Whitley afraid of Ladders????

[popsjumper 2]

Free Fall patrons overcome fears to sky-dive



By CHRISTINE DES GARENNES
© 2005 THE NEWS-GAZETTE
Published Online August 8, 2005
Chris Whitley won't get on the roof of his house.
But he'll jump out of a moving plane two miles above earth.
A common trait among sky divers? Fear of heights.
"It's what prompts a lot of people to sky dive," said Whitley, a Georgia sky diver who expects to complete anywhere from 60 to 70 jumps during the World Free Fall Convention in Rantoul this week.
Throughout its 10-day run, the convention will attract about 2,000 sky divers, many of them pros like Whitley and "Fast Eddie" Grantland, a sky diving instructor from Huntsville, Ala.
But a few will be first-timers looking to work past their fear of heights.
Ariel Swink was afraid of heights, but she grew up watching sky divers in her home town of Quincy, where the convention was held before it moved to the Rantoul Aviation Center.
Last week she turned 18 and celebrated on Saturday by jumping out of "Fat Annie," an 80-passenger Carvair plane.
"I got a little jittery and nervous when they were counting down in the plane. I thought I would stop, but I had no choice because there were people behind me ready to go," she said.
She'll jump again Wednesday.
"It's amazing. The first three seconds, you're like, 'there's no land!' It was a wonderful feeling. A feeling you can't put into words. You kinda wish you were a bird," Swink said.
In the first three days of the convention, 70 people have had a go at tandem sky-diving, when novices are attached to experienced divers called tandem masters. The cost is $179.
From her minivan, Barbara Irvin, a 68-year-old from Dewey, watched the sky divers free fall.
"I've been thinking about doing it. If I did, you'd hear me coming down," she laughed. The only way Irvin will go is if she can convince a friend to try it with her. "I think it would be beautiful up there," she said.
Nearby, Sister Paulette Joerger, a teacher at St. Malachy in Rantoul, Sister Sara Koch, principal of St. Malachy and Jean Lappin, a teacher at Northview Elementary School in Rantoul, were camped out in lawn chairs. They have been coming since the convention moved to Rantoul in 2002.
They all agreed the "in-between part" – sailing down with the open parachute – would be the best part of sky diving. And if they were a little younger, they might have tried sky diving themselves.
"It doesn't take courage. It takes commitment," said Dave Mahlo, who manages the tandem tent with Grantland.
Interested divers need to be "of reasonable health," and can weigh up to 225 pounds. They may be able to accommodate larger people, depending on equipment availability.
Participants watch a 10-minute instructional video, are fitted for a harness, suited up and hauled over to the loading area. Newcomers are briefed on what to expect and what to do.
The plane climbs to about 14,000 feet (or 2.6 miles high) and sky divers jump out of the plane with their tandem master. The free fall lasts about 30 to 50 seconds long. Divers drop to earth at about 120 miles per hour, Mahlo said.
"It doesn't seem like your falling. You're pumped with adrenaline," he said.
The tandem master or sky diver pulls the parachute at 5,000 feet. (Who pulls the chute depends on the sky diver's preference.) From there, the ride down is about 35 miles per hour.
"You don't just fall. You do flips, turns. You move forward, sideways. We can fly our body like we fly an airplane," Grantland said.
An active sky diver will log about 100 jumps a year. Grantland will have close to 300 per year, he said. In his 23 years of sky diving and 7,000 jumps, Grantland has used his reserve chute 14 times, he said.
He and other divers said they were still mourning the loss of fellow sky diver Andrew Gerrits of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Gerrits died Saturday after experiencing difficulty with his parachute. He was unable to regain control of the chute before landing in the nearby golf course.
"Unfortunately that's part of the sport. It's a high-speed sport. There are risks involved," Grantland said.
He likened sky diving to riding motorcycles. If you run with a group of people who ride motorcycles, eventually someone you know will be in an accident, he said.
"But it's not gonna make you quit riding," Grantland said.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[kelel01 1]

Wow! Atlanta people representin'!

I don't like ladders either. But it's not the height. It's the ladder.