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Part 2

Part 3

“100% OF THE COSTS OF THIS WORD RECORD WERE MET THROUGH PERSONAL FUNDS OF THE DIRECTOR AND HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS. PROJECT O DID NOT CONTRIBUTE TO THE EXPENSES OF THIS WORLD RECORD IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM”

On the 6th March at 10:45am local time I jumped out of a helicopter from 2,800 feet. I opened my parachute after 1.5 seconds. We opened over the ocean and flew back to land on the beach where over 1000 Vietnamese locals looked on with interest. I jumped with Wendy Smith who happens to be the number one rated female skydiver in the world as well as flying the camera for me that day.

It was a day of firsts.

• First time I had been to Vietnam
• First time I had jumped out of a helicopter (or even being on one!)
• First time I had jumped from 2,800 feet (I usually jump from around 13,000 feet!)
• First time I had jumped onto a beach
• First time anyone in history has skydived on six continents in six days!
• First time many people had heard of 3 million orphans in South Africa!

Everything went well! We didn’t miss a flight. We didn’t have any really bad weather.

We made every pick up and every connection. It was a logistical nightmare organizing such a trip that took us to 6 continents, 9 countries, and 14 flights adding up to 92 hours in flying time in just 7 days!

We had an amazing experience and met some amazing people, really amazing.

View our Gallery of Jumps 

1. Africa
2. Europe - Madrid, spain
3. South America - Venezuela4. North America - Los Angeles, California
5. Australia - Syndney
6. Asia - Vietnam, Nha Trang

The Guinness book of records will take around 4 weeks to process the application.

Our spin on it is that it took us 150 hours from first jump to final jump. We went over the 6th block of 24 hours by 6 hours! As we could not get an earlier connection flight in Ho Chi Minh City which would have got us to the drop zone earlier enough to jump the day before? As it was we missed the earlier flight by 40 minutes which in the end cost us 17 hours! It matters not. 150 hours is still a world record and it will take some beating as everything has to go right to pull this off!

Within a day of returning we had secured two BBC1 interview dates and interviews and reports on radio and newspapers from UK, LA, Venezuela, and South Africa.

The aim of this world record was never about raising money. We put it together with very little notice or time for fund raising. The main aim was publicity. With setting a new world record comes interviews and the like and this will bring in new sponsors and new funding.

We are excited to see where this will all end!

We fully believe that the 7000 pounds of personal money put in by family and friends will bring in a surge of publicity around the world which will go a long way in changing the lives of many of South Africa’s many AIDS orphan.

For the record I used to be afraid of flying. Looking back on this last week – it is hard to believe.

Please take a moment to look at the photos attached. Maybe you could forward this to your address book. Tell everyone you know that someone you know skydived 6 times on 6 continents in 6 days!

WHY? Did he do that? They may ask?

You can tell them-

He was screaming for all his worth-

"Millions of orphans living and dying alone without parents!

These are children not livestock.

We can’t just sit back and do nothing!

This cannot be ignored!

Let us do as the occasion demands!

We need a global response to this global problem!

This has to be one of the biggest humanitarian disasters on earth.

We can do this.

Me and you!

Sponsor a child- TODAY

Do a fund raiser!

Bake a cake,

Wash a car,

Do something, do anything!

Play a part, play your part!

WE CANNOT LEAVE THESE CHILDREN ALONE!

ACT!"

Check out the “PUBLICITY” section on our website www.projecto.org.za

A video of the world record attempt will be put on there in a week or so.

Thanks everybody for your support!

God bless

Martin Downs