On the 13th May 2017 I travelled to Hinton Skydiving Centre, Brackley to take part in a 13,000ft tandem skydive. It was to raise money for a wonderful charity, St Richard’s Hospice. I’ve always wanted to do a skydive and I thought what better way to do it than raising money for St Richard’s Hospice!
I arrived at the Skydiving Centre and had an introduction about how the day would run. Once I was registered I then had a brief training session about how to enter and exit the aircraft in the most stable and safe position. My name was then called and I met my instructor who got me all geared up for the jump. I had to wear a jumpsuit, harness, helmet and goggles. We then walked down to the aircraft and boarded. It was a 15 minute journey to the point where we would jump out. In the plane I wasn’t as nervous as I expected I would be. My instructor showed me his altitude watch at 3,000ft, 6,000ft and 9,000ft. We jumped from 13,000ft.
Once the door opened I remember seeing all the single skydivers just disappearing into the clouds and thinking I’m so excited to do the same. I was the first out of the tandem skydivers to go. When I was sat on the edge of the airplane I took a deep breath and then we were off. We somersaulted backwards so I could see the plane disappearing behind me (which was amazing!). We freefalled for 45 seconds through two layers of cloud, which was the most surreal experience! At 6,000ft we then pulled the cord for the parachute to open and just stopped for a couple of seconds in midair. The harness was then loosened so I was able to control the parachute.
My instructor then handed me the guide ropes so I could steer the parachute which was great fun. I decided to do lots of twists and turns for most of the way down back towards the Skydiving Centre. Once we got to about 1,000ft we then had to get ready for landing, at this point I handed the instructor the guide ropes. As soon as we landed (I landed stood up yay!) I wanted to do it again!
It was the most incredible experience! I had such wonderful support from everyone and everyone was so generous with their donations so I was extremely grateful for that. In total I raised £555 for St Richards Hospice which is the perfect ending to most exciting experience!
Sydnee Taylor
Legal Assistant Litigation