It's a Bird… It's a Plane… It's...

So its been a while since my last Blog, mainly because my social life has taken a small nose dive of late and I didn't want to blog about everyday boring life.  However this weekend saw me fulfil a life time ambition!!

Ever since I can remember I have been infatuated by Superheros, it started with He-man, my Dad decorated my bedroom floor to ceiling with He-man wallpaper, beddings and accessories.  I quickly moved on to Superman the minute I saw Christopher Reeves flying in the Superman films.  All my life I have wanted to fly like superman and the closest I was going to get was a parachute jump.

Me and superbaby

For my 30th Birthday, back in December 2013 my Mum, Sister and Brother-in-Law bought me a parachute jump, I hoped it was because they knew it was an ambition of mine and not a hint.  I have not had much luck performing the jump, firstly 2014 became very busy, by the time I got round to booking the jump, the British weather kicked in.  Back in October 2014 I booked in for my jump, due to high wind speed it was cancelled before I even got excited, it was booked again in earlier November.  I was offered 2 time slots 8.30am or 2pm.  Skydive Northwest informed me they work on a first come first jump basis and that usually the weather is better in the morning.  So I picked the morning slot.  Me, my Mum, my pregnant Sister and Brother-in-law set off at 6am to Flookbrough near Grange Over Sands. We arrived early and I was nervous and excited, it was cold but sunny it was a good day to jump! Unfortunately the wind was blowing 2 knots higher than the maximum they allow for safety.  The jump centre said we could hang around for a while to see if the weather improved, so we did,  I started talking to a lady who was on my pre-jump training, she had taken the day off work on the Friday, got on 2 trains, and a taxi, then spent the night in a tent to be on time for the jump on Saturday morning, I felt really bad for her as the weather seemed to get worse. We decided to call it quits at about 1pm and heavy hearted drove home.

I booked it again 2 weeks later but when my Alarm went off at 5am Saturday morning we were in the middle of a storm, so I didn't even bother driving unto the Lakes.  Attempt 4 saw me book it for early May 2015 it was the first slot after the winter shut down.  This time me, my Mum and Varsha set off at 6.30am, we arrived nice and early, but the minute we signed in I knew there was no jump, the wind was faster than my first trip.  This time however we got to see the plane in the hanger.  We had some breakfast, re-booked the jump for 13th June and drove home.

FIFTH TIME LUCKY?

Mum, Varsha, Me, Aaryan, Kushal and Sheetal

So this time I decided I will go a little later and call the office when it opens at 8.30am to see if jumps were going a head.  They said the jumps were on!!! Me, my Mum and Varsha set off to Flookbrough, Sheetal, Kush and Aaryan met us there.  It was brilliant the weather was warm with a slight breeze, over head people were parachuting, I was amazed by how soft the landing were, I was getting excited again.  I went to book in and they already knew my name, I had spent enough time at the centre that the staff knew me by name.  As we waited for my pre-jump training again I could see it the wind was increasing and it started to rain slightly.  

"Hi all, due to the low cloud and wind we are suspending the jumping and grounding the flights" 

Not again!!!! We went to the little on sight cafe and decided to have a tea and try some of there amazing home made scones.  Like the previous failed attempts I went for my training.  After the training I had the same feeling as last time, by this point I had lost any nervousness and excitement, what would it take to just jump?!  Finally we heard some good news, the group before me were called to get ready, jumping had resumed!  I was relieved! 

Me, Kush and Sheetal decided we would go to the front of the fence to watch the plane take off and the see the landings.  The cameramen always land first to film the tandem jumpers landing, so the first 2 cameramen land.  As I was watching the tandem jumpers float down I saw a cameraman land out of the corner of my eye, as he landed we heard a massive BANG!!  My attention immediately went to the cameraman, he was lay on the floor flat on his back not moving.  The ground marshal went running over, then 2 more staff member went running over.  The lady on reception went running to her car and came back 5 minutes later followed by an emergency doctor.  A few minutes later an announcement went out that all flights and jumps have been cancelled due to the incident and a air ambulance was on its way.  It looked bad, people were frantically running back and forth and the cameraman still hadn't moved.  The emergency ambulance and the air ambulance arrived at the same time.  They worked on cameraman for about 40mins before they put him on the stretcher and carried him to the helicopter.  I spoke to one of the other jumpers and they told me that his parachute failed, anther person told me something went wrong with his harness.  Either way it did not look good for the poor chap.  As they put the cameraman in the helicopter they called out:

"Rosh Fakira please come to the instructor area to kit up"

Gulp!!

I met my instructor Peter Connor and my cameraman Gary Turner at the board and they were very quick to reassure me.  It turned out that Gary lived in Horwich and Peter was from Manchester and used to live in Lowton.  We went to the hanger to suit up just as the helicopter was lifting off.  For some reason I wasn't feeling nervous, I was getting excited and couldn't wait.  I went back to meet my family and have a few pictures then we went to the plane.  I met the people who I was jumping with and there was a lady I met in my training earlier in the day who was getting very nervous by the second.  The instructors decided the jump order and we squashed into the plane I was jumper 2 and sat next to the door.  As the plane set off the door was closed.  There was no turning back!  We slowly climbed to 12,000ft, the views up were amazing, Peter went through the briefing again on the way up, constantly telling me "don't forget to breath out when we fall" and he clipped my harness into his, as we got to 10,000ft he tightened the straps and we were ready. The cameraman for Jumper 1 climber out and stood on a ledge just outside the plane, Jumper 1 climbed over me to the door, she was dangled over the edge and then off they went.  

I get the tap on my shoulder… I'm next.  Gary climbed out first and held on to handle, me and Peter slid over to the edge.  As I hung over the edge looking at a carpet of clouds Peter was giving me instructions.  All I could think of was how cool it would be if I could walk on the cloud.  Then with no warning off we went!! GO GO GO! 18 months after my 30th Birthday I was finally flying… or falling depends on your point of view.  We instantly did a back flip and then went upside down, I couldn't breath the air was rushing into mu lungs so fast but I couldn't get a breath, I remembered Peter telling me to remember to breath out.  By this point I didn't even know which way I was facing.  Peter shouts look at the camera!! He then pointed it out.  I was like superman! I was flying! I didn't want the feeling to end!  

SUPERMAN

Just as I was getting used to the feeling the parachute was deployed.  The harness went tight and the brakes went on, even though I know you don't go up you carrying on falling it felt like I went up.  I then adjusted my harness to move the straps behind my thighs so I was in a seating position.  Peter then gave me the controls and showed me how to make direct our decent.  We started to do spirals firs to the right then to the left.  I started to feel really dizzy, Peter then said lets do it one more time.  So we did, I started to feel travel sick at this point and we stopped.  The feeling didn't go away as Peter lined up the landing.  I put my legs in the air ready for the landing.  As we touched down I was still feeling disoriented, the ground marshal came over shouting "Rosh you did it!" I was buzzing with adrenaline and I was shaking.  It was BRILLIANT! It's a dream come true and I hope I get to do it again someday.  

Big thanks to my Mum, Sheetal and Kushal for the present and it made it more special that Varsha and my little Aaryan was able to share the day with me.