You're never too old

It was a pretty inauspicious day on which to fulfil the dream of a lifetime: Friday 13 July. Connie Pidd admits if she had been a superstitious woman, she would never have allowed herself to be lifted into the cockpit of the glider at the Wolds Gliding Club at Pocklington that day. But today she does not regret it.

"It was a lovely experience," she says. "The views were amazing. You could see everywhere, all around: the Humber Bridge, the Pennines. And it was so peaceful. There was no noise at all. You didn't have the sensation of flying at all; you felt as if you were just hovering there."

The most amazing thing about the whole trip is that Connie, who is 80, suffers from arthritis and osteoporosis and uses a wheelchair. Even though it had been her dream to go up in a glider for years - ever since her nephew, Paul, got a glider pilot's qualification as a young man - when she turned up at the gliding club that day she thought it would be as a spectator only.

Other family members were going on the trip - but she thought there was no way she'd be able to get into the cockpit.

"I was so jealous!" she says. "But when we got there, they said there was no problem. They just pushed me over in the wheelchair, lifted me out and up into the cockpit!"

She was so thrilled by the whole experience she's now hoping to do it again - and also go up in a helicopter.

But if she had wanted all her life to go up in a glider, why leave it so late?

Her answer is typical of many of her generation.

"There was just never the opportunity," she says. "When I was younger we couldn't have afforded it, and when I got older, I didn't know who to contact to arrange it."

The truth probably is that if you had suggested the idea of going up in a glider to Connie when she was a young woman, she would probably have laughed outright - or thought you were mad.

Back in those days of post-war austerity, people had other things on their minds - making a home, earning a living wage and raising a family, for a start.

Connie married at 19 - though only, she points out, because her fianc Jack was about to be posted overseas to fight in the war, otherwise her dad wouldn't have allowed it - and once the war was over, the couple brought up three daughters.

They both had jobs: but wages weren't what they are today and times were hard.

"Wages weren't very high in those days and there was no room for luxuries," says Connie. "We didn't have so many chances, then."

But times have changed - and if all your life you have dreamed of going up in a hot air balloon or parachuting out of an aeroplane at 10,000 feet, there has never been a better time to do it than now, whatever your age.

Bill Rule, of the Merlin Parachute Centre, based at Topcliffe near Thirsk, says there is nothing to stop an older person doing a spot of sky-diving. His own mother is about to jump for the first time at the age of 78, he says - and the centre has even had an 84-year-old nun who made a jump.

Older jumpers are asked to get a medical certificate first, he admits. "And we prefer them to do a tandem skydive, where they are attached in a harness to an instructor who will bring them out of the aircraft and safely down to earth." But that doesn't make it any less fun. "And it's not a dangerous sport," Bill insists. "It's a safe sport."

For Jim Ellis-Beech, simple skydiving is a bit old hat. At 81, the daredevil pensioner is about to embark on a day of hair-raising activities to raise money for arthritis research - and in a bid to get into the Guiness Book of Records too.

On August 27, he will start with a bit of 'normal' wing-walking at Elvington. Then he will be up in a plane which will attempt to land on the back of a moving truck.

After that, he will head for Sherburn-in-Elmet to do some aerobatic loop-the-loops.

Then it is over to Cleckheaton for a bungee-jump, back to Strensall (he hopes, Army permitting) to tackle the assault course, up to Sutton Bank for some abseiling and finally over to Toplcliffe to make a parachute jump.

He hopes by doing all seven such activities in one day he will be able, at the age of 81, to set a record. Is he mad? Certainly not. "It's exhilarating!" he says.

Jim, from Bishop Monkton, near Ripon, admits that, having been an Army PT instructor for 25 years, he's probably fitter than your average octogenarian. He has done many daredevil stunts before, most recently last year.

But he's all for older people getting out and about more. It doesn't have to be a parachute jump from 10,000 feet, he says. "Even if it's just a regular game of whist, it's got to be good to keep a bit more active!"

If you want an adventure sport where you can keep your feet on the ground, Sheila Locker might have just the thing.

At 67 Sheila, of the Old Priory Judo Club in York, is a judo Black Belt. And, while she suffers arthritis in her knees and shoulder, can't walk far and has been forced to give up competition, she's still giving lessons to youngsters a quarter of her age.

She says judo is great because it is one of the few sports where age really is respected - the longer you've been doing it, the more experience and wisdom you have to offer, is the attitude.

If you're in your seventies, she admits, it's probably too late to expect to become a champion - but she could certainly teach a few gentle self-defence moves.

And there is always Tai Chi, an ancient and gentle form of Chinese exercise that is excellent for older people. "It's a very calming sort of exercise," she says.

Calming it may not be, but if you fancy the thrills and spills of sailing without ever having to take to the waves, land-yachting might be the activity for you. After a lifetime of sailing at sea, Roy Laurie took up land-yachting just a few years ago - and now, at the age of 72, he's the secretary of York Land Yacht Club and having the time of his life.

You have to be reasonably fit, he admits - but it's certainly a sport that can be enjoyed by young and old alike.

"I did 81mph yesterday on the airfield (Elvington, where the Land Yacht Club regularly meets). It certainly keeps the senses awake!" he says.

u Merlin Parachute Centre can be contacted via Bill Rule on 01204 391860. The Wolds Gliding Club can be reached on 01759 303579. To find out about judo or Tai Chi, call Sheila Locker on 01904 783283. Roy Laurie of the York Land Yacht Club is on 01904 448618. To sponsor Jim Ellis-Beech (all money to the Alzheimers Society) call him on 01765 677901.

Updated: 10:34 Tuesday, August 07, 2001