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cderham

One of our own

By cderham, in General Skydiving Discussions

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cderham    0

cderham
Nice little article about our Professor

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1444028615/Wingsuit-helps-man-take-flight


Wingsuit helps man take flight
Flossmoor man skydives with team, making formations in midair


The Associated Press
Posted Jan 03, 2010 @ 10:03 PM
FLOSSMOOR —

John Kallend has learned to fly.

How he does so doesn't require an engine either, except to take him up to his launching pad.

The flying part comes from the clothes he wears. Particularly a wingsuit, a full-body jumpsuit with airfoils throughout that slow descent while skydiving and allow a person to soar horizontally rather than just dropping before opening the parachute.

It is an intriguing way to skydive that maximizes the time aloft, said Kallend, who said his longest flight before pulling the ripcord was 3 minutes, 20 seconds.

Kallend, 64, of Flossmoor, who has been jumping out of planes for 12 years and with a wingsuit for six years, said he sometimes reaches speeds of 100 miles per hour as he races parallel to the ground thousands of feet below.

"The suit gives me the closest feeling I can have to being Superman," said Kallend, an engineering professor at Illinois Institute of Technology who was prompted into skydiving by a student.

"He wanted to join the school's skydiving club 12 years ago but there wasn't one. I told him to start one and I'd volunteer as faculty adviser. I thought that would be the end of it, but he started one. I felt obliged to keep up my end."

Since then, he has jumped out of planes 2,370 times, only once with any problem, when another skydiver collided with Kallend and their parachute lines crossed. Kallend used his feet to untangle the lines.

"It happened too fast to be scared," he recalled.

Through most of his skydiving days, Kallend has looked to ratchet up the excitement of the adventure, and challenge his engineering skills, by organizing and participating in giant skydiving formation events.

Kallend was part of 10-member team that won a bronze medal in the 2002 U.S. National Championship for speed in putting together a formation. The team took just 12.03 seconds to exit a plane and link together into a formation.

Kallend said the formations move at such rapid speed that there's no second guessing or planning once skydivers are in the air.

"The only communicating you can do is wiggling your legs or giving hand signals. We do all the instructions and planning on the ground," he said.

Formation skydivers have to be adept at how to change speeds and maneuver through the air.

"We come out of the plane single file. The last ones out need to catch up to the others, then slow down to the same speed while the formation is formed," Kallend said.

Though there's some physics involved in skydiving into formation, an engineering degree is not mandatory to jumping. Kallend said the group he often jumps with includes a truck driver, a small-business owner and a printer, among others.

"They're just people who like a challenge," he said.

In July, Kallend was part of a 25-person formation that set a U.S. record for number of skydivers in wingsuits. That record was broken in November when a formation of 68 skydivers, including Kallend, came together over Lake Elsinore, Calif.

Records for wingsuit skydiving were just recently recognized by the U.S. Parachute Association, Kallend said.

Next up for Kallend is an attempt in April at Lake Elsinore to break the world record for number of skydivers over 60 years old. He will be one of the 60 skydivers in the "60 over 60" event.

Kallend helped organize the formation of 81 skydivers over the age of 40, and another with 18 skydivers over 60, both of which set Illinois records for formations. Kallend said age catches up to skydivers eventually.

"Various ailments, including arthritis or cardiovascular issues, slow you down," he said.

Kallend said he knew a skydiver still jumping at 84.

"He parachuted into Normandy in World War II," he said. "Another guy I know from Lansing is 74. I hope to get in another 10 years."

Chris
It's Jimmy Time!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Fast-As-Fuck/6099474213

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kallend    1,929

kallend
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What, no pictures. [:/]



The only picture I saw was apparently stock footage of some guy in a nursing home in a Superman cape. I think.


As the baby boomers age, so the nursing homes get more tolerant of eccentrics like you, me and twardo.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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