Red Cross Blogs

One less thing to do before I die

By Izzi Whelan
July 2, 2009 at 2:47 pm

Last week I ticked something else off my ‘things to do before I die’ list, by leaping from a plane. Well, more being nudged out of a plane by an instructor, but still…

And, it was totally amazing. I really can’t recommend it enough. I was strapped to an instructor who’d done thousands of jumps before, and he explained how it was all going to work, which helped calm my nerves.

We went up in a tiny plane, more like a Transit van with wings. I was the first of the tandem jumpers (attached to an instructor who operates the parachute) in the plane to go, but not until after one guy had literally dived headfirst out the plane.

I’ve never seen anything like it, but sadly my exit was a lot tamer. You just edge to the open door and tuck your legs under, with the instructor holding onto the plane. And then he lets go – I had no say over it.

Freefalling is definitely the best bit. It’s not at all what I’d expected. It doesn’t feel like you’re really falling, just being held up by the air. I didn’t want it to end at all, so when the parachute opened after 40 very quick seconds it was a bit of a disappointment. Though obviously better than the alternative.

Some of our group weren’t able to jump the same day as us because it got a bit too cloudy, so they did it this morning instead. I’ve just spoken to Chloe, who’s just landed, so if you don’t believe me about how incredible it is, you can listen to her waxing lyrical – and sign up for your own jump too.

Thanks to all my generous friends, family and colleagues – and the simplicity of Justgiving – I raised over £500, with the group altogether raising more than £6,000 for Red Cross Appeal Week.

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Tags: Red Cross Appeal Week, skydiving, sponsored events

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Fundraising and events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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