Public Opinion/Christopher Shatzer On target: Parachutist Terry Ross of Marietta guides himself toward the landing target Friday during a skydiving competition at Chambersburg Municipal Airport.

Bill Wood has jumped out of airplanes more than 2,000 times and loves it. At 73 years old, Wood was among 60 registered parachuters at the national competition for Parachutists Over Phorty Society (POPS).

"I was a pilot in the Air Force and my friends asked me to fly jumpers," Wood said. "I knew it was safe so I started flying. Then I got interested. There was a lot of pretty girls at the events, so I wanted to become an instructor."

Friday was the second day of competition, which started on Thursday and continues through Sunday.

POPS members from all over the country gathered at the Chambersburg Municipal Airport to compete in various events to try to set new state and national records.

The group was founded in the summer of 1966 to promote good fellowship between the older jumpers in the sport. Today, the organization has thousands of members worldwide and smaller groups of older skydivers have been formed within POPS: Skydivers Over Sixty (SOS), Jumpers Over Seventy (JOS) and Jumpers Over Eighty (JOE).

POPS clubs hold regular meetings in their own countries and every two years there is a world meeting. The next world meeting is in 2004 in Switzerland.

The membership requirements for POPS are that a person must have made a parachute jump or a tandem skydive and the person must be older than 40.

Wood, now living in South Carolina, has been a POPS member since 1976 and is currently involved with the over-70 club. He was the top POP from 1987 to 1993 and co-founder of the SOS in 1991.

J.R. Sides, co-owner of Chambersburg Skydiving Center Inc. with his wife, Kathy, started his day at 3,000 feet in the air to check for wind speed and direction.

Friday's competition began with the accuracy event. Jumpers were flown to 3,000 feet and jumped, aiming at an inflatable target on the ground. At the center of the target was a small disk, about the size of a quarter. The center of the target, along with a small censor in the heel of each jumpers' shoe, measured how far from the target the jumper landed.

"It's pretty cool when they put their foot right on the target," said Sides, a POPS member of five years. "It's hard to maneuver accurately when you're a mile to a mile and a half out with the wind blowing."

Each day's competition starts at 8 a.m. and continues throughout the day until dusk.

There are three skydiving events in the POPS nationals: accuracy, hit and rock, and four-way relative work.

In hit and rock, the jumper races to a rocking chair after landing close to or on the accuracy target.

The relative work event is for teams of four jumpers performing a series of flying formations during a set amount of time. Scores are totaled after three jumps and the team with the best total points wins.

Nationals are held every year in different parts of the world.

Jay Frantz, a POPS member for 16 years from Hagerstown, Md., has made more than 1,200 jumps. Frantz said he's always had an interest in skydiving.

"A client of mine was taking skydiving lessons here (Chambersburg Municipal Airport)." Frantz said. "I went with them and I've been involved ever since."

Kathy Sides has been a POPS member since 1994 and has made about 2,500 jumps. She said that she'd always wanted to skydive but she either didn't have the money or was too scared. When she was in her 40s she decided to do it before she got too old.

"Life does not end at 40," Kathy Sides said. "Life begins at 40."

She enjoys doing big formations with numerous people jumping together and currently holds the free-fall record and the Virginia and Delaware state records for big formations.

Originally published Saturday, September 27, 2003