Sandy Wambach RIP 7-19-98

[BillyVance 34]

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1739568;search_string=Sandy%20Wambach;#1739568

It's been 9 years since you left us, and many of us still miss you.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[RhondaLea 4]

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http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1739568;search_string=Sandy%20Wambach;#1739568

It's been 9 years since you left us, and many of us still miss you.

I remember this as if it were yesterday. I still wish it were nothing but a bad dream.

Sandy was special.

rl

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[billeisele 130]

It's been 9 years since you left us, and many of us still miss you.

Sandy was our plane captain in Chicago. Quite a sad day. For many of us the record was for her.

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[BillyVance 34]

Has it been 10 years already? I've never met another organizer like Sandy since and don't think I ever will again. When they made her, they broke the mold.

You're still missed, Sandy. Hope your girl is doing well.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[sdctlc 0]

Sandy was a fantastic person. I enjoyed jumping at her events. I seemed to be one of the furtherest travelers coming from Portland or Seattle going to the east coast events. They were fun. Really a horrible thing that happened. I hope Hanna is doing great! Wow hard to believe it has been 10 years..

Scott C.

"He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

[Doogie320 0]

I met Sandy once at Jerry Bird's Birdland down near Tampa. Jerry was organizing a 10-way or something like that and myself and 2 other sub 100 jump wonders looked on. Sandy saw us and came over to talk. We explained that we'd love to jump with Jerry but didn't have the experience. She then told Jerry she was pulling herself from his group to organize for us. Our little 4-way didn't do much, but Sandy debriefed us with a smile and actually taught us a little about RW.

Late that afternoon I was talking to someone and Sandy came over. After a few minutes she pulled out a photo she'd taken of Hannah. Hannah was holding a jar of fireflies and when Sandy snapped the photo the fireflies all lit up. So you have Hannah's face lit up by the flash while the 3 or 4 fireflies were glowing green. It was a wonderful photo. Sandy had the same smile talking about the photo that she did when she debriefed our crappy little 4-way.

I only met her once and she is missed.

[BillyVance 34]

15 years ago today.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[winsor 236]

BillyVance

15 years ago today.

She took my slot in the formation after I got axed. I had refused to dive blindly at the formation to keep up with the guy ahead of me, and was thus like 3 seconds late; he got a foot print on his face for getting there on time (for real).

Sandy is one of too many people who have vindicated the hard way my decision to chicken out. I have done enough really dangerous things that, by the time it scares me, it is likely a very bad idea.

The tuition is steep, and it has already been paid in full.

I got a hug from her the last time we said goodbye, and I wish she had been willing to get axed as well.


BSBD,

Winsor

[BillyVance 34]

winsor

***15 years ago today.

She took my slot in the formation after I got axed. I had refused to dive blindly at the formation to keep up with the guy ahead of me, and was thus like 3 seconds late; he got a foot print on his face for getting there on time (for real).

Sandy is one of too many people who have vindicated the hard way my decision to chicken out. I have done enough really dangerous things that, by the time it scares me, it is likely a very bad idea.

The tuition is steep, and it has already been paid in full.

I got a hug from her the last time we said goodbye, and I wish she had been willing to get axed as well.


BSBD,

Winsor

IIRC, Sandy was incapacitated during break-off in a collision with another participant, and without an AAD (you couldn't have gotten one to fit inside that tiny rig of hers anyway), she fell to her death.

Sometimes I think breaking my arm a month before that, was a blessing in disguise.

Edited to add: She took your slot after you got axed? IIRC, Sandy was one of the 300 way captains and was on the jumps from the beginning. She was killed on the first day.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[tigra 0]

Perhaps Winsor meant that she moved into his slot. The ax was swinging and a lot of people were being moved around and substituted. As I remember, it did not happen on the first day but it did happen fairly early in the attempts- maybe I am wrong about that but that is what I remember. And I believe the collision occurred while they were approaching the formation, not break off.

I was on the ground watching from my trailer. I will never forget it. The stunned silence in the campground immediately after. And walking into the hangar a little bit later knowing that someone went in, not knowing who and essentially just looking for missing faces ........ That is the harsh reality of this sport.

I didn't know her, but I have heard only good things about her. RIP.

edited to add: The 19th was a Sunday, it was the 2nd or 3rd day of the attempts but probably the first day they put the full load up together. I believe they spent the first day or two working with the 60ish person "base".

[BillyVance 34]

tigra

edited to add: The 19th was a Sunday, it was the 2nd or 3rd day of the attempts but probably the first day they put the full load up together. I believe they spent the first day or two working with the 60ish person "base".

Yes, that was what I was referring to... the first day of the full load attempts. So I stand corrected that it was on approach and not break-off... Memory of details told to me sometimes fade over time.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[tigra 0]

Actually Billy, now that I think about it, one of them could have still been approaching when the main group was breaking off. That makes a little more sense given that you could see the breakoff from the ground and you could see that one canopy did not deploy with the rest. So, I stand corrected. It was a long time ago and I wasn't on the load.

It just seemed like you were questioning Windsor's account. I don't know him, but I was there taking everything in from the ground and his story lines up with what I remember. It was my home dz and I had a lot of good friends on the record attempts, some who were axed pretty early on. It was the most intense week of skydiving I have ever seen.

[skydivr 0]

She sure was something...

Keith Abner
D-17590

"Those who do, can't explain; those who don't, can't understand"

[jj85883 0]

Billy, Jim Jenkins here. I was on here reading up on another fellow skydiver's funeral arrangements. I was on Sandy's plane that day. If memory serves me right, it was the 3rd dive of the first day. She hit one of her home drop zone friends on break off. I had participated in a 60 way round attempt in McMinville TN a few weeks before with Mike Huber and Vernon Melancon, which i thought you were there too, maybe even got your trash stolen out a car at the hotel. Anyway, I remember asking Sandy, since she had a small container like mine, how she found packing the reserve around her Cyprus, that's when she told me she didn't have one, and told me she didn't cuz she was confident in her skills. That's when i told her that was a dumb deduction, a Cyprus was to fend off the other people trying to kill you, not yourself. Next time I saw her was Chicago. Hope your doing well my friend.

[masterrigger1 2]

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nyway, I remember asking Sandy, since she had a small container like mine, how she found packing the reserve around her Cyprus, that's when she told me she didn't have one, and told me she didn't cuz she was confident in her skills.

Well actually she had asked me at the beginning of the day to see if i could put a Cypres in her rig sometime and I said "sure".
I had been packing the Power racers with the Cypres a lot back then and having great success.

This is one time that I wished that I had pursued this!

MEL

Skyworks Parachute Service, LLC
www.Skyworksparachuteservice.com

[BillyVance 34]

jj85883

Billy, Jim Jenkins here. I was on here reading up on another fellow skydiver's funeral arrangements. I was on Sandy's plane that day. If memory serves me right, it was the 3rd dive of the first day. She hit one of her home drop zone friends on break off. I had participated in a 60 way round attempt in McMinville TN a few weeks before with Mike Huber and Vernon Melancon, which i thought you were there too, maybe even got your trash stolen out a car at the hotel. Anyway, I remember asking Sandy, since she had a small container like mine, how she found packing the reserve around her Cyprus, that's when she told me she didn't have one, and told me she didn't cuz she was confident in her skills. That's when i told her that was a dumb deduction, a Cyprus was to fend off the other people trying to kill you, not yourself. Next time I saw her was Chicago. Hope your doing well my friend.

Hey Jim,

Good to see you're still around! Yeah, I remember asking Sandy about whether she had a cypres in her rig due to it being so damn tiny. And yes, I was at the McMinnville event. Apparently I did well enough there to earn a slot on the 300 ways from Sandy. Went to 3 more of her big way events, the last one being the New Jersey record attempts a month before the 300 ways, and broke my arm there. That forced me off the world record team so I didn't get to see her go in. Not a memory I would have wanted to have.

I remember being on one of your dives at Moss Point with a low break-off for a 12 way. I ended up humming it low in traffic and got a cypres fire out of it.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[jj85883 0]

So glad to hear back from you Billy. Hope life has been kind to you. I ended up having a major accident in late 99, so I missed the first Thailand trip. Broken back and feet. What can I say, lost situational awareness. But all it did was cause me to jump even harder, after laying out a year!!

Yep, she had one of those small ass Racers and I had an XRS Javelin, and the smallest reserve they made back then was a 120. And it still took everything I had to get it in that small reserve packing tray with the cyprus in it! She was a very fine, talented woman,,, I also jumped with he X Brad a few years on Deguello 16way. Anyway, hope to see you around dude.

[ddbartley 0]

DD here
I can't believe it's been this long. What a women Sandy was and one of my best plane captains. I talked with her daily for at least two months before the record. We had a lot of great memories and great times at various records attempts. One of the best for sure

[BillyVance 34]

ddbartley

DD here
I can't believe it's been this long. What a women Sandy was and one of my best plane captains. I talked with her daily for at least two months before the record. We had a lot of great memories and great times at various records attempts. One of the best for sure

Agreed!

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban