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Sign of Spring
by Russ Manhold Many people identify the over-60 crowd with social security, nursing homes and shuffleboard courts. But on the last day of winter, 33 seasoned members of Skydivers Over Sixty descended on Lake Wales, Florida, to establish a new SOS world freefall formation record. For the past eight years, California has hosted every Skydivers Over Sixty world record event. SOS #1, Pat Moorehead, approached veteran Florida jumper Russ Manhold about organizing a world record series in Lake Wales. Manhold agreed and enlisted Larry Elmore to design a simple 33-way formation to exit from a CASA and a Twin Otter. By Friday, March 18, 52 SOS jumpers were on hand. By sundown, Elmore and Ted Rose had organized three 33-way record attempts from 15,000 feet. The record finally completed on Saturday morning, documented by Tom Plonka and John W. Young Sr. Next, the SOS record group expanded to 37, but the planned formation didn’t complete. Saturday evening, DZ manager Betty Hill and her husband, Roger, hosted a delicious barbecue chicken dinner at the DZ. The SOS record participants ranged in age from 60 to 81. Total jump experience for the 52 SOS jumpers came to a staggering 176,959 jumps. Experience of individual participants ranged from 500 to 11,502 jumps. The next SOS world record gathering is September 15-18, 2005, at Skydive Elsinore, southeast of Los Angeles. More information is available from Billy Calhoun III at (415) 382-1006 or e-mail.
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