Dropping things out of the sky.....

[gunpaq 1]

We had a similar experience on a demo in Maryland in the 90's. A member of the team contracted a demo with a local SPCA grand opening event. Since we were jumping for the SPCA he thought it would be a great idea to jump with a life sized St Bernard stuffed dog he had recently won at a local carnival and rigged an old chest mount with a flair chute packed inside. The concept was great but the rigging bad but he said he was going to correct the set up and repack it at home before the demo.....what could possibly go wrong. I was doing the MC for the jump and the team pulled off a five way with smoke and "Fluffy" as the fifth jumper. Everything look great until pull time when "Fluffy" experienced a streamer and failed to cut-away and open his reserve because he was just a stuffed doll without a brain (similar to some jumpers we know) and had no reserve. The crowd below of 300 + was prepped by me to see "Fluffy" the skydiving dog not "Fluffy" the sky dying dog. To make long sad but comical story short, "Fluffy" bounced on a picnic table flipping it over with "Fluffy" coming to rest hanging by his lines from the eves trough of the new SPCA building. From doing MC work for our demo team over the years I was prepared for most any scenario to spin on a positive light for the crowd but for this one I was speechless as what to say except lookout because "Fluffy' looked like a real dog burning in with his ears blowing back. The screams from the crowd were something to behold as people scattered with some holding their hands over the eyes of their children. Thank God no one was hurt and the team member who jumped with "Fluffy" was a SPCA board member so we were able to walk away from that one on a positive note as we did two more demos for the same SPCA after that. Amazingly not a stitch was broken on that stuffed dog. Would have been nice to have had a video back then but the memories are just as good.

www.geronimoskydiving.com

[obelixtim 150]

gunpaq

We had a similar experience on a demo in Maryland in the 90's. A member of the team contracted a demo with a local SPCA grand opening event. Since we were jumping for the SPCA he thought it would be a great idea to jump with a life sized St Bernard stuffed dog he had recently won at a local carnival and rigged an old chest mount with a flair chute packed inside. The concept was great but the rigging bad but he said he was going to correct the set up and repack it at home before the demo.....what could possibly go wrong. I was doing the MC for the jump and the team pulled off a five way with smoke and "Fluffy" as the fifth jumper. Everything look great until pull time when "Fluffy" experienced a streamer and failed to cut-away and open his reserve because he was just a stuffed doll without a brain (similar to some jumpers we know) and had no reserve. The crowd below of 300 + was prepped by me to see "Fluffy" the skydiving dog not "Fluffy" the sky dying dog. To make long sad but comical story short, "Fluffy" bounced on a picnic table flipping it over with "Fluffy" coming to rest hanging by his lines from the eves trough of the new SPCA building. From doing MC work for our demo team over the years I was prepared for most any scenario to spin on a positive light for the crowd but for this one I was speechless as what to say except lookout because "Fluffy' looked like a real dog burning in with his ears blowing back. The screams from the crowd were something to behold as people scattered with some holding their hands over the eyes of their children. Thank God no one was hurt and the team member who jumped with "Fluffy" was a SPCA board member so we were able to walk away from that one on a positive note as we did two more demos for the same SPCA after that. Amazingly not a stitch was broken on that stuffed dog. Would have been nice to have had a video back then but the memories are just as good.

.....Until you get hit by the alzheimers truck.....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....