Article in the RED EYE

[loudtom 5]

Finally the article comes out. Not because of an incident or any bad thing, but just because...
Haven't actually seen it yet, just heard it was out finally. Out here in the outback we have to wait for someone to bring us the latest edition...

Love and Blues and NO Wind Days,
yo

tom #90 #54 #08 and now #5 with a Bronze :-)

[Buried 0]

article about what? I should be able to go pic up one in a few minutes

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[loudtom 5]

Oh Sorry!!
About CSC and our Little dz from heaven...
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

tom #90 #54 #08 and now #5 with a Bronze :-)

[Buried 0]

its about CSC and SDC.. a bit more on CSC
here is a snipet found online

Quote

HIGH LIFE
Thrills, challenges make
skydiving appealing for many

By Jimmy Greenfield
RedEye

The nerves that first-time skydiver Jamie Novack had been feeling on the ground grew stronger as she watched soloists jump out of the plane.

Then she jumped, and the butterflies flew away.

"It was no fear, no nothing," said Novack, 26. "It was like we were floating."

Novack, who made her jump earlier this month at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Hinckley, roughly 50 miles west of Chicago, isn't the only one floating on air these days.

Although one might think that jumping from an airplane is inherently dangerous, if not deadly, about 3 million people skydive each year, according to the U.S. Parachute Association. But there were only 21 fatalities in the U.S. last year, according to the USPA. That was the fewest since 1992, when the USPA started tracking fatalities. The deadliest year was 1998, when 44 skydivers were killed.

Only about 1,300 USPA members reported injuries in 2002, the last year for which statistics are available. That number could be low because of underreporting, said USPA spokesman Chris Needels, whose group has more than 33,000 members.

Hinckley's Skydiving Center, with around 25,000 to 30,000 jumps a year, has had no fatalities since it was purchased by Doug Smith and Todd Davis five years ago.

I think the person they quoted for one positive thing about dzs in general needs to visit some other DZs. I think their low end of the jump numbers for SDC is low too. Tory has ~35 jumps now, not 20
overall fair short article

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[DrewGPM 0]

"Hinckley's Skydiving Center, with around 25,000 to 30,000 jumps a year, has had no fatalities since it was purchased by Doug Smith and Todd Davis five years ago."

Sad to say, but this is not true. There was a fatality at CSC last year.

[Jeth 0]

Does anybody have the whole article? I missed it but would like to read it.

Thanks!


Edit to add that I found it online at pressdisplay.com. Not a bad article. Honest, but fair.

"At 13,000 feet nothing else matters."
PFRX!!!!!
Team Funnel #174, Sunshine kisspass #109
My Jump Site

[loudtom 5]

They Don't have it all on-line though...
WE have some out here, come and jump with us and have a look.
labanwd
lt the yo

tom #90 #54 #08 and now #5 with a Bronze :-)

[Buried 0]

I have it. I'll try and remember to bring it to the dz on saturday

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[Buried 0]

Quote

They Don't have it all on-line though...

you sure? pressdisplay.com looks like they have the entire thing

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[craichead 0]

There are two complete articles online at the Chicago Tribune main web site. Here's the first one:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-050711jumpmain,1,1508622.story

High life

By Jimmy Greenfield
RedEye
Published July 11, 2005

The nerves that first-time skydiver Jamie Novack had been feeling on the ground grew stronger as she watched soloists jump out of the plane.

Then she jumped, and the butterflies flew away.

"It was no fear, no nothing," said Novack, 26. "It was like we were floating."

Novack, who made her jump earlier this month at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Hinckley, roughly 50 miles west of Chicago, isn't the only one floating on air these days.

Although one might think that jumping from an airplane is inherently dangerous, if not deadly, about 3 million people skydive each year, according to the U.S. Parachute Association. But there were only 21 fatalities in the U.S. last year, according to the USPA. That was the fewest since 1992, when the USPA started tracking fatalities. The deadliest year was 1998, when 44 skydivers were killed.

Only about 1,300 USPA members reported injuries in 2002, the last year for which statistics are available. That number could be low because of underreporting, said USPA spokesman Chris Needels, whose group has more than 33,000 members.

Hinckley's Skydiving Center, with around 25,000 to 30,000 jumps a year, has had no fatalities since it was purchased by Doug Smith and Todd Davis five years ago.

The only Chicago-area skydiving death in 2004 occurred at Ottawa-based Skydive Chicago, which has 50,000 to 100,000 jumps a year. Skydive Chicago has had 15 fatalities since opening in 1993.

That doesn't mean it's an unsafe drop zone, Needels said. Drop zone is the name for the area in which skydivers land, but it also can refer to the entire facility.

"You have to look at each fatality on what caused the fatality as opposed to just aggregate numbers," he said.

Siblings Melissa and Matt Nelson inherited Skydive Chicago from their father, Roger Nelson, a skydiving entrepreneur who died in a skydiving accident there two years ago. He died when another jumper swerved into and collapsed his parachute about 50 feet above the ground.

Skydive Chicago came under public scrutiny after Nelson's death and the string of other fatal accidents in 2001 and 2002. Nelson's death was ruled an accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration said at the time that no regulations were violated.

"We don't want people in the local area to have such a bad taste in their mouth about who we are. Because they just don't know," Melissa Nelson said. "My brother and I have our own future together."

Neither Skydive Chicago nor Chicagoland Skydiving Center would be in business without the money that comes in from first-time jumpers like Novack who jump in tandem, attached to an instructor who is responsible for pulling the rip cord of the parachute. Tandem jumpers at CSC go through about a half-hour of instruction.

These tandem jumpers, who pay around $150 to $200, keep the industry afloat, according to Davis. Experienced jumpers buy jumps in bulk, which allows them to jump 10 times a day or more at around $20 a jump.

"They jump all weekend, every weekend of the summer," said Davis, 32. "It's a lifestyle for them. It's an escape from their life."

After making his first tandem jump earlier this summer, Pete Oliveira, 39, paid $2,300 for an additional 24 jumps at CSC. Oliveira said he likes the camaraderie at the skydiving club, which brings together people from all walks of life.

"One thing I've noticed is it's not real cliquish," Oliveira said. "You have all socioeconomic backgrounds. It's fun being able to hang out and with people and not worry about all the other things that go on in life."

Often it's a family affair.

Oliveira's first jump was with his son. Novack was jumping with her father and husband.

JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz spend their weekdays as business consultants, but when the weekend arrives, they leave the comfort of their Lincoln Park home for the thrill of skydiving.

JaNette, 26, has made nearly 200 jumps at various jump zones and still has many jumps remaining on CSC's 100-jump package she bought for $1,600 at the start of the season. She's more terrified of riding in cars than she is of jumping out of planes, she said.

Even as she nurses a swollen lip after a recent jump, she downplayed the seriousness of the accident. "We were supposed to go 1-2-3 and jump out all at the same time," she said. "And I just went out too early and got kicked in the face."

Andy Whitmire, 22, talked about skydiving for a long time with his friends, but when he turned 18, the only person who would go with him was his uncle. Now Whitmire is spending his summer vacation from Penn State University as a parachute packer at CSC, jumping when he has the time and money.

"I don't see it as being that dangerous," he said. "It's a high risk jumping out of a plane, but it's more dangerous driving a car here."

Tory Davidson-Bell, an 18-year-old UIC student, had never even been in a plane when she came to Skydive Chicago in August after seeing a video of her boyfriend skydiving.

She made her first jump on her birthday, got hooked and took a job with Skydive Chicago in February. She's now living in a trailer on the drop zone grounds, has 20 jumps to her credit and has still never flown on a commercial jet.

"To this day, I've jumped out every single time [I've flown]," Davidson-Bell said.

[email protected]

__
"Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

[craichead 0]

And here's the second article, featuring our very own Loud Tom!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-050711jumpside,1,3409166.story

Accidents, death just part of the business

By Jimmy Greenfield
RedEye
Published July 11, 2005

The beauty and wonder of skydiving is what drove Tom Startz to leave his landscaping business seven years ago and begin jumping out of planes for a living.

Actually, it's not quite a living. "We make a bare existence," said the 45-year-old instructor at Chicagoland Skydiving Center. "But I open my parachute at 5,000 feet, and there's my office."

Startz, who has made more than 2,000 jumps, has also seen the dark side of the business.

Four years ago, he was standing about 15 feet away from two of his friends when they fell to their deaths. Deborah Luhmann and Steve Smith, along with Startz, were part of a 12-person team practicing for a national competition on Oct. 6, 2001, when Luhmann and Smith's parachutes became entwined about 75 feet above ground.

"As they were coming in to landing, they got tangled up," Startz said. "They were spinning under their canopy, and they hit the ground. Not having seen that before, I thought both should have gotten up. But they didn't."

Less than 24 hours later, the rest of the team, including Startz, was back up in the sky practicing for their competition.

"(Deborah's fiance) said, 'Let's go.' When the man who lost someone says, 'Let's go,' you don't fail him."

The accident occurred over the drop zone of Skydive Chicago, the largest skydiving school in the Chicago area. There have been 15 fatalities since Skydive Chicago opened in Ottawa in 1993. The most recent came last July when a 31-year-old Chicago man died.

Startz was an instructor at Skydive Chicago for several years before joining CSC in 2004.

"Some of the things that happened down there just happened," Startz said. "I lost a couple of my instructor buddies doing silly things they shouldn't have been doing. But that's the nature of the business."

Skydive Chicago co-owner Melissa Nelson said she and her brother, Matt, run a safe drop zone. Their instructors are drug-tested every year, and they recently upgraded their equipment. The problem, she said, is not skydive centers but individual skydivers.

"People come here, they want to show off," she said. "Different skydiving place, different people. And they just get that hot-shot attitude. Because egos are a big thing in our sport, and sometimes they do things that ultimately lead to death. Skydiving is a sport that's so much fun, but it's also a sport you need to respect."

[email protected]

__
"Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

[Jeth 0]

Ah! So they put them on the Trib web page! Oh well, they were also available on pressdisplay.com, the entire paper is.

Thanks, craichead, for posting them, though.

"At 13,000 feet nothing else matters."
PFRX!!!!!
Team Funnel #174, Sunshine kisspass #109
My Jump Site

[craichead 0]

Quote

Ah! So they put them on the Trib web page! Oh well, they were also available on pressdisplay.com, the entire paper is.

Thanks, craichead, for posting them, though.

No problem, m'dear! The Trib can be a bit weird that way... I also found an interesting follow-up to the featured skydiving articles on the Red Eye web site, too.

_Pm


If 'only' I chose the correct word

By Jimmy Greenfield
RedEye
July 15, 2005

Kathee Clifford's e-mail arrived in my in-box at 2:34 p.m. Tuesday, roughly 32 hours after an article I wrote about skydiving hit the street.

She took exception to only one word in the article.

The one word was "only."

In the article, I wrote that "there were only 21 fatalities in the U.S. last year, according to the USPA."

"I just had to say something," Clifford wrote to me. "It just did not sound right."

In 1988, Bernie Clifford, Kathee's older brother, died in a skydiving accident at the old Skydive Sandwich site in Sandwich. He was 22.

Technically, the word "only" was the right word.

The 21 deaths was the lowest total in the U.S. in 12 years. But it was insensitive, and I'm not going to quibble. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

"In those 21 deaths, there's 21 stories behind that of how it affected a family, and the impact it had on a family," she told me in a phone conversation Thursday morning.

Statistics can be cold and heartless, and even if they help in telling a story, they never tell the human story, which is why I asked Kathee to share something about Bernie.

"He was a big Marine, and he loved his country, and he loved his music," she said. "He was a good guy. I think he was a little lost, but he definitely found himself in skydiving."

During a routine jump at Skydive Sandwich, which has since reopened as Skydive Chicago, his parachute accidentally became tangled with that of another man, Scott Kuhlmann, who also was killed. Kathee has thought about driving out to Sandwich to read the police report about her brother's death. But she hasn't yet, and she's not sure why.

There is a conflict here for Kathee, and it has nothing to do with the circumstances surrounding her brother's death. It's that she knows he died doing something he loved.

There are pictures of Bernie all over her Oak Lawn home, including one of him skydiving.

"I'll be honest, I'll take the picture down every now and then and be mad," said Kathee, who works at Sluggers in Wrigleyville. "And when I hear people are going skydiving, I get mad. I've had friends who I've asked to stop talking about it. One of the girls at Sluggers actually went, and I asked her very nicely, 'Can you not talk about it when I'm here.'

"He loved it so much, so you have to try and be understanding, but then you're mad as hell at him for loving it so much. It's conflicting.

"People say you get to feel you died doing something you love. I mean, is that really something to be that proud of? I don't know."

Skydivers will tell you that driving is more dangerous than skydiving, and statistically they may be right. But Kathee doesn't buy it.

"It just seems more extreme to me for some reason," she said. "An accident in a sport and not a vehicle, I just find that different."

Even with her pain and her doubts, Kathee doesn't try to blame anybody for Bernie's death. Sometimes she sees a commercial that glorifies skydiving, and that bugs her.

But she doesn't like to tell people what to do, except maybe once in awhile a writer who uses the wrong word.

"The last Cubs' homestand I worked [at Slugger's], there were actually a group of guys from Boston talking about going," she said. "They asked me about Skydive Chicago, if I knew anything about it. And I just said I know something about it. I didn't tell them about my brother, I just gave them the information.

"And I said be very, very careful."

E-mail Jimmy Greenfield at [email protected]

__
"Scared of love, love and aeroplanes...falling out, I said takes no brains." -- Andy Partridge (XTC)

[JoeyRamone 0]

I can-mail the entire article with pictures if anyone want it.

[EricaH 0]

I understand this woman's grief.
But there are a bunch of dangerous sports that are glorified - in which people also die or are severly maimed/injured.

There is no can't. Only lack of knowledge or fear. Only you can fix your fear.

PMS #227 (just like the TV show)

[Jeth 0]

Yup, I agree. There are a million ways to die, and it IS something to die doing something you love doing. Too bad she can't appreciate how much her brother loved the sport.

Interesting that this was the follow-up. I had heard that they were re-doing the article because they mis-quoted that CSC had never had a fatality.

"At 13,000 feet nothing else matters."
PFRX!!!!!
Team Funnel #174, Sunshine kisspass #109
My Jump Site