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thegreekone

"Falling Into Place" by Rita Ippoliti (another BOOK Q)

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I haven't read the book but I know a lot about her experiences. Basically, she had a very hard time getting everything right, but she never quit trying. She was a very upbeat gal despite her lack of skydiving abilities...

I knew her from the rec.skydiving forum, as she was quite the frequent poster on there for years. Don't think she jumps anymore... Not after busting both legs on a bad landing... [:/]
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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too bad, I was hoping it would be a cool insighful inspirational account of an older person finding our sport in time to for renewal. again...too bad.



Actually, I think Rita found exactly that. She had a lot of good experiences, a lot of funny stories and she made a lot of friends.

The fact that she no longer jumps is not particularly relevant, but what she took from the experience is.

I never read the book, but I knew her from the start--both online and in-person.

rl
If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

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I read the book and I was very disappointed. I was hoping to find an inspiring story about someone struggling with Skydiving. Instead Rita came across as EXTREMELY self centered and opiniated (imo).

From trying to smoke on the airplane, to calling her instructor names - every chapter made it even more of a struggle to finish it. I havent ever NOT finished a book but this one came close.

If you want to have the book I will be happy to send it to you and get rid of it.

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Read it..but frankly I found the endless failures as uninspiring when I really wanted, as I was just starting out, to believe success was going to be a little easier than she found it...

want a fun personal read, then try "Base 66"..
"Work hard, play hard and don't whinge"

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Am interested in any other book recos that are NOT instructional, but personal.



A few that are in my bookshelf - Skydivers Flying with their pants on fire by Tom Craighead; Skydiver Driver by Michael Fischer Sr; Parachutings Unforgettable Jumps by Howard Gregory; The Sky People by Peter Hearn.

Dunno if any of them are still available new; I found the last two at used book stores.

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Instead Rita came across as EXTREMELY self centered and opiniated (imo).



How does that makeher different then 99% of skydivers?!??!?:D

I agree. I am all for people over coming and sticking to there goals, but this port wasn't for her (IMHO). I think the broken legs kinda shows that. I doubt she was swooping when it happened. It seemd like to much of a struggle for her. Like she was an incident waiting to happen.

She spent a lot of time bitching about her insturctors and trying to find the right one to help her get through it all. I mean geez can they all be that bad? When do you start to look at yourself and say "Hey, I suck at this and this is not for me?" She shoulchave taken the hint from the ones that didn't want to work with her anymore.
Dom


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Has anybody read Rita Ippoliti's "Falling Into Place"? It looks interesting and was just wondering what people thought.

Am interested in any other book recos that are NOT instructional, but personal. (it could be personal experience, team experience, history, etc)



I have not read the book, and doubt I ever will.

From where I sit, Rita was in the sport for all the wrong reasons. The extent to which she simply did not get it never ceased to amaze me.

I was in the air with Rita only once. I recall being stunned by the absolute lack of control she displayed.

The fact that she was able to find instructors who finally signed her off to jump solo concerns me; it is my understanding that they did so in order to get her to go home. Neither of the local drop zones would consider graduating her from student status, and even now refer to her as the poster child for people singularly unsuited to this sport.

I feel badly that I did not give her "the talk" before her final arrival. This is not so much because I think she would have caught on and taken up a hobby she was more likely to survive, but, rather, to clear my conscience when she finally cratered. Whenever she was told that the approach she was taking was unsound, she made it clear that she thought that people simply weren't being nice to her.

Rita would be, and wouid have been, welcomed into the skydiving community had she taken it seriously. If she had spent as much time learning a skillset that would ensure her survival as she did focusing on which tandem masters had nice buns, she may have thought to flare in time to avoid snapping BOTH femurs.

I am somewhat offended by her decision to write a book, since her tenure in the sport was but an exercise in cluelessness. She still doesn't get it, and I can not imagine her prose would do anything but make that point painfully clear. She indicates in the cover blurb that there was some redeeming value in her approach to the sport, and I could not disagree more.

I suppose the literary tradition of wannabes portraying themselves as participants is well established; reading Hemingway, you would never guess that he was but a drunken observer during the running of the bulls - but never in the melee himself.

You can read the book if you like, but I can't bring myself to do so.


Blue skies,

Winsor

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Ugh. Read it. Hated it. It seemed throughout the read that she didn't take the sport seriously and didn't comprehend what she was undertaking. Her head was many places, but certainly not into learning how to skydive safely. I came away from that book irritated to no end. And now just remembering it, I'm irritated again. Grrr.


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Has anybody read Rita Ippoliti's "Falling Into Place"? It looks interesting and was just wondering what people thought.



I've read the book and even sell it on my website. I only get 3-5 sales per year.

The book is everything everyone else has said. Rita does have an 'attitude' that prevents her from learning and gaining the knowledge that may save her from injury.

What I liked about the book is that the attitudes could be generalized to the new jumpers that down-size too quickly. Generalizing Rita's perspective has value in understanding why new jumpers get into situations over their heads - even when all those around them are trying to help them get their head out of their ass.

Rita was a prolific poster on r.s when she was jumping. She dispensed advice left and right that was most often incorrect, but she felt some compulsion to advise those that did not know something.

I was living in N. Cal at the time. Several of us had what The Ranch calls Bounce Bingo going on her. We just KNEW that she was an accident waiting to happen. We did not actually bet money, but kept saying that she was a crater in waiting. Then one day, a post was made about her double femur. It did not surprise us in the least.

What did surprise us, was the book she wrote.

In some ways, the book is a good education to experienced jumpers trying to help cocky jumpers. It provides insights into how they (the cocky jumpers) see the skydiving world. There were times I just wanted to toss the book across the room because of the attitude Rita had towards her instructors. As Martin Evans would say, you just wanted to slap her up-side-of-the-head to get some common sense into her.

The book is more valuable to people that want to prevent cocky jumpers from killing themselves, than providing some inspiration of accomplishment to new jumpers. DZ.com has the cocky-Rita types that post. The most recent one is the Ranch's Bounce Bingo guy. A little bit of insight into how they think can be gleaned from Rita's book. I suppose that if the cocky jumpers read this book, they might see themselves in it and that might precipitate an internal change on how they see skydiving.

It is worth a read if you want to get inside the heads of cocky jumpers.

.
.
Make It Happen
Parachute History
DiveMaker

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It's easy, I suppose...in retrospect and in light of the apparent spin of the book...to look at Rita this way, but what's being posted right now reflects a lack of empathy, as well as a lack of knowledge.

To really make it clear would require writing things that I would never post on a public board, but maybe this will help.

She was on the outside looking in, and she desperately wanted in. She was terrified of jumping, but she wanted it so much that she forced herself to continue.

She had two weapons, one being her intellectual gifts--she was actually quite bright--and the other being her sense of humor. If anyone really took seriously her posts about her tandem masters buns...well...you didn't know her at all.

There were well-meaning people who saw all this--unflagging humor (often self-deprecating) in the face of unrelenting terror--and they tried to help her. I know one of the jumpmasters who graduated her, and he didn't do it because he thought she was cocky.

People make a lot of her last crash-landing, but there's more to that than meets the eye too.

Rita jumped because she needed to jump--not unlike most of the rest of you. And failing that, she immersed herself in the writing of the book.

It is easy for vague recollections to take on a different meaning over time, but I think these posts reflect an unwarranted unfairness toward what Rita tried to do.

rl
If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

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Reading this thread make me extremely sad.

Winsor, you know as well as I do why Rita was passed along by her jumpmasters....she was a checkbook full of money to those guys. Thats why they kept pushing her along.....and you know it.

I know Rita personally......opinionated ?Hell yes, shes an attorney now.....good trait to have.

Rita loved skydiving more than anyone on this forum, too bad she never had an ounce of athletic ability. She had more heart than any of you.

There are some of us in the sport that tried to help her for free.....myself included. I had many talks with Rita telling her if she didnt get serious she was going to get hurt....and she did. Why ? Someone tried to sell her a canopy she had no business jumping. She broke both her femurs on a canopy that was a couple steps down from her PD 260 but thats all it took.She made dozens of excuses as to why it happened.....it doesnt matter now....it happened

Anybody on this thread that criticizies Rita for her heart and her poor writing doesnt know Rita....and doesnt deserve to.

Should she have been a skydiver.....fuck no......Was she? For a short time she was. I am proud to have called her my friend.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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Rita loved skydiving more than anyone on this forum, [...] She had more heart than any of you.


How do you know that?



Because he knew her. Because she never gave up. Because in spite of what you all see as ego and cockiness, she was neither egotistical nor cocky. She was one of those people who put a brave face on failure, got up and kept fighting.

You have no idea the magnitude of the obstacles she faced, but face them she did.

rl
If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

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Rita loved skydiving more than anyone on this forum, [...] She had more heart than any of you.


How do you know that?


------------------------------------------------------
Statistics, pure and simple , Christian.
Having spent most of my adult life as a skydiver,JM/I , TM/I it would stand to reason that I have personally trained literally hundreds of students. With the advent of tandem I did thousands.
Never in all those myriad of students did I see the energy and desire that Rita had. Of course she had no business skydiving and her story played out that way. Theres no way on this earth that I would/could try to still that kind of enthusiasm.
I hope to see it again.....but as it is Christian...I havent as yet.
How do I know that? Answered another way....you'll just have to trust me....a great number of other people have.....and still do.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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We never met her, but kept following her "advancements"

Bozo, we agree with your post.

You are awesome and always speak the truth.

A hardy thumbs up.

Lee and Jim West


--------------------------------------------------------
Thanks you two. I always try to tell the truth. I ran out of lies 20 years ago LOL
There I was...thought I was gonna die.

bozo


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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Never in all those myriad of students did I see the energy and desire that Rita had.


That you have not seen it doesnt mean that its not out there. You dont know me or most of the other people on these forums so saying that she has more heart than anyone else is just an assumption (based on your experience of your course which I do not doubt at all) but still an assumption nevertheless. :P

Realizing that you are NOT made out for something and walking away from it even though you REALLY REALLY want it does take more heart than staying in.

There comes a point where determination (which I really do admire) turns into stupidity. Realizing where that point is is a sign of maturity. She was still lucky though, she only hurt herself and no one else.

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Theres no way on this earth that I would/could try to still that kind of enthusiasm.


Really? :| Isnt the safety of your students THE most important part? What if the student is a risk to him-/herself and (possibly) to others? Wouldnt your responsibility as a teacher not be more important than the desire of the student to jump, no matter how enthusiastic he/she is?

Please do not take this as me saying that you are unresponsible (I am not in a position to judge this), I am just curious.

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Theres no way on this earth that I would/could try to still that kind of enthusiasm.


Really? :| Isnt the safety of your students THE most important part? What if the student is a risk to him-/herself and (possibly) to others? Wouldnt your responsibility as a teacher not be more important than the desire of the student to jump, no matter how enthusiastic he/she is?

Please do not take this as me saying that you are unresponsible (I am not in a position to judge this), I am just curious.



Bozo wasn't one of her instructors.

I do, however, know one of her instructors, and he has had very good success working with "problem" students. He is highly empathic, very kind, and a very good teacher. He has years in the sport and thousands and thousands of jumps. He's one of the best people I've ever met in skydiving.

If everyone had been on the same page, it wouldn't have ended the way it did, but there were too many people involved--and everyone had a different idea about what Rita should do.

In the end, if you have a shitload of eminently qualified and extremely experienced people telling you very different things...what do you do? Especially when you believe the naysayers are judging you on things that have nothing to do with the topic at hand.

rl
If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

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