The East Pilgrim: Being like a bird for 20 seconds

How long Man admires the birds and dreams to fly with them? Long, long time ago! It’s already done in many ways, but for me the sport that is more similar to the birds fly is sky diving.

Changing subject… bachelor’s parties! There is an interesting topic! Men going out with their women (boring…), talking about football and cars (not for me), go to suspicious fame places with nude girls that don’t speak our language, and are impossible to touch. Seeing the event in such a pessimistic point of view, it’s something one can pass.

Now… how many of us have the idea of joining the experience of flying with a bachelor’s party?

A friend of mine that married short time ago, decided to commemorate the big “Jump” of life, the Wedding, jumping from a plane, and took some friends crazy enough to share the experience.

And it happened! In a clear sky and no wind day, in a small hangar in Ferreira do Alentejo, I jumped with parachute.

Is called Tandem. The photo explains better:

Photo taken from the organizating company website – Emoções Azuis

Without any experience or training in parachuting, one can live the incredible feeling of free falling taking a professional, literally in your back.

From 3.000 meters the jump passes to fast!

Unforgettable!

20 seconds do reach 1.500 meters in free fall at around 250Km/h.

10 minutes with the parachute open to go down the other 1.500 meters till the ground.

The first jump of the day, of course it was the fiancé. It had to be him to give the example, because he was the one having the initiative of a radical bachelor’s party. It was the only jump to be totally recorded by the organization.

All the doubts disappear with a hour of explanations given by the instructor about the jump, materials, safety procedures, what we should do and not to do, how to collaborate to make it easier to fall and to land.

As an example of a safety measure: in the case the professional loose his conscience, the safety parachute has an altimeter incorporated that opens automatically when reaching the 1.000 meters of high.

Vertigo?

At 3.000 meters there aren’t vertigo feelings, because the soil is so far, one doesn’t have the notion of height. And the final “push” to jump out of the plane is made by the professional. Easy…

It takes 30 minutes for the airplane to reach the jumping height and it’s a pleasant ride. The confort is not quite the one given by a commercial Boeing and it shakes a “little bit”, but is a walk in the park.

Fear?

Only in the moment when the door opened and the cold air entered violently inside the cockpit.

Though: “It’s now!”

Check the helmet, glasses on the face, foot out of the airplane…

He asks me, screaming: “Are you ready?”

I nod affirmatively with my head…

“Enjoy yourself! Have fun!”

And we both fall…

Two spins in the air and I do what I was told to do, knees folded back with my foot to his back. Stabilized and with belly down.

I scream some back words, but nobody ears them… they are some meters above some seconds ago. The speed is such that makes it hard to breath, simple too much to describe.

The instructor make me a sign in the shoulder, warning me that he’s going to open the parachute. ZÁS! Hard brake and all the blood runs to my feet. (it was 20 seconds).

The parachute opened! We descend describing spirals on the blue sky! I can already recognize the hangar and the landing field. The parachute commands are handed to me and I try to turn left and right, the feeling of freedom turns each minute in few seconds.

The instructor thinks of making some funny tricks! Hard turns, raising the speed of falling, then slowing it really fast again. The blood goes up and down, and the stomach seems wanting to expel the breakfast.

I warn him that I’m feeling bad and he calms down.

I raise the legs to help in the landing! Contact! Back to the ground! I’m pure white from head to toes. The lips the same color as the face. I needed around 3 minutes to get recover myself and remember my name.

The breakfast managed to stay in the stomach…

There is the will to repeat everything! Is not the roller coaster, is even better! I recommend it to any person in good physical condition.

My respect goes to the crazy ones that make parachuting as a sport in a daily base and that jump from airplanes, high towers, hotels, bridges and all the rest that might be illegal… Everybody was amazing and nice to me and the group, very professional and trustful, but very funny!

What a characters…

Photos: