{ title: 'The Spectrum (Buffalo, N.Y.) 1955-current, April 30, 1979, Page 10, Image 10', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-30/ed-1/seq-10/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-30/ed-1/seq-10.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-30/ed-1/seq-10/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-30/ed-1/seq-10/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: University at Buffalo
s parachute of it it deployed in a tangled, and dioufdert ‘hurt Hka a bitch.' utelett meet. The next step it to pull the rip ASPIRING WHITER: Bob Cohen practical his power line landing. If Cohen (topi were correctly practicing however, his face would be turned to the side to minimize his body's breadth. Experienced jumper Steve Mura Ibbttom) rolls up his square canopy after a jump from 12,000 feet. Square canopies offer much more control and lateral speed. However, they are more Hen gamut, and can sometimes tangle when opening. It was all Tom the photographer's idea. Renting a car and driving to Harrisburg and mining a lackadaisical woekend was also Tom's idea. Tom will neglect his personal well-being and his skinny, wiry body and his belly-length chestnut hair, just to get a couple of good “negs.\ The only thing Tom's shutters shy from is Chippewa Street But that's another story. ... and into the trees by Robert Basil This story is about skydiving. \It'll be great,\ Tom said. \I hope the readers appreciate this,\ I responded. Tom, I and a couple of aspiring writers drove into Wilson. New York to the Frontier Skydiving Center, a chib of approximately thirty members who like to jump out of airplanes and drink lots of beer after they land. Veteran skydiver, with nearly a thousand jumps under his belt. George Woods was our instructor. Woods is an ex-molecular biologist - a UB graduate - who quit his job as a research worker at the UniversitY of Rochester to become a construction worker. \I would have been a fool to stick with science.\ says Woods, \when construction work pays $254100 a year.\ Presently, Woods is unemployed. This is perhaps just as well because summer is the season for skydiving and Woods plans to do a lot of it Before we, or anybody else for that matter, were allowed to skydive, we were given extensive lessons. First off, we practiced jumping out of a mock airplane out in back of the club's barn. When Woods gave the signal, we were to climb out on the ledge. When he smiled, we were to climb out onto the wing. When he screamed \Out and arch,\ we were to swing our right leg back and fly away from the plane with our chest pressed outward and our arms outstretched. The second step of our aviation education was learning how to land, presuming of course that we would land on the ground. From a green wooden table about four feet high, we tested our landing skills. You're not supposed to look at the ground whan you're landing, \it's like nothing you've ever experienced,\ explained Woods. \This is the only time in your life that you will be falling with a constant velocity. All of the other times you are accelerating. If you look at the ground you will probably misjudge when you'll hit” Instead, we're supposed to look at the horizon. After making contact with the balls of our feet, we're supposed to twist and fall on the sides of our calves and then roll , George shouts ously mixing K \OK now, yt What do you most frighte If by chance onto our backsides. I never mastered the technique. This is just as well because I never had a chance to use it simultaneously, 4,800 volts of current will fa nrrlm through your low resistance body.) At you're not sure and George yells, yells, yells. JUMPMASTER: George Wood* barks command* to a jittary ctudant at ha prepare* to trap outside of a mock plana. No mattar how much practice this modal affoedad, nothing could prepare The Spectrum' reporter* for the 60 mph winds rushing into their faoaa during the real thing. The final exercise is the most rigorous and t»ir«n your thighs start to burn from the rubbing stra| up most of the training time. The tree. Hanging like your shoulders begin to sag, instinctively you a noose from a thick limb is this simulated parachute to recall that you must tighten your legs to<
