My license number is D-13839, and I have made 1829 skydives over more than 30 years of jumping.
I started jumping at the Massachusetts Sport Parachute Club (MSPC) in Turners Falls, MA. It was a special place with special people, and I have fond memories (I even met my wife there!). For many years, I jumped regularly at drop zones around New England, especially Orange (Jumptown) (which is the Turners Falls DZ transplanted), Pepperell, and Lebanon.
Then we moved to Denver, Colorado, and I jumped mostly at Mile-Hi Skydiving in Longmont, Colorado. Here, we have to deal with harder openings and faster landings due to the higher ground elevation (over 5000 feet above sea level)!
It is also great to try out new drop zones. I have to say that I had a lot of great jumps while traveling. Skydivers are usually very friendly and welcoming. So on longer work trips, I would often be sure to pack my rig (parachute).
I am also a pilot, which is very different. A great quote comparing skydiving and flying airplanes is: "If riding in an airplane is flying, then riding in a boat is swimming..." In other words, skydiving is flying your body! I love flying in all of its forms, though!
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We broke the Colorado "POPS" (no jumpers under age 40) formation skydiving record on September 22, 2012 at Mile-Hi Skydiving, and we did it on the first attempt! The record now stands at a 21-way. |
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Joanne and I got these pictures taken by Ira on July 12, 1998,
exactly two weeks before we got married!
We're especially proud of the "no hands kiss pass!" |
These pictures are from a jump we did during 20-way practice.
In the one on the left,
Ira (the camera dude) got directly above us and framed Pepperell
Skydiving Center nicely! That's me at the very top of the picture.
The picture to the right is earlier on the same dive.
The object was pretty much just to geek the camera.
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Hey, we broke another New England record for most skydivers in a freefall
formation!
It was 76 people big, and we did it on August 23, 1997. The top image
shows the 3 planes that were flying together with all of the skydivers
pouring out - pretty awesome sight! However, I was in the plane on the
right, so I didn't exactly get this view. The bottom picture is the
completed formation. We held it for about 8 seconds after completion!
Thanks to Ira Gray for getting these awesome pictures!
The video shows only the final (and successful!) jump. It took a couple of days and multiple jumps. |
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The previous record was a 54-way on Sunday, May 21st, 1995. Click on the little picture to the left to see the completed formation. Can you find me? If not, or if you want to see who all of the other people are, check out the diagram of the dive. If you want to see the photo at the same time here's the diagram with photo. Check out the video section below to see the dive in action! Amongst the jubilation we posed for a group photo. And yep, they made some certificates! The photos were taken by Robert Glenn, who flew in from Virginia with the Casa airplane (shown in the group photo) for the weekend. |
The picture to the right was taken in freefall over
Zephyrhills, Florida in January, 1991.
I'm on the left, and the other dude is Mark Hood. He lives out in the
Bay Area (California) now.
The picture was taken by Hiroto Shibuya with a disposable camera!
Only a short time after getting off "student status" as jumpers
(January of 1990),
we went
to our first "big drop zone" (i.e. with big planes, etc.).
We learned
a lot, got to jump in relatively larger groups (i.e. 5-ways!) and we even got to jump out of a hot air balloon (that was jump number 60 for me!
Here we are eating between jumps.
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This is me
under canopy on my first jump under a big old honker of a canopy!
And of course I got
a
First Jump Certificate!
| This jump at Skydive Lebanon during the summer of 1993 was pretty funny. First of all, the camera guy hit his helmet (and camera) on the door on exit. Then the dive featured some good bobbling around, which can be seen especially well due to the fact that the camera guy was *in* the formation! Needless to say, we were having fun! | |
| Tania and I tried some freestyle at Massachusetts Sport Parachute Club in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, most likely during the spring or summer of 1990. As a relatively inexperienced jumper, the results were "interesting!" | |
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An adventurous reporter visits a New England drop zone to do a story on what skydiving is really all about. (Filmed in 1989)
This is a TV show I saw just before I made my first jump. Later I got to know most of the people in the video. I still think this is one of the best news story portrayals of the skydiving world. |
| www.wildlava.com/joe |
