Venue: GoSkydive Southcoast (Old Sarum Airfield)

Jumper: James Gunter

Date: Saturday 29 September 2012

Altitude: 15,000 ft

James tells the story: .......

GoSkydive is the newest dropzone in the UK located at Old Sarum Airfield in the beautiful town of Salisbury offering fantastic views over the Salisbury Plains, the New Forest and the South coast. Old Sarum Airfield is the 2nd oldest active airfield in the UK dating back to 1916 and many of the buildings that originate from WW1 and WW2 are still in use.

SKYDIVE – THE EXPERIENCE

The whole idea came about when a friend of mine mentioned that he takes part in lots of skydiving, so I thought, here’s a great opportunity to raise some good money for NCSF. I contacted a few skydiving centres throughout the south and booked a dive for Saturday 29th September with Skydive South Coast.

I had never taken part in a skydive, and to be honest I never thought I ever would, so it felt like a good personal challenge. I arrived at the skydive centre in Salisbury at 8am, ready for the jump. I joined the queue to book in for the jump and get weighed etc. When I was at the desk, the staff asked me if I wanted to increase the jump height to 15,000ft (the highest legal tandem in the UK, only available at Skydive South Coast). I was a little indecisive, however two women next to me said they were doing it, so I paid the extra and agreed for the higher jump - thought I would look a wimp if I didn’t do it!!

The weather was absolutely perfect, clear blue skies all around, and during our training the instructor stated that it was the best day of the year. The training was very simple and straight forward and lasted for around 30 minutes – which didn’t seem much as I had recently spent 4 hours on a health and safety course training me how to use a ladder!!

There were 35 people jumping through the morning, so there were a lot of people and mixed emotions throughout. I felt quite lonely as lots of people were jumping with friends etc, but it gave me the opportunity to gather my thoughts and once again get the feeling of ‘Nic would probably never do this – why on earth am I here’!! I was secretly very excited though. The family arrived, so we had a cuppa and waited for my name to be called – then it did!

It was a very weird feeling once I got called up, part of me very excited and part of me starting to think of all the bad things that could happen. I said my goodbye’s, got in the van and we were taken to the other side of the grass WW1 runway to get our outfits on and strapped up. We were given a brief introduction to the chap that was going to be strapped to my back and evidently put my life in his four clips securing me to him!! There were five of us that got in the plane, along with extra jumpers that were filming other jumpers – it cost £140.00 so I didn’t bother as I thought you wouldn’t be able to hear anything dropping through the air at 150mph!

We were all sat in the plane, again, a bit of weird feeling as we had to sit on the lap of the chap strapped to your back – I did feel a little sorry for him as I am not the lightest and was hoping I wouldn’t give him a dead leg or anything! We took off and made our climb to 15,000ft. After approx 15-16 minutes we had reached our jump altitude of 15,000ft. I was sat at the front of the plane, so I was last to jump – this gave me the opportunity to see everyone else panicking and looking a little off colour.

The door opened people started to fall from the plane. It was now my go, so we shuffled on our bums to the open door and sat on the edge of the plane – not something that I had ever wanted to do. We were perched in the door opening with my legs tucked beneath the plane, I was then told to cross my arms, put my head back, and then we fell out..........................................

One thing I was very surprised at was how quiet it was whilst parachuting, I could not hear a thing other than the parachute flapping a little. I felt very confident at this stage, so I asked the chap if we could do some spirals as we were making our descent – he did this with no issues, and although feeling really good, I soon started to feel a little dizzy, so I was glad when he stopped. We parachuted for about five or six minutes before landing at the prep zone, which again was a nice surprise when we landed very softly on our bums!

Absolutely nothing can prepare you for the mixed emotions I experienced that morning. I felt such a buzz all day, and it was fantastic to raise over £800.00 for NCSF and I will definitely do it again!

It was such an amazing day and I am planning on another jump next year, with a larger group of people so we can raise lots more for NCSF. I would recommend this experience to anyone, and there were a wide age range of jumpers, so it something that everyone can enjoy – potentially!!