The thrill of skydiving is beyond any possible description. Falling at 120mph with the wind screaming past your body is an unbelievable experience of total freedom. The sport is not without an element of danger, yet it is this fear that makes it so addictive. There are relatively few serious injuries in this activity because of the tight regulation and safety requirements mandated for skydiving and parachuting organisations.

I still recall my first jump from 2 500 feet using what is called a static line. This is a strong nylon tape that is attached to the aircraft on one end, and to the release pin of the jumper's canopy on the other. The static line system is often used for those new to the sport as a means of helping them to deal with the sensation of falling without actually hitting anything.

My first experience is still very sharp in my memory yet there seems to be a little slice of missing time from the point where I let go of the aircraft to the parachute canopy actually opening. Pure terror sometimes does that it was a moment where time ceased to exist, not quite a total blackout but the sensation was really strange. Two days of training on the ground, the ceaseless drill of screaming out "arch-thousand two thousand three thousand" and about all I seem to recall when I let go is something like "aaaaahhhhhh". After a second and many subsequent jumps, this sensation soon faded to a dim recollection as I became accustomed to falling.

The first real free fall commenced at about the fifth jump although this was simply letting go of the aircraft and immediately deploying the canopy. Altitudes increased gradually, as did time in free-fall. Starting from three seconds (let go and pull the ripcord) to five seconds (let go, count to three then pull the ripcord) increasing to seven seconds and so on. Once I made it to ten seconds and beyond, it soon became important to use an altimeter.

Free fall became really interesting at the 15-second mark because that is when the real training started. Turning, tumbling and rocketing forward by using different body positions put a completely new challenge before me. I learned it was possible to put my body in a position where foward ground speed was around 80mph with an increase of downward velocity close to 200mph - ears tend to get a little warm! It is also quite important to flare out, slow and adopt a more stable position before deploying a canopy - doing so at really high velocity really

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