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Iago

Andy-Popsjumper-Bongo-Whitlock

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Iago

Andy 'Popsjumper' 'Bongo' Whitlock has passed away in Tampa due to illness.



Unfortunately I have not been paying attention and did not notice that he had not posted here in a while.

He was always very helpful to his fellow jumpers that asked questions here. This is a huge loss to us all.

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Blue skies brother, the dives we did were always a lot of fun, I always remember that 3way we did and landed off.... Everyone said, you let Andy spot!

RIP Andy, you'll be missed by many.
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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Andy was a friend to dz.com, and to so many of the southern jumpers. We will miss his great laugh and smiling face. He was a pain to moderate on here sometimes, but he always welcomed me with a hug in person and didn't hold it against me that I had to be stern with him. :)

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

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This sucks. I did a lot of jumps with Andy back in his Monroe days. I knew he'd stopped jumping, but I'd always hoped to run into him again.

Back when he was a "young jumper" (55 years old!)with only 70 jumps, in 2004, he organized the first Georgia POPS record jump. It was only a 12-way but it was a lot of fun. The bottom photo in this link shows the group, Andy is the one with the big smile standing in back in the very middle.

Blue skies Andy.

Don
_____________________________________
Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996)
“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

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Andy, Gary McMahan & I used to organize at the SkyFest events together.
Andy had the energy, enthusiasm and zest for life that would rival any 20 year old.
He was a staunch believer in "Paying it Skyward."
He had a great sense of humor and an intellectual wit.
In the evenings we'd sit at Gary's RV while Gary & I would sip some Forty Creek and just watch the skydiver evening antics & rituals.
Thank you for the memories, Brothers.
You will both be missed and my heart is heavy today.

Here's Andy saying goodbye to Gary and now I say RIP & Blue Skies to both.
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3881791;search_string=gary%20mcmahan;#3881791
Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

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skymama

Andy was a friend to dz.com, and to so many of the southern jumpers. We will miss his great laugh and smiling face. He was a pain to moderate on here sometimes, but he always welcomed me with a hug in person and didn't hold it against me that I had to be stern with him. :)



When I first started jumping I scanned many posts looking for helpful information. Andy was one of about four people that I identified as someone that I could learn from, even on the Internet. I became friends with Andy and later got to meet him in person, after he retired.

Andy was a great encourager.
Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

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Andy you cantankerous pain in the ass. Who am i going to argue with now?

I'm so glad I got to meet you and become friends. We got several good years in there. Heck almost a decade's worth

Glad you got to learn to sail. I know from your FB posts you really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed getting to see it happen for you even if it was from afar. Speaking of FB, just a couple of months ago you said to me, "You really should unblock so and so, life is too short. You made your point to them, now it's time to let it go and mend the fences." Wasn't much I could say to you about it, cause like 99% of the time, you were right. Hopefully you're somewhere reading this. And just so you know I'm going to heed your advice, once again. I suspect it won't be the last time I heed your advice either.

Take care, until we meet again.

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jumpwally

Im surprised that there has been no addt'l info for such a popular guy on this website,,,how long was he sick, memorial,,ash dive , etc, ? has everything migrated to FB ? :(



It was Andys wish that no fuss was made and he did not want an ash dive. He had been sick for quite a long time, but really played it down.

He left dz.com ages back as he really couldn't stay out of speakers corner and didn't want to get banned, so he removed himself from the picture :P
Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

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Damn. So sad to hear this.

Met Andy at Fitz a number of years back and greeted him with a three-limb hug. :P I agree with so many on here that he was such a great mentor, whether in person or on here, to new jumpers. Solid, consistent advice, and patient as hell.

See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus

Shut Up & Jump!

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