Sky Diving Event June 4th 2011

[Jeff (Philly)]

I just saw this skydiving event listed in Der Gasser and I went to look for my skydiving log books from years gone by and found them.

On Oct 12, 1968 my little brother wanted to sky dive. We lived in Minneapolis and he found a drop zone in Osceola WI about an hour away. I went with him to watch. Then I found out he had to go through two or three hours of training, jumping off the back of a pick up truck. I decided that was too much time to watch, it would be boring, so I joined in the training because it was cheap.

I made my first jump Oct 12, 1968. If I recall it cost $10 or $15 for the training and the first ride up in a Cessna 182. On the first jump I was thinking that if my brother, who was to jump first, died then I would have a good excuse not to go through with it. My brother survived the jump and I followed him out of the plane on the next pass over the drop zone leaving finger prints in the metal of the Cessna wing strut not wanting to let go.

I made a total of 195 jumps. Most were jumping at our home base, the grass runway strip in Osceola WI. The cost for the ride up with the Cessna owner, Ernie Joyner, I recall was $3 for 2,500 feet, $5 for 7,500 feet (30 seconds of free fall) and $10 for 12,000 feet (60 seconds of free fall).

As you might imagine there were numerous experiences:

I jumped at a competition meet in Thunder Bay Canada landing on ice covered Lake Superior in a foot of slush on top of the ice and then having to help push out the snowmobile that came out to rescue me and got stuck. I was at a meet in Sioux Falls SD in 1969 and jumped on the same day they first landed on the moon. I lived in France and jumped at La Ferte Gauche just east of Paris. In France their rip cord pull altitude was higher (something to do with meters) so my jump mate whose wrists I was holding firmly in free fall began to panic as we sank through their minimum pull altitude. I was properly scolded afterwards, I think, not completely understanding what they were saying. My last jump was in Hartwood VA in 1976 when I worked in Washington DC. I decided after the last 1976 jump that this would be my last attempt to recapture my youth.

My coldest jump was when it was -20[suP]0 [/suP]F on the ground in Osceola WI (you need to dress properly for a cold jump, ski mask, goggles, warm under ware, etc). My highest altitude jumped was just over 13,000 ft. During all my jumps I logged about an hour of free fall, not a long time but earned a few seconds at a time. I broke my leg in a competition event, pushing it, trying to hit the tiny target on the ground. I had three main chute malfunctions where I had to cut away from the main chute and land with my reserve. My first malfunction was during a feeble “Osceola WI�? attempt to do a 12 man relative work hook up jumping out of a DC3 (we thought we could be like the California guys in Elsinore you see in the pictures).

I owned a round canopy with a model name of ‘Thunder Ball’, I forget the manufacturer. I only have one photo of me under that canopy just coming into land which I think was the only time I ever hit the target. Maybe I hit it because I was hung over or just lucky. There was always a lot of drinking in the local Osceola bar after jumping to exchange stories about the thrills of the day. There was a sign in the Osceola hangar we used as a club house; "It is not the skydiving that will kill you, it is the drinking afterwards and the long drive home".

I became a jumpmaster and pushed a number of students out of the plane. There was no such thing a tandem jumping in those days. We had a pressure sensitive device that would open the student’s reserve chute automatically at 1,200 feet if they freaked or passed out.

If you are young with good reflexes it is an extremely exciting sport with adrenalin galore. It will surpass any thrill you get driving on a track. The real thrill is flying in free fall which will take some serious training and a number of jumps to get there.

If you get into free falling remember to blow you nose before you leave the plane.  When you reach terminal velocity at 120 mph, and the wind gets into your nose, snot on your goggles when you are trying to see your altimeter is a problem.

I think I will pass on the June sky diving event given my age but I hope you all enjoy it.

PS: I have had both my knees replaced a couple years ago. I am not sure if there is a direct connection between my loss of knee cartilage and my 195 sky diving landings.