Word: statics
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Here are some of the things that Soutter pointed out to me: You jump with an emergency parachute on your chest which you deploy in case of a malfunction in the main canopy. On your first five jumps, in accordance with Parachute Club of America regulations, you use a static line, which means that your rip cord is pulled for you as soon as you leave the plane...
...sport parachute jumps made at Mansfield--and at least that many at Orange--resulting in no fatalities whatsoever. Last year there were 60,000 jumps made in this country, resulting in six fatalities--none of which were attributable to parachute malfunction (a suicide, two drownings, two "freezes" on non-static-line jumps, and one electrocution resulting from a landing in high wires...
Soutter, a New England safety officer licensed by the P.C.A., told me that he has taken 489 students through static-line jumps--in none of which did the main canopy fail. And he showed me how a parachute works, how the several tough, elastic bands throw the pack open when the rip cord is pulled, and how, at the same instant, the pilot chute (a miniature parachute that pulls the main canopy out) hurtles almost 20 feet into the air by the force of its own compressed spring system...
...like most modern sports such as sports car racing, motorcycling, or skindiving, parachuting is not inexpensive. At Mansfield, for example, a first jump costs $25, the following two $15, and the next two $10--a total of $75 for the five static-line student jumps that qualify a person for free-fall jumps and membership in the C.P.C. The cost of each subsequent free-fall jump averages only about $3, however...
Take, for example, Samuel H. Beer, professor of government, who began parachuting last July at the age of 50. With six static-line jumps to his record--plus one broken ankle--Beer...