No one has ever asked me to jump out of a plane before. And no one has ever asked me to freefall through the sky either, until now. I was at work when the phone call came through from the Martlets Hospice asking me if I would like to take part in a charity skydive with Skyline at Headcorn Aerodrome. And, as the cliche goes, this was a ‘chance of a lifetime’ that I just couldn’t turn down.
It is something that I have only ever dreamed of doing and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be formally invited to take part. And even better, to be jumping on behalf of an extremely special registered charity in Hove who enhance the quality of life and ease of distress to patients suffering from cancer and other serious conditions and for many, treatment is no longer appropriate.
The Martlets Hospice need to raise £3 million this year in order to provide an essential service to the community and their yearly skydiving events enable members of the public to raise a minimum of £120 of sponsorship. This year, there were nineteen jumpers including myself all taking part in a Tandem Skydive, and all of them novices too. It’s fair to say that I wasn’t scared at the prospect of jumping out of a plane, even though standing at the top of a ladder scares the life out of me! But admittedly my stomach churned for a week in the run up to the jump and on the very morning, I could literally see myself turning green.
With an extremely early start, the Aerodrome was buzzing when I arrived with my boyfriend, Corin. The sun was struggling to break through the clouds and the skies were looking grey and I just knew that this was not a good sign. But funnily enough, this spurred me on even more - now, I really wanted to jump! There were quite a few things I had to learn before I could be considered safe. The first was acquiring the correct position in the plane. The second part was learning the correct body position to exit the plane and freefall safely, whilst knowing how to control your breathing - “get this right, and you will be just about flying”, said our instructor. The third and final part was the safety of the parachute, controlling and landing. “You will never have experienced anything like this before”, said our instructor. “It’s like nothing you can ever imagine”.
Along the years, equipment and techniques developed by the army have set the grounds for the design of sport parachutes and with the instructors jumping up to six times a day, I knew I was in safe hands. And, the thought of being strapped to an experienced skydiver, who has done thousands of jumps, and who would land me safely was the reassurance that I needed! You don?t have to be particularly fit to skydive but the British Parachute Association demands a medical certificate for anyone over 60 but thankfully all parachute rigs come with a reserve canopy - safety in numbers as they say!
By lunchtime, the skies had cleared and the first group of tandems were getting themselves ready for take-off. Kitted out in a professional skydive suit all complete with harness, goggles and cap, they were off and within minutes the plane had disappeared way up into the skies - it was heading for a height of12,000 feet and I couldn?t quite believe that the dot I was closely inspecting had literally just vanished. Next minute, tumbling through the skies came the first duo followed closely by the next and then all five were floating through the sky followed by their luminous canopies overhead.
An hour or two had gone by and the butterflies in my stomach had reappeared and then my name was called, “cowling” came out from the tannoy and I knew there was no going back. I was taken through to where our instructors were waiting. Chris, the more ‘crazy’ looking one of the three pointed directly at me and said “I will go with Kate as she looks like a nutter”, - ‘what did this mean?’ I thought to myself, was it better to look like a nutter or a ninny? But on the other hand I knew this meant I would have some fun in the sky.
So all ready in my purple and neon orange suit, I headed off with my mentor of the sky and walked across the field to the plane. The noise of the engines as we ran towards the plane made it all the more real as we climbed aboard with our fellow divers. Then we were off, gaining the required altitude and all the while going through the necessary actions with Chris.
I looked around at the other tandems, some had nervous looking smiles, others tapped me on the shoulder, hand outstretched with “gimme some skin” motions. The plane door then opened, the wind and noise rushed through the inside and the video divers just rolled out into the sky - just like that! Next the tandems queued up. I was at the end of the queue and I am not sure which is worst, being at the front or the back.
Watching people drop into nowhere was just such a strange sensation but not as strange as hanging from a plane, feet dangling into the skies and then just letting go. I was off, freefalling. A rush descended through my body, cool mist sprayed at my face and I screamed like there was no tomorrow. I was flying like a bird, soaring through the sky at a speed of 120mph, diving down through the air, safe in the knowledge that Chris, strapped behind me, was in total control.
Then the canopy opened and pure peace and quiet took over - this was amazing, actually it was ‘awesome’ as the lingo goes! Chris handed me the steering toggles and we span through the sky, from left to right, spiraling the parachute around in circles and then began our tranquil parachute descent down to the drop zone. “Nice one Kate, yeeha,” shouted Chris as I came down to earth (with no bump!), and all I could think of was I want to do it again. It was thrilling, I was literally floating on cloud nine!
Kate Cowling of Absolute Brighton
