Monday, April 16, 2001
Q. Tell us about Skydive Rick's.
A. We're a mom-and-pop organization. We work mostly in the summertime. Usually April through November is when our student business takes place.
Q. How many "first jumps" do you handle here each year?
A.Probably 150 to 200.
Q. What about total jumps, counting those made by students and experienced sky divers?
A. We make between 4,000 and 4,500 jumps a year.
Q. Does a sky-diving club operate out of Skydive Rick's?
A. The Alliance Sport Parachute Club is based here. The club has about 40 active members. Then we have people who aren't members who come here to jump. We had about 350 people go through here last year.
Q. What's your role in the business?
A. I can train students. I'm a jumpmaster and commercial pilot. If they need a pilot, I'm flying. If they need a [parachute] packer, I'm packing. I'm a licensed rigger, too.
Q. How did you first get interested in sky diving?
A. My former husband wanted to do it. He started jumping, and about three months later, I decided to start.
Q. How old were you when you made your first jump?
A. I was 21. At that time you had to be 21 to go without your parents' permission. My mother didn't really want me to do it, so I waited until I was 21.
Q. Did you catch the sky-diving bug right away?
A. I made about 80 jumps. Then I had a baby and was off for a year. I never was a heavy-duty jumper. I only have about 1,600 jumps, and I've been doing it for about 31 years. I make about 50 to 75 jumps a year now.
Q. If 1,600 jumps isn't considered "heavy-duty," what is?
A. My husband has 4,500 jumps, and he's been jumping three months less than I have. We have a person who made 500 jumps last year.
Q. From what altitude does an experienced sky diver exit the plane?
A. 10,500 feet is an average. That gives you about 45 to 50 seconds of free-fall before you have to open your parachute.
Q. What is it you like most about sky diving?
A. The freedom. The quietness of it. It's a challenge if you're going to do relative work.
Q. What's relative work?
A. That's where more than one person hooks up in the sky, and they do different formations. That's the part I enjoy more than anything else. The parachute ride down is OK, too.
Q. You mentioned the freedom of the sport. Will you expand on that?
A. When you're falling and you're under the canopy, you're floating around. It's like being a bird.
Q. Has sky diving affected your philosophy on life?
A. It makes me live for today and just to enjoy things as they go along. I have a positive outlook on life, and sky diving has helped that out. I meet so many people, and see so many people enjoying themselves. It's a good feeling.
Q. Is this sport difficult to master?
A. Everyone has their own rate. A lot of it has to do with their athletic ability and how quickly they catch on to things. It seems that the older people are when they start, the longer it takes them to catch on to it. The younger people are a little bit quicker. They're not as apprehensive about things. They don't think as much about dangers.
Q. Is this primarily a sport for the young?
A. The average age of sky divers today is around 40. We have a 75-year-old guy that has about 4,500 jumps. He comes out every spring. He'll be out here on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, show up and make three or four jumps.
Q. When people call and express an interest in a first jump, what's the question you're most often asked?
A. A lot of times, it's "How many accidents have you had?"
Q. Let's talk about the risks of sky diving.
A. If you're careful, and you watch what you're doing -- the safety factors are there -- driving your automobile is much more dangerous than sky diving. Very seldom is there an accident where you can't figure out the reason. Someone made a mistake somewhere.
Q. Has anyone been killed jumping at Skydive Rick's?
A. We haven't had any fatalities here.
Q. Any serious injuries?
A. We've had some broken ankles, broken wrists. A girl fractured her back last year. We had one real bad injury. It was on a landing, the girl turned her parachute too low to the ground and crushed her femur. She's still sky diving.
Q. Have you ever had any close calls or accidents?
A. I twisted a knee. I've had two total malfunctions, where the parachute wasn't out. I used my reserve parachute, and I landed fine.
Q. We've talked about the dangers of the sport, but sky diving also has a lot of safety requirements doesn't it?
A. We really stress safety a lot. As a student, you have to have a licensed jumpmaster with you, checking you over. You have to have a license to jump on your own.
Q. From what walks of life do your experienced sky divers come from?
A. We have car salesmen, doctors, lawyers, postmen, firemen, secretaries, teachers. Kids that are still in college. You name it.
Q. A lot of people have an image of sky divers as thrill-seekers. Is that deserved?
A. To some extent. There are some who are thrill-seekers. But that's not the main gist of it. It's something different. It's something you can't get on a motorcycle or you can't get on the back of a boat. There's that excitement that you don't get anywhere else.
Q. How did you get started flying?
A. There's a runway in my back yard. I thought I might as well learn to fly. I started flying about eight years ago.
Q. Which do you like more, sky diving or flying?
A. It's kind of a toss-up.
Q. Do your students at Beaver Local know that you're a sky diver and pilot?
A. Some of them do. They're not real excited about it. They're into their own world. I've had students come out and jump, though. Not as many as say they're going to [laughs].
Q. What do you do in your spare time?
A. I like to garden. During spring and summer, we have acres of grass to cut, so I do a lot of mowing.
Q. Any particular kind of gardening?
A. I grow vegetables and flowers. It's relaxing. I like seeing things grow.
XTHE WRITER/ Norman Leigh, a reporter in the Vindicator's Salem Bureau, conducted the interview.