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OUR FLY FOR FREE FUNDRAISING CHALLENGE
The idea of Humber Parascending’s Fly for Free Challenge came about after we were contacted by Sir Richard Branson’s office back in 2004 asking if we would be able to assist him in parasailing across the English Channel to France.
To cut a long story short, Sir Richard ended up choosing to cross the Channel in an amphibious car instead, and we sadly never got the opportunity to be involved in his challenge - but that gave us the idea of trying to create our own record breaking challenge.
It was confirmed by the Guinness World Records that nobody else had flown a distance of 8 miles in a parachute over water before, so we contacted our local newspaper and through them we asked if anyone would be interested in taking part in our very own world record attempt on the River Humber.
We were overwhelmed by the response we got, and felt as there were so many willing people we owed it to all of them to open the whole event up to as many people as we could, and see if we could raise some money for charity at the same time.
To start the ball rolling, we chose the Coastguard Association as the first charity to benefit from what we decided to call our Fly for Free Challenge. We then asked everyone who wanted to be in with a chance to fly 8 miles in a parachute to raise as much money as they could for the Coastguard Association. Provided they raised a minimum of £40 they were eligible to fly for free. The person who raised the most money would have the opportunity to fly the record breaking 8 miles, and they could also choose the charity we would support at the next year’s challenge. Our first winner did indeed complete the 8 mile marathon parasail but we were extremely disappointed that the Guinness World Records team refused to acknowledge what we were doing as any kind of record, stating that what we were doing was a “first” not a record.
We were even more upset when they pointed us in the direction of our (then) governing body - the British Hang Gliding and Parachuting Association (B.H.P.A). A representative of the B.H.P.A. called Mark Dale dismissed what we were doing in writing as (quote) ”A simple media stunt”.
He further went on to tell us “The BHPA has never been interested in simple media stunts. Our 'records' are for soaring flight: we have never ever had records for towing people around - rather too close to Caravan Club 'reversing' competitions and 'standing on one leg' competitions!... I’m sure this sort of stunt will have been done before back in the 60’s and 70’s, when Roy Castle did the Thames on a round canopy.”
We were shocked at this arrogant and elitist attitude. Sadly because the BHPA were seen as the authority over all airborne activities, their negative attitude impacted on certain of the charities we raised money for. As a result they were unable (to use their words) “to endorse or promote” our activities, even though they were happy to accept our money.. It didn't deter us from continuing however and we never lost the belief that what we were doing was something special. Even without the support of certain of the charities we assisted we still raised over £2500 across the four years we ran the challenges.
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