First of all I must say that the staff at Skydive Buzz couldn’t have been more helpful and supportive from my arrival to my departure.
I don’t know why I decided I wanted to do a tandem sky dive, but the idea suddenly came into my head. I mentioned this to my daughter in Vancouver and she recommended SDB.
August the 18th was my 88th birthday, so I decided this would be a birthday present to myself.
I went onto the SDB website and opted for the dive for free, on raising £395 for one of their named charities.
I chose the Children’s Hospice South West, and through family and friends I raised £2,545.40 for them.
I was asked many times if I was nervous about diving from 15,000 feet? I can honestly say that right from making my choice and up until touch down I felt no anxiety at all.
My only concern was that I might damage my 27 year old replacement knees on landing. I had seen sky dive landings on TV where it involved running. My fears about that proved to be unfounded.
I was met by Henry, who was with me the majority of the time, thank you Henry.
The group I was with had a pre flight talk, where it was explained exactly what was going to happen, including on landing, to keep our legs forward, and heels down. It was very well presented.
We were told that modern tandem sky diving is now so safe, we would more likely have a car accident on the way home than with a sky dive.
I was given a yellow coverall to wear…my daughter said I looked like a banana! Then I was fitted with a harness. Gentlemen should make sure all the furniture is in the centre of the room when the straps are tightened.
I have a loss of balance problem and have to use a walking stick. I obviously couldn’t take it on the plane so my instructor took my arm, walked to the plane and helped me up the steps.
I was last on, which meant I would be first out.
We were all sitting on benches which were on both sides of the cabin.
My instructor began fastening me to himself, and I could feel him checking and rechecking all the way up until we reached 15,000 feet..very reassuring!
I had been told that the temperature at that altitude would be minus 15 degrees Celsius, but I didn’t notice the cold.
The green light came on and we shuffled forward towards the open door. I should have told my instructor that I cannot bend my knees more than 90 degrees, but we managed without a problem.
The next thing we knew we were out and dropping in free fall. It was very noisy, which is not surprising, as we we were dropping, I believe, at 120 mph.
I was expecting a hard jolt when the chute deployed but it was nothing like that
Because of a neck injury in 1958, I am not able to tilt my head back very far, so I was looking mainly downwards, but I did manage to see the North and South Devon shorelines, and later, with the help of Google Earth was able to verify that I had seen the Exmouth estuary. Also hundreds of tiny fields, amazing.
Friends on seeing the video asked why I didn’t wave at the camera man. That was because I was concentrating on trying to workout where were going to land, I wasn’t even aware that he was there.
We twisted and turned several times to enable me to look around,
I could then see the airstrip and where we were going to touch down. A few more turns, the final one into the wind. I remembered to position my legs as I had been told, and the bum slide landing couldn’t have been softer.
We were all driven back to base, where Henry, and the rep from the Children’s Hospice South West were waiting.
Word must have got around about my age, and I was congratulated by several people.
I would like to thank my instructor for taking such good care of me, and also Henry.
I can heartily recommend doing a tandem sky with Skydive Buzz, it is an experience you will remember forever.
I enjoyed it so much, that I intend to do it again. This time, now that I know, paying more attention on the way down. I hope I get the same instructor, I should have asked his name. No doubt Henry will let me know.
I must ask Henry if they do an OAP rate?