I did one in the mid-nineties at this place http://www.bpslangar.co.uk/html/location.htm
I got roped into it after a pub bet a bunch of us made with a mate who was well into skydiving. I’m not so good with heights, so I wasn’t too keen but you can’t back down from a bit of beer-fuelled bravado plus I figured it would cure my fear of heights.
The night before the jump we had a major session so the ‘training’ was done with a skelping hangover. The plane was called a Skyvan, I think, and it looked just like a small removal truck with wings and a big door at the back. When I went up there was a big formation team on the plane all joking and telling me how I’d love it if it didn’t kill me and then they all stood up suddenly, screamed en masse and dived out the back. That just left me to shuffle down to the back door with the TandemMaster attached to me – honestly I can’t imagine walking up to a gallows to be any worse. On the plus side, it was a really clear, summer day so the view was impressive and it was at nearly 14,000’ (high I think for a tandem)
The jump itself didn’t go that smoothly as we went into a tumble (plane, ground, plane further away, ground bit closer etc.) but eventually we stopped rolling about and after some good freefall the chute opened. The sadist strapped to my back didn’t warn me about what happened when he released some clips – you’ll enjoy that bit. The spinning around in the thermals bit convinced me that this wasn’t going to cure my fear of heights.
Over the years, I’ve done some serious scuba diving and been in a few life-threatening situations but I’ve never felt anything remotely like the utter terror that skydive induced. Kill or cure – my @§53!
I got roped into it after a pub bet a bunch of us made with a mate who was well into skydiving. I’m not so good with heights, so I wasn’t too keen but you can’t back down from a bit of beer-fuelled bravado plus I figured it would cure my fear of heights.
The night before the jump we had a major session so the ‘training’ was done with a skelping hangover. The plane was called a Skyvan, I think, and it looked just like a small removal truck with wings and a big door at the back. When I went up there was a big formation team on the plane all joking and telling me how I’d love it if it didn’t kill me and then they all stood up suddenly, screamed en masse and dived out the back. That just left me to shuffle down to the back door with the TandemMaster attached to me – honestly I can’t imagine walking up to a gallows to be any worse. On the plus side, it was a really clear, summer day so the view was impressive and it was at nearly 14,000’ (high I think for a tandem)
The jump itself didn’t go that smoothly as we went into a tumble (plane, ground, plane further away, ground bit closer etc.) but eventually we stopped rolling about and after some good freefall the chute opened. The sadist strapped to my back didn’t warn me about what happened when he released some clips – you’ll enjoy that bit. The spinning around in the thermals bit convinced me that this wasn’t going to cure my fear of heights.
Over the years, I’ve done some serious scuba diving and been in a few life-threatening situations but I’ve never felt anything remotely like the utter terror that skydive induced. Kill or cure – my @§53!
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