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Roger Humphrey, 69, of Muncie, Ind., lands on a target mat in the accuracy event of the POPS (Parachutists Over Phorty Society) Nationals competition Thursday at Chambersburg Airport. (Photo credit: Ric dugan / Staff Photographer)
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Roger Humphrey, 69, of Muncie, Ind., lands on a target mat in the accuracy event of the POPS (Parachutists Over Phorty Society) Nationals competition Thursday at Chambersburg Airport. (Photo credit: Ric dugan / Staff Photographer) |
by RICHARD BELISLE
Kathie Sides said she jumped out of a plane because she wanted a photograph to show her grandkids "what a wild and crazy grandmother they had."
Cherie Schuch watched her husband sky-dive for three years before she decided to give it a try. She was, she said, tired of staying home waiting for him.
"It was either divorce him or join him," she said.
Sides, 56, of Chambersburg, and Schuch, 40, of Frederick, Md., are members of POPS, Parachutists Over Phorty Society, an international organization of sport parachutists.
About 60 members, including 15 women, are at Chambersburg Airport through Saturday for the annual three-day POPS Nationals competition. They will take to the air from 8 a.m. to dusk, weather permitting, doing accuracy jumps - landing on a target on the ground, team contests involving four jumpers creating formations, and a favorite, "Hit and Rock," where after landing, the parachutist removes his or her equipment, touches the target then runs to a rocking chair.
A subgroup, Jumpers Over 70, had a handful of members on the field Thursday. Bill Wood, 72, of Greenville, S.C., was one of them.
Wood said he sky-dives because he finds golf boring. Wood said he makes about 100 jumps a year and has logged about 2,300 so far.
"Most of the older guys have been jumping for 30, 40 and 50 years," he said.
Tom Morrison, 79, of Ambler, Pa., said he's been sport jumping since 1963. He goes up about 150 times a year.
Morrison first put on a parachute and jumped out of an airplane in 1944. He was serving with the 101st Airborne Division when he jumped out of a plane over Normandy on the day after D-Day.
Morrison was discharged from the Army in 1945.
"I never thought about an airplane or a parachute for 18 years," he said.
Then he saw an exhibit of Navy sky divers at an air show.
"I said to myself, 'I wonder what that free fall feels like,'" he said.
Morrison said the time spent in free fall before sky divers pull their ripcords "is why I do it. It's the excitement of free falling with other jumpers."
Although sometimes it's higher, the average height for sky divers like Morrison and Wood when they jump out of an airplane is 13,500 feet. They drop to an altitude of 2,500 feet before they open their chutes.
Asked if the landing affects older knees, Wood said parachutists pull back on their rigs at the last second.
Landing in a parachute "is like stepping off a curb," several sky divers said.
Sky diving is a fairly expensive sport. An average jump costs $20 for the plane ride. Sky-diving gear can run between $4,000 and $5,000, although it lasts a long time with proper care. There's also travel expenses to events like the POPS Nationals. Members came to Chambersburg this week from as far away as California.
Jay Frantz, a Hagerstown insurance agent, made his first jump in 1988 at the invitation of a client, he said.
"I was only going to make one jump," he said.
Frantz made his 1,200th jump Thursday.
Dr. Larry Rogina, a Waynesboro, Pa., physician, jumped from a plane for the first time on July 23, 2000. He said he did it to overcome his fear of heights. He's made 311 jumps so far.
"I always get nervous when I'm riding in the plane," said Sides, who has made more than 2,300 jumps, including 300 in 1994, the first year she tried it.
"I'm never afraid going out the door," she said. "I feel like an eagle. It's where I belong."
Copyright The Herald-Mail Co.