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Published: January 12th 2011
Just before I got on to the plane
The metal pole at the top is what I was fastened to, NOTHING else!For as long as I can remember I have wanted to try everything life has to offer, I have done a bungee jump (read my Rhodes blog), sky dived (read my 'Skydive to raise money for charity in 1999....when I was 16 years old!' blog), scad dived (a free fall of 150 feet in to a net, I did this at the end of a pier in Blackpool, England), sky surfed (read my Rhodes blog) now to conquer the sky completely I needed to wing walk (if there is anything I haven't listed please let me know I WANT TO DO IT! lol).
It wasn’t as straight forward as book your appointment, pay your money, do it, I had to pay for a year’s membership to an aviation club and then pay for the wing walk separately (if that doesn't show dedication to a cause I don't know what does). It was miles away from where I live and after what felt like an eternity of driving down country lanes I found the club, I spoke with the pilot and asked what exactly we could do in the sky “what do you want to do?” he said, to which I
replied like an excited child “make it as scary as possible, go upside down, do whatever you want” the pilot laughed and told me we couldn’t go upside down but ensured me that he would make it as scary as possible.
You are strapped on to a metal pole with a very small piece of material and nothing else, you are standing the whole time literally on top of the wings, the pilot told me that although the pole was very strong because of how much I weighed he wouldn’t recommend lifting my feet up at any point, now I was a little scared.
We took off and began to fly, when you are in the air with nothing surrounding you and you are going up and not down you actually feel like you are flying, I genuinely thought that out of all of the things I have done in the sky this would be the scariest, how wrong could I be. This was in fact the least scary thing I have ever done, to be up in the sky looking all around you, feeling like you are actually flying was relaxing more than anything, I felt for a moment what it would feel like to be a bird and loved it, I definitely want to come back as a bird in another life!
Throughout the flight we went up & down like on a roller coaster & side to side but didn't really do much else, I think the scariest part was landing, you sort of jolt forward as you touch down, but other than a few bumpy patches even that wasn't that bad.
I didn't realise how cold it would be in the air (I know how stupid that sounds, I put it down to the excitement) when we landed I was freezing and a little disappointed as I expected wing walking to be more of a thrill than relaxing but at least I have now crossed it off my ‘to do list’.
Next stop fire walking!!! :-)
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Sharing the Journey
Alec & Cindy Sharp
You have got to be kidding!
THere is know way I would even think about trying that. Good job!