On Sunday 5th August, a team of brave Direct Air trainee skydivers disembarked at Hinton Airfield, Brackley to take part in One Giant Leap for Alzheimer’s Society.

After arriving at the airfield for 8am and not jumping until 12pm, it’s safe to say we all went through the emotions throughout the build-up to leaving the plane: determined, worried, motivated, sweaty palms and nervous tummy’s!

The glorious weather made the wait enjoyable and it’s hard not to be in awe of the pops of parachute colour in the air when other divers were making their descent.

 

The team received a briefing on what to expect during the jump and one key takeaway was: body positioning is everything! Practicing the movements may seem silly when you’re stood safely on the ground, but it definitely helped us all prepare for being launched out of the plane at 13,000ft!

It is so difficult to explain the feeling of a skydive as while it’s adrenaline-charged and incredible, it’s also calming to fly through the air.

You almost forget you’re freefalling for 45 seconds as it’s so incredible and when that parachute pulls at 5,000ft, it’s a chance to take in all the breath-taking scenery and realise what you’ve actually just done.

There were 8 of us on the day, as our 3 remaining skydivers will be jumping on alternative days over the next month.

 

First up were Karl, Jack and Jake who took the jump in their stride and Jack even glimpsed his own shadow as he was passing over a cloud.

Next was Managing Director, Allan, with Emma and Lauren, before Kiran and Rod completed the set.

 

And ultimately, it was an incredibly rewarding experience as our team of divers were all in it together to support our company charity. Across the country there were 400 skydivers taking part and placing themselves out of their comfort zone to raise money and awareness for a fantastic cause.

Direct Air & Pipework are proud to announce our current fundraising total for the year is: £5533.08

We’d like to thank everyone who donated and for your continued support!

If you would still like to donate, there is time:

Donate now

We’d also like to thank the fantastic instructors who we dived with at Hinton Skydiving Centre, as only one of our team had ever skydived before, so they really made our experience one to remember!

And our next challenge is to take on the Autumn Wolf Run – it’ll be a muddy one!