When Su Woods stepped out on to the tarmac of Thruxton airfield one sunny afternoon in 1994 to make her first parachute jump, she was not only about to make her childhood dream come true, she was also leaving her old life for a new one. Achieving her ambition was to transform her life. Eight years later, Su and her husband Dennis own the parachute club where Su made her first jump, and where they met.
“ Parachuting has changed my life enormously,” Su says. “ When I think back to the first day I came, watching all the experienced jumpers and free-fallers and feeling so nervous, I have to keep telling myself that the club’s all ours. I’ve made 100 jumps now- that’s quite a lot. But there are plenty of members here who are much more advanced than I am.”
“It’s so exhilarating you don’t get frightened. Everything to do with parachuting in this country is so highly regulated. You can’t just go up in a plane and jump out of it. You must have proper training. Safety precautions are rigorously enforced. At first, you have a static line attached to your parachute linking it to the aeroplane. As you fall free, the line pulls the parachute open. It’s not until you’ve reached a certain standard that you’re allowed to open your own parachute, so there’s not really any danger. A feeling of fear at the thought of jumping out of a plane at 2,500 ft is only natural sometimes!”
“ When you’re first told you’re ready to go up, you get really nervous. You step out on to the platform, the instructor says “ Go”, and then you’re in the air. It’s so exhilarating, you can’t imagine what you were afraid of. Even now, I get nervous when I go up for a jump. But as soon as you’re coming down, peace all around you, the earth below, it’s wonderful.”
Juggling her career as editor of an internal newspaper for a major British company with sorting out a new house, managing the parachute club and pursuing her favourite hobby, means that things like housework and washing up can get badly neglected. “ But then,” Su says, “ It’s a question of priorities. I’d rather parachute than spend Saturdays cleaning the house.”
“ You try to travel the 40 miles from home to the club as often as we can and, of course, we’re there all weekend. That’s the best time. It’s a very sociable place – families come to watch and take part, and we have a lot of charity jumps, which is nice.”
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