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Sky Diving at the old Yolo County Airport Summer of 1972
	Around the time I got married in 1975 I could no longer find my jump log book. It was a little blue book about 3 inches high and about 6 inches wide which contained the details of my fifteen jumps along with my jumpmasters comments. I still have the USPA emblem which came as part of my United States Parachute Association membership.
I was in the Navy and attending computer schools at Mare Island, California. That's when I found out one of the Navy electronics teachers was also a certified sky diving instructor. The Schools Command, I was stationed at, was an semi official sponsor of a sport parachute club along with Travis Air Force Base. As a civilian a few years before, I had been with a girl named Karen at a concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and had decided there were three things I wanted to do before I died. That night I had been under the influence of psychedelic drugs and latter I was only able to remember one of the three things. At the time I decided to try sky  diving I was hoping I hadn't done the other two ,what ever they were. Finally I decided it probably wouldn't be the last thing I tried and decided to try sky diving.      You couldn't beat the price, only forty five dollars. That included ground lessons, the first jump, United States Parachute Association (USPA) membership, and insurance. I was really impressed with the insurance. The insurance was so if you managed to crash through the roof of somebody's house or car, or do some other type of property damage you were covered for the damages. That was extremely reassuring to me at the time. With the command's money, Terry, the instructor, had gotten a hold of a couple of old chutes so there was no equipment rental costs. The only thing I had to buy was a crash helmet and some jump boots with good high ankle support. I picked up the jump boots at the victory surplus store in Vallejo, at a reasonable price, and procured a used motorcycle helmet from a friend.
In 2001 they were still jumping at the Old Yolo County Airport   (The drop zone had moved to the other end of the field)
Dave Wilkinson and I used to climb the hills behind our barracks 1296 on Mare Island early in 1972. Dave never seemed the type to take many chances, where I was a little more adventurous. I didn't really think he would go through with the idea of sky diving that had nurtured itself in a haze of smoke on the hillside one evening. The fact that one of the instructors (Terry Scott) was also a sky diving instructor had come to our attention because Louie Smith and and Al Wise had decided to try it. I remember tripping at a concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts center with Karen Ryan. There were three things that I wanted to do before I died, one of them had been sky diving. So although I was somewhat surprised that Dave had agreed I couldn't pass up the chance. We attended classes on the command behind the old chow hall which was located behind H-1 the Admin building in the old Hospital complex which was CSTSC. After a few evenings of instruction and some practice landing falls we were ready for our debut. Dave had a van with stereo speakers mounted in coffee cans and wired up to the support members in the roof. Wild Turkeys "Battle Hymn " was our standard at the time and the ride from the barracks up to the old Yolo County airport outside of Winters took an hour or so. I had plenty of time for my stomach to turn and churn and generally make my decision to sky dive seem somewhat dubious. I had gone at the barracks and when we finally reached the drop zone I availed myself of the portable facilities. I was determined that this new experience wasn't going to scare the shit out of me, even if it was because I didn't have any shit left to lose.       We were taught that only you or a qualified rigger could pack your main and only a qualified rigger could pack your reserve which had to be re packed every 90 days. I believe Terry had packed my TU or Double L military chute , he had us assist him in the procedure using the long wooden packing tables which had been erected on the site. After suiting up I visited the facilities again and the climbed aboard the small Cessna. It was funny that all my anxieties and fears melted away as the aircraft began to climb. There was no longer any room in my mind for fear, just room for concentrating on what I had to do to stay alive. My first jump was the only jump of 15 which had the door close on the plane until we reached altitude and started our runs. I was surprised by the wind when the door was opened and latched up under the wing. It was early in the season and as it progressed into summer the passenger door was left off the plane. I don't remember who went first between Dave and I but I do remember there was a girl ahead of us. After she exited the plane Terry almost popped a vein or two screaming at her, I fully expected to find her crushed body on the ground from the way he was acting. Finally it was my turn, I climbed out onto the step covering the wheel and facing forward standing on one foot I grabbed hold of the wing strut with both hands. The pilot had cut the engine to decrease the prop blast but it was still windy as hell hanging on, thousands of feet above the earth that I refused to look down at. When Terry said go I didn't even hesitate, I was out of there. I remember seeing the tail of the plane as I began to fall on my first decent into the ocean of air which I never really learned how to swim in. After an extremely brief fall I was jerked back into semi reality by the Static line parting with my presence.       The mechanism worked as advertised. The static line acted as a rip cord pulling a wire with multiple pins. Each of approximately a half dozen pins inserted through a cone each holding an eyelet restraining the  (DRAW EXPLAIN PARACHUTE OPERATIONS OF DEPLOYMENT TU LL 1972 AT YOLO) and I found myself hanging in a swing high above the earth with a view no penthouse could ever hope to match. I was in heaven, pulling the steering toggles, spinning this way and that checking out the view. I wasn't high enough to see into Lake Berryessa but Shasta's snow capped peak stood out dominating the distant northern horizon. Even if I hadn't been lolly gagging around I doubt if I could have hit the pea gravel. LLS and TUs don't have much drive. The landing left much to be desired (squatted, couldn't walk right for a week or more)
Summer 1972  Old Yolo County Airport near Winters California Jump Type Notes: (Recalled long after my log book went missing) 1    static line Bad landing no roll 2    static line 3    static line 4    static line/dummy rip cord pull 5    static line/dummy rip cord pull 6    hop & pop 7    hop & pop 8    hop & pop 9    5 sec delay Kicking feet 10  5 sec delay 11  5 sec delay 12 10 sec delay Went unstable trying to look at belly altimeter 13 10 sec delay Unstable 14 10 sec delay Unstable 15 15 sec delay Mix Master of the Year, almost died	Physics s=1/2 at(2) 6sec s=576'  v=at 6sec v=192'/sec (131 mph) terminal in a full arch ~125 mph s=vt Time Distance Speed  5 sec delay = 400' (109 mph) 10 sec delay = 1335' (terminal) 15 sec delay = 2295' (terminal)
Landings My first landing didn't go as well as the rehearsed parachute landing falls had gone. Instead of hitting the ground and rolling, I hit the ground and went into a squat. I walked painfully funny for a week or more Another thing is if you are going to practice rolls remember you may be going backwards when you hit. The first time my chute didn't have enough drive to counter the ground winds I went from my feet to my ass to flat on my back on the hard sun baked clay . Even with the motorcycle helmet I still hit my head hard enough that I managed to stun myself slightly and the wind started dragging along the ground on my back. I had to pop the capewells and ditch the chute. Probably the worst thing about my landings is that I never landed in the money. Our target was about 2 inches in diameter and sat in the middle of a circle of pea gravel that was about 50' in diameter. Not only did I never hit the target but I also never came within 50 feet of the pea gravel. Some of that I can blame on the cheap double L and TU chutes I used, they just didn't have much drive. I remember one jump where I was pointing at the target the whole time and never reached it, while at the same time a Para Commander that was above and behind me dropped down and went under me to circle the target several times and then land on it. My worst landing for accuracy was my last one where I was probably over a quarter mile off target, but there were several circumstances which added to the gross error. After that landing I actually kissed the ground in relief.
Exits All my jumps but the last one were from a small Cessna. The plane held the pilot and I believe 4 jumpers (may have been 3). One jumper sat in the front next to the pilot facing the rear of the plane and was the first to exit. On my first jump the passenger side door was on and wasn't opened until we reached elevation and started our run. At that time the door was swung up and latched open against the under side of the wing. The sudden change with the wind loudly rushing by was somewhat startling. The pilot cut the single engine as I climbed out to gain my final position which was standing on one foot on the wheel cover while facing forward and holding onto the wing strut with both hands. When my jump master Terry told me to go I had no hesitation in hopping off backwards and spreading myself into an arch. It wasn't particularly a pleasant environment hanging out there and I was eager to find something else. For a milli-second or so I thought "what if I hit my chin on the wheel cover ", but that never came close to happening. The rest of the jumps that summer were with the door removed so you became accustomed to the wind on the way up. Having the door off did have it's draw backs if you were sitting in the first out position. You had to watch that you didn't accidentally catch the handle on your belly reserve and deploy it, where as it could be sucked out the open door and hang up on the tail and cause the plane to crash. If your reserve were to start to deploy you were supposed to gather it in as much as possible and jump out the door. You can detach a damaged main and deploy a reserve but you can't detach a reserve if it becomes a can of worms. The accidentally deployed reserve over ruled another of our rules which was if the plane had problems below 1000 feet you rode the plane down, above 1000 feet you bailed. My last jump was a free jump from a small single engine military plane. In this instance you sat sideways with your feet hanging out the side door and when the time arrived you exited by using your arms to lift yourself and push out the door.
Spotting Originally it was easy to try and ignore your altitude because your jump master picked your exit point so you never had to look down, but after a handful of jumps you were expected to pick your own exit point and could no longer avoid scrutinizing objects on the ground thousands of feet below. I believe all my jumps were from between 2800 and 3500 feet AGL so houses and other large objects weren't just tiny dots. The pilot was used to the drop zone and you would always find the same familiar objects on your approach. The word "cut" was the signal to the pilot to cut his engine while you climbed out and got in position. From your perch you had to continue to study the ground until you came to the point where you though you could reach the target from. On my last jump the pilot was not familiar with the drop zone and didn't fly a line were I could easily detect familiar objects. My friend Dave asked me why I was holding off jumping and it wasn't until I looked farther under the plane that I understood we were passing our normal exit area. I should have made the pilot go around again but instead I hurriedly exited, which was part of the reason for my huge miss of the target.
Falling It seems that falling like a rock is harder to do than you would imagine. As you accelerate to speeds over 100 mph any little movement on your part (especially if not symmetrical) can have dramatic and almost immediate effects. Even on my earlier low speed jumps I had problems being stable in the air. The easiest thing to fix is ground rush. If the ground is rushing up at you your natural tendency is to extend your hands more out in front which is what is required to level you off. On my first free fall I was rocking from side to side because I was kicking my legs, curling my toes in my combat boots allowed me to be more aware of my feet and stopped the kicking problem. I wasn't too bad on delays up to 5 seconds which could be counted off but for the longer delays every time I had to look at my altimeter which was on my belly reserve I would go unstable. Once I remember looking up at the plane I had exited as I deployed my chute while on my back. The chute came up between my legs and flipped me back over as it opened. One of my worst experiences with instability came on my last jump. I began a belly to earth spin that I tried several times unsuccessfully to correct. I kept moving my hands from one side to the other trying to slow down the spin but instead I kept spinning faster. I wasn't sure in my mind which direction was the proper way to counteract the spin. Later I figured that my legs must have been cocked to one side since moving my arms didn't seem to matter. I kept spinning faster and faster and when I felt my self starting to gray out I found it extremely hard to fight the centrifugal force to get my hands in to pull the rip cord. Although I was probably 10 seconds from hitting the ground, I was only a few seconds from blacking out.
Under the canopy Between the rush of falling and hoping the chute deploys properly, and the preparing for the landing there is the time to enjoy the view. That is if the crotch straps are comfortable. If they are not it can be the worst part of the jump. No matter how you wiggle or try to climb the risers it just gets worse. It sometimes gets to the point where you wish you could collapse your chute in and try again. If the harness is comfortable time under the chute is enjoyable. I never jumped from high enough to see over the near by ridge to Lake Berryessa but I was able to see Mt. Shasta over 200 miles to the north on a good day. One of my jumps was under a cargo chute (34' vs 28'?) and there was a noticeable difference in the decent rate. A girl who probably didn't weigh a hundred pounds got caught in the thermals which were common in the Sacramento Valley in summer. She spent over twenty minutes under her chute as she floated off. Sometimes she was actually going up rather than coming down. They had to get in cars and chase her down the road. At 185 lb.. I never got to ride the thermals but my first jump I spent spinning in slow circles to get used to the toggles and enjoy the view. It didn't really help my attempt for the target but I wasn't concerned with that at the time.
Costs Our skydiving club was partially sponsored by Combat Systems Technician Schools Command where I was attending Data Systems Technician A School. My jump master Terry Scott was an electronics instructor at the command. The command some how came up with a couple of basic parachutes for our use. It only cost me $45 to join the United States Parachute Association (USPA) and attend ground instruction. The USPA membership came with insurance, not for anything that happened to me but it would cover damages if I went through the roof of some bodies house or car. When jumping I had to pay for my jump and my jump masters jump. The rate depended on the altitude and for my sub 4000 foot jumps it wasn't more than 3 or 4 dollars. The jump masters jump was usually 5 or 6 dollars since he usually went out around 7400 feet.
Misc. Mare Island Naval Shipyard was basically a nuclear submarine repair facility with several schools commands. (Nuclear Power School and Combat Systems School). One time on the way out the gate in Dave's van we were stopped and searched by the marines. They wanted to confiscate our parachutes as military property until we convinced them that they were not the property of the base. I don't know where they thought they came from, parachutes are not emergency escape devices for submarines. When I got up in the morning at the barracks my stomach was usually starting to get butterflies, and by the time we got to the drop zone it was starting to knot up. After a mandatory visit to the outhouse and then the downing of the jumpsuit, boots, helmet, goggles & chute my nerves were starting to frazzle. The funny thing was after I got in the plane and we began our ascent all the nerve problems went away. I was too busy running everything through my mind that was required to keep me alive to worry or fear. You don't realize how long a second really is until you're falling out of a perfectly good airplane. Your mind races at a fantastic speed which makes time seem to slow down. The only other time I've had such a non drug induced shift of normal time perception was during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake where I started to wonder if the 2nd story apartment I lived in was going to become a 1st story apartment. (It lasted about the same as a 10 second free fall).
The People Dave Wilkinson was my best friend of the period. We spent our work days together as classmates and usually spent our off hours time together as roommates. We spent many a weekend tripping down to San Francisco to spend the day in Golden Gate Park and the evening at Winterland for a concert. (Dave especially liked Humble Pie). Dave always seemed a little less adventurous then I, so I always somewhat amazed at the way he got into sky diving. Where I made 15 jumps and quit when diagnosed with a hernia, he went at it full bore. He made night jumps, water jumps, attended meets, and participated in relative work with other jumpers. He must have had 40 or more jumps when he was transferred to Norfolk in the Summer of 73. Last I saw Dave was in Norfolk after I followed him back from attending Christmas at my parents house in 73. Terry Scott was my jump master. Even though I never had him as an electronics instructor we became pretty close. I would spend many a Saturday nights at his house with his wife Lori  watching The Midnight Special or Saturday Night Live. Terry loved jumping, his wife jumped and he even named his dog Arch. I believe Lori quit jumping after she broke he ankle or leg. I checked on them when I was on leave in the Vallejo area in the summer of 76 and Lori informed me Terry had been discharged from the Navy with a broken back. He was out back packing up around Placerville at the time so his injuries couldn't have been that severe. Latter he moved back to Montana where his family lived. I heard somewhere he divorced along the way. Alan Wise and Louie Smith, whom were fellow classmates, also tried jumping a little before Dave and I took it up. Al made a few jumps then quit, Louie made a few jumps then broke his leg and quit. Louie was wearing an automatic opener which would fire off the handle of his reserve if he passed through a certain altitude. He was supposed to turn it off after he had a good main but didn't. He ended up having both his main and reserve deployed at the same time. Instead of cutting away his main he landed under both. The oscillations cause by having both chutes open cause him to break a leg on landing. When I was jumping the device sensed both altitude and velocity so you didn't have to turn it off. I made all my jumps except the last one with this safety device. On the last jump I donated my opener to a less experienced jumper because there was a shortage of the devices. The few seconds I was away from blacking out on my last jump were truly seconds to death.
Drop Zone Stories (Hear say) A girl died at our drop zone before I started jumping, basically due to her jump master. There are only two people who can pack your main, you or your jump master. Only one person can pack your reserve, a qualified rigger and it must be repacked every 90 days. On your first jump your jump master usually packs your chute for you. We used something called a pilot chute assist on our static lines. When the static line deploys the chute there are elastic straps which help open the pack. Inside the pack there is a small pilot chute on a spring which jumps out, catches the air and pulls the sleeve off the main chute deploying your canopy. The pilot chute assist was a piece of Velcro which attached the static line to the pilot chute. After the assist the Velcro gives way leaving the static line attached to the plane. In this case the pilot assist was accidentally routed under one of the bungees so when the chute deployed the pilot chute was pulled under one of the elastic straps before the Velcro gave way. This caused her to have a horseshoe. The first thing you are supposed to do when your chute deploys is check its integrity. If you have a Mae West (a line over the top of your canopy) or a horseshoe you should go for you reserve, especially for a horseshoe which is useless. She never checked her chute and went all the way to the ground with the horseshoe. Needless to say she bought the farm.  Another girl was participating in relative work. When you break off from a formation you are supposed to wave off before deploying your chute in case there is someone above you. Somebody pulled without waving off and she caught his rip cord in the teeth as she rocketed by the slowing jumper. It knocked her unconscious but fortune had it she was wearing an automatic reserve opener which saved her life. Luckily she just ended up with some dental bills. A Guy died after I quit jumping because his main and reserve failed. He was jumping a high performance chute which has a greater chance of malfunctioning because of all the complex modifications. (that's why a reserve has no modifications). He cut away his main and went to his reserve which also malfunctioned. The reserve was overdue for re packing.
Drop Zone Stories (Eye Witness) Terry jumped with a piggy back system where his reserve was on his back under his main. When his reserve would become due for re packing he would also don a belly reserve. He would then jump, deploy his main then cut it away using the capewell release mechanisms which would deploy his piggy back reserve. I would never get rid of a perfectly good chute even if I were carrying three. One time we sent a plane up to around 31,000 feet with three jumpers. They exited, lit smoke devices so they could be seen from the ground and free fell for 2 minutes and 11 seconds. I timed them as they fell for almost five miles. My friend Dave got down from a jump and wanted to get up again without having to repack his chute so I loaned him mine. It malfunctioned and he had to go for his reserve, better him than I. I started to go for my reserve once but never had to actually deploy it. After you pull your rip cord and the chute doesn't give you that reassuring jerk you have to see if it's caught in a low pressure shadow above your back. By turning you head and upper body to look behind you from one side than the other you can cause the wind to catch your chute and deploy it. I didn't see or feel anything after performing the procedure and was going for my reserve when my main snapped me. Usually it's a very comforting jolt but seemed a bit more painful when you weren't expecting it.
Other Notes Reserves aren't modified in order to improve reliability of opening. The problem with an unmodified chute is that as it fills with air it will tilt to one side to spill some of the air out. It will then tilt the other way causing it to start oscillating. You don't want to hit the ground at the end of a pendulum so they usually have some break away lines. This solves the pendulum problem as well as giving you steering capability.  The simplest modification next to break away lines is the double L or TU designs. You basically have two exits at the back of the chute to the left and right of the axis of direction. The modifications provide the forward drive for your chute. By pulling down on a toggle you close off one modification causing the chute to rotate. Closing off the other causes it to rotate the other direction. Closing them both causes you to stall your decent. Good jumpers usually stall their chute as the land allowing them to lightly touch down. In-experienced jumpers may stall to high, which after the initial slow down causes the jumper to fall faster than before the stall as the chute recovers. I always avoided trying to time the stall and opted for hit and roll as I was instructed. There are two schools of thought on damaged deployments. One says that a partial chute is better than no chute and advocates that you try to deploy your reserve around the imperfect main. The other school is that it is better to deploy a reliable reserve into clear air space than chance having two fouled chutes. In that case you open the covers on your capewells and pull the rings. This causes the two risers which connect you to your parachute to separate from your harness. There is a cord from one of the risers to the handle of your reserve which automatically deploys your reserve for you. We were taught the cut away system. There are several landing techniques depending on landing terrain. If you are going  through trees you are supposed to cross your arms and place your hands under your arm pits. This is to try and keep from catching a branch in the arm pit which has some major blood vessels. If you are going through power lines you are supposed to put both your arms straight up above your head to try and avoid touching more than one line. If you are landing in water you are supposed to unfasten your harness so you can jump out of it as you hit the water. If you become trapped under your canopy you should try and follow one of the lines out to the edge. You should also make sure you don't jump out of your harness to far above the water. Dave once asked me "Do you breathe while you're falling?". On my next jump as I was accelerating to terminal velocity I found my self thinking about that question. I quickly put it out of my mind. You really don't have time to have trivial stuff in your head while free falling. Since I have seen people free fall for over two minutes the answer has to be yes. After about 6 seconds you are at terminal velocity in an arch at about 125 miles per hour. In a delta with your arms swept back towards your sides you can reach speeds approaching two hundred miles an hour in a head first dive. They say when you reach terminal velocity you are weightless. Maybe so but with a hundred mile an hour wind pressing against you it's not the same as being in space or inside a diving plane meant to provide a weightless environment. The ground rushing up at you seems to help convince your mind that you are not floating on a blanket of air which is rudely pushing your face around. There are two types of rip cords on a parachute an inner and outer pull. On the outer pull the handle is on the right and you hook your thumb through it as you push out in front of you. On the inner the handle is on the left side and you cross you chest grabbing it with your right hand and pulling it back across your body. The most important thing with either type of pull is to make sure both your arms do the same thing at the same time to remain symmetrical and avoid unwanted high speed acrobatic maneuvers. My last jump was plagued with problems starting from exiting the aircraft well past the target area, and continuing with getting into a situation where I attempted multiple corrections rather than pulling after an initial correction failed. As I was fighting to get to the rip cord before I blacked out I had time to think that if the chute deployed it was going to have problems. The chute opened without any major problems except that I was still spinning under it, wrapping the lines tighter and tighter. After my momentum stopped I had to wait for the lines to un-wrap them selves before I could gain any steering control . My stomach was starting to be upset by the time I had control less than 500 feet from the ground and over a quarter mile off target.
Epilog 11/17/98 I went up to the old Yolo County airport after I returned from Japan and was discharged from the Navy in 1977. The drop zone was over grown and abandoned. I couldn't even find the pea gravel which had been the target I could never reach. After my hernia repair I never returned to sky diving. The memory of my last jump was still strong in my mind and I had waited too long to get back on the horse which had thrown me. I could jump today on a dare just to prove I could but probably wont. Now a days they are pushing the tandem jump where you jump strapped to your jump master under one chute. I'm not about to put my life in someone else's hands when I don't have to and there would be no challenge to that kind of arrangement. I long ago lost my USPA log book and I doubt I would be allowed to solo without going through the static line, dummy rip cord pull sequences of jumps, if not also taking new ground school classes. I ran into some German hang gliders up around Bishop who also sky divers. They preferred hang gliding because sky diving was over too fast. Lately I've been taking 2 man glider flights over the local Sierras. An hour or two in a glider seems more my speed these days. I would probably get certified to solo in a glider before I would jump again, although I've seen glider pilots wear parachutes. On an unlucky day you might get to try both.