Today (18 December 2012), I successfully skydived from a
helicopter at 14,000 feet and lived to tell the tale…
For those of you who didn’t know, Nicola had bought me for
my birthday a skydiving voucher for when we were in Australia and after a few
days of trying to sort out a date after a confusion between our travel agent
and the skydive company, we managed to set 18 December as the fateful day. We set
our alarm to 05:00 and made our way to Central where we were due to be picked
up. The drive to Gosford (where the airstrip was) took around an hour and a
half and we were treated to a lovely drive North of Sydney which included
driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge – a nice treat.
After we arrived I discovered that the skydive would be
14,000 feet instead of 9,000 feet and out of a helicopter instead of a plane;
although I’m not sure how much difference it makes as you’ll be just as dead
falling 9,000 feet out of a plane as 14,000 feet from a helicopter if your ‘chute
doesn’t open. We had a quick safety lesson and a run through of the do’s and
don’ts – which involved why you shouldn’t hang your feet between the helicopter
foot rests as you hang outside the ‘chopper (you may find yourself legless) –
but we had to wait around an hour longer than expected due to poor weather
conditions (too cloudy) before we could actually start off.
Whilst we were waiting we actually saw a red bellied black
snake (a very venomous snake) in a storm ditch near to where we were sitting –
our first snake siting out in the wild in Australia!
It was three jumpers per trip (seven in total including
pilot and the tandems) and I found myself sitting on the side of the chopper
with my feet resting outside, in my head reminiscent of a scene from Platoon
but in reality probably less cool than that. It was quite a ride up to altitude
as the helicopter had no door so I was exposed to the wind and had a fantastic
view of the area which progressively shrunk beneath us. I was second in order
to jump so had the pleasure of watching the lady in front of me plummet through
the clouds and out of sight. I was surprised at how calm I felt, I thought I would
be scared or nervous but I wasn’t. I was quite excited, I think it was the
adrenaline kicking in. As it was my turn to jump next I dropped myself onto the
edge of the chopper and as my tandem jumper took his position I felt myself dangling
outside the helicopter supported only by my harness attaching me to my tandem.
It was quite an exhilarating feeling, I was hanging outside of a helicopter
14,000 feet in the air looking down through the clouds and at the curvature of
the Earth in front of me.
Then we fell. I could not tell how long the free fall lasted
as it was such a rush and I was trying to take it all in. It was a surreal
feeling falling toward the Earth at 120kmph, the wind was rushing at me so cold
and fast that it caused my mouth to dry and my face to contort like an
astronaut under G-force. I could see the Earth coming towards us fast, and we
dropped through a few clouds that blocked my vision temporarily but before I knew
it the parachute was open and I was jerked upwards as the chute caught in the
wind. I must admit, I had a profound sense of relief when the parachute opened.
We began our glide back down to ground and I was able to
direct our flight by pulling downwards on one of two pulleys to steer left or
right. I took us through a few clouds before the tandem jumper (Phil) told me
to hold down the right pulley as far as possible – which caused us to head into
a massive spin picking up speed and turning almost horizontal. 
We hit 1,000 feet and Phil had to take over and make sure we
landed safely. He circled the runway a few times and I lifted my feet into the
air as we hit the ground nice and softly. The adrenaline was still pumping
through my body but I was happy that I had landed in one piece – I could
imagine why some people become hooked on skydiving; the rush was incomparable
to anything I felt before. I saw Nicola coming towards us on the runway after
she had been busy taking photos and videos of my landing – she was very
relieved that I made it back in one piece!
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