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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 7, 1987)
CENTRAL OREGON S BEST SELECTION OF CLASSICAL MUSIC ON COMPACT DISC BIS i (Mi PWlllPS lONDON 4 AffCHNVf CHANOOS Df UTSCMf GBAMMOPMO* hAB MONiA MUNC* WINDHAM Mil i tOlSfAu irfff MUNCABOTON TltABC Musique Gourmet Catering to Discriminating Compact Disc Collectors — PROM II.IS located inside IMOROMri on the Mall _ 150W Broadway own wnoavs noon s MS-OOOO J 'utu RESTAURANT ** Bealdea Chinese CuUInr. we iprcialltr In Ihr Northern gourmet o( Peking. 1 umh Moo I rt It 30 2 30 l>tnnrf Mon Sian 4 30 10 00 1775 West 6lh • 484 6496 iMf'WM *ae> cnm cm* You can’t beat our low, low photo prices : Film & Photo Processing - Guaimdeed Lowest Prices Wa ll match or baat tha prtca of any local photo coupon One Day Service In by 4 pm. — bach by NOON tha naxt day (C41 color print lllm). Enlargements, Reprints & Slides Qraat sarvlca and prlcaa in your full aarvica Photo Dapt. A ( ' ; Your full service Photo Dept. . Your store since 1920 U»h A ftincart) M f 7 JON JO SAT 1000400 •M4JJ1 RESUMES you* <« pioiviio'^1 took t?V tlAVUIQ <1 tyt**s«*i »» fVrltn t (»»<tp»w •> lOOtMU automatically hy a static line or other device Broadwick made more than 1,100 jumps during her career. The most incredible single skydive of all time was made in I960 by Joseph W Kittengcr He lea|x;d from a gondola 102,000 feet above New Mex ico During his four and a half minute free fall to IK,(MX) feet, he reached an almost unbclievcablc terminal velocity of 702 m.p.h The average terminal velocity of a diver is only 120 m.p.h. But gone are the days of daredevils like Broadwick and the round parachutes that offered little control and left the (umper at the whim of fickle winds Today most skydivers. excluding the military paratroopers, use ram air canopies or airfoils, called "squares” in skydiving circles. These squares actually fly. according to Wright, and have a for ward airspeed of bet ween 20 and 35 mph and arc greatly maneuverable "We could throw a frisbec out in the parking lot. and I could jump out of a plane at 12.000 feet and land on it.” Wright say s The relatively recent airfoil innovation has mailc skydiving more like Hying a plane than floating to the ground under "a huge airbrake." the term Wright uses to describe the big ri>und chutes the airfoils have slowly replaced in the past 10 or 12 years since their emergence. The square chutes are shaped and act like an airplane wing. Wright says, and the jumper lands stalling the chute just before touching down just as a pilot docs vsith the wing of an airplane when landing Scott Piel, another local jumper with 550 jumps to his credit, suspects the reason the airfoil has become so popular is because of the maneuverability and the extremely soft landing one can get "It's like stepping off a curb.” he says. Both Wright and Piel, who were both taught the sport by Wright's father, Jim. say the •^3 & ,V.e’ ^ s^ce . xj<, G<VVV ^.A^Sv0iCO i*yy' coo^ S^‘ S'c .>■ ^<s^>r >N° Al>1 V «**■' t \\^V' sport is very sale t<*dav thanks to improvements in technology. "It one obeys the rules of the sport it is very sate." Wright says. The times one hears about accidents, he says, is when so me one has been violating the doctrines or recommendations set out by the United States Parachute Association. These doctrines arc not law but only suggestions about safety prac I ices thal should be followed “You can'l live without them." Wright says. Compared with other sports, skydiving is surprisingly safe. On average, according to statistics in the United States, about 35 fatalities occur yearly. In 1982, for example. *XX) pco pie were killed in bicycle ac cidents, 7,000 people drowned and 1.154 died of bee stings Wright has taught nearly 1,000 students to skydive and says that out of all those the only injuries have been two twisted ankles The classes he teaches take "two short days." and if all goes well and the student has learned everything he or she needs to know and has learned it well, the student will make the first jump on the afternoon of the second day The first five jumps are made on a "static line" attat ched to the plane and to the rip cord of the student jumper On those jumps the student has no choice, the chute is pulled when the student comes to the end of the tether This ensures the inex perienced diver doesn't panic r NEW CAMPUS LOCATION the STEREO WORKSHOP Buy * Sell * Trade • Repair Service • 1621 E. 19th 1400 Main St (19th ft Agate) Springfield 344-3212 741-1597 Mon-Fri 10-6 _/ and forget to deploy his chute. Skydivers keep learning long after their first free fa 11 (without the static line). Wright says “f.ven after you frecfall you've got a lot of things to think about.” A diver has graduated from student status, Wright says, when they can do three things on their own decide the proper moment to jump so they hit the drop zone, pack their chute anu put an tne equipment on properly. Despite the statistical safety of the sport. Wright says things can go awry. Wright’s father was killed last year when for no apparent reason he failed to open either his primary or reserve parachutes He was on the jump when his father perish ed. and despite witness mg the accident, he believes the spoil is ex traordinarily safe. Wright said he. his father and two other jumpers had just broken up from a for mation. called reserve work, and everyone but his father, ironically the most experienced of the group, opened their chutes Jim Wright had made more than 3,500 jumps in his more than 30 years of skydiving Dave Wright says he thinks his father, who was 52 at the time, had "some kind of medical problem "Whether he blacked out or went unconscious I don't know — we'll never know." he says. Wright says his father knew everything there was to know about the sport and adds, "If there was anything he could have done he'd have done it." Although technically it was a skydiving accident, Wright doesn't consider the incident that because there was no equipment failure Hts father's equipment was analyzed and found to be in perfect functioning order Aside from freak accidents like his father's, Wright and Piel note two things that skydivers need to know how to deal with when jumping The first is when nothing comes out when the rip cord is pulled — complete failure This may seem rather a severe problem, but it is not that serious, Wright says, because nothing is in the way of the reserve chute. The second is when the chute may come out tangled — partial failure In this case a jumper can clear a path for the reserve by releasing the tangled primary with a special release cord. In cither case, Wright says, you've still got your reserve chute, and the odds of both the primary and the reserve chute failing is less than that of being hit by lighln ing three times. Both Wright and Piel note that in their more than 1,000 com bined jumps neither has ever had any sort of problem, and they expect to continue skydiving for a long time. - B.J. THOMSEN Tli„Ril«i Mdu 7 I UN7
