{"id":18904,"date":"2024-12-25T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18904"},"modified":"2024-12-25T10:28:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T10:28:37","slug":"jumping-with-the-senior-skydivers-of-southern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18904","title":{"rendered":"Jumping With the Senior Skydivers of Southern California"},"content":{"rendered":"
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High above Southern California, John Miller, 77, checked his altimeter. \u201cWe\u2019re two miles up,\u201d he shouted over the plane\u2019s engines. \u201cThis is when everybody starts to get quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the cabin hushed as we reached altitude. Sharron Fielding, 70, squeezed my hand; Ricki Thues, 71, checked that his Santa hat was tied tightly under his chin. \u201cEverybody ready?\u201d called Doug Wuest, 69, their unofficial coach. \u201cReady, set, go!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Wuest rolled up the aircraft door and, along with three friends, leaned out of the DHC-6 Twin Otter \u2014 12,500 feet up. Then they let go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Johnny Bateman, 80, still jumps a couple days a month.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Twenty-four other seniors followed, hurtling headfirst through the sky at 180 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

They had about 45 seconds to get into position, maneuvering into a three-ringed, lopsided snowflake, a formation that made the already daring jump even more challenging. Only two jumpers didn\u2019t manage to attach in time.<\/p>\n

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High above Southern California, John Miller, 77, checked his altimeter. \u201cWe\u2019re two miles up,\u201d he shouted over the plane\u2019s engines. \u201cThis is when everybody starts to get quiet.\u201dSure enough, the cabin hushed as we reached altitude. Sharron Fielding, 70, squeezed my hand; Ricki Thues, 71, checked that his Santa hat was tied tightly under his chin. \u201cEverybody ready?\u201d called Doug Wuest, 69, their unofficial coach. \u201cReady, set, go!\u201dMr. Wuest rolled up the aircraft door and, along with three friends, leaned out of the DHC-6 Twin Otter \u2014 12,500 feet up. Then they let go.Johnny Bateman, 80, still jumps a couple days a month.Twenty-four other seniors followed, hurtling headfirst through the sky at 180 miles per hour.They had about 45 seconds to get into position, maneuvering into a three-ringed, lopsided snowflake, a formation that made the already daring jump even more challenging. Only two jumpers didn\u2019t manage to attach in time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18906,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18907,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18904\/revisions\/18907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}