I cannot begin to describe what I've jump been through. The mix of feelings of the first jump out of an airplane is absolutely mind blowing! My best take at describing it would be something in the lines of "to be born again". Only because the experience is as traumatic (in the best sense possible) as the one we endure on birth.

The course I attended was called automatic opening. Though, as far as I'm concerned, the accelerated free falling (AFF) course only extends it in terms of more time in the air and the maneuvers executed while in free fall. That and more jumps, of course; The automatic opening is comprised of 4 jumps while the AFF is 8 jumps or more.

But back to this one. The excitement and adrenalin levels on the ground were only exceeded once the airplane took off. It's not your standard commercial airlines aircraft; Even though the take off is fairly smoother than in a jet plane, any faster motion in mid-air will make your stomach jump with that awesome feeling of temporary weightless. Each of us popcorn jumpers (the kind term to refer to automatic opening students) was endowed with a magical altimeter which measures, hey, the altitude. When it reached around 3500 feet the door was opened and I knew then that we were in trouble :)

The signal was given to one of my colleagues to go for the door and, finally, to jump outside the damn plane!!! Now, I was expecting to go crazy with my own feelings, but I never thought that the face of another person jumping out of an airplane for the first time would make such a strong impression on my brain. My good friend Ricardo's expression of panic, terror, and adrenalin while leaving the plane will never leave my mind, as long as I live. Priceless!

Then one more student jumped (again, panic, terror, all of that :)) and, suddenly, it was my turn. I positioned myself near the door, waiting for the instruction to jump. I think I might have been pretty mentally numb by now, because I only remember a couple of frames of the first jump. That and the feeling of what seemed like the giant arms of a monster called gravity, pulling me down with as much strength as I never felt before. I was reborn, literally.

After the initial shock, and following the instructions given in the course, I checked my wing to see if everything was fine (did it open? properly? nothing weird going on?). The problem is I've never seen a parachute opened above me so it took me some time to make sure that thing was actually sustaining me in the air, and that I could fly it to the ground.

In the second and third jumps the feelings of terror and panic went significantly down turning, instead, into feelings of overwhelming freedom and awesomeness. After the second jump, the guy that was responsible for providing assistance for the landings told us that you could do something like a pendulum effect on the parachute. It consists of pulling both handles (to make the chute literally stop in the air) and releasing them instantly. This makes the wing jump really fast to the front of you and your body, as you might have guessed, will free fall for a couple of meters, giving that fucking great feeling of jumping out of the plane once again. Mix with some down spirals and you have a good way of curing yourself of the fear of falling, I tell you that :D

The landings are actually reaaaaaaaaaaaaally easy. Go to the spot (following some more protocol, which I'll skip) turn against the wind, let it fly and drop, and when at around 1-2 meters of the floor pull both handles down (to break). It takes some sensitivity to get it right. But after the first jump you will be able to pull it off almost like a pro.

And there you go. Pictures and videos will follow, as soon as I get them from the school (since I could not take the camera with me for some first person footage).

I STRONGLY recommend this to everyone. You will not regret it :D :D :D