Parachute Jump

I finally managed to do my parachute jump today!!

Above is a picture of me and the instructor Mark doing the jump, we are freefalling at about 120 mph at this point towards Shotton & Peterlee. It is the best experience you could ever have (well almost!!). I was suprising calm when we jumped out of the plane and wasn't in the least bit nervous.

It's very hard to try to describe the sensation to anyone who has bever experienced it themselves, it didn't feel anywhere near as bad as I was expecting when we left the plane. Maybe it was easier because it was cloudy when we jumped from the plane at 11,500 feet so couldn't see how far down it was. Although when jumping through the clouds it hurt, the rain in clouds was belting off my face and it hurt. Try riding on a motorbike without a visor (just goggles) at 120 mph in a hail storm and you might have an idea!!

Mark (the instructor) kept putting his hand in front of my mouth and face to shield it but I didn't realise he was trying to tell me to do it. My ended up with a headache from the rain pelting me (small price to pay).

Once we broke through the cloud cover it was much better and I could finally see the land below and the sea to the east. The freefall was over fairly quick (14 seconds something like that) and the parachute was pulled, it very quickly slowed us down and it then felt like we were floating and I could admire the view. Mark gave me the controls and he told me how to steer and what direction we needed to be facing, while pointing out Seaham, Peterlee & Sunderland. We did a few spirals although to be honest I wasn't that keen on them it was making me a bit dizzy probably made worse by the headache.

I had about 4 minutes (I think) of parachuting before we touched down, we made a perfect landing on our feet.

If I have one piece of advice to anyone doing a jump, make sure you go for a wee before you jump. Once I had the harness on I couldn't got to the toilet and by the time we did the jump I was busting (lol). Maybe this was why I wasn't nervous was thinking too much about needing the toilet. If the parachute jump had taken another 10 minutes I might not of been able to wait.

I now really want to do another jump, but might do it for charity next time it will be cheaper and hopefully raise some money!!

Everyone should try it :-)

One last point the photo at the top makes my nose look massive I'm sure its not quite that big?