On Saturday 7th May, I and three other people went to Redlands Airfield in Swindon, Wiltshire. It was a horrible morning with strong winds and heavy rain and the likelihood of jumping seemed to worsen by the minute. But we all remained enthusiastic and positive that we were going to jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet.
We were all raising money for Cardiac Risk in the Young in memory of a friend of ours who died on the 27th June 2009 after collapsing in a street due to an unidentified heart condition. His name was James Love-Smith and he was only sixteen years old.
There were four of us altogether doing the jump, three of which were girls; I guess women are less fearless when it comes to adrenaline sports. The girls I did the jump with were Lauren Walker, Sonia Abraham and Katrina Gatty. We arrived at 8am and the weather was atrocious and things were not looking good. However, reports suggested that the bad weather was soon to clear so the call for the pre-jump briefing and training arrived. We all sat down in a room and started to learn everything we needed to know. Next, the order of jump was placed and everyone knew when they were jumping. I and Lauren Walker were on the first plane and Sonia Abraham, and Katrina Gatty were on the second. When the time arrived, we started to get kitted up and the nerves began to kick in.
As there were four of us jumping, I won’t go into detail about how we all felt so I’ll just speak in generality. We were all nervous and the anticipation of falling at 120mph just didn’t really sink in until we were staring at the ground from 10,000 feet up. Sonia was making her first ever flight so she was obviously anticipating both the flight experience and the skydiving experience all at once. And that’s why I am extremely proud of her as are many others. It all took us a lot of courage to jump but that was all made easier with the instructors we had and the support we had from friends and family on the day. The instructors and cameramen were a great laugh and knew how to try and settle our nerves so a bit of “banter” didn’t go down badly!
If I was to choose the best part of the skydive then it would have been the first thirty seconds of it; the jumping from the plane, and then the free-fall. It doesn’t seem as if you are falling at 120mph, it just seems as if you are in gale-force winds. The fact that the free-fall was over within a small period of time was the sad thing about it but as you know, you can only fall for so far until you have to open the parachute, and the relief of the parachute opening is probably everyone’s main concern.
If I was to give somebody some advice about the skydive, then it would be to not back out from it; if you do decide that you can’t do it, then force yourself to do it because I can promise you that you will not regret it. The thrill of jumping and free-falling is a feeling that is un-describable, and it will live within you for the rest of your life. I, for one, know that I will partake in another skydive (or should I say numerous skydives!) and will hopefully be taking my skydiving instructor qualifications.
Thank you to everyone at Redlands Airfield and to everyone at CRY for their help in organising this amazing experience. We raised a total of £1280.90 but still have much more sponsorship money to collect and will continue to raise money. An enthralling day on the airfield and for a brilliant cause, Rest in Peace James, you will never be forgotten.
Morrison Cooper
We were all raising money for Cardiac Risk in the Young in memory of a friend of ours who died on the 27th June 2009 after collapsing in a street due to an unidentified heart condition. His name was James Love-Smith and he was only sixteen years old.
There were four of us altogether doing the jump, three of which were girls; I guess women are less fearless when it comes to adrenaline sports. The girls I did the jump with were Lauren Walker, Sonia Abraham and Katrina Gatty. We arrived at 8am and the weather was atrocious and things were not looking good. However, reports suggested that the bad weather was soon to clear so the call for the pre-jump briefing and training arrived. We all sat down in a room and started to learn everything we needed to know. Next, the order of jump was placed and everyone knew when they were jumping. I and Lauren Walker were on the first plane and Sonia Abraham, and Katrina Gatty were on the second. When the time arrived, we started to get kitted up and the nerves began to kick in.
As there were four of us jumping, I won’t go into detail about how we all felt so I’ll just speak in generality. We were all nervous and the anticipation of falling at 120mph just didn’t really sink in until we were staring at the ground from 10,000 feet up. Sonia was making her first ever flight so she was obviously anticipating both the flight experience and the skydiving experience all at once. And that’s why I am extremely proud of her as are many others. It all took us a lot of courage to jump but that was all made easier with the instructors we had and the support we had from friends and family on the day. The instructors and cameramen were a great laugh and knew how to try and settle our nerves so a bit of “banter” didn’t go down badly!
If I was to choose the best part of the skydive then it would have been the first thirty seconds of it; the jumping from the plane, and then the free-fall. It doesn’t seem as if you are falling at 120mph, it just seems as if you are in gale-force winds. The fact that the free-fall was over within a small period of time was the sad thing about it but as you know, you can only fall for so far until you have to open the parachute, and the relief of the parachute opening is probably everyone’s main concern.
If I was to give somebody some advice about the skydive, then it would be to not back out from it; if you do decide that you can’t do it, then force yourself to do it because I can promise you that you will not regret it. The thrill of jumping and free-falling is a feeling that is un-describable, and it will live within you for the rest of your life. I, for one, know that I will partake in another skydive (or should I say numerous skydives!) and will hopefully be taking my skydiving instructor qualifications.
Thank you to everyone at Redlands Airfield and to everyone at CRY for their help in organising this amazing experience. We raised a total of £1280.90 but still have much more sponsorship money to collect and will continue to raise money. An enthralling day on the airfield and for a brilliant cause, Rest in Peace James, you will never be forgotten.
Morrison Cooper
If you are interested in doing a skydive for CRY like Morrison please email [email protected].uk for more information
