Meet Bella Vilshanetskaya

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bella Vilshanetskaya. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I read somewhere recently that if riding in an airplane is considered flying, then riding in a boat should be considered swimming. It sounds ridiculous, I know. When many people reach an accomplishment, they frequently say it is something that they have dreamt about their whole lives. That’s not my story. I have never dreamt of flying, not as a life goal. 

My story starts with a mild dare. I know now that hundreds of dares like these are casually issued every year. Most are declined. 

At some point in 2008, I was in my early 20’s, the manager of a restaurant I worked at told me, “You should try skydiving.” He is what the skydiving community calls a licensed jumper, someone cleared to jump by themselves and with their friends. I had plenty of excuses not to: 

I’m busy (being a full-time worker and full-time college student) 

I’m afraid of heights (that actually doesn’t apply to skydiving, at least not when you leave the plane) 

I’m a poor broke college student 

To which he responded, “Well if you go naked your first time, it’ll be free.” How could a young, and much more fit at the time, defiant college student pass up such an opportunity? An exciting adventure and all I have to do is get naked! 

We showed up at the skydiving facility, I was given a safety briefing, I left my clothes on the floor, and was cinched into a tandem student harness. We rode up to 10,000 feet in a tiny Cessna (I had never seen a plane that small in person before) and I left that plane wearing nothing but the shoes on my feet and the tandem instructor strapped to my back. There are 2 copies of that video as proof, both locked securely in a safe. I did another tandem that year clothed so that I could have pictures to show my family. 

I had the bug, but it took another couple of years before I was willing to admit that it bit me. In 2009 I did another tandem and purchased my first motorcycle, as I had wanted one since I was a teenager. One of my own to ride, not be on the back of. In 2010 I did yet ANOTHER tandem and purchased a bigger motorcycle. 

In 2011 I signed up for the accelerated freefall program. A minimum of 25 jumps to earn my A License, I even got to skip the first jump in the program because I already had four tandems under my belt. There were 5 or 6 of us in the 6-hour training course in the morning and in the afternoon, we went up on our skydives. I remember being frozen in the door of the moving aircraft, my body refusing to move, it isn’t natural to exit what some people would consider a perfectly good airplane. I remember seeing people on the plane starting to make comments. I left the plane with my two instructors. Somehow, I got through the freefall, someone on the ground gave me radio instructions to steer my parachute to the landing area, and I was so excited that I thought I was going to stand up my first landing. My hopes were dashed when I slipped in the mud and landed my ass in a puddle. I’m pretty sure a part of my brain was still in shock, but without a doubt, a part of my brain told me, “This. You are going to do this. Not only are you going to do this but you will be good at it and you will teach it.” My ground course instructor asked me if I had deployed my own parachute. I had, but I was so full of adrenaline at the time I didn’t actually have a memory of it. 

Easier said than done brain. The skydiving season of 2011 was filled with all sorts of hurdles. I would drive almost two hours to the dropzone on Friday night after bartending so that I could be there first thing Saturday morning. I slept in the back of my Buick Century, being 5’4″ it wasn’t too bad. Sometimes it was too windy all weekend for me to jump so I sat on the ground. Sometimes I had to repeat certain jumps because my brain would simply freeze while I was trying to do a new skill. In 2011 I attempted to count my scratches and bruises from not-so-great landings (there were a lot, I am not a natural athlete, I never have been) and I home-healed a broken foot that was a result of poor decisions made operating my parachute that caused me to fall 40-60 feet through some trees. I didn’t progress as fast as the average student and I heard the whispers behind my back about me possibly taking up bowling. My family was unhappy I had decided to take on what appeared to be an extremely dangerous hobby. I kept showing up. I ended up finishing my license in Arizona that winter because skydiving was out of season in the Midwest. 

The journey between 2011 and 2022 is kind of a blur. I became a coach in 2013, coaches work with students that are cleared to self-supervise but are not licensed yet. The minimum requirements to become an instructor came and went and I still did not feel confident. I was still a slow learner, and not much of an athlete even though I was participating in a sport every weekend. Each year was filled with trips to skydiving events, we call them boogies, especially Sisters In Skydiving boogies that are geared towards female networking, coaching, and learning in the sport. I met hundreds of women who participate in this sport across the country! They were instructors, they were competitors, they were state/world record holders, they were powerful women in their day jobs and they became my big sisters. For reference, women are only 13% of the sport, there were not many at the dropzone where I was a student. 

In 2018 I attempted the Accelerated Freefall Instructor Rating Course. Putting off taking my in-air examinations, add poor Midwest fall weather, and a nasty sinus infection in the spring my course (good for 12 months) expired. Slow learner, remember? In 2019 I signed up for another course, this one was in Tennessee, where no one knew me, and I knew no one. Going away for a course was really the best thing for me because I could dedicate my time there solely to that, and to nothing else. The course started on my 32nd birthday. You all know what I got for myself that year. 

As the 2022 season-opening is approaching, I find myself a full-time instructor (5 days a week), holding formation records in the states of Ohio, Wisconsin, and Arizona, and looking to add more when my schedule allows. I am part of a community that stretches across the globe that I never knew existed before I became a skydiver, especially my community of sisters in skydiving, full of encouragement, support, and mentorship. The girl who counted her scrapes and bruises in 2011 keeps her student logbook handy for when her students aren’t performing so well. It took me almost a decade to reach a goal I dreamt of after one student jump and it’s a bigger reward than I could have imagined for students to put their trust in me when we train and fly together. I can’t wait to see what my students do this season. 

When I’m not training students, I am a part-time bartender at a corner bar in northeastern Ohio and I own a tax practice, Blonde, and Nerdy Tax Preparation, and Bookkeeping LLC. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My first season, 2011, I broke my foot. I also lied about breaking my foot so that my mother’s insurance wouldn’t go up. Other than occasional bumps and bruises along the way, it was the lack of self-confidence that caused me to wait to get my instructor certification. Significant others in and out of my life weren’t a fan of the fact that I was a part of a sport that not only took up so much of my time but also caused me to travel. At one point I gave up dating altogether, happy to be a skydiving cat lady. My current partner accepted me (and my hobbies) exactly as I am and encourages me to go on trips to warmer climates to jump when he sees me getting cranky in the Midwest winters. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an accelerated freefall instructor, that means I work with students who have one or two tandems under their belts (where they are attached to someone) and want to learn to skydive by themselves. If you ask my coworkers, they would say I specialize in speed, referring to the heavier students that pass through that may have a quicker fall rate in freefall. Personally, I think I specialize in patience and empathy. Some of my favorite students have been the ones that struggle in their progression because they get too much in their own heads just like I did as a student. An accomplishment is more valuable if you have to work hard for it. I’m proud of the respect that I have earned from my peers, and I am so proud of every student that I have worked with that has finished their license. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t think luck had much to do with where I am, good or bad. I am a firm believer that we are in control of almost all of the decisions/events that get us to where we are. 

Contact Info:

• Email: blondeandnerdybodyflightllc@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blondeandnerdyempire/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blondeandnerdybodyflightllc

Image Credits
Hypoxic D Squared
Byrd’s Eye Studio
Xcelskydiving
Grin Gallery Photography