No, no, no! Wait, This is a great story and it’s one of a kind: the year was 1994-95. I’m living on the skydiving drop zone in DeLand Florida. It’s a blazing hot summer. So, All the American skydivers are traveling and only the die hard French skydivers are living on the DZ training with one of the coolest skydivers named PHILLIP valloud. A sky god if ever there was one. A French man in deed. Anyway I’m doing one of my usual lame solos, I leave the airplane next to last on a typical Florida-summer-Otter-load. I’m goofing off alone in free fall, when all of the sudden this dude comes whizzing by in free fall - only he’s sit flying and his arm whacks into me. I had know idea what hit me. (Side note: he was wearing a Tony uragallo “sit flying suit” which was retrofitted to work well with his prosthetic left arm.) Anyway, He stays on level with me and keeps our little unplanned skydive going and I opened and then watched him “dump out” ridiculously low .. (typical of the free fliers of that time). When I landed, I went up to the guy to kill him, as was my legitimate right, but PHILLIP is with him already on the field looking at the footage from his 🎥 I guess to see if the man could control that “crazy cyborg skydiving arm” in free fall. (By the way - He had the arm made in a position only useful in free fall falling at 160 mph it stayed out 90 degrees like a wing when he was standing upright on the ground.) - I could not be mad for long for someone so dedicated to a sport they likely had to struggle to belong.. #frenchskydiving #skydivedeland #akydiving (at Skydive DeLand) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl62deXnv65/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=y4hnh1w6zcc6
