James Osborne flying towards the ground during his recent skydiving jump.

It’s not every day that an 85-year-old man is falling out of the sky, but that’s what Vernonite James Osborne was doing during this August long weekend.

Osborne, who is a Vernon author, had jumped twice before, once when he was 70-years-old and another at 80-years-old. His original plan was to jump once every 10 years, but decided to change his schedule to every five years.

“When I told my wife I was going to jump for 85 she said, ‘Okay, well, since you decided on that, I’ll pay for you to jump for your 90th as an incentive,’” said Osborne.

Along for the ride in his most recent jump was his daughter Kim, who jumped with Osborne for the second time.

Osborne added that his most recent jump was to celebrate the release of his new book “The Plot to Assassinate Secret Shepherd Conspiracies.” This is the second book in a three part series of international crime thrillers.

Osborne also recently signed a seven-book deal with his publisher, Next Chapter Publishing Inc.

“Some of it is based on some of my experiences as a journalist and there’s a variety of books,” said Osborne.

Osborne added that skydiving in the Okanagan was spectacular.

“When you get up at 10,000 feet and have a look at the Valley, it’s even more spectacular than you can imagine,” said Osborne.