Greg and John go Sky Diving

We trained all morning jumping off a picnic table and discussing postures you had to assume if you
were to land in power lines, trees, or water. I came close to two out of three.

The pictures taken were of the weekend before we jumped.
We had to come back a second weekend because it was too windy to jump that first trip there
(even though I had a family audience - my parents and neices and nephews)
pictured are Bill Gaffey, Andrea Hall, Jennifer Gaffey and Jake Hall
We watched a stunt parachute jumper land really hard

When we did jump, 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

We stat line jumped out at 2,500 elevation - I went first.
I jumped out unassisted even though my mind was telling me -
"you really don't want to do this" Within a split second I blacked out,
then woke up and freaked a bit because my chute didn't immediately fully deploy
(they told me later my arch back technique sucked)
I think they call it a Mae West; so I scissor kick my legs a bit and it fully opened
I was chill for a few seconds 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
and I followed the proper posture to cover my face and artieries
(arms crosses, elbows above head, hands covering armpits)
It worked I landed about a foot above the ground without getting scratched up
I released my harness and hopped to the ground.
I don't know how they recovered that chute off that tree where I left it