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airtwardo

Dennis Anderson ~ 8/11/10

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I've known Dennis for a long, long time. He was my first flight instructor in airplanes and also my instructor when I was working on my tandem rating. He worked odd times at my shop and was continuously talking about the airplanes, skydiving and what his kids were doing. I just attended his service in McPherson today and this day tempers my life for me. I cannot believe that one so happy and helpful is gone. I asked him once earlier this year how things were at the DZ.. He told me he was happier than he had ever been in his life.. Seems like when we finally arrive at that point it's usually fatal for us. A truly great aviator has passed. He told me once on a really wild crosswind landing approach in an airplane,"It's really important at this point that you don't become simply a passenger." I adopted his words and applied them to everything in this life. It's the best advice anyone could give. Dennis Anderson lived his life as a pilot, never as just a passenger.
"It's very important at this point that you don't simply become a passenger." Flight instructor Dennis Anderson speaking about life and crosswind landings.



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Another thought. The Texas highway dept. allows roadside crosses to be erected at accident sites, to remember the victims, and encourage safety by others. How about one for Dennis, adorned with flowers and ripcords?



I've been looking into this. It seems there are two programs. The first is for crosses, but those are authorized only for fatalities caused by impaired driving, either liquor or drugs. Likewise, there is a memorial sign program for people who object to the religious symbolism of crosses. That one, for $300, will erect a sign for a period of one year. It too is only for impaired driving fatalities. The purpose of both is to raise awareness of road safety with these visible symbols. But since the person who caused Dennis' death was apparently not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, these programs do not apply. Thus, if such a cross was to be erected, it would have to be located on adjacent private land. The other possibility is to make it a "bandit" cross, and just erect it ourselves on the edge of the public right of way, back against the private property line where it is out of the way, and then hope that maintenance workers don't remove it.

Elsewhere, I've got a call in to the Brazoria County Sheriff's office to get a copy of the accident report. If/when I get my hands on that, I'll scan it and post it here.

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Yes, it was another all sing of the song The amazing men and their flying machines at the Memorial of Dennis in Mcpherson, Kansas today. Great to see all the skygods of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. 3 loads flown by Garan Broadway in his 182. Thanks, Garan for getting an old fart out and hanging my knees in the breeze. See y'all at Savautes Ristorante at 7 for DZ and more Dennis stories.
Rule #1 of Skydiving: Safely Land An Open Parachute!

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Having spent the past 30 years in Dennis' home town of McPherson I have heard all the stories from people after they find out that I skydive. My wife and I just met him in February of this year while on a TX turbine tour. When we showed up in Rosharon it was windy and not much jumping going on. We looked him up and introduced ourselves. He proceeded with the $5 tour and kept us entertained that day. The next day when the jumping was going on he kept checking in on us to make sure we were having a good time.
I first met his son at KSUPC. Later, his mom showed up at my office to introduce herself and PROUDLY show me an article about him. Let me tell, if you've ever met June Anderson(Dennis' mom) then you know where his piss and vinegar comes from. She stopped by again a couple months ago with pictures of her tandem with her son and grandson on her 85th birthday.
The funeral today was beautiful and I believe soul cleansing. Following the service there was a Missing Man formation of Cessnas flying over the church. We then gathered for a lunch and afterwards flew three loads of h-n-p's. The other three members on my load had know Dennis for years. Afterwards, I had one of them sign my logbook and we visited for a few minutes. As I was walking away I heard a "hey" behind me. When I turned around the gentleman(I wasn't introduced to him by name and his signature in my lobbook rivals only mine for being illegible) said to me, "when you're working with students this weekend be like Dennis. Make sure they learn something and have as much fun as you do."
I hope to someday be half the instructor Dennis was.
It's a gift, I don't try to explain it.

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You are welcome Troy. Dennis was my mentor for proper attitude, still learning. Sorry about the doctor signature. Should read Jeffrey A. Boddiger D9411 Freak Brother 1872. Give me a holler anytime and I will give ya the 11 cent tour of Wichita. Good jumping with you.
Rule #1 of Skydiving: Safely Land An Open Parachute!

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It occurred to me sometime over the last week or so that as I say to every tandem student a few minutes before exit "Don't forget to breath, keep your eyes open, and have fun!" That I picked that up from Dennis at some point years ago. I didn't get my tandem rating from Dennis, but must have been on the airplane with him while he was doing a tandem. I guess that he's been with me on virtually every tandem I've done over the last 10 years in a little way.

Martin
Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

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John if you need assistance getting that police report let me know. My father is a 1st lietenant in the Brazoria County Sherrif's department and I could call him to see if I can expedite that for you.



Thanks for the offer. Let me first see how normal channels work. So far "Casey" is not picking up her phone, and not returning my answering machine messages...

Update: The County Sheriff lady called back. She said they don't handle investigations where fatalities are involved - that's done by the State Highway Patrol. So I called them, and they referred me to the State Department of Transportation. (They don't make this easy...) The DOT has a form CR-91 (attached) for requesting a copy of one of their "Crash Reports". Give 'em 10 days to have it on file, which is tomorrow. So I'm mailing mine today, and by the time they receive my request on Monday, the 10-day period has passed, and hopefully they'll respond.

Attached below:
1) Request for Crash Report form (pdf file).
2) My filled out request: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2009-11/1349507/Request%20Crash%20Report.jpg

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Attached are some photos from the service yesterday.

If this is appropriate here, I also have many more posted to our family's Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourfunnyfarm/sets/72157624640316659/with/4909772918/

What our family witnessed Thursday with the outpouring of emotion, respect, honor and tributes to Dennis - was nothing short of amazing. I doubt he would have done what he did everyday for so many years if it wasn't for your friendship & camaraderie. You are all something special. Thank you all for turning such a tough time as this into something so inspiring.

Don't take any day that you are on this earth - or flying above it - for granted.

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https://www.skydivingmuseum.org/MonetarybrDonations/Donate/tabid/67/Default.aspx


~Above is the link regarding donations to the USPA National Skydiving Museum for a plaque honoring our friend Dennis Wayne Anderson.

Enter in the 'In Memory Of' box:
Dennis Anderson, USPA #684, D-2759


As Rich Delgado said during the Texas service, "The cost of a jump ticket is nothing when compared to the countless contributions Dennis made to this sport we all love."

The total cost is $1000.00, so I urge everyone to put in whatever they can and to do it today, we ARE skydivers and a lot gets shifted to the 'back burner'.

...so PLEASE do it now while it's fresh.

Let's get this done, what better way to honor a special man that touched so many, so often and in so many ways!

Blue Skies!


~Twardo










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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My sincerest of sincere heartfelt condolences to all affected by the loss of Dennis.:( I have only met him twice, both meetings were brief - but I could tell that he was in a league of his own, with everything that he did. He was definitely a character to. :)
~Ralf Rybak

Dialogue/commentary between Divot, Twardo & myself -

"from your first Oshkosh when the three of us were riding to or from one of

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I was also at the service for Dennis in McPherson the other day and would like to add something I heard on a sports report recently: "Often we don't take the time to praise or thank certain people in our lives before it's too late." This is probably true for many of us in regard to Dennis......in my over 30 years in skydiving, I have met many peope who truly stood out in some way; either as a jumper, organizer, competitor, rigger, pilot, coach, instructor etc.....but rarely have I met anyone who could do all that and do it REALLY WELL, and be a super nice guy to boot!!! Dennis touched so many people's lives in so many ways it is probably impossible to enumerate.....and there are probably a million kindnesses he bestowed on people that will never be known....truly he was one of the true quiet legends of this sport..

I would like to publicly thank Chuck Powell, long time Wichita skydiver and pilot for organizing the Quiet Birdmen flyby at Dennis' funeral and for organizing the post funeral demonstration fun jumps at McPherson airport......I would also like to thank Garan Broadway, another long time Wichita area jumper, pilot and former dzo for providing the jump aircraft that made it possible.

Funerals are no fun but I have to say the comraderie I experienced during the last few days fueled by the presence of many skydivers and former skydivers from the midwest made me once again realize how unique skydiving is and what an impact it has had on my life and obviously the lives of most of us.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to show up, share your memories of Dennis and participate in a truly superb sendoff to this legendary skydiver.

Blue Skies forever............

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https://www.skydivingmuseum.org/MonetarybrDonations/Donate/tabid/67/Default.aspx
~Above is the link regarding donations to the USPA National Skydiving Museum for a plaque honoring our friend Dennis Wayne Anderson.

Enter in the 'In Memory Of' box:
Dennis Anderson, USPA #684, D-2759

As Rich Delgado said during the Texas service, "The cost of a jump ticket is nothing when compared to the countless contributions Dennis made to this sport we all love."
The total cost is $1000.00, so I urge everyone to put in whatever they can and to do it today, we ARE skydivers and a lot gets shifted to the 'back burner'.
...so PLEASE do it now while it's fresh.
Let's get this done, what better way to honor a special man that touched so many, so often and in so many ways!
Blue Skies!

~Twardo


~~~~~~~~~~~~~AND BY THE WAY~~~~~~~~~~~~



http://www.skydivingmuseum.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=bn5PY%2fIEo4c%3d&tabid=60

I've gotten some inquiries regarding donations by check for Dennis Anderson's plaque.

Above is the link to a form you can print out and snail mail a donation in...please to so if you can.

Somebody said at the DZ earlier, that if 1/2 the 'saves' Dennis is credited with as a rigger, sent in a sawbuck... he would have a wall not a 'brick'! B|

Thanks guys.










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Re: Crash Report

Update: My crash report request form came back from Austin saying "no report found". By law they're supposed to have these done in 10 days, but I guess that's the speed of light for a government bureaucracy, and is too much to expect. In my latest conversation with Austin they say that fatality reports take 20-30 days, and that I should re-file my request at the end of September (that would be over a month and a half since the accident). So I'll wait, and try again later. That's where things stand for now.

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Re: Crash Report

Update: My crash report request form came back from Austin saying "no report found". By law they're supposed to have these done in 10 days, but I guess that's the speed of light for a government bureaucracy, and is too much to expect. In my latest conversation with Austin they say that fatality reports take 20-30 days, and that I should re-file my request at the end of September (that would be over a month and a half since the accident). So I'll wait, and try again later. That's where things stand for now.



The problem is that the reporting agency is supposed to have the CR-3 submitted with in 10 days to TxDOT. Since TxDOT has taken over the filing process from TxDPS it has been a complete crap shoot. The form has been changed to a horribly bad and complicated piece of crap, which means that even more reports are being returned for corrections from TxDOT to the reporting agency.

Unless the reporting agency was DPS, you're much better off contacting the ORI and getting a copy of the CR-3 from their records department.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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I just learned of his death earlier today.

When I was an stp/aff student at Spaceland, Dennis and I made 4 jumps together. While I would be nervous or scared out of my mind, there would be Dennis, nearby with that big bushy mustache saying "SMILE"!

In an earlier post someone stated that Dennis was always willing to take on problem or basket case students. I was one of those students and Dennis, along with 2 other stp/aff instructors never hesitated and was always willing to jump with me after some others had written me off.

He is and will be missed. My deepest condolences to his family and all his friends at SkydiveSpaceland

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I have received the official crash report from the State of Texas, and the four page report is linked here:

Page 1: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JohnRich/Dennis%20Anderson/Dennis1.jpg
Page 2: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JohnRich/Dennis%20Anderson/Dennis2.jpg
Page 3: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JohnRich/Dennis%20Anderson/Dennis3.jpg
Page 4: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/JohnRich/Dennis%20Anderson/Dennis4.jpg

Page 1 is descriptive info about the drivers and vehicles.
Page 2 contains the diagram and narrative which really explains what happened.
Pages 3 & 4 contain the code explanations which are used throughout pages 1 & 2.

The page images are bit-map (bmp) files of about 900k each.

If you're going to be emotionally upset by reading this report, then please do not open these files. I am making this report available for those who feel that having all of the information is the best way to get closure. If you have unanswered questions about how this crash happened, the answers are there.

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Today would be Dennis' 62 birthday. In honor of Dennis, his son, Eric Anderson, released his ashes at Skydive Spaceland on a beautiful sunset load.

Dennis Anderson's Final Jump

Eric Anderson
DJ Marvin
Alex O'Connor
Rory Corrigan
Valerie Marvin
Hank Prewitt
Matt Bessonette
Bostone Hartley
Trent Alkek
Steve Boyd Jr.

Video:
Ori Kuper
JP Furnari
Roo Kaiserman

There were many more people there to honor Dennis from the ground or from the air on their own jumps. Thank you to everyone for paying their respects and honoring one of the greatest men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Blue Skies Dennis!

DJ Marvin
AFF I/E, Coach/E, USPA/UPT Tandem I/E
http://www.theratingscenter.com

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Damn it's already been a full year. Miss you old man. Thanks for the laughs.





The 1st day of the Oshkosh demo A bunch of the guys jumped with a sock in their helmet in honor of Dennis.

Miss ya ole man!!










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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