RNLI - Tandem Skydive

[Morag]

At the risk of spoiling peoples fun, and no doubt well-intentioned idea, I'm a bit uneasy about this sort of thing. Put bluntly, the idea is that other people donate £1000 in the form of £250 for you personaly (taken in the form of a jolly) and £750 to charity. Sorry to knock it but doesn't sound very cool put like that.

Hywel

Of course, Hywel, you have no idea how much i will sponsor myself, or any other YD'er who chooses to do this. With the incentive of raising money for charity, several of us have decied that we will put or fear of falling to one side. You can choose whether or not to sponsor us, as can anybody else.

[MixedUp]

Of course, Hywel, you have no idea how much i will sponsor myself, or any other YD'er who chooses to do this. With the incentive of raising money for charity, several of us have decied that we will put or fear of falling to one side. You can choose whether or not to sponsor us, as can anybody else.

You made the point very well Morag, and of course as Hywel is obviously concerned about the amount going to charity, he could come along and not take the money for his own jump from what he collects. In which case I would admire his principles rather that slagging off others who are at least trying to do something, rather than sit on their arses.

Sorry if this offends Hywel, but what the hell.

Morag suggested this as a way of getting extra cash into the RNLI, if you don't want to participate then don't. But STFU for those of us that want to help.

As for getting a "jolly" for the day, most of us will probably lose a day's salary for the day, or at least lose a day's leave which amounts to the same thing.

Steve

[uwila]

Scubee - what goes through your head when you about the throw yourself out of the airoplane..?

F






U






U





U





U





U





C





K

And do you get that horrid feeling in your stomach you get when you go down in a lift?

You don't notice that as you're too worried about the newly warm contents of your underwear !


Bea & I did one 3 years ago in the Pyrenees from 12,000 above ground level. The spanish b'stard made sure we went head first for the whole of my first (very loud) swear word (see above )
Bea loved it, I hated it as I walked like John Wayne after landing (see above regarding underwear )

Go on then , put Bea & I down as probables

[Sean]

I've been having a quick trawl around t'internet for sites oop north and have found a couple in the Nottingham area so it may be an idea to have a couple of events running, one in north one in south, same day same time etc depending on how many victims sorry volunteers we get and from where.

As for questions regarding fitness, weight etc there do seem to be a fair few conditions which would stop you from "jumping" but having had a quick read through them most would stop you from diving as well so hopefully there won't be any disappointments. On the subject of weight there generally seems to be a max weight restriction of 15 stone ( i'm going to have to diet quickly or arrange amputation of my left leg ) but that has to be relative to height so i'm afraid obese midgets needn't apply

More info to come!

Oh just realised, on one of the sites there was mention that from start to finish it only takes 30mins to do the drop, i'm going to go back and have another read when i get a minute. 30mins can't include any training can it, perhaps there is no training??????

I think you will find its about right, I used to help out on some of these jumps, tandem you need very little training as you are strapped to the instructor all you need to know is emergency procedure on the aircraft how to exit, and how to land normally on your ass ;o) something to do with the old legs not working. You will exit from 12000 feet depending on the cloud base. For the static line jump you will require 2 days training to complete one jump, all ground training and the jump will be in the afternoon of the last day, weather permitting.

It’s a great way to make money for charity, we always help!! Put the girls out first that way the boys can’t bottle it ;o) cos they will get so much stick. Its great fun I’ve done over 15,000 jumps until SWMBO asked me to stop getting far too old for it now

[paramedic paul]

At the risk of spoiling peoples fun, and no doubt well-intentioned idea, I'm a bit uneasy about this sort of thing. Put bluntly, the idea is that other people donate £1000 in the form of £250 for you personaly (taken in the form of a jolly) and £750 to charity. Sorry to knock it but doesn't sound very cool put like that.

Hywel

I'm sorry you feel this way Hywel and of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you have any other suggestions please let us know.

The way I see it has already been mentioned before, the charity get £750 from your post and I get paid to do a "drop."

I have 2 points to make about that:-

1/ The sites I've looked at charge £250 to do the drop, end of story as far as they're concerned. Anything after that goes direct to, in our case, the RNLI. So, what i'm trying to say is that, the figure of £1000 is fictional, we are not looking to do one of the "Raise a Grand and Trek to Mach Pichu" jobs, we are hoping to raise ANY amount for the RNLI so if a jumper raised £251 the charity would only get a quid, not a lot but every little helps.

2/ As for me getting a freebie, have a go yourself. Take my place if you like, i'll sponsor you!

Take care.

[hogen-deifar]

At the risk of upsetting a few people I am going to have to agree with this. It cost me a lot of money to do Tough Guy and London - definately a lot more than £250. I paid it myself because it didn't seem right to take it out of the money people had donated to charity

I'm in two minds over this. I completely agree with you. I did the MoonWalk last year and I spent a lot of money buying the right shoes (about £80) that I knew I'd never wear again because I don't do much walking on the roads, mainly in fields with the dogs. I also bought a lot of other clothes that I wouldn't normally wear. I didn't have to pay the entrance fee because my firm covered that cost and the cost of printing their name on the official T-Shirts, because they sponsored us to do the walk.

On the other hand, I don't have £250 to pay for the tandem jump, but I do have the contacts where I can get hold of a fair bit of sponsorship. If I sit at home and watch the TV, which will not cost me anything, no one will sponsor me, but if I do the tandem I can get quite a bit from various sources. I agree. Taking the £250 out doesn't seem quite right, and if I were sponsoring someone I wouldn't be happy that a percentage is going to the cost of the jump. That's why I refuse to use the JustGiving site to pay. They take a percentage of the amount given over their site. I'd rather post the cash to the person or hand it to someone to give to that person. That way I know the whole amount sponsored goes to the charity.

As much as I want to do this to help, the bit about the cost coming from the sponsorship has been playing on my mind. And although I'm not yet pulling out, is there another way round this to try and resolve it so all concerned are happy???? I've tried thinking of various options, but can't think of anything? Holding a carboot of unwanted household junk to raise the money to pay for the jump is one way of doing it I guess? The problem is I don't have anything lying around anymore. Because I had to downsize when I split from my ex I gave about £1k worth of stuff away to charity - I felt they could benefit from the stuff more than I could.

Anyone got any thoughts??

[Morag]

As far as i know, not one of the people who is jumping has said they are not putting anything in. This isn't about any one of us getting a freebie, it is about raising money for RNLI.

The 4 of us who volunteered to do the fundraising asked for ideas for raising money. This was one of them.

We have decided not to use the justgiving site because of the commission they charge.

There are many ways of raising money for charity. Over the years, i have chosen not to sponsor someone because of what they chose to do to raise money. I suggest that those of you who feel strongly about this do what i do... don't sponsor, but for goodness sake, don't make people feel guilty about what they choose to do to raise money.

AFAIUI, the full amount gos to th charity, and it is the people who run the events who subsidise the jump. At least, that is the way it worked when i did the jumps for Cancer Research, although it was 20 years ago.

[thirtymetres]

How are going with this? Are the dates confirmed - as time is ticking and I need to start rattling my tin - and as I'm now living in Devon need to sort logistics.

Booked the day off... need to organise medical (being on the wrong side of 40) must find a doc who will approve of throwing body out of a plane

Never done this before so.... gulp!

[jamielob]

I commend you all for taking the time to do this. Charirty fundraising is also about having fun and inspiring other people to get off their asses and do something themselves. Bravo!

I'm extremely scared of heights (falling specifically) but a skydive has been one of the best things I've ever done. If anyone's interested here's a video of the jump I did last year (about halfway down the page). I'm the second jumper in the video.

Jamie

p.s. The jump in the video was from 15,000 ft.

[Sean]

I'm in two minds over this. I completely agree with you. I did the MoonWalk last year and I spent a lot of money buying the right shoes (about £80) that I knew I'd never wear again because I don't do much walking on the roads, mainly in fields with the dogs. I also bought a lot of other clothes that I wouldn't normally wear. I didn't have to pay the entrance fee because my firm covered that cost and the cost of printing their name on the official T-Shirts, because they sponsored us to do the walk.

On the other hand, I don't have £250 to pay for the tandem jump, but I do have the contacts where I can get hold of a fair bit of sponsorship. If I sit at home and watch the TV, which will not cost me anything, no one will sponsor me, but if I do the tandem I can get quite a bit from various sources. I agree. Taking the £250 out doesn't seem quite right, and if I were sponsoring someone I wouldn't be happy that a percentage is going to the cost of the jump. That's why I refuse to use the JustGiving site to pay. They take a percentage of the amount given over their site. I'd rather post the cash to the person or hand it to someone to give to that person. That way I know the whole amount sponsored goes to the charity.

As much as I want to do this to help, the bit about the cost coming from the sponsorship has been playing on my mind. And although I'm not yet pulling out, is there another way round this to try and resolve it so all concerned are happy???? I've tried thinking of various options, but can't think of anything? Holding a carboot of unwanted household junk to raise the money to pay for the jump is one way of doing it I guess? The problem is I don't have anything lying around anymore. Because I had to downsize when I split from my ex I gave about £1k worth of stuff away to charity - I felt they could benefit from the stuff more than I could.

Anyone got any thoughts??

The way I look at it is if you do nothing the RNLI get nothing, you do something and then they do, the cost for the Jump £250 has not changed for years. In my parachuting days I have seen 100’s of people doing this; it’s a real fun and terrifying day. If someone raised £251 then I would be concerned and think that maybe others would to, on the other hand if someone raised £1000 that means the RNLI get £750 that they never had and to me that’s a big plus, and offsets the £250.

Sean