Gravity is the invisible force that keeps our feet on the ground, sets the solar system spinning and binds the entire galaxy together, yet we hardly notice it in our day to day lives. If you want to feel the raw power of this fundamental force, you have to break out of your routine, take to the skies in a plane, and then, purely and simply, jump out. This is the extreme sport of skydiving, in which you put yourself at the mercy of gravity and experience freefall, before entering a controlled descent to the Earth with a parachute. You need wide, open space to perform these jumps, and the closest of these to London is near the towns of Reading and Wokingham in Berkshire.

Where to go skydiving in Berkshire?

The only center specializing in this sport is just 45 minutes from Berkshire in the city of Salisbury and is easily accessible by car from the A343 road. The drop zone is located at Old Sarum Airfield. From our center the views you will get during the jump are some of the best panoramic in the country, you will see the Chiltern Hills during the flight in the plane and the city of Reading will be at your feet with the rural area that surrounds it.

What kind of jumps can you organise?

If you stop for a moment to imagine yourself standing in the open doorway of an aeroplane in flight, you’ll understand why you have to be brave to jump. The activity starts at 13,000 feet, that’s 4,000 metres above the ground. The jump lasts only a few minutes, but it’s a journey of several vertical kilometres that releases more adrenaline and endorphins than pretty much any other extreme sport around. This rush will stay with you long after you land, and the memories will last a lifetime, making this an experience that’s worth every penny.

• Tandem jump: For most people, the idea of skydiving is enough to make their head spin, but don’t worry - you don’t have to take on this awesome challenge alone. Almost all first time jumpers take part in a tandem jump, in which they’re strapped to an experienced instructor who takes care of all the tricky bits involved. They’ll give you a short training session at ground level, which includes an explanation of the equipment and how you should behave at each stage of the jump, and after reaching the jump altitude, they’ll accompany you from leaving the plane to landing. A tandem jump allows you to feel the sensation of freefall without having to worry about the details - a perfect way to inject some adrenaline into your day!

• Charity jump: This sport is one of the most effective feats that you can perform in order to raise money for a good cause. Anyone can go for a run or organise a bake sale, but showing that you’re willing to throw yourself out of a plane for your charity of choice is a surefire way to get people’s attention, and convince them that you take this cause seriously. A huge number of charities are partnered with the centre that displays its activity here, and some of them will allow you to deduct the cost of the jump from the money that you raise, meaning that you don’t have to dig deep into your own pocket in order to make a difference. All charity jumps are conducted in tandem with an instructor.

• AFF Course: If this activity isn’t just a one off, bucket list kind of experience and you want to make this extreme sport a part of your life, you’ll need to take a course. The training you need is AFF, Advanced Free Fall, training, and it’s a mixed programme of multiple jumps alongside “ground school” instruction. Becoming a qualified skydiver takes some time and multiple days of training, but you can reach level one in just one day, the culmination of which is an individual skydive with no one strapped to your back!

• Indoor: A wind tunnel is a piece of kit that imitates freefall. Essentially, it’s a vertical tube with a powerful fan at the bottom which generates enough force for a person to hover in the aircurrent. Air tunnel sessions are often a part of AFF skydiving courses, but they can also be organised alone. It’s good fun, an exciting experience, and there’s no danger of cancellation due to bad weather! It is located in the town of Basingstoke.

Requirements to do this activity

When it comes to jumping out of a plane and falling back towards the Earth, it’s important that everyone knows and understands the risks involved. Safety systems and experienced instructors reduce these risks to almost nil, but still, the team in charge will only take people over 16 years of age on a tandem skydive, or a training course. In addition, those under 18 years of age will need their parents’ permission.

Weight is also a factor to consider when pitching yourself against gravity and using a parachute to descend safely. The maximum weight for participating in a skydive in Berkshire is 15 stone, or 95 kilograms.

How long does an experience last?

- As we’ve mentioned before, it’s a pretty quick ride back to the ground once you leave the plane. The whole process of a tandem skydive, however, takes several hours. You’ll do some paperwork on arrival, and then receive a briefing which lasts about 20 minutes. After that, the plane needs to be prepared for take off, and you need to reach the jumping altitude above the drop zone. Combine all of that with the time it will take you to compose yourself after completing this daredevil stunt, and you can expect to be on site in the airfield for 2 to 3 hours.

- If you’re coming to become a fully fledged skydiver, you need to complete all 8 levels of AFF training, which in total takes about 4 days. But you don’t have to commit to the whole course at once, you can take a 1 day introduction here. Most of it will be ground based, but you’ll end the day by donning your own parachute and taking to the skies with two instructors, who’ll jump with you as you complete your first individual jump alone.

How can you enhance your activity?

You might be worried about forgetting some of the details of your skydive, or struggling to convince people that you really were brave enough to jump. We can put your mind at ease by telling you that there is the option to have your jump caught on camera. From the Berkshire airfield, to the moment you leave the plane, through freefall and the parachute descent and back to the ground, you can be filmed by a dedicated camera operator. They’ll jump from the plane just before you and take video and still images of your face and the huge panoramas below you, it’s a cinematic experience like no other.

Don’t let your nerves get in the way, jump right into this adventure!