In the summer of 1982 , fraternity brother, Greg Mayden proposed that we entertain ourselves
by jumping out of perfectly good aircraft.
We were college students living in Utica, both members of Alpha Phi Delta fraternity.
Greg knew about sky diving (stat line jumping) opportunities at the Syracuse Suburban Airport
After paying $75 each and a few hours of instruction we were prepared to stat line jump out of a small plane from 2,500 feet.
Later that summer APD Brothers Andy Bouton, Roger Byrne (and Mark Dygulski?) went with Gaffey to the airport and jumped.
No injuries to report from either experience.
We trained all morning jumping off a picnic table,rolling to the ground to absorb impact.
We discussed the postures you should use if dropped into various safety hazards
| Hazard | Posture | Objective |
|---|
| Power lines |
Raise your hands and arms straight up
over your head to reduce your profile. | Get skinny to miss the wires. |
|---|
| Trees |
Raise your elbows over your head, cross your arms with
each hand covering your armpits and your forearms protecting your face.
|
Get skinny to dodge branches while also
covering vulnerable areas from being impaled. |
|---|
| Water |
Take it off as you're landing so it doesn't
drag you under and drown you. |
Prepare to cut away from your parachute
|
I came close to two out of three - avoided power lines but landed in trees.
The pictures shown here were taken a week ahead of the weekend we actually jumped.
We had to come back a second time because of strong winds,
We had an audience traveling with us that first weekend - my parents and neices and nephews -
pictured are Bill Gaffey, Andrea Hall, Jennifer Gaffey and Jake Hall
Bummer that they didn't get to see us jump.
We watched a few, more advanced sky divers, jump that first weekend
One stunt parachute jumper landed really hard; that had to hurt.
When we did jump, as the plane climbed through the sky,
the air field we took off from looked like a postage stamp
This was only my second ride in an airplane
(first time was at lower altitude in sightseeing plane in Bar Harbor Maine);
We were flying with the door open, I was seated close to door.
They threw a flag out to test wind direction. Then we jumped
I went first.
I jumped out unassisted even though my mind was telling me -
"you really don't want to do this"
We were 2,500 feet in the air
I think I fainted for a split second.
I woke up then freaked a bit because my chute didn't fully deploy right away
(they told me later my arch back technique sucked)
I think they call it a Mae West;
I scissor kick my legs a bit, the chute fully opened
I was chill for a few seconds trying to enjoy the view
then I heard them yelling from ground - turn left;
I started to turn but noticed
there were power lines that way
I stopped turning.
I landed canopied over tree
I followed the proper posture to cover my face and artieries
(arms crossed, elbows above head, hands covering armpits)
I landed about a foot above the ground without getting scratched up
I released my harness and hopped to the ground.
The parachute may still be sitting up in that tree.
It couldn't have been easy to retrieve it where I left it.
