Friday night, Stew and I met up with a few other guys for SoulBrew Live Band Karaoke. Its a live soul band that plays once a month at a bar near Liverpool street. It was a lot of fun and we managed to only cause minor problems.
After about 3 hours of sleep, I woke up to catch an early train to Netheravon Parachute Center (near Stonehenge, I'll go next time). Its a military base (open to civilians on the weekends) in southwestern England. Train took about an hour and a half to get there. When you want to go skydiving, you have three options:
1. Static line - much like you see in WWII footage. You jump out of the plane at about 3500 feet and your chute is automatically deployed. Get to guide yourself into the drop zone under canopy.
2. Tandem - you are strapped into a harness with a qualified instructor and are basically along for the ride. Jump out between thirteen and fifteen thousand feet, freefall to six thousand and then the instructor pulls the chute and controls the ride home.
3. Accelerated FreeFall Level 1 - You get to jump from around 15,000 feet unattached to anyone or anything and freefall to 6000. There are two instructors that jump right next to you to help guide and protect against disaster. This requires about 6 hours of pre-flight instruction as you are ultimately responsible for doing everything on your own. There are 8 different levels en route to full skydiving certification.
I, of course, opted for the third choice. Spent all day going around the parachute center and practicing different scenarios, took multiple verbal and one written exam and got all suited up. We were placed on a weather delay for a few hours and were told we likely wouldn't be able to jump. Then, at the very end of the daylight hours (literally 5 pm here), the wind let up and the clouds parted. We were going to jump! There were three other AFF level one students looking to get their first jump.
Somehow, I ended up being the first student selected to jump. The others might not make it in time because fo daylight restrictions for novice jumpers. I rushed onto a plane with my two instructors and about 6 static line jumpers. We were going to climb to 3500, drop the static line guys and then continue to 15,000 and I would be able to jump. I was surprisingly calm given how may times over the course of the day it had been put off then back on an off again.
We got to 3000 feet and received word from jump control on the ground that it had gotten too dark and we were not going to be able to jump. I was visibly annoyed. I tried to be polite, but my disappointment was obvious. I could either setup my sleeping bag in a bunkhouse and try again in the morning or go home to London. The forecast for Sunday looked crappy and I wanted to do my Sunday routine, so I hitched a ride to the train station and caught a train home.
At least I had seen some sunshine and spent most of the day outdoors. That part of the English countryside was a nice change of pace from The Big Smoke. Lots of trees changing color and rolling hills. I bet it would look even better while falling at 120mph...
I watched the new Russell Crowe version of Robin Hood on the way home. Long but entertaining. Not an inside favorite for any Oscars though.
Sunday was relatively uneventful. Church, gym, errands, video games, reading and cooking. Matt Veal comes in town next weekend from Atlanta. Should be fun. I'll try to get my first jump in the weekend after that. Luckily, I won't have to repeat all the instruction portion.
Get Veal to do his special London chant from the window at your flat.
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