My Last Tandem

[deadwood 0]

Did my last tandem today.
Took up my boss, a Lt Col in the United States Air Force. She brought the champagne!
My First one was Aug 2nd 1991. Never hurt a passenger. Only two cutaways.
Why did I stop?
In two months I’ll turn 60. To me it just doesn’t seem right for someone to come out to the DZ for a tandem jump and be strapped to a 60 year old man. Experience will help compensate for age, but only to a certain extent. I can feel myself slowing down. It’s getting harder to crawl around in the back of a narrow body Cessna 182, get 200 lb guys out the door and do landings at a high altitude DZ. (5200 MSL)
Could I continue for a few more years? Probably. But I just want to end it on my terms and not have my buddies trying to decide who should be the one to tell me it’s time to quit.
So I made my last one on a nice warm fall day with a standup landing 5 ft from the disk with someone who I wanted to share it with.
It was a great run.

He who hesitates shall inherit the earth.

Deadwood
Skydive New Mexico Motorcycle Club, Touring Division

[stratostar 5]

Congrats to you...

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[catfishhunter 2]

Nice :)

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

[piisfish 140]

congratulations on the 20 year tandem career.
guess you now have the skills to start a 20 year solo career now where are the pictures of the celebration ??

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[Abedy 0]

Congrats on your long TI career and the way you finished it.

Your decision is a bold one. I'm 50 so I also thought about age limits etc. 60 was a number that came up my mind as well. But I got a couple of years to look into it. Again, nice story of yours and I hope you'll have a lot of more skydives w/o someone strapped to your belly .

Last thought: OTOH there might be oooold students/passengers who might feel more comfortable jumping with a TI not too much younger than them? Just kidding

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

[fencebuster 7]

People seem to be more comfortable with gray haired airline pilots. I should think that the same may hold for TI's. Doesn't help me much though . . . I shave my head.

Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208
AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I
MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger
Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

[jsaxton 0]

Q friend of mine told me "everyone makes a last skydive, the lucky ones know it before they get on the plane"

[SEREJumper 1]

Great story Rich! You can be VERY proud of this:

Quote

Never hurt a passenger.

That's what it's all about, share/teach the sport and everyone walks away with a smile.

Good on you! Now get back to coaching the young'ins!

We're not fucking flying airplanes are we, no we're flying a glorified kite with no power and it should be flown like one! - Stratostar

[airtime1 2]

Congrats on a successful tandem career. Impressive.

[nigel99 473]

Congratulations and I realise it must have been a hard choice.

My grandfather managed an old age home at one point. He said the worst thing that he had to do, was telling people they were no longer safe to drive themselves and to hang up the keys. He chose to stop driving at 70, based on what he had experienced.

Glad you have a good memory of your last tandem jump.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[cocheese 0]

Thank you for your service to the skydive world.

[jcbfly 1]

Congratulations Rich!

I watched you take every imaginable type of person on their first jump and I always liked the fact that you treated all your tandems as skydiving students, not just passengers.

I'll miss watching you pull out the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Tandem Skydiving" on the ride to altitude.

[AHoyThere 0]

Well done. Hope you have a lot of fun making another 20 years of solo jumps.

[jimmytavino 16]

Quote

Well done. Hope you have a lot of fun making another 20 years of solo jumps.

Exactly...
good for you deadwood i like that style.....
with age comes wisdom and if certain things are inevitable, like loss of some agility etc etc it's good to approach that, as you have done with a well thought out
game plan...

however, i'd suggest ONE slight change
Why not consider the idea to stop saying " My Last Tandem" and replace those words
with,
" My Most Recent Tandem "

skydive safely
jmy

[BossHogSkyDog 0]

Rich, You're the man! I distinctly remember my pre-second jump with you for my 18th birthday in Belen, NM. You saved our lives by opening up that tandem rig (even though my alti was stuck at 8500 ft). You told me to keep my feet up at landing, but I ran like a banshee anyway, determined to stand that one up. The running started about 10' off the ground, per my VHS video, lol.

Now here we are all these years later still jumping out of perfectly good airplanes and loving every minute of it!

WTG on an AWESOME tandem career and thanks for not making me be the one who had to break it to you, hahaha! Much love to you, brother man!

Big Alex Little