A FORMER Paratrooper could never quite convince his mates in the pub of his heroics in the 1970s.

Philip Hull served for two years with the Parachute Regiment which saw him work for the United Nations in Cyprus and witness an IRA bombing.

The Rastrick grandfather’s mates down the local joked with him that he must have been the squadron tea boy rather than a paratrooper.

Now, 42 years later, the 66-year-old jumped out of a plane once again to finally prove he was made of sterner stuff.

Philip, a self-employed bricklayer, said: “It was in the early 70s when I was a member of the Parachute Regiment and had to do eight jumps as part of basic training and two or three more a year to keep up what was known as Para pay.

“I’d jumped out of a plane at 800ft during the day time and 1,000ft at night time.

“But talking to friends in the pub they never believed me – they joked that instead of wings I had two soup ladles on my arms. They thought I was the cook or something.

“I had to prove them wrong.”

Last month Philip entered a competition called Bing Is For Doing, where people are encouraged to tell Bing what they want to do and the search engine might make it happen.

He asked to jump out of a plane and the strand of Microsoft arranged it – four decades after his last jump.

And this time he was flying high with the Red Devils.

The tandem skydive was arranged with a Red Devil who also arranged for him to wear his old parachute regiment uniform and a red beret which he was thrilled about.

The father-of-five added: “I did a tandem freefall as they wouldn’t let me jump out of a military plane at my age.

“The jump was 12,500ft and I enjoyed it so much I did it twice.

“Of course my friends say it was a stand-in and not me, even though they’ve seen the video.”

Wife Christine remained at home while Philip did the jump, but he was cheered on by Kurt and Ebony, two of his grandchildren.