Deadly accidents are rare, expert in sport says

Sky divers like to get in the game and play, says the owner of a Pennsylvania sky-dive business.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The accident that took the life of Canfield Assistant Police Chief Robert Magnuson was a rarity in the sport of sky diving.
Consider, says Jeff Reckard, owner of Skydive Pennsylvania in Grove City, that there are 3.5 million jumps in the United States every year.
"A parachute not opening is like a car blowing up," he said. "How often does it happen? Parachutes are unbelievably reliable."
Reckard, who's been teaching sky diving for 15 years, said that sky divers meticulously check their equipment at drop sites.
From novice to expert, they practice reacting to emergencies, he said, until it becomes second nature.
A parachute can malfunction in many ways, Reckard said.
Reports indicate that Magnuson's strings tangled on his main chute. He opened his reserve, but not in enough time.
Training matters
Reckard said a parachute can have a total malfunction, or a partial one. He said sky divers train for everything that can go wrong.
"You may have a chute open, but it's not a good, flyable chute," he said. "They're not round anymore. They're wings. And there are different problems."
He also said experts' equipment is more advanced than a novice's.
The wing has a much faster forward speed, he said. It turns much quicker and tighter. It's like learning to drive on a basic car and graduating to a high-powered sports car, he said.
But even though the advanced equipment is more thrilling, there's an important factor to consider, he said.
"Things can go wrong, and they happen faster, so you have to react faster," he added.
Reckard said 75 to 100 people regularly use his site for jumps. He said other clientele is made up of visitors from other businesses and clubs, and novices -- people who are one-time jumpers, usually in tandem with an instructor.
He said the people who are attracted to the sport tend to have a specific personality type.
"We're the type of people who don't want to watch a baseball or football game," he said. "We want to play."
He said that after his first jump, "the very moment my feet were on the ground, I wanted to do it again."
Indescribable feeling
The feeling up there, said sky diver Jimmy Drummond, is indescribable. People have to do it for themselves to understand, said Drummond, a Youngstown firefighter who is on the U.S. Parachute Team and will travel to Russia in August for world competition.
Reckard described stepping out of a plane into an environment that's unmatched, where you can perform gymnastic feats that seem like magic.
"You can move your body 100 feet in four to five seconds," he said.
He said there is no sensation of falling. And an expert sky diver can tell, within 1,000 feet, whether he or she is unacceptably high or low.
Drummond, who said he first tried sky diving on a dare from his cousin, jumps at Sky Dive Rick's in Petersburg.
Owner Rick Kuhns said the club there, the Alliance Parachute Club, has about 30 active members.
Kuhns, who began jumping in 1969, said it's normal to be nervous at first. But part of the thrill, he said, is facing the fear and overcoming it.