 ( music playing )
David:
 On the day of Ascension,
 if I have to release
 from the balloons,
 I'll need to skydive down
 to save my life.
 I want to get as close
 as possible to 500 jumps
 so I feel safe landing
 over almost any area.
- All right, nicely done.
- Amazing.
- Good job.
- Amazing.
 I've been learning
 how to develop a skill
 that I've never had,
and it is the most
incredible skill to learn.
 ( music continues )
 My first 100 jumps
 were done with Scott Smith,
 who's a world champion
 freestyle skydiver
 and a great instructor.
 I repetitiously jumped,
 sometimes 15 times a day,
 so I could have
 complete awareness
 of everything around me,
and then had to land safely
in a specific area,
 which actually turns out
 to be the hardest part.
I landed so far
from everything.
Like, I'm in the middle--
I landed around
a bunch of trees.
Where you're supposed to land
is where that little
white dot is right there.
There's been a couple of
really bad landings that I had.
Man:
Yeah! Oh, no.
Oh! And he ate it!
Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Shut her down all the way!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Stop, stop!
 Another time,
 I crashed into a fence
and my body flipped over.
These are my little wounds.
That's got my initials
on it right here.
I was okay,
but it could've been bad.
Like, another this much
and it would've been,
"Show's done."
Man: You know, obviously
 the danger in skydiving
 is the Earth, right?
 It's coming up at us
 at a high rate of speed.
 If you don't do something,
 you know, it's going to
 kill you for sure.
I've lost friends,
and it's tough.
In the last 40 years, I've lost
over 100 friends skydiving.
- I wish I had 100 friends.
- Right?
No, I-- skydiver's sense
of humor is like that. Sorry.
20 years ago I was here
training for my stunt Vertigo,
where I stood
on a pillar for 36 hours
 and had to jump 100 feet
 into cardboard boxes.
And my coach was Pat McGowan,
who's in this picture
right here.
In 2011, somebody
collided right into him
and he passed away.
Luke:
 Pat? His example is one--
 he did nothing.
And those are the ones
that stick with me,
the ones where I can't say,
"Oh, I wouldn't have done that,
I would've done this."
I mean, if it could
happen to them,
it just sets home
it could happen to anybody.
David: During the stunt,
 I'll have no idea
 where the winds
 are going to take me,
 so I need to learn
 how to get to a spot
 where I can land safely
 with my parachute.
Man: Money!
 That's why I reached out
 to Luke Aikins,
 a man who jumped
 from 25,000 feet
 out of an airplane
 with no parachute
 and landed in small net.
 There's no one that
 I would trust more than Luke
 to teach me how to navigate
 through the sky
 and land safely,
 clear of buildings
 and power lines
 and any other
 dangerous obstacle.
Man: Yeah, buddy.
 Luke: My goal is to get him
 so that anywhere he drops,
 he can land.
 So in order to do that,
you have to track your body
through the air.
Tracking is a way
of trying to get
to a specific location
much faster.
 Basically, you're flying.
 Luke has been teaching me
 how to track.
 And when you track,
 you fly really fast,
 and it feels so good.
 It's like you're
 cutting through the air,
 and it's so amazing.
 This is the most
 exciting project
 that I've ever worked on.
 Learning to skydive
 from some of the best
 coaches in the world
 has been unlike anything
 I could have ever imagined.
- That's good, right?
- Yeah, it was great!
 I love skydiving,
 and being able to do this
 over and over and actually
 learn it is amazing.
 I have a better
understanding of the challenges
 I'll face for Ascension,
 and with the all the
 preparation that we've done,
 I feel that
 I can actually enjoy this one
 for the first time.
 The feeling
 of flying a balloon,
 it's like floating.
 And the feeling
 of jumping out of a plane,
 it's like flying.
So between floating and flying,
 these are the two things
 that I've always
 dreamed of as a kid.
 Putting this together,
 it surpasses any of my dreams.
