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Old Sarum Skydive

We jumped out of a plane with GoSkydive at Old Sarum airfield near Salisbury: blue jumpsuits, freefall grins over Wiltshire, and the hugs after landing.

At Old Sarum airfield near Salisbury there is a company called GoSkydive whose entire business is helping people like us fall out of aeroplanes on purpose. We signed the forms.

Inga and Dileep in blue GoSkydive jumpsuits and soft helmets standing in the kit tent beside a poster of tandem skydivers
Suited, booted and roughly 60 per cent sure. The poster behind shows how it is supposed to look.
Dileep in a blue GoSkydive jumpsuit waving beside a white gate on the green airfield with a light aircraft and instructors behind
A final wave at ground level, aircraft waiting in the background.
Inga in freefall strapped to her tandem instructor with arms raised, the drogue chute trailing above against a swirl of cloud
Freefall with the drogue out and both arms up. The wind restyles your face for free.
Inga grinning in freefall with her tandem instructor above a floor of broken cloud and distant fields
Somewhere over Wiltshire, travelling straight down, grinning anyway.
Inga kneeling on the grass giving a thumbs up after landing, parachutes and hay bales scattered across the field, Dileep laughing at the edge of the frame
Down and intact, thumbs up. The hay bales witnessed everything.
Inga hugging her tandem instructor on the landing field with a blue parachute bundled on the grass behind
The post-landing instructor hug: traditional, and thoroughly earned.
Inga and Dileep hugging on the airfield grass, still wearing helmets and harnesses
Both of us back on the ground with one piece each. Reunion approved.

Would we do it again? Ask us when our stomachs finish landing.