It all started with a tandem skydive 5 years ago in 2006 at Langar airfield near Nottingham.

As you can see from the video, I kinda liked that.

Then a few weeks ago I went to Bodyflight in Bedford for some time in a wind-tunnel (a great birthday present btw!).  This is where skydivers go for some practice and coaching when it gets a bit cold, or just to work on their free-fall skills.

I’d always wanted to learn to skydive, but kept putting it off, it got too late in the summer so I’d leave it till spring, then no doubt forget, or wait for it to get a bit warmer – forgetting of course that this is Britain!

I knew the AFF course was 8 jumps to “qualify”, and assumed that meant 8 weekends, bearing in mind the weather, so more like 15 weekends I’d need to set aside – that’s 4 months!!

There’s 2 approaches to learning to skydive, the boring, slow, Static-Line, or RAPS course, in which you start at 5,000ft jumping out a plane with the parachute opening immediately for you (hence the “static” line connected between your parachute and the plane), and gradually work yourself to higher altitudes where you start having some “free-fall” time before you open your parachute.

Alternatively, you can do things properly, and go with the Accelerated FreeFall approach, or AFF.  This starts with you jumping out a plane at 13,000ft – or there abouts, with 2 instructors holding on to you.

You’re pretty much on your own for the skydive, you pull your own parachute, and have to learn the “stable” position in order to fly safely.

Your instructors are there to help you stay stable, to give you direction on what you’re doing right, and wrong, by using various hand signals, such as “straighten your legs”, or “arch more”.

You don’t just turn up at the Drop Zone and get taken up in a plane, there’s a bit of ground school training to be done first.