Archive: December 2008
"Blue Skies"
Saturday, 6th December 2008, 18:40 GMT
It’s been a while since my last entry, but it’s well worth waiting for!
I’m sat in Birmingham New Street station, eating a cheese and tomato Panini. I’m on the way back home for Christmas: the festive break has begun early. Before I left sunny Warwickshire however, I decided I’d have an attempt at jumping out of a plane.
I’m writing this four hours after the jump and my legs are still shaking with excitement: skydiving is simply awesome; I would possibly go so far as to say it was the best experience of my life! I wish I could put into words the sheer exhilaration I felt as I stood in the doorway of the aeroplane looking down at the Oxfordshire landscape 13,000ft below. I wish I could express the feeling that comes with hurtling towards the ground at 150mph. I wish I could describe the beauty of floating freely towards the ground once the parachute opened flawlessly. I wish I could express the joy of landing nice and smoothly on a soft, grass-covered ground.
One thing I can say is that it was like a dream. In fact, I still can’t quite grasp the fact that I did it. Which crazy person decides to throw themselves out of a plane? Who in their right mind would voluntarily put themselves through that? Still, I have video evidence, which in a way is a nice souvenir for myself, as I don’t really remember much it was all over so quickly. Not that I measured (I was more conscious of ensuring that I opened my parachute), but I believe the drop from 13,000ft to 6,000ft lasted somewhere in the region of 50 seconds. At 5,500ft I was supposed to pull the toggle, but after watching the video footage back, I believe it was more like 5,000ft – those 500ft went really quickly! Still, 5,000ft was plenty of height to gain control, get my bearings and head slowly down to the dropzone’s landing area, where the BBC camera crew were awaiting my landing: with a bit of luck, my jump will be featured in a BBC Three documentary to be broadcast next year (more on this soon).
As the adrenaline is still rushing about my body, I’ll bid you farewell for the time being. To be perfectly honest, I’m in desperate need of a nap: 05:30 is a wicked hour to be out of bed, dressed and showered, especially on a Saturday!
"We make our own fortunes and call them fate". – Benjamin Disraeli
"What a load of bollocks! Im going to need to see this 'video evidence' before I believe it... You're such an adrenaline junkie!! xx"