HIS career in the skies may be over, but at the age of 74 old soldier Major Barry Andrews is still determined to get airborne.

Despite undergoing hip replacement surgery last year, the adventure-loving pensioner from West Moors has vowed to continue to enjoy the thrills and spills of skydiving.

He told the Daily Echo: “My doctor says it’s fine, but he’s a former Royal Marine so that’s hardly surprising.

“Skydiving is fun and I do it for the thrill of it.”

Barry’s wife, Diana, can’t complain. A retired Airborne Forces Museum curator, she shares her husband’s passion and has jumped from a plane at 12,000ft.

After a long and distinguished career with the Parachute Regiment, serving with five battalions and Depot Para, Barry retired in May 1992. He has just become president of the Wessex branch of the Parachute Regiment Association in Dorset, taking over from Major General Sir Geoffrey Howlett.

Barry said: “It is a great honour. I’ve quite a few plans for the unit such as taking our old boys to Arnhem in September where we will be watching parachuting.

“I completed a parachute jump in Arnhem in 1992 – it must have been quite frightening for those men who jumped during the Battle of Arnhem in 1944.”

During the famous Second World War military engagement, Allied paratroopers were dropped to secure key bridges.

Barry added: “I’ve jumped from up to 28,000ft in France and wanted to jump from Everest this year but they wouldn’t let me. The last time I was skydiving was in Cornwall when I jumped from 15,000ft. There’s no way I’ll stop now that I’ve had my hip done.”