10
Friday, October 2, 1970
University Daily Kansan
Kansas Staff Photos by JIM HOFFMAN
Garrison in Full Flight
... making it all look easy
KU Parachutists Demonstrate Sport in Attempt for Funding
The KU Sports Parachuting Club gave a demonstration jump Thursday behind Oliver Hall. The club is trying to get University funding for their trip to the nationals in Florida over Thanksgiving. A repeat demonstration was scheduled for 12:25 p.m. today.
Jim Garrison, who runs the Sky High drop zone which the club uses at De Soto, said that all Big Eight and Big Ten schools, as well as the military academies, participated in collegiate parachute competition. He said that the overall champions were also college students.
Garrison and two KU students, Pat Melroy, Norton senior, and Matthew Farmer, Lawrence freshman, performed a free-fall and a brief hook-up during the demonstration Thursday.
Prior to the jump, long yellow streamers were dropped from the plane above the target. Club members said these were wind drift indicators. A few seconds later, three figures dropped from the plane, fell and chutes blossomed in the blue afternoon sky.
The competition targets, Garrison said, are about five and one-half inches in diameter. The parachutists use a one-half-mile-long by 100-yard-wide zone.
On a student basis, parachuting is safer than driving a car, Garrison said. He said that of the 450 first-jump students trained at the drop zone in the last two years, only three had suffered injuries.
STUDENT
THANKSGIVING
CARIBBEAN CRUISE
Ages 15 to 22
November 20-28th
7 DAYS ABOARD THE
M. S. BOHEME
$375.00 from K.C.
TRANS-MARK TRAVEL
HARVEY MIMS DIVISION
TH & WYANDOTTE
842-1000
Garrison said that a person jumped for the first time on a "blind faith basis." He said that all noise was gone, until the instructor started yelling directions through an electric megaphone. He added that the jumper had no conception of speed.
Garrison said that all types of people had become interested in parachuting. The average weight of the rig a parachutist wears is
47 pounds
Classes are being held Saturday and Sunday for students who would like to learn how to parachute. Club members will provide rides from Murphy Hall to the De Soto drop zone at 9 a.m. both days.
Club members said that there was a fee for the training and jumping, and suggested that anyone interested should call VI2-3046.
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