My personal Charity Skydiving Experience

I had just finished my first year at the University of Liverpool when I completed my first skydive. Being a student I didn’t have a lot of spare cash, so I looked into the prospect of Charity Skydiving through the Liverpool Student Skydiving club. Little did I know at the time that I was just months away from taking over the Liverpool Student Skydiving club,  which I then spent the best part of 3 years running!

Charity Skydiving offered a method whereby I could essentially do my first skydive for free, whilst also raising money for a good cause. In this blog post I hope to explain to you the ins and outs of Charity Skydiving at a UK skydive centre

Static Line or Tandem Skydive

You’ve made the decision to Skydive for charity, now you need to decide what kind of skydive. There are 2 choiced, and both have different costs associated with them, and so will determine the amount you need to raise.

Static Line Skydiving was my personal choice. This involves a full days ground training followed by a solo exit from 3500ft. The static line is in reference to a bundle of line attached both to your parachute and to a strong point inside the plane. You jump out, the line reaches it maximum length and it automatically opens your parachute. An instructor on the ground then talks you down over the radio system which is built into your helmet. Minimum Charity Skydiving sponsorship starts at around £380

There is actually much more to static line than this though. Your first jump is actually the first step of a course known as RAPS. I won’t go into detail here, but its how I came to fall in love with the sport. Further reading on Static line skydiving is available on the Liverpool Student Skydivers site

Tandem skydiving is the most popular choice, fullfilling peoples expectations by providing the full skydiving experience in a single pop.

You exit the aircraft from full altitude, and remain attached to a Tandem Skydive instructor whilst you experience up to a minute in freefall travelling at speeds of around 120mph. This is followed by a descent under parachute lasting around 5 minutes before your feet are planted firmly on the ground. Minimum Charity Skydiving sponsorship starts at around £440

Choosing a UK parachute centre

As I am from the north west I chose the North West Parachute Centre. It was where the Liverpool Student Skydiving club based their operations, and happens to be the cheapest Charity Skydiving Centre in the area aswell. This of course translates into more of the money going to your chosen charity. Better known as Skydive Cark within the skydiving community, it is based in the Morecambe bay area and offers beautiful views across the lake district to the North, and the Bay to the south. It also has a new purpose build skydiving plane, perfect for Charity Skydiving as it gets you to altitude quickly and comfortably. Here’s a link to their site: Skydive North West

Raising the funds for your Charity Skydive

This is something I really struggled with, although anyone with a large group of friends or those working for a big company shouldn’t find it too hard. At the time I had no job and all my friends were students so they had more important things to spend there money on than Charity Skydiving. Beer.

The most profitable day for me spent was on the streets of Manchester city centre, where I was armed with a ‘Hope for Children’ branded t-shirt and a cash bucket. It’s important to note that I was granted a special charity collection permit to do this by the city council. It can take a few weeks to have such a request granted, but again it took a nice chunk out of the total amount and it was an interesting experience so definitely worthwhile.

Is doing a UK Skydive safe?

Incase you start getting cold feet, remember that Skydiving is a relatively safe sport. Whilst not without it’s risks, put all thoughts of potential death out of your head as they are completely unfounded. These kind of accidents only happen to those pushing the envelope of the sport, and a straightforward tandem or static line jump is perfectly safe.