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Grahamstown, South Africa - There was mirth and amazement when a naked skydiver landed on the Grahamstown army's parade at 8am yesterday morning. Unfazed, the first words Port Elizabeth candidate attorney James Reilly, 36, shouted to the 100-odd soldiers were: "Reporting for action, Sir!". Reilly jumped naked from 4 000m into minus 12 degree air as part of radio station 5fm's Speed Stick Give-it-Stick competition for the wackiest act. He leapt from the plane wearing only a stick of the deodorant bound with sticky tape to his penis. Before the jump, a nervous but excited Reilly was seen running around the EP Skydivers' clubhouse in the nude. The naked Reilly climbed into a light plane at 7.15am and jumped 45 minutes later. Speaking through gritted teeth, he said he endured a 50-second free fall at 200km/h "to get down quicker. It's cold man!" Although he said he was scared of landing barefoot on the gravel, ECN witnessed his agony as he removed the plastic tape. Mr Reilly yelled "Aaaaagh!" for almost 30 seconds as he stripped the binding off, even though his wife Michelle had said playfully: "I'm going to take that off!" She said: "It's madness what people will do for a car." Reilly was bidding to win a five-door Peugeot 206 sedan in the Speedstick Give It Stick And Win a Car Competition. 5FM DJ Kevin Fine said one competitor had "a stick tatooed to her bum." Mr Reilly will be admitted to the bar in the Grahamstown high court on Thursday.

Dayton Township, USA - A 22-year-old Pennsylvania woman was killed skydiving Monday. Allison Hoffman of Allentown, a college student, was found dead in remote timber off East 1951 Road in Dayton Township. She is the eighth person to die in an accident since Skydive Chicago moved to Ottawa in 1993. For unknown reasons, Hoffman's parachute did not inflate, La Salle County Coroner Jody Bernard said Wednesday. An autopsy was scheduled for this morning, she added. The coroner's office, La Salle County Sheriff's Department and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the death, Bernard said. Skydive Chicago was in the news last year when a Missoula, Mont., man died after a mid-air collision with another skydiver. The business was attempting to break the world record for the number of skydivers in a free-fall formation. Three skydivers died within three weeks of each other in 1998. Skydive Chicago Program Director Roger Nelson could not be reached for comment. Hoffman was a culinary student at Johnson and Wales University in Miami, Fla. She was to have graduated in December, said Alicia Medina, academics administrator. When a student dies, the university often will start a collection to help the parents with funeral costs, she said. "Usually we will wait until the parents call us," Medina said. "We don't want to intrude. We usually do take a collection to help out the parents."

Tony Blair was briefing ministers in the garden of No 10 when they were interrupted by an object dropping out of the skies. It was a 22ft red and yellow paper streamer attached to a large cardboard tube - dropped by Army skydivers to test the wind speed before their jump. It reportedly landed in a minister's lap, blowing paper over Mr Blair. Today a security probe was launched into the incident, which happened yesterday. The skydivers were the Royal Artillery's Black Knights, making a spectacular descent over the Thames, landing by the London Eye. The streamer was dropped by the jumpmaster, Sergeant Tony Goodman, and a gust of wind swept it across Whitehall. Police looked on helplessly as the colourful mass descended. A source said today: "It caused one or two twitches when it appeared above Downing Street. We are looking into any possible security implications." The Army had no idea of the consternation they had caused. Sgt Goodman said: "As far as I was concerned everything had gone fine." Once they arrived back at Woolwich Barracks "everything went mental", he said, adding: "We got phone calls from Whitehall, Land HQ and all these high-ranking people demanding to know what we'd thrown out of the plane. Later we were told the streamer had hit Tony Blair." A Downing Street spokesman admitted: "There was some sort of streamer in the garden. We're not prepared to say whether the Prime Minister was in the garden at the time." Tube hits Tony at No 10 Frank O’Donnell TONY Blair demanded an immediate inquiry yesterday after government business was temporarily paralysed by the first recorded tube strike in Downing Street. The Prime Minister was brainstorming with ministers in the garden of No10 when he was struck by a 22ft red and yellow paper streamer ... attached to a cardboard tube. As the serious business of running the country took a back seat, ministers found the alien object stuffed with headed notepaper from the Army’s Royal Artillery Black Knights skydiving team. A high level investigation quickly discovered the object had been tossed from a plane to test wind speed and direction. As police looked on helplessly, a gust of wind had blown it straight over Downing Street and into the lap of power. The six-man skydiving team - who denied it was the most carefully-orchestrated publicity stunt in history - made the leap on Wednesday to publicise a forthcoming dance and music charity show. Clad in fancy dress, the soldiers dropped over the River Thames to land within feet of the London Eye, unaware of the government windfall. The tube was thrown by Sergeant Tony Goodman, who said: "As far as I was concerned everything had gone fine, but apparently the streamer hit Tony Blair." He said calls started coming in from Whitehall and Land HQ demanding to know what he had thrown. His superior, Captain Dan Lott, said: "We do apologise for interrupting government business but it was a legal requirement to throw out the streamer before the jump, for safety reasons. We don’t want the men ending up in the North Sea." He added: "I’m sure that the Prime Minister has a sense of humour."

BATAVIA - Two skydivers were seriously injured yesterday when their parachutes malfunctioned after they had jumped in tandem from a plane at 19,000 feet. Genesee County sheriff's deputies were not releasing the names of the man and woman pending notification of relatives. One was flown to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, the other to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo for broken bones and other undisclosed injuries. They were conscious upon transport, Deputy County Manager Frank Ciaccia said. Their conditions were not available last night. The man and woman were experienced members of a skydiving group that was participating in the Batavia Boogie, an annual skydiving event that has been held at the Genesee County Airport for years, said Ciaccia. He did not know the name of the group but said he thought they were from Orleans County. The Batavia Boogie started Friday and was to conclude Sunday. Inclement weather postponed Sunday's events, which were held yesterday. The accident occurred about 11:40 a.m. The skydivers were using the same parachute and free-fell about 5,000 feet, as planned, before discovering their main chute wouldn't open, Ciaccia said. They pulled the emergency chute at 10,000 feet, but it either partially opened or functioned improperly because of a tear in the chute, county officials said. The divers landed in a field half a mile north of the airport runway, between Bank Street and State Street Road. Members of the Genesee County sheriff's office, state police, the county emergency management coordinator and Mercy Flight -- a medical helicopter transport company -- responded within minutes, Ciaccia said. Mercy Flight flew one patient, and a state police helicopter transported the other. No one else was injured. A crowd of perhaps 25 people witnessed the accident, Ciaccia said. The Federal Aviation Administration was notified and conducted an investigation. About 20 single parachute jumps had gone off without incident yesterday before the accident. The tandem jump was the second one yesterday.

It isn't every day you see John Lennon drop out of the sky. Or Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, for that matter. Well, the skydivers at Lisle Eyes to the Skies Balloonfest Sunday weren't actually the four mopheads from Liverpool themselves, but they looked an awful lot like them. The Flying Beatles skydiving exhibition, complete with an American flag held by one of the "band members," was the pinnacle of a "Beatle-ful" day at the Lisle festival. In a celebration of the true millennium this year, the Eyes to the Skies committee wanted to bring in bands commemorating every decade from the 1960s on, said co-chairman Wayne Dunham, and each day of the festival would honor a different decade. But for Sunday, they wanted something a little different. "We thought, let's get a group that encompasses the last 50 years," Dunham said. Who better than The Beatles? So Dunham found three popular Beatles cover bands - "1964" ... The Tribute, British Export and Revolver - to play songs from three separate phases in the band's career. The Flying Beatles, a skydiving group out of Ohio, were the final ingredient of the day, jumping both when the festival opened and then later on in the evening, equipped with lighted jumpsuits. But Joe Maude of Glen Ellyn said he was a bit confused. "They had the American flag between them," he said. "Shouldn't they have had the British flag?" He and his wife Sue brought their 8- and 10-year-old sons - both avid Beatles fans - to the festival specifically to see the tribute bands. "We have a 15-year-old daughter who wouldn't come because the Beatles aren't hip," he said with a laugh. But there were hundreds of people sitting on a hill listening to the bands that thought otherwise. "We actually had several hundred people on the hillside before we opened," Dunham said. Tim Bedore of Naperville said he was impressed with the Eyes to the Skies music selection this year. "I think there should be more copy bands at fests, and The Beatles are the best of the bunch," he said. "I'd rather hear this than some band from the '70s that only had a few hits."

Years from now, when Tonguc Yaman recounts his adventure to his children, it may go something like this: Drove the Harley to Sussex Airport. Strapped on the parachute. Jumped out of a Cessna. Went home. Slept. Forgive him if he fails to mention the part about the chute collapsing in a freak wind, the freefall to the ground, and the helicopter ride to the trauma center. Because for Yaman, the thrill of sky diving and the memories of 99 previous leaps from airplanes far outweigh his brush with disaster Saturday. "I want to do it again," a slightly beat-up Yaman, 34, said from his home in Tenafly on Sunday. "Whenever my leg stops aching." It's an attitude that his trainer, Bud Mazeiko of Skydive Sussex, explained like this: "Just because you have a car accident doesn't mean you're never going to drive again." It's hard to believe that less than a day earlier, Yaman fell the final 30 of 10,000 feet near Sussex County Airport -- and that mere hours after he was admitted as a top-priority patient to Morristown Memorial Hospital, he headed home with little to show but some heavy-duty bruises. The bruises will fade, for sure, but the tale will last a lifetime. A veteran jumper for four years -- since his wife, Ute, gave him lessons as a birthday gift -- Yaman, a finance specialist, wanted to mark his 100th jump in style. On Saturday morning, he hopped on his Harley and headed to Sussex with plans to meet up with his wife and two children to celebrate afterward with a barbecue feast at a friend's house. The 100th leap was to be his second of the day, and it started like any other. In the Cessna, Yaman and three other divers reached 10,000 feet and jumped, each with a plan to join hands, then break apart and activate their chutes. "I approached them slowly and connected with them," Yaman recalled. "It was beautiful. I was thinking, 'Yeah! This is nice -- my 100th jump!' " At 5,000 feet, the divers broke off as planned. Yaman dropped another 2,000 feet, getting ready to ride upwind, crosswind, and downwind to a safe landing. He pulled the cord to activate the chute. Then came what Yaman called "a crazy wind," a freak draft from the side that struck his parachute. "It just folded and closed. I tried to open it, tried to make it full again." One side of the parachute ballooned, but the other remained limp. Thirty feet from the landing zone, the chute waved above him like a handkerchief, and it was far too late to deploy the backup. As he zoomed toward earth, did he think about death? "I wasn't thinking about emotions," Yaman said. "There is no time for those things. It is a second or a split-second, and you better get a parachute over your head." He smacked into the landing zone, a grassy target made soft by recent rains. "I wasn't dead, but I knew I was hurt," he recalled. "The ambulance guys came. They tried to close my mouth but I told them, 'I want to have fresh air.' " When he next saw his wife, it was in the trauma center at Morristown, after a Medevac flight. An MRI and X-rays showed no internal injuries, and Yaman insisted on going home. For the pain, he took exactly one aspirin. Yaman credited his survival with hours of training with Mazeiko and the staff at Skydive Sussex, who taught him to head for a grass landing zone, and who never fly over buildings, cars, or asphalt. All of which will be on his mind for the 101st leap.

This is just a note to let all of you know that a new DZ has opened up in upper AZ. Dan Bachelor has opened a new DZ in Cottonwood (close to Sedona about 1.5 hour drive from Phx). They have a Cessna 206, and the view from the plane is spectacular (snow-covered San Fran Peaks to the north, the red rocks of Sedona, and the north side of Mingus Mnt.) The DZ is right off the regional airport, and is in town, so quick trips for food and drink are quite handy. Skydive Cottonwood has been doing mostly tandems, but Dan would love to see more experienced jumpers show up and have some fun. The manifest/packing area is beautiful, and there is room for several people to pack in the air conditioned building. This is the only DZ in northern AZ so if you're anywhere near the area, stop on by and help Dan get things hopping. We can always use another DZ, and it's a beautiful location to visit. If you would like to contact Skydive Cottonwood give Dan a call at (520) 649-8899, tell him Gordon said "Hi".

A QUEENSLAND skydiver has cheated death, sustaining only minor injuries when his parachute hit power lines. The experienced Townsville skydiver is expected to be released from hospital tomorrow after being treated for a chipped bone in his heel. Coral Sea Skydivers chief instructor Richard Pym said the skydiver misjudged the wind while attempting to parachute into Townsville's Bicentennial Park last night. The man missed the park, landing across the road near an industrial bin. Mr Pym said that during the landing the man's parachute hit power lines. The man is believed to be a Townsville builder who had completed 130 successful parachute jumps.

PARIS –– A French parachutist was detained after he jumped from the top of the Eiffel Tower to win a bet, police said Monday. The 38-year-old Paris man was arrested early Sunday. He had jumped from the third and uppermost floor around 1 a.m., sailing down to land smoothly near the foot of the tower. He was immediately detained by police. The parachutist, whose identity was not revealed, entered the tower while it was open to the public and hid after closing time. Police had not decided whether to press charges. The third floor of the Eiffel Tower is 940 feet above the ground. The total height of Paris' best-known landmark is 1,056 feet.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - For some of the best paratroopers in the United States and Australia, men used to jumping into war zones, it was supposed to be a routine night mission. But 52 of them hit the ground with a thud, breaking bones and spraining ankles during a recent joint military exercise called Tandem Thrust in the Australian state of Queensland. A total of 39 soldiers were hurt on impact -- nine with broken bones -- and another 13 have since reported injuries such as ankle sprains, an official said. The 381 paratroopers on the night jump came from the U.S. Army's crack Geronimo 501, the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, and Australia's rapid-deployment 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. But with little visibility last Saturday, the crack paratroopers did what they are trained not to do -- reach for the ground with their toes. "Night jumping is typically more dangerous because it is difficult to see the ground," U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Bobby Campbell told Reuters on Friday. Campbell said the conditions were perfect for the jump with little breeze, except there was no moon to light up the ground. "The soldiers reached for the ground with their toes, something they are trained not to do," said Campbell. Campbell said injuries were to be expected in night jumps, but they were a critical training exercise for the U.S. and Australia, citing the arc of Asian-Pacific instability to Australia's north. "It is a capacity both the United States and Australia needs to maintain for its strategic interests in the region," he said.

Geoff Peggs, Age 21, died in a skydiving accident on Friday, June 15th in Wichita, Kansas. Geoff was making his 5th or 6th jump with a Birdman suit when he exited the Cessna 182 from 11,000 feet. Witnesses on the ground observed deployment at an estimated 4,000 feet AGL. The main parachute started to spin immediately after deployment and continued until impact. The Coroner stated that the injuries sustained upon impact caused immediate death. Two USPA S&TA;'s, in cooperation with the Sedgwick County Sheriff and Coroners office conducted the investigation at the scene. The investigation showed that the right suspension lines were routed under Geoff's right arm and wrapped tightly around his right leg. The slider was wrapped around his right foot.. The canopy, a cobalt 150, was fully deployed but with this "horsehoe" malfunction the canopy started an unrecoverable spin. The cutaway handle was unaccessible because of the way the suspension lines pressed the birdman wing against his body, totally covering the cutaway handle. It is the consensus of the two S&TA;'s investigating this incident that even if Geoff could have cut away, the suspension lines were so severely wrapped around the arms, legs, and foot that it would not have made a difference in clearing the malfunction. The reserve was not deployed, but the reserved handle was dislodged, most likely as a result of impact. The S&TA;'s concur in their opinion that this incident was probably the result of deploying in an unstable body position. We have no way of knowing for sure if the Birdman suit was the only contributing factor, but since Geoff was a jumper with approx 300 jumps and no history of problems prior to this incident, Geoff's limited experience with the Birdman suit was most likely a factor in creating an unstable body position at deployment, resulting in a horsehoe malfunction. Unfortunately, because of the nature of this particular situation, Geoff was left with little or no options to correct the situation. Geoff was an INCREDIBLE guy. He seemed to fit in wherever he jumped and truly had a passion for skydiving. He was a student at Kansas State University and was planning an exciting career in aviation. He will be greatly missed by all of us. The funeral arrangments are being handled by Downing & Lahey Mortuary in Wichita, Kansas (316) 682-4553. The funeral is scheduled for Wednesday, June 20th. Please call the mortuary for the exact time. I think the best thing we can do to show our support for Geoff's family is to attend the funeral. The family knows how much skydiving meant to Geoff. We need to show them how much Geoff meant to us. God Speed Geoff! Phil Haase, Owner Air Capital Skydiving Center Wichita, Kansas (316)776-1700

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A parachutist performed a solo aerial lap over NATO headquarters Wednesday to protest against United States policy on missile defense before landing in a nearby field, where he was arrested. The German protester took to the air to beat tight security surrounding the alliance headquarters in Brussels where President Bush was meeting NATO leaders. Trailing a "Stop Star Wars" banner, the activist from the Greenpeace environmental group flew over the NATO complex using a small motor-propelled parachute. Greenpeace spokesman John Walters told Reuters the man was arrested when he landed. Walters said 17 activists were earlier arrested after demonstrating against Bush's policies on arms and the environment at Melsbroek military airport near Brussels shortly before Bush flew in aboard his presidential jet, Air Force One. Another 12 protesters were expected to be detained after they chained themselves to fencing near the airbase. Some 300-400 demonstrators waved banners and blew whistles near NATO headquarters in a largely peaceful protest against Bush. Opponents of plans for a missile defense shield fear it will effectively rip up the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty and spark a new arms race.

"Skydive Eilat" is one of only two skydiving clubs in Israel. Roy Ritter, the Chief Instructor is very proud of his 800 members but especially of the 16 year old Omri Galili who at the age of 10 announced: "I want to be a Skydiver." When he was 8, Omri Galili arrived along with his family for a vacation in Eilat. Like any other kid who comes to town he swam in the red sea and the pool, and also visited the different attractions, among them - the Airodium (Vertical Wind Tunnel). OmriMon's Profile Forum Posts OmriMon's Gallery Email OmriMon But unlike any other kid that visit changed his life. Omri fell in love with "flying". During the next visits of his family in Eilat, he kept going to the Airodium and turned the visit into a "week of flying", says Roy Ritter who's family owns the Airodium. "Already at the age of 10 he told me he is going to take the skydiving course", says Ritter about his young trainee. But Omri had to be patient. The skydiving course can only be taken after the age of 18. So in the meantime he kept getting more air time in the Airodium, and the checks he got from his Bar-Mitsvah he deposited into a savings account. When he got to the age that he could start skydiving, Omri came to the dropzone for a skydiving course which he got as a present from his mother on his 16 birthday. On Friday, April 13th his dream came true, and he jumped out of the plane. Despite of the date (Friday the 13th...), Omri wanted to jump anyway. "I didn't know what to expect, I was frightened and I was screaming", admits Omri. During the first 3 jumps the parachute is opened automatically by a static-line almost right after you leave the plane. Thereafter the skydiver has to pull the pilot chute himself. Omri has now jumped 31 times since that first jump. A great achievement for someone who has just finished the course a month ago. Every Friday he arrives to the dropzone, and there with the other skydivers he jumps, packs his parachute and when his turn comes he gets on the plane and jumps again. A MINUTE WITH GOD What makes people get on a small plane, climb to the height of 12000ft, jump out of it to fall for a whole minute? At Friday afternoons, the "Skydive Eilat" dropzone is crowded with men and women, mostly youngsters, waiting for their turn to get on the plane. The whole procedure starts with gearing up, through waiting at the waiting point, the flight up, the jump and getting back to the hangar, and finally the tiresome job of packing the parachute. Between jumps, they eat, exchange experiences, and catch a short nap in the shade. Bout not Omri. After the landing, he picks up the parachute and goes to the hangar to do what every skydiver hates the most - packing! Omri lays the parachute on the ground and desperately looks at the mess of the strings and fabric. While his hands dig and turn the fabric over, he exchanges experiences and impressions with his skydiving friends. Later they talk about altimeters and different kinds of parachutes, and all in a totally professional language. Most of the information is taken from the Internet. "When Omri wanted to buy a parachute, he came to me with specific details of what he wants", explains Ritter, "he knew exactly which kind, size and colors he wants, everything". The experience the older skydivers get in the field, the younger ones get from the Internet. At the club itself there are no differences. Everybody mingle with everybody: CIO editors, pilots, insurance agents, hi-tech people, students and high school pupils. 20 Percent of the skydivers are girls and their numbers are rising. Since there is no limitation on food before skydiving, everybody is busy eating what Dudi is making them. Everybody but Omri. After finishing packing the parachute, he sits on the benches not eating, not drinking and only waiting for his turn to go on the plane again. Q: What does your mother say? "She's cool with it. She's not frightened, only calls at the end of the day to ask how it was. I want her to do a Tandem, which is a skydive for two people, when the instructor and the student are connected together with a special harness." You don't have to take the course to do a Tandem, and it is suitable for everybody, 13 year old children and over 70 year old elders. Even people with physical disabilities and blind people for example can also do a Tandem. TO SIT IN THE AIR And what exactly are the skydivers going through? After getting on one of the two planes, one of them was purchased recently, the skydivers take off to the height of 12000ft (4km). At the signal of the instructor, they sit at the edge of the plane and after another signal, they jump. Then for a minute, at a fall rate of 250km/h, they fall. While falling with movements of the arms and the legs, you can sit, stand on your head and also do flips backwards and forwards, or dock with other skydivers for a group formation. After the first minute, which is as the skydivers say, the best part, you open the main parachute and float down. Q: What's in that freefall? Omri: You can't explain that feeling in words. You have to jump yourself to understand. Your body turns into a flying machine. Your arms and legs are like wings of a plane, and every movement effect your body." Q: And what do you think about while you are falling? "While freefall I think only about I'm gonna do at the next moment and just have fun. The thoughts are always focused on the jump." You could've thought that one of the main reasons to skydive at the area of Eilat is the incredible view, but apparently that's not it. "It isn't the view, it's the people that jump here", explain Omri. Q: And have you done scuba diving? "Nope. And I'm not interested in that either. I don't relate to the underwater view". "It's the adrenaline", explains Omri's sister, Efrat, which is also caught in the skydiving enthusiasm. After landing she breaks into screams of excitement. "I was screaming up in the air also", she laughs. "What a trip it was", said some other skydivers. Omri and Efrat were at the dropzone when the accident of the English skydiver who broke his leg occurred. Both of them don't understand why he did the turn so close to the ground. Both of them weren't intimidated by it. "There's nothing you can do, it's a dangerous sport", says Ritter, the chief instructor, who has about 4,500 jumps and was second place world champion in '94 for 2-way skydiving. There are two skydiving clubs in Israel- "Skydive Eilat", and "Paradive" at the Bonim beach. "And that's quite a lot for a small country like Israel", explains Ritter. The dropzone in Eilat was opened at 1996, and it's a family club. As mentioned, Roy is the chief instructor, and his sister Noya with 900 jumps is the dropzone manager and also an instructor. Their father, Moshe, flies the planes. 800 skydivers are members in the club. Skydivers from all around the world arrive there, among them Kenshy from Japan, who after doing a Tandem while he visited in Eilat, decided to take a course and eventually decided to stay in Israel. Today he works at the Jewelry Stock Exchange in Ramat-Gan and comes to the club every weekend. COLD FEET Q: Has it ever happened that someone got into the plane and didn't want to jump? Roy: "there was a reporter at the US who did a big article about skydiving and she was to jump herself, but she got cold feet at the last minute. Skydiving is addictive. And most of those who tried it wouldn't give up the treat." "I'm looking at the menu in a restaurant and thinking that for a meals price and a little bit more I can jump, so I give other things up", says an enthusiastic skydiver. For those of you who are interested, we will tell that it's not a cheap story - a skydiving course lasts 4 days and costs 990$. "In the north and other places in the world the price is much higher. 1500$", says Roy, "We're cheaper, because we have the Airodium. The students fly first at the wind tunnel, and only then gets to the dropzone. It's a great practice and prevents mistakes". The jumps themselves are also not cheap. A price of every jump 250 NIS (New Israeli Shekel, 64$). Omri who dropped out of school for personal reasons, works at operating a chat room of the Israeli children channel, and that's how he finances his jumps. He also bought a parachute which he paid for by himself with a little help from his grandfather. Omri comes every weekend to Eilat to jump, and gets his rides with other skydivers from the north. "And what do you do in the evening, go to parties in Eilat?". Efrat and Omri shake their heads: "After a day of jumping we don't have the strength to move", says Eftat. At the dropzone there are also air conditioned bunk houses, and at the end of the day, the guys continue diving. Straight to bed... THE EQUIPMENT The parachute is made of a Teflon fabric and silicone. The fabric is strong, light and can handle large mass. Every skydiver has also a helmet, altimeter, audible altimeter that beeps and tells you when it's time to open. If for some reason, the main parachute didn't open, there is a "babysitter", which is a black box that automatically opens the reserve parachute. And of course there are the jump suits. Despite of their beauty, they are not necessary, and you can jump in the nude. And some do. A few tourist skydivers chose to celebrate the new millennium with nude skydiving, and pictures of that funny jump decorate the club's walls. "Every skydiver has a nickname", says Ritter. Omri, who is today the youngest skydiver in Israel got the nickname FLY BABY. Omri likes his nickname very much: "Here the age doesn't matter. We are all skydivers and we are all friends. They treat me like an adult, and only sometimes they call me kid". When the "kid" grows up, he wants to be a skydiving instructor. "He will be an instructor and he will come to instruct here", says Ritter with pride. "I want him to do it all. You are looking at the pride of the club!". This article appeared in a local Israeli newspaper and was translated from Hebrew to English by Omri. Omri hangs out in the Dropzone.com Forums. Thanks Omri! ~ sangiro

On Sunday June 10th @ about 1.50pm 45 year old Peter Tome an experienced skydiver with 600+ jumps and 10 years in the sport, along with two other experienced skydivers made a 3 way headdown skydive from the Twin Otter @ Skydive Delmarva. The dive was uneventful until break off at 6,000 ft. At break off as Pete tracked away another jumper on the dive observed what is believed to have been Pete's main bridle flapping on his back. It is believed that the pin extracted from the main pack tray and that a horseshoe malfunction occurred. It is believed that Pete was unable to extract the pilot chute from its pouch and was left with no other option but to cutaway and deploy his reserve parachute. The main canopy was held in the D-bag by one rubber band stow that contained some of the lines from the group. The reserve freebag did not completely clear the reserve and the bulk of the reserve canopy remained held in the freebag by one rubber band stow. Partial inflation of the reserve canopy occurred pulling Pete vertical. He was observed by others on the load and ground observers to be attempting to clear the problem until impact on the grass runway at which time he died immediately. We at Skydive Delmarva all feel a great loss and sorrow in losing our good friend today. We will miss you Pete, God Speed and God Bless You. Your friends and family at Skydive Delmarva.

WASHINGTON -- Everybody knows it was Neil Armstrong that took that historic one small step. But now several parachutists are aiming to take giant leaps that could lead to a new form of extreme sport - spacediving. Technology and bravado are merging to create a new breed of high-altitude hopefuls - people ready to take the fall of a lifetime. The hope is to shatter a four decades old record by freefalling from the edge of space, break the speed of sound on the way down, and live to tell about it. Vaulting into the void In the 1950s, the U.S. Air Force took on the issue of hazards faced by flight crews bailing out from high-flying aircraft. As part of the research, Project Excelsior used a gondola-toting balloon to carry a pilot high into the stratosphere. From the end of 1959 into mid-1960, Captain Joseph Kittinger took three leaps of faith. He counted on himself, medical experts, protective gear, and a newly devised parachute system to ensure a safe and controlled descent to the ground. On August 16, 1960, Kittinger jumped his last Excelsior jump, doing so from an air-thin height of 102,800 feet (31,334 meters). From that nearly 20 miles altitude, his tumble toward terra firma took some 4 minutes and 36 seconds. Exceeding the speed of sound during the fall, Kittinger used a small stabilizing chute before a larger, main parachute opened in the denser atmosphere. Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger, Jr. jumps from Excelsior III balloon gondola in 1960 test, freefalling toward Earth for over 4 minutes. CREDIT: U.S. AIR FORCE He safely touched down in barren New Mexico desert, 13 minutes 45 seconds after he vaulted into the void. The jump set records that still stand today, among them, the highest parachute jump, the longest freefall, and the fastest speed ever attained by a human through the atmosphere. Somewhat in contention is Kittinger's use of the small parachute for stabilization during his record-setting fall. Roger Eugene Andreyev, a Russian, is touted as holding the world's free fall record of 80,325 feet (24,483 meters), made on November 1, 1962. Spring of our intent Now take your own jump from the 1960s to 2001. Several individuals are after the freefall record, on the prowl to raise millions of dollars in sponsorship funds to claim the milestone. Rodd Millner, an Australian ex-commando is putting together the "Space Jump" project. Working with a film company, Millner's balloon ride and follow-on fall would be well documented. Taking two-and-a-half hours to balloon himself up to 130,000 feet (40,000 meters), and outfitted with the latest in survival gear, Millner would high step into the stratosphere. Hot air balloon platforms, a team of skydivers, a Lear Jet, and other aircraft are to be airborne to record Milllner's dive into the record books. "We have involved a special team of experts across a wide range of scientific and technological areas to ensure this project is successfully conducted with optimum safety and with spectacular visual effect," said Walt Missingham, project director of Space Jump, in a group press release from Sydney, Australia. If all remains on track, Millner plans a liftoff in March 2002, ascending from just outside Alice Springs, in the center of Australia. Realistic go-getter Another freefaller is Michel Fournier, a retired French parachute regiment officer. He has made some 8,000 jumps, and is the French record holder for the longest fall, from an altitude of about 37,000 feet (12,000 meters). "I love discovering and experimenting. I'm a realistic go-getter, a little stubborn at times, Fournier said. Calling his effort the "Big Jump", Fournier has assembled a team of experts to assist in strategizing his stratospheric jump from 130,000 feet (40,000 meters). Within 30 seconds of departing his pressurized basket, Fournier hopes to break the sound barrier during his plummet. Equipped with a pressurized suit and special gloves, the diver expects to thwart frigid temperatures and ultraviolet radiation. The fall itself is to last 6 minutes and 25 seconds. It will be the first big aeronautical exploit of the third millennium, Fournier explains. Fournier points to Jean-Francois Clervoy, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, as "godfather of the project". The tragic Challenger accident in 1986 and ESA's work on its own space plane, the Hermes, are singled out by the skydiver as early motivation for his working on the Big Jump. First plans called for the Big Jump taking place in September 2000. The French liftoff site was in the Plaine of Crau. A website about the effort explains that Michel could not jump in France because of administrative reasons. His team is now scouting for another launching site somewhere else in the world. Skydiving skills The StratoQuest mission features world champion skydiver, Cheryl Stearns. She too seeks to break the Kittinger record by dropping to Earth from 130,000 feet (40,000 meters). Stearns is no newcomer to breaking new ground in the air. A commercial airline captain on Boeing 737's, at 13,050 skydives and climbing, she has made the most jumps of any woman in the world, with some 30 world records under her helmet. Carried by balloon to above 99 percent of the Earth's atmosphere, Stearns will wear a customized pressurized space suit. Her freefall velocity may exceed the speed of sound, heading toward Mach 1.3. Maintaining a head down position will get her through transonic, and supersonic speed regimes. But as she begins to enter heavier atmosphere, a dangerous transonic phase comes again. At this point, her skydiving skills are to be tested in order to maintain stability until parachute deployment. The jump is tentatively set for over New Mexico, perhaps in April 2002. Pushing the envelope Where is all this sky jumping headed? First of all, high-altitude skydiving is on the cutting edge, said Mark Norman, an instructor with Freefall Adventures in Williamstown, New Jersey. "Certainly, they are challenging themselves, that's for sure. They are definitely pushing the envelope without any shadow of a doubt," he told SPACE.com. Prior to "hitting the silk", spacediver uses balloon-like device to slow down and protect against forces during initial atmospheric entry. Credit: Canadian Arrow At Freefall Adventures, typical skydiving starts at around 13,500 feet (4,115 meters), Norman said, with a jumper paying $16.00 dollars for the aircraft ride. As one of the busiest centers in the world, the group handles upwards of 15,000 people a year, he said, all hankering for a minute's worth of freefall Norman said that high-altitude skydivers must think safety first, with regards to oxygen and pressurization issues. "So it lends itself to a lot of difficulties and a lot of impracticalities that we don't necessarily need to deal with in the commercial, mainstream skydiving industry," he said. Building a business on people swooping down from the edge of space doesn't seem too practical at the moment, Norman said. Drop zone: Earth But Geoff Sheerin, team leader of the X Prize entry, the suborbital, passenger-carrying Canadian Arrow, believes what is taking place is an early form of spacediving. "A rocket can take a spacediver to any altitude desired in just minutes, resulting in less time exposed to the dangers of vacuum and cold," Sheerin said. "I think this will ultimately lead to suborbital vehicles being the transport of choice for spacediving. Anyone using a rocket for spacediving can demolish any balloon record ever made," he said. To the general public, spacediving might seem impossible, Sheerin said, as most think everything coming back from space burns up on reentry. "If you look at the lower energies involved for suborbital flight, compared to orbital speeds, you realize that material and technology of today can turn spacediving from a suicide jump into a very survivable extreme sport," Sheerin said.

A SKYDIVER who plummeted 13,000ft to earth with his bride after their main parachute failed to open spoke yesterday about the accident. Kevin McIlwee, 47, said from his hospital bed in France: "I didn't have time to think whether we were going to get through it or not." He said, however, that as he fought to control the descent over the town of Vannes in Brittany, he confided to his wife of six weeks, Beverley, 44, who was strapped in front of him: "We might not make it." Watching colleagues did not expect them to survive, but the couple, who had regularly skydived in tandem, crash-landed on grass, escaping with severe leg injuries. Mr McIlwee, a maths teacher from De la Salle College, Jersey, said that their main parachute failed to open at the regulation 5,000ft when they made their jump on Sunday.He said: "I found I just couldn't jettison the chute. I tried to engage the reserve chute but the two couldn't fly side by side." Mr McIlwee, a skydiving instructor who has made more than 4,000 jumps, said: "The parachutes were continually tangling and I was doing my best to control them. I have no idea at what speed we hit the ground. We were very lucky. We could have been a lot worse." Mr McIlwee suffered a badly broken leg and his wife, the manager of the Seabird Hotel chain in Jersey, suffered broken bones in both feet, and a broken knee and shin bone. The couple are expected to travel home to Jersey by air ambulance in about a week. Mrs McIlwee, who has enjoyed skydiving for about five years, told her father, Dennis Murtaugh, by telephone that she intended to give up the sport. She has had metal plates inserted in her legs and will be in a wheelchair for many weeks. Mr Murtaugh, 67, a theatre critic from Burnley, said: "She said she felt so lucky to be alive. She's usually such a bubbly person, but was understandably talking in a weak tone. She was very shook up, and was only just starting to realise that what had happened could have cost her life." "She said she was looking out of the window from her hospital bed enjoying seeing the daylight and the birds outside." Mr Murtaugh added: "Kevin is a hell of a fellow, and he knows what he is doing. I put it down to his experience as a skydiving expert that they are here today at all. It's a God-given miracle that they are both alive."

When Todd Davis started skydiving, he had to scrape together every penny he could for the sport. "Once I did my first jump, I knew this is what I wanted to do, but I didn't know how I was going to do it," said Davis, 28, who started jumping 10 years ago. Now, he makes a living off skydiving as a co-owner of Chicagoland Skydiving in Hinckley. He and friend Doug Smith, 27, bought the business in December. Davis said he loves the sport and expects the business to grow. As an instructor and videographer at Chicagoland Skydiving for three years before taking over, he watched skydiving's popularity increase. About 300,000 people skydived last year, for a total of 3.3 million jumps, said Chris Needles, executive director of the U.S. Parachute Association in Alexandria, Va. Increasingly safer equipment and a wider acceptance of jumping out of airplanes for recreation have contributed to skydiving's steady growth, Davis said. "The gear is so advanced now that anybody can skydive, anyone from you to your grandmother," Davis said. In fact, one woman last year went skydiving on her 86th birthday. This year, a woman with Parkinson's disease jumped on Mother's Day. Standard equipment for students at the jump site includes an automatic activation device that will open an emergency parachute if the main parachute is not deployed during a jump. That and other equipment make skydiving costly. A tandem jump in which a student is attached to an instructor while they share a parachute, costs $175. Beginners jumping with their own parachute pay $275 for the required six hours of training. That compares with about 30 minutes of training for a tandem jump. Two instructors jump with each student for the first solo jump. For another $80, a videographer will jump too, recording still and moving images from the one-minute free fall and landing that takes place five or six minutes after the chute opens. Lisa van Deursen, a manager, videographer and instructor at Chicagoland Skydiving, said she would like to see more people hire videographers, but they seem put off by the price. "People can't understand why it's so expensive, but I have $3,000 worth of equipment on my head," she said, referring to helmet cameras. Planes that can hold up to 20 skydivers cost $800,000 to $1.5 million, while parachutes and other gear for one person can cost $5,000 to $12,000. Davis and Smith lease the planes as well as the land used for the business. They employ 25 independent contractors as instructors, pilots and parachute packers. About 6,500 jumps took place last year at the Hinckley site; in 1999, there were 3,200 jumps, according to van Deursen. The growth comes despite the presence of two regional competitors: Skydive Chicago near Ottawa and Skydive Illinois in Morris. Nationally, skydiving has grown at a rate of 2 or 3 percent every year for the past 10 years, Needles said. "It's not perfectly linear at all times because we are affected by movies that come out about skydiving, so you get these great spikes sometimes," Needles said. He said improved safety does seem to be a factor, and he noted that while there are still fatalities associated with the sport, there were only about 30 deaths in the U.S. last year out of about 3.3 million jumps. The number of annual fatalities has remained steady for 10 years, despite jumps increasing each year, Needles said. Davis said he thinks the sport will continue to grow because of the natural curiosity many people have about flight. "It's the closest to flying outside of your dreams," he said. For information or reservations, call 815-286-9200. Chicago Tribune

SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) - A parachutist was killed instantly when she struck a plane's propeller while practicing a skydiving formation with 29 other jumpers. Michele Thibaudeau, 36, and eight other parachutists were in one airplane Sunday and the other 21 jumpers were on a second aircraft. After jumping, Thibaudeau hit the propeller of the other aircraft and was killed on impact, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman John Clabes said. Thibaudeau's boyfriend, who was last in line to jump from the plane, followed her body 14,000 feet to its impact in Fentress, according to Sky Dive San Marcos owner Phillip Chappell. The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating. "I've never heard of anything like that before," Clabes said. "You hear about fatalities when people jump out of planes and their chutes don't open, but not this." Thibaudeau, of Cartersville, Ga., had completed more than 850 jumps. All the parachutists had completed a minimum of 400 jumps, double the number the U.S. Parachute Association uses to determine expert status, Chappell said.

Carl Nespoli may not be a name that you associate with skydiving stunts (yet), but he has participated in some of the best known skydiving and aerial stunts ever performed. Carl is often the unknown skydiver in front of the camera or in control of the team that's working in the background to ensure the safety of the likes of Troy Hartman and others. Dropzone.com spoke to Carl after he recently participated in a plane-to-plane jump organized by his friend and mentor, Joe Jennings. Keep your ear to the ground, Dropzone.com believes we'll be hearing a lot more from Carl in the future. Age: 37 Jumps: 1,000 First Jump: 1986 Rig: Javelin J5 Canopy: Spectre 170 Cypress: Yes Residence: California Born: Brooklyn, NY USPA License: D Home DZ: Perris Favorite Discipline: Sky Surfing Reserve Rides:7 Married/Girlfriend: Single Web Site:http://www.aerialstuntman.com Dropzone.com: So Carl, I never realized all the stuff you've been in until I looked over your homepage. What did you do with Charlies Angels?? Carl: I was the aerial stunt crew assistant to Joe Jennings. I assisted in Joe's camera work, assisted riggers, and ground control. Dropzone.com: Dropzone.com was one of the first to report on this plane-to-plane jump you did with Joe Jennings. Tell us about that stunt and what you had to do with it. Carl: I was in the porter which was acting as the recovery for the target aircraft with the jumpers. We had come up with an automatic drogue deployment system which wasn't always guaranteed to work. So I had to be the official drogue man and take it out and make sure it didn't catch on any of the catch points. Prior to exiting I had to turn on 5 pov clamshells to capture the divers coming into the aircraft. I had to take it out backwards hold on to it's bag and make sure the static line was fully out before letting go of the bag. I had remarkable video of both the skydivers and the bag deployment. Dropzone.com: So the plane was going straight down when you exited? Carl: No actually the plane was flying correctly when I exit then he would cut the engine and feather the prop. Dropzone.com: Did they have a cut away system? Carl: Yes, at about 4,500 feet the pilot would use a 3 ring cutaway process similar to that of a cutaway system on a rig. Then start the engine and land safely. Dropzone.com: I noticed you helped with Senseless Acts, we are also interviewing Troy Hartman - do you have anything to say about Troy after working with him? Carl: Absolutely, troy was the first person that put me out on my skyboard. To get the opportunity to work with him was pretty incredible. Rob Harris was obviously the main person who first inspired me but troy was the one that got me on my first skyboard. So to work with him was definitely a privilege and an honor. My duty on Senseless Acts was to oversee Troy's safety. Troy had to look good memorize lines, carry up different povs, battery packs, etc.. I made sure his board bindings were on tight, and things were safe. During the different stunts he was doing I would just simply isolate him 5 minutes before going up and just go over a couple of safety measures and bail out options. On the burning canopy stunt Troy had to go up with 2 povs a burn suit a motorcycle helmet, knives, a flare gun holster, so many things. There were actually a few things I had to veto. There was a 3rd POV that was optioned and I had to relocate his cutaway handle to actually stick it out more because of visibility concerns due to the helmet he had on. They also wanted to put a flare gun on his wrist which I had to veto as well. Dropzone.com: How's work going? You working on anything new right now? Carl: I am bidding on a job, waiting for an answer. There is a Leno spot coming up at the end of the month where they will be jumping into NBC Studios. There will be ground to air communication, Jay will have communications to Troy Hartman - he will be playing like a human video game. This was originally set for November but due to presidential elections and Olympics the communication systems weren't available. I don't know if it is finalized yet, but that is the last I heard. Dropzone.com:We've been having an ongoing discussion on dropzone.com about having to avoid certain living things when coming in for landings. Have you ever had a problem with animals during any of your parachute jumps? Carl: I've had obstacles but they weren't living. Shrubbery and such. That's why I jump a Spectre, it's more of a technical canopy. Dropzone.com: Do you have any skydiving role models or inspiration? Carl: Rob Harris, Patrick, and Joe Jennings, definitely. I had about 6 jumps and saw the video. My first jump was in 86 but started back in 94 it was towards the beginning of the new year and gave it up for a few months, then started just before November and after that Rob passed away and I saw Joe's work. I was instantly inspired and started to pursue Joe. 2 years later he finally gave me the opportunity to meet him. My first project with him was IMAX where I was jumping with Joe Jennings. Dropzone.com: What is the worst injury you have had from skydiving? Carl: I had double canopy out, had my main entangled in my reserve and landed backwards in a fetal position. I actually walked away and got back on the aircraft - that was jump 26. I was in a high spin had a slider hang-up, grabbed both handles, pulled my reserve, it was pilot inexperience and pilot error. Dropzone.com: What do you like least about the sport? Carl: The fact that it is perceived as a dangerous sport. That people don't really know much about the sport. Dropzone.com: What is the coolest non skydiving thing you've done? Carl: I hate to be corny, but became an uncle to my nieces and nephews. Dropzone.com: How do you go about getting selected for movies? Do you advertise yourself, have an agent, or what? Carl: All of the above. I advertise, I'm with an agency, and I go on auditions very similar to what actors go on. Dropzone.com: ESPN Recently axed skysurfing from their X-Games because sponsors didn't feel like it had an "automatic consumer base" what do you think about that? Carl: I am very very curious to see once the public gets wind of this how their reaction is going to be. Dropzone.com: What do you think can be done in the skydiving community to make it a more accepted sport? Carl: Show more of the accomplishments in skydiving and less of the accidents, glorifying the negative part of the sport. It is human curiosity to want to see the accidents at the auto race and see athletes get injured but I think that is the media that just capitalizes too much on how dangerous skydiving can be. I attribute the confidence I have from skydiving to help me conquer other things in life. Dropzone.com: If you could take anyone in the world skydiving with you, who would it be and why? Carl: I'd like to take my mother, I'd like to show her and have her experience what I experience and have her worry less for me and actually be more happy and see what I am crazy over. She has a hard time with the sport. Dropzone.com: If you could wave a magic wand and change something about the sport of skydiving what would it be? Carl: The egos that skydivers of one discipline have towards skydivers of another discipline. For instance how the freeflyers treat the people doing RW and such. Dropzone.com: Finally, what is something not many people know about you? Carl: I have never forgotten the people that had inspired me, Rob & Patrick specifically because they are no longer with us. Any so called fame I achieve or recognition, I put it in perspective; those are they guys that are responsible for any type of recognition that I receive.

Lodi, May 27 - The San Joaquin County Sheriff's office reports that an Oakland man died Saturday after jumping with a group of parachutists, possibly from a mid-air emergency that might have started on the ground. "It appears that the decedent suffered some sort of a medical emergency during the jump which incapacitated him, disallowing him to properly and safely complete the landing," said spokesman Joe Herrera of the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department. An autopsy will be needed to determine the cause of death. The man has been identified as 52-year-old Daniel Paul Skarry, of Oakland. He was discovered by occupants of a home after he landed in the back yard, crashing down with his parachute between some trees on the property. Other jumpers made no mention of noticing anything unusual at the start, according to subsequent interviews with deputies. "The parachutist had been jumping for at least 15 years. He was one of 22 jumpers who had left Lodi Airport to jump in formation. The initial jump went fine and the decedent joined a group held together at the wrist," said Herrera. According to one of the jumpers holding the man's wrist, Skarry's grip became weaker, then gave way. They had started from an altitude of 15,000 feet. The group watched helplessly as Skarry got below them and seemed not to move, except where pushed by the wind, Herrera said. When he reached the 1,000-foot level, the parachute's automatic activation device switched itself on. He fell to the ground amid trees in a residential yard, Herrera said. The occupants of the house called for help. Skarry was taken by helicopter to the hospital at UC Davis, but was pronounced dead at 11:48 a.m. after medics unsuccessfully performed CPR, Herrera said. The Federal Aviation Administration will be notified of the incident, and the coroner's report may be conducted in Sacramento County, Herrera said. Skarry may have already had hypertension and diabetes, Herrera said.

"They thought she had just paralyzed me, it was very frightening " Hartman is best known for his appearances on MTV's Senseless Acts and numerous television commercials. In this candid interview he talks about his broken neck, Senseless Acts, and various other skydiving (and non skydiving) related issues. So who was she and was she worth almost getting paralyzed? Read on to find out.... Age: 29 Current Number of Jumps: 4500+ Year of First Jump: 1992 Rig: Javelin NJ w/PD113 reserve Main Canopy: Velocity 96 Cypress: yes Current Residence: Sherman Oaks, CA Highest USPA License: D Home DZ: Perris Favorite Discipline in Skydiving: Base Jumping Number of Reserve Rides: 4 Web Site: http://www.troyhartman.com/ Dropzone.com: Troy, you recently had a pretty bad accident while doing a stunt - you ended up breaking your neck while performing it. When did all of this take place? Troy: April 29, 2000 Dropzone.com: How are you doing now? Troy: I'm fully recovered actually. Dropzone.com: How long were you out of skydiving due to this accident? Troy: 3 months Dropzone.com: That's it? Troy: Yeah, the doctor wasn't happy he wanted me to be out for 6 months but I was doing stunts again within 3 months. Dropzone.com: When can we expect some new episodes of senseless acts? Troy: Well, MTV is claiming they are going to pick us up for fall but I'm not sure yet. Dropzone.com: Well then, what kind of exciting things are you working on now? Troy: Just trying to sell the show concept to other networks, channels - trying to continue my field of expertise in another format. I'm not sure what that format will be. Dropzone.com: So MTV is history? Troy: Yeah, they have pulled the plug due to money Dropzone.com: You are in May's edition of Playboy with E!'s Wild On host Brooke Burke - what's that like? Troy: It was cool, great exposure - much bigger article than I expected. In my opinion it was really well done. I feel the writer portrayed me in the correct light, so I was satisfied with it. Dropzone.com: You know Brooke did a tandem for a Wild On episode, did you have anything to do with that? Troy: Yeah I heard about that, I think I saw it but no I didn't have anything to do with it. Dropzone.com: So you haven't met her eh? Troy: Nope. Dropzone.com: I heard about this plane vs cow incident that cost you your Air Force career. What kind of plane did you crash? (In Playboy's May interview) Troy: A T-41. A modified cessana. I was out screwing around with a buddy of mine. We could go check out the planes whenever we wanted and I got a little carried away with buzzing things. Dropzone.com: Speaking of hitting cows, have you ever had a problem with animals while landing under a canopy? Troy: Huummmm.. not really. Well, indirectly, I landed in Colorado one time, and they had these electric fences for the cows which I didn't know were electric, I tried climbing one of them. Well I'll just say I learned a lesson from that. Dropzone.com: Ouch! That must have been a shocking experience. Your girlfriend is a jumper, has she shown any interest in doing stunt work? Troy: Yeah she has, her take on it is that she would do it if there was a reason to do it. If there was a format she was able to learn.Dropzone.com: How would you feel about her getting into it? Troy: I know that she is very concerned about her safety & conservative, she never gets over her head. I've never seen her say she wants to try something that was completely beyond her ability. I wouldn't even worry about it. I'd be like go for it, do your thing. She'd be more conservative than I would. Dropzone.com: It must be every skydiver's dream to have their jumps & gear paid for, but also get to appear on national TV on a regular basis. How has all this fame affected you? Troy: Well, it's um. I don't know - it hasn't too much. The biggest thing that has affected me, for a while there I'd show up at the DZ and my main concern was having jumpers look at me and say "this is the guy that is going to make our sport look bad" my main concern was that other skydivers would say "oh yeah he did that stunt that he shouldn't have" I would show up at the DZ feeling like I should hide for fear of people coming up to me and telling me that I shouldn't have done a particular stunt. I'm finding out now that just about every skydiver that watched the show liked it & respected it. When you become a public figure, people want to see you a certain way. I'm just starting to realize most things people have to say are positive. I've found out that I'm still accepted with people in the sport. Dropzone.com: So do people notice you on the streets? Troy: Yeah I don't get that very much. I get that from younger kids, the real demographic. I'm certainly not a public figure head. Most people don't even know my name. They say "oh, you're that guy!" Dropzone.com: Have you heard from any skydiver wuffos? Or stories of people you inspired? Troy: I get a lot of those actually, I get a lot of emails from people who say I started skydiving because of you. For the sport it's a good thing. The jumpers under 100 jumps have no problem coming up to me and asking me about things. Experienced jumpers can do most of the stuff I can do on the show anyway, but they aren't going to go "woah" because they know how that stuff works. Dropzone.com: What is the wildest thing one of your fans has done? Troy: I would say pretty much most of the time its people emailing saying "wow that is awesome, I want to do that." I tell you what, one time I was signing some autographs in Redondo beach for the IMAX film I did- I was in my neck brace, clearly had a broken neck - this one girl tackled me - just took me out, it scared everybody. They thought she had just paralyzed me, it was very frightening ... I was like "oh my god" you just don't know - you can't predict what someone will do.I felt helpless, there was nothing I could have done. She was just like "I love you" she looked like she was like 17. I have no idea what she did it for. Dropzone.com: That's nuts! Looking back on the stunts you've done aside from the broken neck fiasco, is there any one that you thought "I shouldn't have done that" ? Troy: Yeah. The only one, believe it or not, I would do any of them again - even landing on the train, the one I wouldn't do again was when I landed on the roof of sahara hotel in Las Vegas. It wasn't really considered a stunt, it was just something to open up the show with - it wasn't even something we pumped up. This was a very tight landing area, smaller than the pro rating. There were many obstacles, air condition ducts, etc... I have people from basic research check out the place to see if it is safe or not so I hadn't even seen the area up close very far in advance. The only hotel that would have let us was sahara, and out of all of them it was the worst one. When I came in to land, the wind shifted and the head wind turned into a tail wind. I was under a big canopy, but it could have been much bigger. I sprained my ankle - that was the worst of it but it could have been so much worse. Dropzone.com: Why don't you check your own places out instead of having others do it for you? Troy: A lot of times it is a time issue, I'm working on one stunt and I have a scout team out preparing for another one. They don't' want to waste my time. Once they do get clearance, then I do get to take a look at it but that is after they've made a decision on it. I can back out up to the last minute but I've felt that if all the conditions are right, and if the ground crew says it is safe if you do this then I would do it. I'm actually not a super confident skydiver - I have less confidence in my abilities than what my abilities probably are, most of the stunts I did I would probably do again because I do know now that I can do them - but sometimes I need these guys to have an outside look to tell me I can do this. I sorta have to rely on them to give me that extra confidence. I feel that at this point in the game I feel like I need to make some of these decisions. I don't think the show would have been quite as good if I had been the one making all these decisions, because I would have turned down most of these stunts. Dropzone.com: How do you come up with an idea for a stunt? Does MTV suggest it or what? Troy: Yeah, 90% of the time MTV the producers.. they're sharp, they know what can and can't be done. They do a lot of research, they will approach me with an idea. If it is even remotely possible, I will just say "yes, that can be done - now lets talk to the right person" Dropzone.com: How long does it take from when they come up to when you do it? Troy:Sometimes it's 2 months, the parachute that we lit on fire was actually planned the day before. Dropzone.com: On that jump, did you have two reserves or what? Troy: On that jump : Yeah, that was my second reserve. It was a typical 3 canopy rig. Dropzone.com: Has there been any stunt that you wouldn't do? Troy: Yeah, it's funny because the only one that I clearly said no was they wanted me to ride a bull. I know there are plenty of people that would say there were things that were way worse than riding a bull. I don't know, the control variables are so limited when riding a bull. With skydiving most of the things that go wrong are under my control, but with riding a bull it's not like that. Dropzone.com: So what do you think about riding horses? Troy: I don't have a problem with that. I've ridden them since I was a kid. Dropzone.com: Even though they have a mind of their own as well? Troy: Well, You're not strapping their balls up.. you don't know how they will react in that type of environment. Dropzone.com: True.... Dropzone.com: With all the snafus going on with skydivers and health insurance, do you know if MTV will stand by you if something goes wrong with a stunt? Troy: Well they took care of me for my neck injury, but it was the bare minimum - they paid me workman's comp, it's just a standard procedure. They took care of my hospital bills. You would pretty much expect that in any situation. If I lost my arm or became paralyzed I don't know how far they would stand behind me. I think when you get involved with production companies I'm sure it says somewhere in the fine print it says they aren't responsible for anything. I'm sure it could get very ugly. I had plenty of people tell me I should sue MTV because it was their negligence. I just said forget it, I'm fine - I don't want to make a stink about it. Dropzone.com: Has there ever been a day where you didn't want to get up and "go to work"? Troy: Oh yeah, sure... I was good with doing a couple of days of stunts a week, I never minded going to the office or going on scouts. I love my job as long as it didn't overload me with 3 stunts in one week. When I had to do 3 stunts in one week I just didn't want to wake up for the 1st day because I knew I had 3 full days ahead of me. The 1st day was always the worst. It seemed like such a long tunnel to make it to the end of the week. There were only a few weeks like that, Vegas, Tahoe, and the Grand Canyon - I did 4 stunts out there. It was a long week, a very long week. If I can focus on 1 thing very well and even smile on cue I do good, I've learned to relax - the one thing I had a hard time doing was thinking about 3 stunts and not getting overloaded. I did 45 stunts last year, I don't know many stunt guys do 45 different stunts. If they do - they are doing a lot of the same thing over and over again. I'll just say I was on heavy sleeping pills the last 6 months before the show was over because I was so concerned. Dropzone.com: Do you have any skydiving role models or inspiration? Troy: Patrick. I started to see his weaknesses as I got to know him. I found a few of his weaknesses in skysurfing. It made me think "oh this guy is human, he isn't immortal" He was like a god to me. He was one of the most talented out there. The thing I most respect about him was no matter how much he jumped he never got burned out. He would always do a sunset jump, he would jump with whoever it didn't matter. He would just keep on going, I couldn't believe his persistence. I think he took some dumb shortcuts that caught up to him, and I try and learn from those because I get lazy too. Dropzone.com: What is the worst injury you have had from skydiving? Troy: Knock on wood, I haven't had anything bad. Just sprained my ankle early on when I was skysurfing. I had a binding come loose so the entire torque of the board was on my one ankle. Dropzone.com: What do you like least about the sport? Troy: Sitting in the airplane. Dropzone.com: So packing doesn't bother you? Troy: Packing I don't mind, because I have space - for me it's like mowing the lawn, it's a thoughtless thing - it gives me time to think, most of the time it is on fresh cut grass, I'm outside. But I can't stand getting on an airplane with turbine fuel blowing at me being all cramped up with everyone, that's why I turned to base jumping. Dropzone.com: What is the coolest non skydiving thing you've done? Troy: Humm.. gosh I'm trying to think. I absolutely love snowboarding, nothing has given me the incredible feeling of back country sking and snowboarding really does something for me. Dropzone.com: Speaking of skiing, I read somewhere that it was because of your skiing friends that you got into doing stunts. Do you keep in touch with those same friends ? Troy: Oh yeah, I see them every winter. I go up to the mountain and hook up with each other and put in a day of skiing. They still live in mammoth which is where I'm from. Dropzone.com: Do they skydive any? Troy: I had one friend that got into it did about 60 jumps and then quit doing it. I got my sister into it as well but she got out of it. Dropzone.com: How do you go about getting selected for commercials? Do you advertise yourself, have an agent, or what? Troy: In this business you almost don't even need an agent with the skydiving stuff. It's good to have an agent to negotiate a deal and not get ripped off, if you don't have an agent they will make you feel like you are getting a lot of money - skydivers with your talent you're worth a lot more than what an ad agency would pay you. They do casting calls where they call the DZ and get people to come out to the casting call. I've seen it a lot of times where people were at the DZ when they called, they went down by the truck load and 2 or so got picked. Then again a lot of the production companies find the aerial cameraman and then they have the camera man send them a group of people to select from. In my opinion that is the best way. Joe Jennings and I do a lot of work together, he suggests me right away, but I do feel that also limits other people.. so I see that as a negative as well. Dropzone.com: ESPN Recently axed skysurfing from their X-Games because sponsors didn't feel like it had an "automatic consumer base" what do you think about that? Troy: I saw it coming. I really did, I was in the sport from the beginning. It was so strong in the 1st year and 2nd year, but the 1st year was so exciting - it never grew after that. The way they produced it and aired it and the moves, yes it grew in skydiving but failed to grow outside. Vic and I struggled our assess off to get a sponsor. We wrote to every company - sports drinks, sunglasses, everyone that might could benefit from having a skysurfing team.. we hammered them for years - we'd keep going back, they kept saying no though. I said you know what, if they don't want it - the sport is going no where. You had the 14 year old rollerbladers making millions then you had us - we were at the top of our sport, a much more difficult sport - we were spending more money to get into it and we were having to spend our own money to compete. Dropzone.com: What do you think can be done in the skydiving community to make it a more accepted sport? Troy: Um... I think skydiving needs to be more accessible, I don't know how that can be done - I think that is a too good to be true kinda statement. It would be great if DZs were in the center of cities, it would be great if tandems were 100 instead of 200. I've seen skydivers feel they were different than the rest of the world.. I don't know if it lends newcomers to feeling like they could get into it. Skydiving isn't easy, but it certainly isn't the most difficult thing. Until a bunch of the barriers are broken down, I don't think they are going to buy the product. The general viewing members don't relate to the product. Dropzone.com: If you could take anyone in the world skydiving with you, who would it be and why? Troy: Awe man. You know what, my dad. I'd take my dad but he won't go with me. Only because the way I grew up, in doing things his way - following him for so long, I know he is proud of me I feel he did all the right things for me growing up but I feel I need to enlighten him a little bit. Let him see my environment. Dropzone.com: If you could wave a magic wand and change something about the sport of skydiving what would it be? Troy: These questions always get me.. I try to come up with some deep response but never do. I'd have to say, I just wish it could be done in more places. It was more accessible, like I said before. Dropzone.com: You've got some shirts called Oddbird what's the story behind those? Troy: Well it was a company I started, we liked the name - we started to promote the shirts, it was kinda a failed venture. We just didn't put enough effort into it. I never have had dreams of owning a DZ, I'm not a big business man. I like the way I'm making my living now, I don't want to oversee a bunch of things. Dropzone.com: We are also planning on interviewing Carl Nespoli, who worked with you on senseless acts. What do you think about him? Troy: Carl in my opinion is the one person I would absolutely want to have at every stunt. His job might not be 100% necessary but his personality is - just having him there for his attitude just makes all the difference. He does look at the small things others would oversee, but I could just get away from everyone else and sit down and just talk to Carl. Dropzone.com: You almost choose skysurfing as your favorite discipline but changed to base jumping, why was that? Troy: I love skysurfing, when I'm out of the plane. Maybe the reason I didn't like the plane ride was because I skysurf. That is the one thing every skysurfer hates because of the plane ride up and putting the board on on the way up it inconveniences the other jumpers, I really don't like to do that. Dropzone.com: Finally, what is something not many people know about you? Troy: Um... hmmm. The first thing people don't realize about me, well the thing is people don't realize about skydivers. Skydivers aren't daredevils, they come from every walk of life, but the rest of the world doesn't know that - there are so many people that think I'm just crazy & don't care about anything, but the truth of the matter is when I'm not out doing this stuff I'm very into going to movies, hanging out at home. I have my cat. I'm not a out on the town big partier. I'm so entirely not, I much more enjoy going up to the mountains and going up and hiking and being by myself. I' love to spend a lot of time alone. For me it's therapeutic.

A 35-year old Pretoria man died in Eugene Marais Hospital last night (13 May), hours after plunging several hundred metres to the ground in a parachuting accident at the Wonderboom airport late yesterday afternoon. Mark Farrell was the second man to die in a parachuting accident at the airport in the past month. Police spokesman, Superintendent Morné van Wyk, said Farrell had plunged to the ground when his parachute apparently became entangled at about 5:30pm. A hospital spokesman said Mr Farrell sustained serious injuries to his head, face and chest. He died at 7:25pm, almost two hours after the accident. Van Wyk said an inquest would be held to determine exactly what had gone wrong.

Army officials are investigating why a jumpmaster's reserve parachute activated inside an airplane Tuesday night causing him to be sucked out of the aircraft.Sgt. Yusefiman Wright was released from FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst on Friday, a spokesman said. Wright was being treated for fractured ribs and a cut on the chin, U.S. Army Special Operations Command officials said. The 28-year-old soldier from New Bern is assigned to the 528th Special Operations Support Battalion. "He is doing real well," said Barbara Ashley, a USASOC spokeswoman. "He said he has received a lot of support from his family and his friends in the unit and the Special Operations Support Command." The accident happened about 8 p.m. aboard a C-130 Hercules cargo plane flying over Moore County, officials said. "He was ejected from the aircraft due to the activation of his reserve parachute inside the aircraft during an airborne operation," said Sgt. 1st Class Pamela Smith, a spokesman for U.S. Army Special Operations command. Wright's main parachute opened during his fall, officials said. The battalion is reviewing safety procedures in airborne operations and the proper handling of reserve parachutes in aircraft, Smith said. "Being a jumpmaster is dangerous," Smith said. "The command regrets that this type of accident happened." Wright is declining interviews, Smith said.

A skydiver was in Perth Royal Infirmary last night after badly breaking a leg while at Strathallan airfield in Perthshire. It is believed the man, who has not yet been named, landed awkwardly at the end of an otherwise uneventful 2,000ft dive. The latest accident comes less than a month after Craig Paton fell hundreds of feet when his jump went wrong. He suffered serious internal injuries. Mr Paton, from Kilmarnock, was badly hurt because the canopy of his parachute failed to open and he hit the ground at over 40 miles per hour. He has since been discharged from hospital.

A member of the Navy's elite "Leap Frogs" skydiving team was recovering in a hospital Wednesday from injuries he suffered when a jump from 12,000 feet went awry near the U.S.-Mexico border. Malfunctioning chutes forced USN Senior Chief Kelly Hickman, 44, into a hard landing east of Brown Field airport in Otay Mesa during a routine jump Tuesday, according to 10News. It was the second such accident at the military drop site in as many weeks. Medics, who found the 25-year Navy man conscious and alert in a grassy field, stabilized him before loading him onto a medical-transport helicopter, Cmdr. Jeff Alderson of U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command said. The Coronado-based ordnance disposal technician was admitted to Scripps Mercy Hospital for treatment of a broken leg, several fractured ribs and back injuries, Alderson said. He was listed in stable condition early Wednesday. The commander said that Hickman's main chute only partially deployed and tangled with his reserve canopy several thousand feet above ground. The accident occurred 14 days after a similar mishap befell two other Leap Frogs as they practiced a tandem jump in the same general area. The men were connected by a leash in midair for a stunt called a "corkscrew" and were unable to unhook from each other in time to make safe landings, officials said. They both had to be hospitalized following the April 24 accident, one with head trauma and the other with broken ribs, Alderson said. They were discharged after several days and have been on light duty since.