A HIGH-FLYING 78-year-old has finally got his wings.
David Powell completed a life-long ambition when he jumped from a plane at 15,000 feet – raising £1,300 for charity in the process.
It was a landmark moment for the Horley resident who underwent parachute training in the 1970s while serving with the Military Police.
Despite his hard work, an Achilles injury scuppered his plans to join the paras, leaving Mr Powell grounded until last month when he finally took the tandem leap – which has been almost 40 years in the making.
"It was amazing," he told the Mirror.
"It was very hard to breathe just on the edge of needing oxygen. I sat on the edge of the plane and I rolled out and did a somersault.
"It was way above the clouds and it was just like being a bird.
"It was wonderful.
"To be way up there looking over the clouds and then jump is incredible."
In 1971 Mr Powell was serving with the Military Police in Germany when the 16th Independent Parachute Brigade began recruiting for a new staff sergeant.
Despite being in his mid 30s – nearly 20 years older than other trainees – Mr Powell undertook the parachute training to apply for the role. But before he got to his first jump, injury struck.
"I was quite close to going parachuting then I pulled my Achilles tendon," he said. "I was limping for a year and had to pull out of the paras.
"So doing this fulfilled a bit of a dream."
On May 5, after two aborted attempts earlier in the year, Mr Powell boarded a plane at Old Sarum Airfield, Salisbury, and ascended to 15,000 feet.
He says that, sat on the edge looking down at the clouds below him, he felt only exhilaration rather than fear.
"I had a go steering it," he said. "The instructor handed me the chords and you can really steer them around like a car."
Mr Powell, who is a Horley town councillor and a Reigate and Banstead borough councillor, had received an e-mail from the Surrey Care Trust asking him if he would like to do the jump to raise money for the charity.
Setting a fundraising target of £500 he has raised nearly three times that.
But finally completing a skydive has left Mr Powell hungry for more.
He said: "I'm going to do it again for my 80th birthday and then maybe my 85th too."
