Parachuting! (part 2)

While we were climbing to our jump altitude I had stuff to occupy my mind with. During take-off I was focused on the final check we had to do at 1000 feet. After that I concerned myself with remembering the jump procedure. So when the little red light turned green I was caught off guard a little. Suddenly I realized I wasn't simply trying to pass an exam of some sort, but that I was actually about to jump out of a perfectly fine airplane.

The first two jumped out and I scooted towards to open hatch. The plane had to double back to the dropzone first and made a sharp turn to do so. As it was banking, the open hatch shifted downwards until I was looking straight down at the ground. This was when it hit me how high up 3000 feet actually was. Adrenaline started pumping like crazy and I couldn't suppress a huge grin. There was no doubt in my mind this was gonna be the most awesome thing I had ever done.

The plane leveled out, I threw my legs out and sat on the edge. When the instructor gave me the sign I stopped thinking and just let go. For half a second I was plummeting towards to the ground in free fall. I was facing up and saw the plane shrink with incredible speed. The feeling of being unsupported by anything is one I'll never forget.

During training we were extensively warned about this exact moment in time. We were told the situation would be so alien to our brains that we could pass out. To prevent this we had to scream every step of the canopy deployment and control test aloud, at the top of our lungs so our brains would be occupied and hold on to something familiar.

Typing this out is taking quite some time, so I'll take a break here and try to finish it tomorrow.