The sky's the limit... or not!
On his 90th birthday Calpe resident Sam Sampson jumped from a plane at 14,000 feet and survived!
WELL, now I have your attention this is not fake news but is essentially the truth. However, I have to add that Sam Sampson wore a parachute and was not alone – he was attached to a professional skydiver!
To understand why Sam did this jump we have to go back in time to a few years before he moved to Spain.
In 1978 when Sam (with a little help from me, Pam) ran a village pub in Northamptonshire. We were persuaded to do a sponsored parachute jump for charity. The locals thought we were mad but we inveigled a good friend and the local doctor to join us.
We duly set off to the local Sibson airfield and Peterborough Parachute Centre. We were in for about 24 hours of basic training which involved learning to PLF (parachute landing fall), jumping from a 30ft tower in a harness to practice our landings, and then being informed of things like judging the wind force, how far to the drop zone etc, and how to operate the emergency parachute should the main one not deploy! We had it all pat, we were exhausted but ready.
The four of us arrived at the appointed hour to don our jumpsuits and parachutes and take our places on the adapted Islander. Adapted by having one side of it cut out and open to the sky! We sat with legs out of the plane to await the cue to jump (fall) out one at a time.
I can tell you that the initial jump and wait for the static line to do its work is just as bad as you can imagine it to be!
A week or so later when Sam was away I nipped back and did two more jumps alone – this time from a Cessna where I had to climb out on a wing. Sam would not have this and he went on to do 12 jumps over a period of time!
Typical Sam, so it was no surprise to me that he decided to mark his 90th birthday with a parachute jump, and when he was in the UK recently, he arranged it. He also got a few mad friends to do it with him, including my daughter Jo.
Our friend Barbara Hatton, once also a Calpe resident, added her story:
When Sam mentioned his plan to celebrate his 90th birthday by plummeting to Earth from what turned out to be a rickety old plane over the Northamptonshire countryside, we were ensconced in a cosy bar in Tallin in November 2019 amongst convivial company and the other side of several celebratory drinks on the occasion of my 60th birthday. When he asked for volunteers and several people with a more tenuous link to the aforementioned Sam agreed with alacrity, I felt that I had to do the right thing and accompany the silly old fool on his purported adventure.
Well, a lot did happen before then including the coronavirus pandemic which at one time looked to be a valid reason to call the whole thing off.
Sam’s birthday came around and due to the wrong kind of clouds in the sky, the most dangerous thing that any of us did that day was order a vindaloo in the local Indian restaurant where we still got together to celebrate
this momentous occasion. However, relief was short lived... Sam changed his flight and the jump was rebooked.
The day dawned and we all made our way to the airfield with various degrees of trepidation.
We had our training session and one by one were introduced to and harnessed up by our jump partners.
Mine was called Mike and he turned out to be a lovely man in spite of his opening remarks to me which were: “What’s this? A Saga day out?" I decided to let him live as I was going to be shackled to him when I leapt out of the plane at 14,000 feet! Sam resplendent in suit trousers and an Arsenal shirt would be jumping first with a cameraman to film his daring caper.
As one by one my fellow skydivers shuffled to the open door and disappeared, I too moved toward the hatch and tumbled out into the most exhilarating experience I have ever had. The ground seemed so distant and though we were freefalling towards it so quickly the extreme distance made it feel safe and the knowledge that a parachute would open fairly soon was both reassuring and disappointing as after this happened the rest of the descent whilst hugely enjoyable did not match the adrenalin inducing first minute of the dive.
What I will say is that Sam is an amazing man for doing it at 90 years old and after a triple bypass. As for myself, I wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world.