Don Boyles personal Account of record setting jump. About The Author Sept. 7, 1970 The Royal Gorge Parachute Jump Mr. Boyles is married and the father of four children, John 10, Jerry 8, Donna 5, and Sheila 3 years old. He has spent most of his life in Sand Springs and Tulsa, OK. Don has been a sport parachutist for the last ten years, jumping at various air shows and exhibitions in Oklahoma and Kansas, making, breakaway jumps one of his favorite attractions. Breakaways are where three chutes are carried. When the first is opened, you release one side and let it streamer until you decide to release the other side. Then, you open the second chute riding it on down to the drop zone. Don has 358 jumps and has had only four minor injuries, and three malfunctions, riding his reserve down all three times. He has taken a lot free-fall pictures with helmet-mounted cameras, both movies and stills. Some of his pictures have won awards and appeared in newspapers and magazines. If a person is trained by a good instructor, uses good equipment and follows basic safety regulations, parachuting is one of the safest, sports there is. The Royal Gorge Parachute Jump in Don s words. I have known the Royal Gorge Bridge was high enough to jump from ever since I started jumping in September 1960 and learned about parachutes. I've trained about 30 students to jump and one of them is David Lomax, who I work with. We're both employed at Byron Jackson Pumps Inc. Tulsa, Oklahoma. I've wanted to make a jump from something other than an airplane for quite a while. David and I got to talking about it one night and at first it was just something to talk about. We got to talking about jumping off bridges and mentioned that the Royal Gorge Bridge was the highest in the world and thought it would be quite a honor to be the first person to ever parachute from the World's highest bridge. We have heard many tales about the tricky and strong winds that blow through the canyon, and were wondering if they were true, and if there were times when the wind was calm. We finally decided to plan a trip up there with the intention of jumping if all conditions were right, meaning the wind would have to be calm and landing area suitable. We wanted to take four
persons in all, so we could have a man stationed on the canyon floor in case we got in trouble. And we were both planning on making the jump. Dave wanted to take his girl and I'm glad he did, because we couldn't get anyone else to go. We decided to go on Labor Day weekend so we would have more time. We packed up his parachute with a static line because we thought that would be the best way to make the jump since the altitude is just over a thousand feet. We packed my chute with a ripcord because we were in a hurry and it takes longer to rig a chute up with a static line. We were planning on rigging the static line up just before the jump. About a month before the jump, my brother Larry and his wife jean took a vacation up through Colorado. Since he was going to the Royal Gorge, I let him in on our plans and asked him to take a lot of pictures of the Gorge and check it over to see if he thought it would be possible to make the jump. He said it was pretty windy when he was there and it rained a lot. He also told about the swift river and telephone wires, and said there were only one or two real small areas where a person could land. The telephone wires were first reported to be electric wires and that gave us quite a bit of concern. He said it wouldn t be impossible though, but would be real tricky. He checked out the bridge and reported it would be easy to jump from. The rail is only about four feet high and he didn't see any guards watching it. We looked at the pictures he took and knew it wouldn't be an easy jump to make. All our plans were pretty secret. I told my wife, Brenda, about our plans except that I was going along just to take pictures of David. Everyone else that knew about the trip thought it, was just a little weekend trip to get away for a while. I think Brenda was beginning to get suspicious when she saw me preparing my parachute gear so I said we might jump with a jump club up there. We left Tulsa about 2:00 pm, Saturday, September 5, and drove straight through getting there at Canon city about 4:00am Sunday. We slept in the car till about 7:00am then went to a restaurant and ate breakfast. We then drove up to the Royal Gorge Bridge. We walked out on the bridge to look it over and looked at the swift river below. It looked pretty spooky and all this time we were trying to decide whether or not to attempt it. We all took the incline car to the bottom of the gorge and looked it over good and took a few pictures. We saw that the river was really swift and knew we wouldn't stand a chance if we landed in it, even though we would have a life Jacket on. There was only a small area by the tracks that would be suitable on the west side of the bridge and about two small areas on the east side, one on each side of a rocky hill. Each area was 5 to 10 feet wide and not much longer. We went back to the top and looked around some more and I took the cable car across the gorge and back. We then went back to Canon City and stayed at a motel. We all talked it over for a long time and finally decided to jump if the wind was calm enough. We got up early next morning and after breakfast drove back up to the Gorge. Dave and I took the incline car to the bottom again and looked it over some more and walked along the tracks
under the bridge to the east side. The hillside didn't look to good with all the rocks and the telephone wires running along the top. From the bridge it looks level. We went back to the top and walked back out on the bridge. About 15 feet below the bridge is a support cable, it looked as though it might get tangled in the chute if a static line was used. A static line is a piece of webbing about 12 to 15 feet long with a snap on one end and other end is attached to the chute. When the snap is anchored to a plane and the jumper jumps, it pulls the chute open when he gets to the end of the line. Since I had more experience, 357 jumps, compared to Dave's 25 jumps and my chute was already rigged for free fall, I talked Dave into taking the pictures. I had a 16mm movie camera and a 35mm slide camera. It would have been difficult for us both to jump and still get pictures. Candy agreed to drive the car, a 1965 Ford station wagon. We went back to the car and got a wind drift indicator, a weighted piece of crepe paper about a foot wide and 16 feet long that falls about the same speed of a jumper floating down. We walked back out to the bridge and picked a place to jump to the north of the middle of the bridge and on the east side. The wind was from the West and seemed pretty calm. We identified the point to jump from, by noticing the different colored flaps evenly spaced across the span. So my exit would be next to a certain flag. I took the wind indicator from under my coat and dropped it over the side when no one was looking. It unrolled and drifted in a steady line to the hillside below indicating the wind was calm and steady. My past experience gave me confidence that I could make the jump successfully. I was worried most about my landing and figured it would be rough. I knew I stood a good chance of spraining an ankle or worse. We walked back to the car, in the parking lot and started getting everything ready. I loaded and set the cameras and then started putting me gear on in the car. My gear consisted of boots, jumpsuit, helmet, lifejacket, reserve, and main parachute. We tried to get ready without attracting any attention and I think we were pretty successful because it was because 9:00 and 10:00 in the morning and the park wasn't crowded yet. I covered up with a jacket to keep people from seeing what I had on, and left my helmet off. I think a few people that saw us suspected something, but there weren't many on the bridge and we drove to the selected spot without any trouble. When I was ready I said, Alright, lets go, I hope I know what I'm doing. When we got there, Candy stopped the car; Dave and I got out. Candy then drove on to the south end of the bridge, turned around and drove back across to the parking lot. Two young employees of the Cliff Terrace restaurant were in front of us and saw Dave and I get out of the car and noticed the Oklahoma license plates on the car, as Candy drove by. All they could do then was just watch. While I paused at the side, Dave snapped 3 or 4 pictures with my 35mm camera and then switched to the 16mm movie camera. When he started filming, I climbed up on the rail and jumped. I had hold of the ripcord and pulled it as soon as I cleared the bridge. It opened in 4 seconds, about a second or two longer than a normal jump. It sure seemed like a long time.
As soon as it was open, I checked the canopy and stowed the ripcord back in the pocket. I then started steering the chute trying to find a place to land. I faced west thinking I might be able to land in the area I had picked out west of the hill. I soon discovered I was too far east and wouldn't make it. I then made a right turn and saw the canyon wall right in front of me. I turned on around facing east, headed downwind. I was then too low to make it across the hill to the other area I had picked out and the only place to land was on the hillside. So I turned left a little and slammed into the hillside real hard. I sprained my ankle and just laid there resting. My ankle soon felt good enough to start field packing my chute, I had landed about 10 or 15 feet from the telephone wires and had missed the rocks enough to keep from getting hurt bad. The wind drift indicator was only about 30 feet from me so I walked over and got it. I then started climbing down the hill. When I didn't get up right after landings, Dave thought I was hurt and had bought a ticket and rode the incline car to the bottom of the gorge to see about me. I was almost to the bottom of the hill when he and two young employees came up. They asked if I was hurt and helped carry my gear back. I asked Dave if he brought me a ticket for the ride to the top. The employees said they'd give me a free ride. Dave and I walked up and got in the car for the ride to the top. We got a lot of funny looks when we walked by carrying the parachute gear. The employees were talking among themselves but didn't say much to us. We were expecting to be apprehended when we got to the top and I told Dave to get me a lawyer if I was arrested. When we got to the top there were only two tourists there who took our picture and asked us why we did it. Dave told them it had never been done before and they seemed satisfied. We thought the best thing we could do was throw our stuff in the car and leave, so that s what we did. I was really surprised that we were able to drive out without anyone trying to stop us. We decided to stop at the motel in Canon City and eat lunch and have some coffee. We asked the waitress who was in charge of the Royal Gorge Bridge, and she answered Canon City. We thought we'd best get out of Canon City, so we left and headed towards home, Dave was driving because my ankle was swelling and hurting. Down the road quite a ways, a Colorado patrolman had a black station wagon pulled over and he also motioned for us to stop. We thought they d heard the news about the jump and were looking for a station wagon. But he stopped us because we had fender mirrors sticking out too far and weren t pulling a trailer. They have a law about mirrors sticking out too far on a car unless you re pulling a trailer. I have a camping trailer at home, but hadn't taken the mirrors off the car. Our parachutes were lying in plain sight in the back seat, but he didn't bother us and just had us remove the mirrors. We were all relieved and headed for home again. We were just a few miles from the Kansas state line when we heard it announced on the radio. They said a station wagon bearing a Tulsa, Oklahoma license plate pulled onto the Royal Gorge Bridge and two men leaped out. While one climbed up on the bridge and jumped, the other filmed the event with a movie camera. They then said I landed safely and we all left without
identifying ourselves. We were all feeling pretty good that everything went as well as it did. I called Brenda from Garden City, Kansas and told her everything was all right and that one of us had made the jump. Dave drove straight on through just stopping for food and gas. We got in about 2:00am Tuesday. It s about a 700 mile drive each way and a long ways to go just to jump off a bridge. Brenda was pretty shook up when I told her it was me that jumped, but she got over it soon. I hope I haven't started a trend but a friend of mine parachuted from a TV tower about two weeks after I jumped from the bridge. *****