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Report Tandem Sky Dive 02/09/08 I awoke in the early hours and peered past the rain drops on the window pane, and out in to the gloom. This was the last thing I wanted to greet me so early on this, the day of my free fall parachute jump. The event had however been given the go ahead by the organisers the night before, so I had little choice but to prepare my things and head out on the 80 mile drive to Hinton Airfield. I was quickly encouraged by the brighter skies in the North, towards which we were headed. We arrived right on schedule and went through the paperwork and pre-flight briefing and awaited my turn to be taken up in the aircraft. The rest of the day was to be peppered with cumulus cloud and sunny intervals so the jump was on!So here we go! I am invited to don the jump suit and harness and am handed the traditional leather hat and goggles and led to the aircraft. Here I am lifted by two instructors in to the plane and fastened, very securly to my instructor and settle down for the fifteen minute climb to 12,000 feet. My harness is given one last tweak and I am told to put on the hat and goggles. The slatted hatch which up until this point had provided a welcome barrier between the relative comfort of the inside of the plane and the void outside, was rudely opened and the reason for my journey this far became suddenly and shockingly apparent! The camera man who was to capture the jump on film calmly exited the aircraft and waited outside the door for me and my accomplice to do the same. So first the legs, dangling over the edge, then one more shove and I was falling, tumbling, a fleeting glimpse of the aircraft above us and then we settled down to a spread eagle position as I contemplated the white clouds beneath and the faint hues of the earth far below. The speed of a free fall is about 120 mph and the temperature of the air decreases by about 3 degrees with every 1,000 feet of altitude, so you can do the maths. At 5,000 feet, and after about 40 seconds, the parachute was deployed and we did a few swinging turns which created some giddy G forces. This was truly breathtaking and I was now enjoying myself. It was all over in no time and I was back on the ground, breathless and overwhelmed. I would best describe the above as an intense experience and followed by a period of shock. Reading through some Sky Diver chat later, Words that stuck in my mind are, ‘this reminds you that you are alive‘ and ‘every time you jump, you have to save your life‘. I can understand what drives people to do it and my hat goes off to them!
Report from a point of view of spinal cord injury Tandem Sky Dive 02/09/08 This is an additional report on my tandem sky dive made on the above date and in aid of Flying Scholarships for the Disabled. Here, I wish to make some comments which may be of use for anyone else who has a spinal cord injury and who is intending to make such a jump.I am paraplegic (T4 Complete) since November 2004, nearly 4 years at the time of writing. Firstly I would say that if you are reading this and intending to make a sky dive, good on you and it will most certainly be a rewarding and intense experience. It was for me.Now for some tips. It‘s cold at 12,000 feet. Probably around minus 10 deg. celcius! Wear some warm clothes and a thermal balaclava. I had neither and I was COLD! I also had a problem breathing. Mostly due to the intense pressure and being at 90 degrees to the 120 mph air flow. Your lungs simply don‘t like this and having a spinal cord injury above about T6 means that you already have compromised lung capacity, so be prepared. There is also of course the fact that the air is thinner up here which adds to the problem. The rate of decent is very fast which solves the problem pretty quickly, and this rapid decent can also cause problems with the ears, such as you may have experienced when flying in airliners. All this will however be countered by the adrenalin flowing through your body so you are going to be buzzing for some time afterwards. It may also be worth saying here that some upper body strength is useful if not essential. You will need to hold your arms out at right angles to the decent which is very tiring. I am not in a position to offer advice here so you will need to seek an opinion from your consultant/doctor and also the Sky Divers themselves. |
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