Activity: Skydiving is good...

Before I came to uni I really wanted to do something spontaneous before all the hard work started and I came up with doing a skydive. I thought about it for a while and contemplated on whether I should actually do one as looked pretty scary and I wasnt a fan of heights! In the end I though f*ck it, Im doing it and I booked it there and then. My Mum wasnt too happy and refused to go with me or take me incase I died!!

I can happily say I lived...

Doing that skydive on the 25th August 2010 is probably one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life! Your feel on top of the world and the adreniline you feel is incredible. I feel like I can do anything now!


What is a skydive?

Definition from Dictionary.com: The sport of jumping from an airplane at a moderate or high altitude and free-falling and using one's body to control direction or movements before opening one's parachute.

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Most people consider skydiving a product of the twentieth century, but its history actually goes further back than that. The Chinese attempted parachuting in the 10th century, a thousand years before we did. Of course, there were no airplanes, so the Chinese did what we would today call base diving; that is, they jumped off outcroppings or other formations that would allow them to float from a height to the ground. And then, of course, we have the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, who illustrated a pyramid shaped parachute on a wood frame.

As an active sport, however, parachuting is much more recent. The first person to attempt to parachute was Frenchman Jacques Garnerin, who jumped from his air balloon at the end of the 18th Century and did tricks on the way down and stupefy the crowds by landing safely on the ground. In the 19th century, an intrepid woman, Kathie Paulus became famous for skydiving in Germany at the end of the 19th Century and is now famous for these feats and her demonstrated skills.

Once the airplane was invented, skydiving took on a whole new form. The airplane made it possible to dive from greater heights at greater speeds, allowing for more range in the movements in the air. A woman named Tiny Broadwick became the first woman to jump from a plane (in 1913) and to dive free fall (in 1914).
Skydiving was not called skydiving until the middle of the 1950s, when Ronald Young coined the phrase. It had been called parachuting prior to this and was primarily used by the military to land troops in inland locations, or for pilots to bail out of their planes when necessary. This was first done successfully in 1922, and has now become a standard for small plane pilots. Once World War I was over, parachuting became a sport, which we now call skydiving.

After World War II, this form became more and more of a hobby and less and less of a military maneuver. Soldiers were now trained in parachuting and enjoyed the thrill so much they continued on for fun. From this, teams and competitions were formed. Skydiving schools started popping up in the late 1950s and now it is a recognized extreme sport enjoyed by many.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/987949

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My skydiving experience:

I was up at 6 to get the train with my friend to a small village about half hour away from Cambridge as we had to be at the airfield for 8! This was because I had to sign a contract saying that if I die its my own fault and I also had some training. The training consisted of me and a group of about 20 people laying on the floor in the free falling position!

This is me in my rather dashing outfit getting ready to jump, I wore a full bodied jump suit, a harness which would attach to my qualified jumper, an aero-dynamic hat (although Im sure this was just to make us look ridiculous!) and a pair of tight glasses. I must say I felt sorry for the lads that wore the hardnesses as they were tight round your bits!

This is me and my instructor boarding the plane, we were first in which meant we were last out, we were harnessed together before the jump. There was about 10 pairs that boarded the plane along with 2 video and camera jumpers.

The plane didnt seem to stop going up, we were way above the clouds and we reached about 13,000ft!! When we reached the correct height people just flew out, this made me a bit nervous although on the way up it all felt so surreal and it wasnt until the point of me hanging out the plane that it hit me what exactly I was doing. Before you get a chance to change your mind your free falling at 120mph through the air!

When you jump you free fall for about a minute, the instructor then pulls the parachute and you seem to fly upwards (this hurts!!) Once the parachutes out you glide through the air, it is probably the most wonderful feeling in the world. Everything is so small!

If your lucky enough to get an instructor like mine, you would have the terrifying experience of having an out of control parachute, which twisted and turned and nearly had you doing a 360 revolve in mid air (he obviously did have control, but thought it would be funny to scare the crap out of me)

You glide through the air for about 5 minutes then come in to land.

In trainging you are taught the landing position, which is basically you lifting your legs right up so you dont stack it when you land.

We very nearly stacked it as I couldnt lift my legs (its a lot harder when your flying), we just managed to land properly. You pretty much land and run so your parachute doesnt land on you.

This is me after ive been unharnessed.

My instructor was such a cool guy so I owed him a hug!

Everyone putting away their parachutes before we left the landing field.

Me and my instructor and the plane behind us as we head our way inside, this is my favourite picture from the day, if I ever feel like I cant do something I just look at this and say.. yeah I can do anything! :)

Me and my certificate, proud moment!

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It would only be fair for me to show some statistics about fatalities through skydiving:

Total incidents between 5/8/1995 and 1/2/2009: 833

http://www.skydivingfatalities.info/

- Fatality is 1 out of 116,666 skydives
- According to the National Safety Council, the odds of a fatality due to a motor vehicle are 1 out of 6,212. This shows that skydiving is 1,878% safer than driving/riding in a vehicle.

http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/cpsc/FAQ.html

- About 350,000 people complete more than 3 million jumps in a typical year.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_skydive_a_year#ixzz1V3CcmzUN

The different types of skydives:  Tandem skydive: Tandem skydiving or tandem parachuting refers to a type of skydiving where a student skydiver is connected via a harness to a tandem instructor. The instructor guides the student through the whole jump from exit freefall, piloting the canopy, and landing. The student needs only know the minimal instruction before making a tandem jump. This is one of the three commonly used training methods used for beginning skydivers.

Static Line skydives: In parachuting, a static line is a cord attached at one end to the aircraft and at the other end to the top of the pilot chute inside the jumpers backpack. The parachutists fall from the aircraft causes the static line to become taut, then it pulls the pilot chute free of the backpack. The inflation of the small pilot chute in turn causes the main canopy to be pulled out of the backpack. The continued fall of the jumper causes the main parachute lines to extend and become taut, at which point the binding that joins the static line to the pilot chute comes apart from the shock of the jumpers weight, freeing the parachute and its passenger to continue descending freely, no longer connected to the aircraft. The main parachute then inflates, braking the fall. This static line mechanism opens the parachute automatically with no action required from the passenger.

Accelerated Freefall skydives: Accelerated freefall (AFF) is a method of skydiving training. This method of skydiving training is called "accelerated" because the progression is the fastest way to experience solo freefall, normally from 10,000 to 15,000 feet "Above Ground Level" (AGL). In static line progression, many more jumps are required to experience solo freefall, but the jumps are less expensive for the student as one instructor can dispatch multiple students per load, whereas under accelerated freefall, one or sometimes two instructors are dedicated just to one student.

The most popular skydive for beginners is a tandem skydive.

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There are various different reasons why people take part in skydives, from things like raising money for charity to just doing it for the thrill. When I did my skydive I got talking to a few people who were also doing them. One ladys family had bought her a skydive for her birthday and so she raised some money too for charit, another lad had been bought one for his birthday from his girlfriend. Another couple had come back as the last time that the lad came he had passed out on the way down and missed the whole experience, so he had come back with his girlfriend so they could do it together. Once we had all landed we shared our experiences and had a hug.

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 Stories of skydiving:

A 92-year-old World War II veteran has become the oldest person to sky-dive at a Cumbrian airfield.

John Hitchmough, from Halewood in Merseyside jumped out of a plane from Cark Airfield near Grange-over-Sands on Saturday, 19 March 2011. It was his first parachute jump - 71 years after he joined the RAF. John was raising money for the RAF Association (RAFA), which looks after RAF welfare.
Speaking after the 14,000 ft jump John told BBC Radio Cumbria's Mike Parr Breakfast Show: "it was a great thrill." He said: "you're free-falling for 8,000 ft at a speed of 121 mph and then after that the shoot opens and everything is calm and serene."

Blowing off the cobwebs
"It really blows off the cobwebs and gives you a tremendous feeling of well-being," he added.
John also had another reason for taking on the challenge - as well for the thrill and excitement, he was raising money for a good cause. All his sponsorship money will go to the RAF Association, which supports former and serving RAF personnel and their families. The cause is close to John's heart - he joined the RAF in 1939 and spent time serving in Sierra Leone and Cape Town.

BBC News 21 March 2011, BBC.co.uk

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Some opinions about their skydives (from the same centre that I did mine):

"I would recommend this experience to anyone! Everyone made sure me and my two friends were kept completly at ease and knew what we were doing before the jump started. Everyone was extremely kind and helpful and there is defiantly a friendly atmosphere amongest the team. I can't stop telling people about how amazing it is to jump and fall through the air and how nervous I was before! The instructor I had with me (and the camera lady!) was very reassuring as I was very nervous and put me completely at ease. He answered any questions I had and made me feel really comfortable about what was about to happen! I also know that my two friends I had with me throughly enjoyed the day too and I think anyone else thinking of booking a sky dive with these guys, DO IT! Also I did my sky dive on the 15th June 2011 and my dvd of my jump has already arrived and it is the 17 June 2011! The DVD is amazing. Thank-you to everyone there for making that day an unforgettable experience. " Jess 17/6/11

"Fantastic! What a Rush! What an experience!, Thanks to all you guys at Chatteris for such an exhilarating adventure!" Debbie.

"Hi Guys, I did a tandem first jump with you yesterday. I just wanted to say it was absolutely fantastic, Gary looked after me really well and the whole experience was amazing. I am sat in work at this moment just looking over the photos again and again and re-remembering the whole experience. The whole thing was better than I would have ever imagined but very difficult to describe other than feeling very happy! You guys are obviously a super professional outfit, so thanks again." John 9/3/7

"Was an amazing experience thank you so much, we loved it!...x.x" Melanie 3/10/6

"I did my first ever tandem skydive with yourselves yesterday, and it definitely won't be my last! I haven't been able to stop telling everyone how amazing it was since the moment we landed and wanted to thank everyone (especially my instructor Tom!) for making the experience so special. It was a perfect day, one I'll never forget and can't wait to show everyone the dvd! You've definitely got me hooked and certainly hope to be back soon." Ravina 6/4/9

"Oh my goodness, you have got to try this. I had the most amazing experience doing my first tandem jump with you guys. This has to be one of the best things I have ever done and I have recommended it to all my friends. You were all so friendly and so safety conscious which calmed my nerves. I have got to do it again some day. Thank you Steve and Russell (think that's right) for a fantastic time" Catherine 19/9/6

http://www.ukskydiving.com/ 

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The physics of skydiving:

Absolute mental case jumping with no parachute after drinking redbull: