SKYDIVING CLUB

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32053, 30 July 1969, Page 20

SKYDIVING CLUB

Membership Drive

The Canterbury Skydiving Club lost about 80 per cent of its new trainees during the initial jumping period, said the secretary (Mr J. Carpenter) yesterday. “If we get a training class of six we are lucky if we get two members who will stay on as club members after the initial jumping sessions,” he said. All students were given an initial two or three jumps. Mr Carpenter said he thought that only those who completed 15 to 20 jumps would stay in the club.

Initial training before being allowed to jump, lasted for 12 hours and was usually completed in three weeks. Only three or four basic things had to be learned and much of the training was repetitive, he said.

These involved learning to fall or land properly, how to quit an aircraft, how to pull a ripcord and if the main parachute failed how to use the reserve, and how to steer a parachute. All students must do five static jumps before they were permitted to make free fall drops.

Recently the club, which has 35 to 40 financial members and is one of the largest '6f the six clubs in the Dominion, launched a membership drive.

The initial response had been quite good, said Mr Carpenter. Obtaining new members posed something of a problem. Many persons would write in for the club’s information pamphlets but the ratio of those wishing to take up training was very small. Most of the club’s activities took place from Wigram over week-ends, mainly on Saturdays. It was possible that later on the club might be able to jump at Wigram on Wednesday evenings before nightfall.

Mr Carpenter said although winds up to 20 or 30 knots could stop proposed jumping sessions, members generally managed to enjoy their sport at least every second weekend.

Mr W. J. Jordan has been appointed a technical field officer with Kempthorne, Prosser and Company in Nelson. A former student of Nelson College and Waimea College, he was the first farm cadet under the Nelson-Gorden Bay Federated Farmers’ scheme and gained a diploma in agriculture from Lincoln College in 1962. He has recently been farming in the Korere district. Mr Jordan joins Mr C. Jackman, who is also a technical officer for the company at Nelson.