Flying Tigers Sport
Parachute Center-Clemson, SC
Jim and JJ,
Hey guys! I'm emailing you today to let you know that the memorial dive we did for Sandy in Clemson, SC was a success! We are a small, 2 Cessna 182 dz (and we really only use 1 of those the majority of the time). As luck would have it (and a little persuasion helped) we obtained a twin-bo for the weekend (Bobby Frierson, pilot). We expected to have a few practice jumps in for the memorial jump, but we were covered up with students. To top it off, I had scheduled a "safety time-out" for the dz due to all the incidents that have occurred in the past 2 months. This safety meeting WAS going to happen at lunch time, regardless. I felt like it was my duty as a friend, not just dzm, to ensure that everyone got to jump this weekend in the safest manner possible.
Jim and I had organized the load with folks that knew Sandy...with the exception of myself. Sandy and I had corresponded via email, and I am sad to say never got the opportunity to meet her. The skydivers(including videographer) on this jump had a total of over 11,000 jumps. I was "low-timer" with this particular jump being my 200th. But from what the guys tell me, Sandy would've had me on that jump since she always took care of the "low-timers" giving them an opportunity to play with the big guys. :-)
Our dive plan was to launch a 3-way base, with 5 swoopers forming an 8-way diamond with the 9th slot (Sandy's slot) in the center of it all. Once the point formed, we planned on an 8-way round with one open slot for Sandy to fly.
7:30pm, EST. We're geared up making one last dirt-dive out of the plane before takeoff.
7:58pm, jump run. Da base climbs out of the plane along with a couple of floaters. I'm in the very back, inside the plane. HOT! Ready, set GO! Base comes off nicely with everyone swooping to their slots. I was a little wobbly, but I flew to my slot docking 8th on the tail of the diamond. Time to turn it to a round.
Again, I flubbed a bit, got sideways and did a little break-dancing number dead center of the round while (I'm sure) everyone else was watching me, laughing their asses off! :-) I flew out, went low, floated, and finally docked on the round (with an open slot next to me) directly at our predetermined break off altitude of 4000ft. Whew! I can't help but wonder if Sandy shoved my butt up into that slot just in the nick of time. <grin>
Turn and burn.....nice openings for all, nice landings for all. Everyone on the ground could see the dive happening the whole time...said it looked really cool from down there. Funny thing, though. Someone snapped a picture of all 9 of us after we tracked off and directly after everyone was under canopy. The picture, and I have a copy that I'll send you, shows 9 obvious canopies..and, I shit you not, a dark "dot" in the midst of them. It was most likely a bird or something, but, hey, who am I to question it?
blue skies to all of you...please be safe.
arlo (aka groovicool@aol.com) dzm, Flying Tigers Sport Parachute Center Clemson, SC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The folks on the dive were as follows:
DA BASE: 1-Jim Burriss 1 2-Mike Holbert 2 3 3-Brad McFarland 4 sw 5 6 7 SWOOPERS (aka DMFs): 8 4-Jeff Geyer 5-Steve Story 6-Chris Blackwell 2 1 7-Brooks Morrow 4 3 8-Arlo (Arlene Pace) 6 5 8sw7
p.s. Sorry if those above formations didn't format correctly. I tried several times to make it look right...it looks right to me. Use your imagination for this one (top = diamond, bottom = round).