Often when you make one those “things to do before I die” lists you do so with the intention that you’ll probably never do the craziest ones on there.
But last Saturday I carried out one of the craziest on my list, jumping out of a plane! It all started about a month ago when chart stars N-Dubz played live for Clyde 1 at the Hilton Hotel. I was on stage chatting to Tulisa, Dappy and Fazer when they decided to get their own back on me.
After failing to score well on my mega stressful quiz – Romeo’s Round of Randomness – they felt it necessary to get revenge … by challenging me to skydive!
As this was proposed in front of a live audience and the crowd started cheering when N-Dubz set me the challenge, I had no option but to accept.
Last Saturday I woke up 8am, dreading what was ahead. I looked out of my window and the sun was splitting the skies. This meant my jump was definitely on and I felt my stomach hit the floor!
I headed up to Skydive Strathallan, got to the airfield just outside Auchterarder at 10am and checked in with my tandem jumper Eddie Jones. I went through my safety briefing and that’s what terrified me the most, hearing what could go wrong!
By 1pm, it was time to board my Cessna aircraft, which I can only describe as a Campbell soup tin with wings.
It was quite an experience climbing 10,000 feet in that little thing – it took 30 minutes to do and there was no drinks service on offer!
Once we reached our jump altitude, I was positioned over the edge of the plane (which had no door by the way!) and I was actually dangling out of a plane at 10,000 feet!
It was at this point I started screaming as I looked down to see the Perthshire countryside far below me.
We were read to jump, and Eddie said “Ready, steady, go” and he pushed off... and there we were freefalling 4000 feet at a speed of 120mph and in a time of 30 seconds!
At this point I had one eye opened, was screaming like a big girl, and could only hear the wind whizzing past my ears. The G-force kept my mouth open, forcing me to scream some more and making it difficult to swallow, and of course my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest!
Then quick enough, the parachute was deployed and everything became instantly quiet and peaceful. I stopped screaming and we slowed right down to a slow floating pace and I felt so safe ... even though I was still 6000 feet above the ground!
Only three minutes later we came into land and one of the most terrifying yet exhilarating experiences in my life was over. Would I do it again?
Yes, but not right away! Check out the rather amusing video and pictures at www.clyde1.com/indemand
