Field notes:

Learning to fly: A 1000-mile road trip down the US coast to learn skydiving
US Marines, Skydiving malfunctions, Parachute deployment, Accelerated free fall (AFF), Kennedy Space Centre, Titusville, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Virginia, Road trip, Skydiving, americas, usa Chris Shirley MA FRGS US Marines, Skydiving malfunctions, Parachute deployment, Accelerated free fall (AFF), Kennedy Space Centre, Titusville, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Virginia, Road trip, Skydiving, americas, usa Chris Shirley MA FRGS

Learning to fly: A 1000-mile road trip down the US coast to learn skydiving

Working alongside the US Marines in Quantico, Virginia, near Washington DC in 2010, I had a chance to participate in an accelerated free fall (AFF) skydiving course that overlooked the awe-inspiring Cape Canaveral space centre. The catch? It was a thousand-mile roadtrip to Titusville, Florida.

Beginning with ground school, the dramatic journey to becoming a licensed skydiver would see me jumping out of a twin-turboprop Super King Air aircraft at 17,500 ft with the iconic Kennedy Space Centre in the background, and see me experiencing a parachute malfunction at 3,000 ft!

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