Skydiver to compete in Russia

The Youngstown firefighter goes to Russia in August for the international event.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
PETERSBURG -- Jimmy Drummond likes nothing better than to step out of an airplane about 10,500 feet up and let a billowing parachute and gravity bring him back to earth.
He also likes being able to pinpoint his landings on a spot about the size of a quarter.
He's good at it, so good that he qualified for a spot on the six-man, six-woman U.S. Parachute Association's national team and will go to Russia in August for an international competition.
It's not a big prize money event. Basically, all you win is the prestige, said Drummond, 32, of Bear's Den Road, Youngstown.
He'll compete in accuracy landing and free-fall style. They are team events but each member performs independently.
Drummond, a Youngstown city firefighter since 1997, has been skydiving for 101/2 years and has more than 4,000 jumps under his belt.
He travels all over the country to compete in meets and do exhibitions, and it's nothing to complete eight to 10 jumps in a day at Skydive Rick's at Petersburg Airport, where he spends much of his time and is a member of Skydive Rick's national team.
Owner Rick Kuhns has been his mentor and coach, Drummond said, adding that he pretty much owes his trip to Russia to Rick's inspiration.
Busy day
Drummond got off duty at 8 a.m. Sunday and headed to the airport where he gave tandem jumps to two students making their first skydives and jumped on his own to test a new accuracy parachute -- all before 2 p.m. Students are strapped to their instructor in tandem jumps.
He's made so many jumps that they've become almost routine, but he still remembers his first.
He was working construction with some cousins and they talked about skydiving all summer, he recalled, adding that when he finally took his first jump, he was instantly hooked.
"It was awesome. It opened a whole new door in my life," he said.
Drummond is also a skydive instructor, earning his static line certification about nine years ago and securing his professional exhibition rating around the same time. He got his tandem instructor rating in 2000.
It's the professional exhibition rating that got him into pinpoint accuracy landings, allowing him to jump into stadiums and other tight venues.
He's jumped into Youngstown State University's stadium and quite a few high school stadiums as well.
"There's not many places I can't take my parachute and jump into," he said.
He credited Kuhns and Jim Hayhurst, a retired airline pilot from Pittsburgh who has been on the U.S. team a number of times, for getting him interested in jumping competition.
Hayhurst is on the team again this year and a regular at Skydive Rick's as well.
Taking the plunge
Spending so much time at the airfield has also paid off for Drummond in another manner.
It's where he met his fianc & eacute;e, Cassie Liberatore, 25, also of Bear's Den Road.
Liberatore, a pilot for Continental Express Airlines flying out of Cleveland, was working as a flight instructor at Skydive Rick's and flying the club planes out of the Petersburg Airport when they met.
She taught him how to fly (he has his pilot's license) and then got interested in skydiving herself, taking her first jump four years ago.
She's made about 500 jumps since then.
"My mom always said we were made for each other," Liberatore said.
They'll make the connection permanent with a June 9 wedding in Youngstown.
It won't be a skydiving affair, "But I'll probably jump that morning just to get one in," Drummond said.
Liberatore will accompany him to Russia, but only as a spectator. She's only now getting into accuracy skydiving.
Paying their own way
The U.S. Parachute Association doesn't pick up much of the tab. Team members basically have to pay their own way to the competition.
Drummond and Liberatore will use free "standby" passes provided by her employer to make the trip.
People think skydiving is dangerous and there are risks, Drummond said. However, he said he's had only two "reserve rides" in 10 years of jumping.
That's when the main parachute fails and the skydiver has to break loose from it and open a reserve chute.
Drummond said he's made more than 400 tandem jumps with students and never had a mishap.
gwin@vindy.com