Sunday's Column - Skydiving

This Sunday's column was about the sport of skydiving.  I went down to Perris which is quite a center for it and although the manager there told me it was a quiet day, there was a lot going on.

They have three Otter aircraft and there seems to be one going up or coming down all the time.  Here you can see skydivers loading up.

I did five jumps myself about 15 years ago out in California City near Edwards airforce base.  The type of skydiving has changed since then as the first four jumps I did was with a static line.  This is where you are hooked to a line attached to the aircraft and the rip cord is pulled as you exit the plane.

It's a scary business waiting in the aricraft and trying not to look down.  Today the only way you can go is either being linked to an instructor who jumps with you, or you can take an accelerated course that takes about six hours and then two instructors accompany you down, but not linked to you.  Maybe I'll do it again one day.  You can read the entire column at www.sbsun.com/trevorstravels