that one is not descending at all. This sharply contrasts with rollercoasters for example, you can see the tracks looming closer and closer and you feel that drop in the stomach.
They also claimed that in skydiving one feels like they are floating in space not actually falling. For each that makes you feel as though you are being pulled downward by gravity, there is wind resistance that brings out the feeling of being weightless. Your brain doesn’t view what you are experiencing as “falling” in the same way you will when you are on a rollercoaster or bungee jumping when the floor or other structures are close enough to make the fall feel much closer and therefore much worse . Not even the highest roller coaster drop can compare to the feeling of falling from 13,500 feet in the sky..
Before skydiving, what should you eat?
Another popular question most often asked by those who are going to make their first test jump is what to eat before that. Of course, no one wants to feel a bit queasy or nauseous, especially when it is an immensely powerful experience. However, you do not have to undergo any major change of diet prior to becoming a skydiver.
You can eat regular meals before your skydive – but avoid stuffing yourself or not eating at all. A diabetic should take a combination of protein, carbohydrates and fats in an appropriate proportion in his/her meal. You do not wish to over eat and yet you do not want to be too empty, your goal is to have enough energy to counter act the adrenaline rush resulting from the jump. So don’t go for high calorie or oily foods that might cause nausea, but you do not need to starve yourself.
It is advisable not to confront any alcohol whatsoever before going for a skydiving session. Alcohol before a skydive is not only forbidden and deadly but it may make you dizzy and experience nausea as well.
It is also important not to eat before skydive, skipping breakfast is also not recommended. If you don’t eat, your blood sugar goes down which could lead to fainting or dizziness during the jump. This can be tiring and make you feel a bit unwell since most people feel a lot of adrenaline rushes when they are preparing for a jump.
The Next Steps: Are You Ready to Jump?
You might be considering skydiving but always afraid to feel that wrenching sensation down to your belly, you need to understand that Skydiving doesn’t create that feeling. A certain control, the velocity of the jump, and the impression of a long free-falling break the feeling of falling and make skydiving more close to flying or gliding. It is one which is as liberating as it is exciting and for most people this is one of many turning points in their lives.
If jumping out of an aircraft seems like too much for you, then it is not just the fun and exciting way of seeing the world, but also a much more meaningful way of experiencing this world at the level of insecurity and fear. It’s something that you would never want to forget as it leaves that enhancing feeling and admiration.
Well, are you prepared for change? For those who decide to do it or just because they always wanted it, skydiving is an incredible experience Skydive Amelia Island. Skydiving is about the closest a man can come to flying: the sensation of leaving the plane and being ‘free’ in mid-air is one of the most liberating and happy – at least to this writer – that there is. It is an experience that you will never forget, right from the time your con418 flying high feets touch the ground again, let alone soaring in such an aircraft.
This means that if you are as prepared as you want to be, now is the time to jump. The sky is calling and we are questioning if people will answer the call or not.
