Thursday, October 31, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5
Skydiving—'Safer than golf,' veteran KU parachutist says
By JOHN GILLIE Kansan Staff Writer
Matt Farmer, Topeka sophmore and a skydiving instructor, told each of his students that parachute jumping was really a lot safer than playing golf. But even had sky diving be a little more dangerous than duffying a golf ball around the fairways, most would have jumped.
The 29 KU students who made their first parachute jump Saturday and Sunday at the Sky-Hi training area near De Soto had $35 invested in training. And, for the most part, they had adventure in their blood.
Roger Maggard, LaCrosse senior, and Will Ary, Huntsville, Ala., freshman, were already experienced scuba divers. Doug Andrews, Kansas City, Mo., freshman, had earned his pilot's license when he was 16. Farmer, an instructor for the KU Sport Parachute Club, had learned skydiving in his spare time in
Gridders of 1923 plan '68 reunion
The University of Kansas' football team of 1923, the last KU team to have an undefeated season, will have their 45th anniversary reunion here Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2-3.
Laurence C. Woodruff, professor of entomology and former dean of students, is in charge of arrangements for the reunion. Woodruff, who is KU's faculty representative to the Big Eight conference, was a member of the team of 1923 himself.
"We thought we were some potatoes," he reminisced. "But we probably weren't as good as we thought. Our chief claim to fame was that we never had a touchdown scored against us."
Woodruff says the team members of 1923 will encourage this year's Jayhawks to improve on the 1923 record of 5 wins, no losses, and 3 ties in the Homecoming clash with Colorado.
Vietnam where he wore a .45 pistol strapped to his belt to protect himself from Viet Cong in the drop zone. Mike Canella, Washington, D.C., junior, explored sunken Spanish wrecks in the Florida Keys during the summer months.
Outwardly most of the new jumpers expressed about as much fear of stepping out of an airplane a half-mile above the ground as stepping out of a bathtub-an action which is statistically more dangerous.
"I had a moment of anxiety before I jumped," said Maggard, "but there was no hesitation."
Ary said he had thought about the things that could happen but he forgot them in his excitement when he stood on the strut outside the plane.
The chutists themselves view the sport as exciting but not necessarily one that demands courage.
"Most people have a 1920 concept of parachuting," Farmer said.
He explained that modern skydiving equipment is practically foolproof. Chutes used by sport parachutists can now be flown like gliders, moving into the wind and banking to steer.
"Nobody was ever killed from equipment failure," Farmer claimed, saying either panic or disorientation were the causes of most parachuting deaths.
The chustist has two parachutes, a main chute and a reserve that is equipped with an automatic opening device which triggers it at a certain altitude if the main fails to open.
No student has ever been seriously injured during a KU Sport Parachute Club jump. John Koenig, Rochester, N.Y., senior and club president, credits intensive training and good equipment with the safety record.
Each student receives five hours of intensive training before making his first jump. The instruction is under the supervision of Jim Garrison, operator of the Sky-Hi training area. Garrison, who works at the Lake
City Arsenal near Kansas City during the week, has jumped more than 850 times. He also is a veteran of more than 750 hours as a pilot.
Garrison's training facility centers around a Swing-Lander a device which simulates parachute landing falls so that each student can be instructed how to improve his fall. Garrison claims that his Swing-Lander is one of a very few in the country. A parachute landing is roughly equivalent to a jump from a six-foot platform.
Packed into the five hours are instructions that take the military several weeks to accomplish. Garrison claims that a graduate of his course is better prepared than a graduate of a military course.
"The military operation is one which is graded to the intelligence of the dulest individual," Garrison said.
Farmer commented that the military is years behind sport parachuting in equipment and techniques. The military still does not use steerable chutes and drops all its chutts from 1000 feet. The club jumpers leap from a safer 3,000 feet.
When the chustist leaps at 3,000 feet on his first jump, a static line attached to the plane opens the main chute after the jumper has fallen for about four seconds. Five such static line jumps are made before the first free fall jump in which the jumper pulls the ripcord is made.
The three minute fall to the target was called "the greatest feeling in the world" by Andrews who said he felt no sensation of falling—only of being suspended in mid-air with silence surrounding him.
The object of all the intensive training is to recruit members for the KU Sport Parachute Club to compete with other college teams, Garrison said.
training will continue throughout the fall, Koenig said. The total cost of the initial training and six jumps is $65, about half the usual rate.
HALLOWEEN
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