SKY DIVING: Cheep Thrills for Those Who Dare

Out of a clear blue summer sky, multicolored parachutes begin to dot the celestial canvas. A buzzing noise and faint screams of “Yahoo” descend from the sky.

On a quiet weekday afternoon at a remote airstrip off a country road, spectators suddenly focus their binoculars and ears on the heavens so they can see and hear the sky divers hovering near the Otay Mountains.

Often, the spectators--mostly friends and family of the jumpers--say they are more nervous than the divers.

The buzzing sounds are the parachute canopies opening at 3,000 feet. The screams are the jumpers expressing fear and excitement as they hang in the air. Sound sure does carry from 3,000 feet.

Five sky divers laugh and converse as their parachutes glide smoothly through the sky. In what is regarded as a tension-filled sport for daredevils, this is a time of tranquility.

Three to four minutes after their parachutes open, Roger Phillips and Virginia Graf conclude their aerial tour.

Along with three other divers, they land gently--standing--on the soft grass fields at the San Diego Air Sports Center off Otay Lakes Road. Divers aim to land beside an arrow, and their aim is extremely good.

The landings are accompanied by exclamations of joy and relief, many of which cannot be printed in a family newspaper.

“It’s the most exhilarating, scariest thing I’ve ever done,” said Graf, 32, who just completed a six-year stint in the Navy. Graf, a minority in a sport in which 90% of the participants are male, had been sky diving for three weeks.

“It’s 1,000 times better than I thought it would be,” Graf said. “It’s so emotional. After my first jump, I started crying when I got down on the ground. I thought of what I had just done.”

She had jumped from a DC-3 plane at 12,500 feet, which is the standard height for experienced divers and students who have completed the accelerated free-fall training program.

Graf had completed a journey that enables humans to come close to flying. Spreading one’s wings is what this sport is about.

“It’s like you’re floating on air,” said Phillips, 39, who has been jumping for 16 years, “just like a bird.”

About 105,000 sky divers made about 2 million jumps in the United States in 1985, according to the United States Parachute Assn.

In San Diego County, about 1,200 students took sky-diving lessons at the air sports center last year. Divers (or should they be called jumpers?) must be at least 18 years old--or 16 with their parents’ permission--to enroll in the student course.

The center, hidden off a dirt road in the countryside, is the only place in San Diego County that offers sky diving. Paris (Riverside County) and California City (near the Mojave Desert) also have spots for sky diving.

Is there an age limit for the sport? Well, an 84-year-old man went sky diving at the air sports center last year.

“If you listen and you’re mentally alert,” Graf said, “you can do it. It doesn’t matter if you have athletic ability.”

Having guts and a strong stomach is a must.

“I tell students to expect to be scared to death,” instructor Ron Horscroft said. “It’s normal. They think it’s real funny when I say that. But if you’re not that scared, there’s something wrong with you.”

There were 26 sky-diving deaths in 1985 and 31 in 1984, according to the USPA.

“It was billed as the world’s most dangerous sport in the 1930s and ‘40s,” jump master Barry Chase said. A jump master is a notch below an instructor in the sky-diving hierarchy of teachers. “Now, I think sky diving is more dangerous than bowling and less dangerous than free climbing a mountain.”

Safe, doubtful. Safer, possibly.

Replacing round parachutes with square ones five years ago has made sky diving safer.

“The square parachutes are more comfortable, provide for softer and safer landings and are more fun to fly,” Chase said. He said most accidents occur when jumpers decide “to do their own thing” and when they don’t follow directions and the landing arrow.

Increased safety has resulted in increased interest in the sport, particularly among the 30- to 50-year-olds who want to experience the sensation of flying at least once. Only about 5% to 10% of the people who make a jump continue with the sport, according to Chase.

On a weekend during the summer, the San Diego Air Sports Center averages 100 jumpers a day. Sky divers keep the place busy, since they usually make two or three jumps a day.

For those sky-diving devotees who spend their weekends jumping out of planes, the adventure begins long before takeoff.

Divers meet in a predive get-together that resembles a huddle at a sandlot football game. Using sticks or just their fingers, they draw in the dirt the formations that they hope to form during the free-fall exercises. They float for 71 seconds.

“You learn to control your body and make turns, do back and front flips and tack (move horizontally through the air),” Horscroft said.

After 71 seconds, the parachutes open.

Circles, spiders and diamonds are among the more common formations for four- and eight-person groups. The divers often touch hands with their teammates in forming a circle or diamond. Sometimes the first diver out of the plane will wear a camera attached to his helmet in order to film his mates.

Groups of sky divers have jumped in 99-person formations a number of times. Many of those formations set out to include 100 people, but the 100th diver was unable to join the group, according to local divers.

With their formations mapped out, the divers check and recheck their packs. A reserve parachute isn’t used much but is required by the U.S. Parachute Assn.

Finally, it’s time to board the plane.

Sitting on the floor of a small plane that does not have seats for passengers, this group of experienced divers prepares for the jump.

There are no peanuts or soft drinks on this flight. Divers talk about their jumps. Sometimes they talk about everything but their jumps.

And yes, they probably pray a little.

“When I made my first jump, I didn’t think I was going to die,” Horscroft said. “I knew I was going to die.”

That’s confidence.

About a half-hour (or what often seems like years to the jumpers) after taking off with a pilot and four other divers, the DC-3 has climbed to 12,500 feet.

“Ready, set, go” or just “Go” are the directives for the jumpers to leap from the opening on the left side of the plane. There is no door.

Leaving the plane elicits screams from some divers, silence from others. No matter how many jumps a person makes, it is always a moment of truth.

“There is always nervousness,” said Phillips, “but after a while there is no longer fear.”

Try telling that to someone attempting his first jump--to someone who has taken the required classroom instruction and has gone through simulated run-throughs on grass, but has yet to realize just how high birds are when they fly.

Some people make it through the classroom instruction and the ground training, but once they take off they never get farther than the edge of the DC-3 or Cessna.

“Some students can’t do it,” Chase said. “They go up, but they can’t do it.”

No matter how much the jump master and pilot try to distract a person or inspire them to “do it,” some passengers end up being just that.

Their journey consists of joining the pilot in watching the others.

“Watching people hang out in the air is really neat,” pilot Don Powers said.

The divers agree. Therefore, after landing, they often head to a nearby trailer to view a videotape of their last jump.

“Did my legs really do that?” a diver asked when he saw the film. “I need a copy of that to show my friends and my dad,” said another.

“It’s nerve-racking and I get butterflies all the time,” Graf said. “But it sure is a natural high.”

MORE ABOUT SKY DIVING

EQUIPMENT--Helmet, $30-$70; altimeter, $90-$150; harness, container system and two parachutes, approximately $1,600. Primary parachutes average about $750. Jump suit, $150-$180. Students can rent equipment.

WHERE TO GO--San Diego Air Sports Center (Otay Lakes area), about 30 minutes south of downtown San Diego, is the only place in San Diego County to go sky diving. Open Thursday through Sunday. Weekends are more crowded than Thursday and Friday. Rates for sky divers range from $7.50 to $15 depending on the altitude.

INSTRUCTION--The San Diego Air Sports Center has eight jump masters and eight instructors. They offer two types of instruction: The first jump course consists of five to six hours of classroom instruction and a static line jump from 3,000 feet later that day. On a static line jump, the diver is attached to the plane on his exit. Cost is $125. Group discounts are available. . . . The accelerated free-fall training program is a quicker and more expensive course. A first jump from 12,500 feet can be attempted after approximately six hours of ground training. Cost is $300 for the ground instruction and first jump.