Salocin

You freefall at approximately 120 mph. That's the speed at which air resistance is slowing you down to the same extent as gravity is speeding you up. That's around 200 kph. 56 metres per second. The height of the Empire State Building in less than 7 seconds. The height of Big Ben in London in 1.74 seconds.

The wind presses your skin against the underlying musculature, but you're a bit too preoccupied to notice that, usually. The thin plastic goggles are pushed into the skin of your face, leaving marks that will take some minutes to fade once you're on the ground.

The shock of deployment would hurt, which is why a modern parachute is designed to deploy gradually, over a few seconds. Nevertheless, when it deploys, you find yourself abruptly upright and the leg straps dig deeply into your thighs.

You stand in the door of the aircraft, with your head out of the window, the wind is tremendous. You're sideways on to the door, your feet in line with the edge of the plane, you can feel the edge of the floor through your shoes, running the length of the soles of your feet. You're at 13,000 feet. There are small clouds below you.

You look to your right, into the aircraft, and yell at your primary instructor, "Check In!". He yells back, "Ok!", and gives you the thumbs up.

You look to your left, at the secondary instructor, who is hanging onto the outside of the aircraft, and yell, "Check Out!". He nods, and mouths the word, "Ok!".

You lean forwards once, putting your shoulder to the doorframe, lean back once, dropping your head slightly, and take one step to the left.