Flying High

14 Oct 2017

Ilma Sinclair, of the Tollgates Combined Probus Club, has just completed her tenth tandem skydive.

It was just five years ago that Ilma Sinclair saw her first skydiving video and decided she wanted to give it a try. Growing up at Cootamundra in New South Wales, she used to watch paratroopers training at the air base and wonder what it would be like. “During the war, we lived near an air force depot, and we used to see the parachutes,” says Ilma. “I was fascinated with them. And I hoped ‘one day…’ but I never expected it would happen.”

Adrenaline junkie

When she was old enough, Ilma signed up for the army in the hope of finding some excitement and adventure. “I was stationed in Sydney and I thought I was going to win the war, you know. But I ended up in an office on a switchboard.” So years later, when she was first exposed to the idea of skydiving, she thought she’d give it a try. “My grandson’s wife showed me a video of her skydiving that she had taken up in Queensland. And I said I’d

like to have a go,” she says. “I just loved it. It’s the scenery that gets you. You’re way up in the sky and you look down and you can see for miles. The coastline is absolutely beautiful.”

Hanging up the parachute

Now that she’s completed her tenth skydive, Ilma is unsure whether she’ll continue with her unconventional hobby. “When I started everybody was saying ‘Are you gonna do it again?’. And I said ‘Yes, I might do 10 and then give it away’,” Ilma explains. “But if it happens to be a nice day and I’m feeling okay, I might go and do it. Who knows?” Ilma’s daughters won’t be encouraging her to pick up a parachute again. “They reckon I’m mad,” she says. “They won’t do it. They want their feet fi rmly on the ground. They don’t know what they’re missing.”

The adventure continues

While she might have stopped hurling herself out of planes, Ilma will continue to travel the country with her friends from the Tollgate Combined Probus Club. “I’ve done quite a few trips up and down Australia, one to Tasmania and New Zealand,” she says. “And I’m off to Lightning Ridge in May.”