Skydiving

Memories

Above: Clem talks about the best and worst parts of his job.

Above: The instructors use a system called Sat 24 to check the all-important weather forecast.

"There’s a tradition in skydiving, if somebody does something for the first time you buy them a crate of beer. A young girl did her very first freefall on Sunday, so at the end of the day she got a crate of beer and suddenly she had 23 friends for about an hour."

How do you jump out of a hot air balloon?

"It’s very odd. You climb up and shuffle around the edge of the balloon and all the time you’re thinking “I could fall off!” But of course, you’re going to jump off in a minute so it doesn’t matter if you fall off. You just climb up and then “one, two, three” and you all just go." 

Clem's favourite part of the job is working with lots of fun, energetic and generous people.

Headcorn employs 3 full-time instructors, but there can be up to a dozen working part-time at the weekend.

Their day jobs range from blacksmiths to scaffolders to teachers.

© AirAffair 2015

Below: Clem remembers his favourite jumps.