Sky Sports Fall on Washington
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Marines some of first to jump over Beaufort County
By DAN PARSONS Staff Writer
Having been back in the United States for only a week, U.S. Marines
Corps Lance Corporals Travis Morea, Mike Erlichman, Mauro Faz and
Felipe Cisneros wasted no time in finding adventure on the home front.
The four made the drive from their stations at Marine Corps Air
Station Cherry Point to Washington to experience free fall from 11,000
feet.
Tradewind Sky Sports recently opened at Warren Field in Washington,
offering the experience of jumping from an airplane for a few dollars
and with 20 minutes of training.
"We jump at 11,000 feet," John Hayes, a sky diving instructor with
Tradewind, said in an interview at Warren Field Sunday. "We deploy at
around 5,000 feet. It only takes between 35 and 40 seconds to free
fall the 6,000 feet. You're going about 120 miles per hour when you
activate the chute."
Hayes, who is a certified single- and multi-engine pilot and an
FAA-certified parachute rigger, has been in the business for 15 years
and has done more than 4,000 sky dives. Everyone who jumps from his
Cesna 182, single-engine airplane, has to complete at least two jumps
in tandem with — or buckled to — Hayes.
"The oldest person I've ever jumped with was an 80-year-old lady,"
Hayes said. "When we get up there, it's usually the big, muscular guys
that are the most pumped up that end up being the most scared."
Morea, 21, suited up in a jumpsuit with goggles and helmet was
anything but scared, uttering the common Marine battle cry "oorah" as
he walked out to the plane.
"The scariest thing is before you take off and the plane is shaking
and I was thinking to myself 'whoa … I'm really doing this'," he said.
"But once you get up to like 2,000 feet you think ‘wow, this is high'
but then everything after that feels the same."
For safety, everyone that jumps with Hayes carries not only a
primary canopy but a reserve of equal size. The primary canopy is
opened manually - in Morea's case it was opened by Hayes. The reserve
parachute is deployed automatically at a certain altitude, should
anything go wrong with the primary canopy.
"There is a digital altimeter attached to the reserve chute," Hayes
said. "If we hit a certain altitude without having deployed a
parachute, a pyrotechnical charge automatically goes off and
releases the pins that hold the reserve."
The primary and reserve rig, which Hayes said is required by law,
costs about $11,000.
When asked why he would endeavor to start a sky-diving school in
Washington, Hayes said the nearest ones are in north Raleigh, Suffolk,
Va. or south of Wilmington.
“A lot of military guys have an interest," Hayes said. “And East
Carolina (University) has a sky-diving club."
As Erlichman, Faz and Cisneros watched their friend descend from
the sky they each were visibly excited to take their turns.
“If I'm scared it's only fear of the unknown," Erlichman said,
waiting on the tarmac for Morea to land. “Fear nothing."
For more information or to book a jump call John Hayes at 946-3900.