David Chinn (Engineering, 1980-83)

Student in parachute gear, having landed on the lawn at Van Mildert College I cannot believe that it is now over 40 years since I made a parachute jump into Van Mildert College on Mildert Day 1983.

For those of a certain generation John Noakes was an inspiration, and I wanted to do everything that he had done!

When I arrived at Durham in autumn 1980, I immediately joined the Freefall Club and rapidly became the captain (nobody else wanted to do it). As soon as I became half-competent, it occurred to me that it would be fun to jump into Van Mildert.

It took until my third year for the plan to come to fruition. By that time, I was doing simple display jumps as part of Sunderland Parachute Club. The club said they would be happy for me to jump into Mildert as long as College gave permission. Arnold Bradshaw obliged, so the jump was on.

On the day the weather gods were smiling, and so I jumped into Mildert along with two others. I took a box of Milk Tray chocolates with me for my girlfriend, later my wife, Kathryn Elliott. I was pretty nervous: it’s quite a small space to parachute into, but it was a real buzz.

40 years later, in Summer 2023, I decided to revisit Van Mildert from the air. Although I haven’t parachuted for years, I do have a private pilot’s licence, and so I flew over Mildert, which brought back some great memories. It’s difficult to believe it was so long ago.