To all my sponsors

I finally took to the skies last weekend. I know that some of you had started to wonder whether I was actually going to do this, or whether I had taken funds from you under false pretences, so here goes:

I set off for Headcorn Parachute Club on Friday morning for my day of training. This consisted of various drills and practice routines, interspersed with anecdotes and tales from the instructors - delivered chillingly it seemed to me - on the numerous things that could go wrong. I will not bore you with all of the various tales, suffice to say that by the end of the day you had the strong impression that things invariably went bad on every other jump. There were three of us doing the Accelerated Freefall (AFF) course, and we were advised to go home and practice all of the drills in the evening, however ridiculous that might appear to our loved ones.

I returned to Headcorn on Saturday, bright and early and keen to get cracking. Regrettably the weather conditions (mainly wind) were such that no flights took off until early afternoon. For AFF the wind speed has to be below 15kts, and even by mid-afternoon it was still gusting at 18kts. All seemed to be lost, and as I was preparing to let the instructors know (at about 6 in the evening) of my intentions to leave and return the next day, I was called to get ready to jump. This threw me somewhat, having prepared myself psychologically to return to the comfort of home, but I wasn't about to go off and hide in the bushes and hope they wouldn't spot me. So I got kitted out and headed off to the aeroplane with my two instructors and a cameraman.

I had practiced all of the drills so many times that I felt sure I would remember everything clearly, but nothing really prepares you for the jump - you just don't know how freefall will feel, how long it will last, etc, so you tend to rush everything and all the drills just get scrambled in your head.

In the event jumping out of the plane at 12,000 feet was easy. (If you don't jump the instructors will drag you out anyway, kicking and screaming if necessary). What you aren't really ready for is the feeling that you left your stomach in the plane, and it takes a few seconds for it to catch up. You feel as if you are out of control in the first thousand feet, but after a few seconds I adopted the right position and began the freefall part of the jump, which lasts about 45 seconds. (Note that for the first two stages of AFF your instructors hang on to you - however hard you try to beat them off they just cling on to make sure you don't start spinning and risk a malfunction on the parachute opening). At 6,000 feet you give the signal to your instructors and pull your rip cord, and your parachute deploys. This is the second thing which catches you by surprise - the jolt when the parachute fully opens can be quite strong, and you are left dangling whilst being slightly winded and groaning gently to yourself (or at least I was!) - not forgetting that you are supposed to be using this time to check your parachute for faults and be ready to discard the main parachute and open the reserve parachute if things have gone wrong. Still, my parachute opened fine, and after a few seconds I took control with the toggles and began meandering the skies. Once your parachute has opened (at about 5,000 feet) you have about 5 minutes in the air - it seemed to me longer but for all that I can't remember what I was looking at - the first jump is apparently quite surreal for many people.

I manoeuvred myself to the landing zone (there are various hazards outside the landing zone that you are warned of, including some open-top lion cages, I jest not) and executed a good landing. My instructor did see that as I landed I fell slowly onto my hands and knees, but I told that him that this was intended - a sort of impromptu thank you prayer, I told him.

I have attached some photographs of the jump. In the fifth photo ("chute opening.jpg") you will see that I am letting go of the orange rip cord - on the training day they only tell you about five thousand times not to let go of this, so I felt like a divot to see this! In fact, they said that they would use this photo in future training to show students what NOT to do with the rip cord, so I'm pleased to know that I was of help to them.

All in all this was a very, very exhilarating experience. In the Helmer household (with two small children) the discussion is now focused on whether Daddy can proceed to stages 2 to 8 of AFF - I probably will not in the immediate future, but since the jump I have been thinking about how great it would be to do it again, in some part because it is difficult to fully relax on the first jump and I would get so much more out of it on the second occasion, but also because it is genuinely good fun, and I would recommend it to any of you without hesitation.

I would like to thank you all for sponsoring me. I have been overwhelmed by your generosity in helping me to raise over £7,500 for Refuge, a charity which provides support to women and children who are victims of domestic abuse. It has meant a great deal to me, and to Refuge, to have your support. Thank you.

I have more photographs of the jump and a DVD; many of the photos have me looking like a deranged chipmunk because I kept my mouth open on the freefall, so these are not available for general release, but otherwise happy to show them if you would like.

Once again, many thanks for your sponsorship.

Best regards

Gavin

PS - Thanks very much also to Headcorn Parachute Club; a great bunch of instructors and a great place to do a jump.  Thanks in particular to Jane, Pete and Simon for the training, help and jump.  Sorry about the rip-cord!

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ORIGINAL FUND-RAISING REQUEST

To try to deal with an ever deepening mid-life crisis, exacerbated in no small part by a milestone anniversary, I have decided to throw myself out of an aeroplane with a view to attempting to land safely on terra firma with the aid of some silk and cord. All in a good cause, obviously, for a charity called Refuge.

Normally one might do a static line jump or a tandem jump when attempting to gently float down to earth from height for the first time. Having done a some parasailing in my youth involving a similar experience, I have decided instead to do an accelerated free fall course, which entails one day of training followed on the second day by a free fall jump from up to 15,000 feet. I have been given to understand that you are accompanied by a couple of instructors who will keep a sharp eye on you, stabilise you as you start spinning out of control on first exiting the aeroplane, pull your ripcord when you forget to do so at 5,000 feet, pull the reserve cord when the main parachute is torn to shreds by a flock of migrating geese, etc. In other words, it should be mostly safe, although the statistics on this are inconclusive and I understand that my insurance company might take a moderately different view. This feat will be attempted in September, and photographic evidence will be produced after the event.

You may be aware that these things are sometimes paid for out of the generous contributions of the donors. In this case I will not be relying on your generosity to fund my jump - I believe that it is only decent and honourable that I should try to sort out my mid-life crisis PA, so to speak, so I will pay for the course myself, and your donations will go 100% to charity. Further, I will be matching any donations made by you up to a total of £2,000.

I have included the link to the Refuge website below. I have donated to Refuge in the past; this is a charity which provides support to victims of domestic abuse. It is difficult to understand the pain and suffering that must be endured by women and children living in violent circumstances, and I have the greatest admiration for the work that Refuge does to provide support in these situations.

I am very grateful to you for any sponsorship in these difficult times. In order to donate, you can access my JustGiving page at the following web address:

http://www.justgiving.com/gavinhelmer
If you would prefer to donate off-line, please let me know.
Should this endeavour fail to achieve its stated aim, I shall be investigating kayaking opportunities in the Niagra Falls area for 2010.

With my sincere thanks,
Gavin Helmer
http://www.refuge.org.uk/