On Thursday, January 21, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-5, Skyscotty wrote:

Hey Mom says thanks to all those who helped with the links etc..

At any rate this is the editorial Mom wrote in her column for the Zepyrhills (1-21-99 issue) newspaper..She is going to try to do some more skydiving related stuff----as she really enjoyed looking at the sights ,,learning etc..

Thanks again folks,,,,,,Scott

Zephyrhills News
for 1-21-99 issue

WHERE I'M AT
Every Day is Risky Business
by
Janet Watson

On January 10, 1999 skydiver Jack Larrison of Indian Rocks Beach was killed in
a skydiving accident at Skydive City. He became the sport's first U.S. fatality in the new year, and so far the only one.
Those of us who are not risk-takers shake our heads and wonder why these
"crazies" jump out of perfectly good airplanes. We assume (as though no one ever dies of other causes in Zephyrhills) that they carry death-wishes along with parachutes in their packs.
Yet, to the contrary, psychological studies indicate that those who pursue
high -risk sports are emotionally stable and tend to be success-oriented, lovers of life. They also possess above-average intelligence and therefore take every safety precaution available to them as they pursue their particular
sport.
Jack Larrison was 53 years old, a successful businessman, an artist, and the
loving father of three daughters. He was heavily decorated in Viet Nam, and about 250 people attended his funeral at Bay Pines Veterans Cemetery in St. Petersburg. A scholarship fund is being set up in his name at the University of Tampa. He evidently embraced life to the fullest.
Skydivers come from all walks of life, and the United States Parachute Association (USPA) has people from 18 to 96 years of age in its membership of 33,000. The one thing that they all have in common is that they get an indescribable thrill from experiencing human flight.
Yes, human flight. Skydivers think that if flying is being in an airplaine,
then being in a boat must be swimming. To fly, it's quite obvious, you must be
surrounded by the element of air.
Who among us, in a pensive moment, has not watched a bird and wished for the
gift of flight? Yet, if our Creator had endowed us with hollow bones, feathers
and wings, would we still be earthbound, like the ostrich, because we feared to
use the gift? Would our mothers have lost the instinct to push us from the nest because we squawked so much in protest?
We'd might as well cringe about getting out of bed, for daily life is fraught
with risk. In several statistics tables, the annual rate of fatalities in automobile accidents per numbers of participants, is higher than that of skydiving. And if you look at random accidents, more people are killed by bee
stings, by lightning strikes and on bicycles. Why? Skydivers are very careful; nothing is left to chance. The basic safety requirements are carefully regulated and also self-policed by the participants; their equipment
is checked and re-checked; the weather is taken into consideration; and, to achieve various levels of proficiency requires extensive training and certification.
So what happened to Jack Larrison? Other divers may gain the necessary knowledge to avoide a similar tragedy, because the video camera he was using to
film a 4-way skydiving team continued to record during his fatal jump, and it is being studied for what it can tell them. It appears that there may have been a series of problems, unusual as that may be, and more than he could handle in the short time of a free fall. But perhaps it was just Jack's time to die.
Skydivers face their destiny and their mortality with every jump. What most
of us don't realize is that every single day we do the same thing. We just shove the realization of that aside, because it would be hard to get on with life if we dwelt on its fragility.
Not one of us knows whether we will die by catching a virus,. walking across
the street, or falling out of the sky. No one knows. So we must live the way
each of us is happiest, whether sitting on a front porch watching the sunsets or being very brave and jumping into them.

I found the love of skydiving in Zephyrhills, while filming a mini-documentary on the subject. was talked into making one jump! It can be addictive: I have over 6,000 jumps, including one in 1975 over the old Cypress Gardens, when both chutes failed
to open. I fell into a mature citrus grove, luckily missing the rock hard trees--and survived, obviously. To the minute one year later, I jumped at the same spot, successfully, and was put on contract with a national corporation as an All-Star
celebrity, jumping into most every stadium in America. Also as a commercial pilot, I joke, it isn't a 'perfect airplane,' if there is a catch on the paint. I did it, because of a love of life! Now 85, I may have to slow own a bit! Arch Deal

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