(English further down)

Har du vært en av luftens baroner? Da snakker jeg hverken om fotballtriks eller flyturer til varmere strøk, men luftige stunt svevende i lufta iført en skjerm. Jeg har prøvd hanggliding, paragliding, parasailing og fallskjermhopping. Parasailing er bare behagelig og luftig, uten at det er så veldig skummelt. Hanggliding krever bittelitt løpetrening, siden man skal løpe utfor topper og stup. Fallskjermhopping gir det største kicket, men krever kursing, om du da ikke bare skal hoppe tandem.

Jeg gikk fallskjermkurs, og hadde noen spennende “dykk” ut av et lite småfly av typen Cessna på Oppdal. Når man er nybegynner får man ikke hoppe ut av flyet, men må klatre ut på staget under vingen og holde seg fast der til man oppnår stabil fallstilling, litt som en banan. Da kan man slippe seg ned. I utgangspunktet var jeg mest redd for å ikke få puste, men da jeg balanserte meg ut av flyet, opplevde jeg at det absolutt var nok luft der oppe! Og adrenalinet pumpet ut fra alle kanaler.

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Mitt første fallskjermhopp var ganske dramatisk. De hanskene jeg vifter med på bildet, kostet meg nesten livet… De var glatte, og jeg klarte ikke å holde fast i staget, så jeg datt ut fra flyet. Hodet mitt kræsjet nesten inn i flyvingen, jeg fikk masse tvinn på fallskjermlinene og skjermen fløy ikke skikkelig. Det ene styrehåndtaket satt skikkelig hardt fast, men jeg fikk til slutt frigjort det, etter å ha fått kontroll på linene.

Med kontroll på skjermen, kunne jeg begynne å se ned. Joda, jeg var oppe i lufta. Ingen tvil om det. Og jeg fløy! Men det var vanskelig å orientere seg der oppe. Siden jeg hadde falt ut av flyet, hadde jeg havnet langt fra flyplassen og landingsfeltet. Da jeg endelig fikk øye på det i det fjerne, satte jeg kurs direkte dit. Egenlig skulle jeg fly i S-formasjoner, men det hadde jeg ikke tid til.

Resten av turen gikk kjempebra, og det var spennende å se ned på alt under meg. Idet jeg gikk inn for landing, trodde jeg at jeg skulle rekke frem til feltet. Men det gikk fort ned på slutten, og plutselig dukket det opp en del grantrær. Ett av disse landet jeg i. Jeg slo meg ikke, eller kanskje jeg bare ikke merket det. Skjermen kom flyvende etter meg, og havnet i toppen av grantreet. Så hang jeg der da.

Etter en stund kom et par andre fallskjermhoppere løpende, utstyrt med ei sag. Fallskjermen måtte reddes, og da måtte de sage ned treet. Og så kunne jeg komme trygt ned på bakken igjen. Det ble et par fallskjermhopp til denne helga, og to trær til som måtte sages ned. Det ble spøkt med at om Kari skulle fortsette sin fallskjermkarriere, ble det sannsynligvis lite trær igjen på Oppdal. Siden vinteren stod for døra, ble det pause i hoppingen, og senere andre utfordringer som stod for tur.

Jeg hoppet utfor en av av fjelltoppene i Rio de Janeiro i hangglider. Det var tandemhopp, men skikkelig “kick” det også. Nå for tiden holder jeg mest på landjorda, men det er veldig artig å se tilbake på disse stuntene.

English:

Have you ever been king of the air? I’m neither talking about football skills nor trips to warm destinations by plane, but airy stunts gliding up in the sky wearing a cloth canopy. I have been hang gliding, para gliding, para sailing and parachuting. Para sailing was the most comfortable way of flying up in the air, and not scary at all. Hang gliding takes a little running practice as you are supposed to run and then jump off from mountain tops and cliffs. Parachuting gives the biggest kick, but for that you need to do a course, unless you only intend to go tandem.

I did a parachute course, and I had a few exciting sky dives from a light aircraft of the Cessna kind at Oppdal. When you are a beginner you are not allowed to jump out from the plane. You are supposed to climb out of the plane and hang on to the strut below the wing. When you have what they call a stable position, almost like a banana, you are allowed to let go. Basically, I was afraid not to be able to breathe up in the air, but as I entered outside of the plane I found that there was plenty air, more than I needed. And the adrenalin kick was amazing!

My first parachute dive was pretty dramatic. Those gloves I’m waving with in the picture above almost cost me my life… They were slippery, and because of that I could not hold on to the strut. As a consequence I fell out of the plane. My head almost crashed into the wing of the plane, I got lots of twists on the parachute lines and the parachute didn’t fly properly. One of the control handles seemed to be stuck at first but I managed to get it down in the end, as well as getting control over the parachute lines.

Being in control of the parachute I could look down on mother earth. Sure enough, I was up in the air. No doubt about that. And I was flying! But it was difficult to orientate myself from up above. As I had fallen out from the plane I had ended up far away from the airport and the actual landing field. When I finally spotted the place where we were meant to land in a distance I headed directly for it. We were supposed to fly in S-formations, but I didn’t have time for that.

The rest of the trip went just fine and it was exciting to look down at everything below me. As I was about to land I thought I was going to reach the field. However, things went very fast at the end and suddenly a lot of pine trees emerged. I landed in one of them. I didn’t get hurt, or maybe I just didn’t notice. The parachute came flying behind me and landed at the top of the pine tree. And so I hung in the tree.

After a while a couple of other parachuters came running, equipped with a saw. The parachute had to be saved, so they had to cut down the tree. And afterwards I was able to get safely down on the ground again. I had another two sky dives that November weekend, and two more trees had to be cut down. People made jokes about me and my parachute career. They said that if I were to continue parachuting there would probably be little trees left at Oppdal in the end. As winter was knocking at the door there was a break in the parachuting for me, and later there were other challenges awaiting me.

I jumped off a peak in Rio de Janeiro in a hang glider. It was a tandem jump, but still a real kick. Nowadays I mostly keep myself down on the earth but it’s good fun to look back at these stunts in my former life.