More than forty simultaneous skydivers!

Here at the Mesquite airport, 90 miles North of Las Vegas, more than forty skydivers climb into three sizeable aircraft, headed for a jump altitude of 12,500 feet and an attempt to set a state record.

And there they go!
12,500 feet above where I'm watching, three aircraft disgorge more their cargo of more than forty skydivers as quickly as they can all leap out of the aircraft.
A mass of skydivers fills the sky, and we have to wonder how they manage to avoid each other!

In the middle of all the skydiving, a pair of World War II carrier-based bombers land, refuel and take off for another event at Nellis Air Force Base. What a thrill to see them!

The skydiving resumes. Planeload after planeload of divers take off, most jumping solo but a number jumping tandem with students and their instructors.With so many jumps, the opportunity to take shots of individual skydivers are plentiful.
The experienced skydivers show their skills, displaying exquisite control while skimming in for graceful landings like a Corps de Ballet.



Here is how they look as an entire planeload approaches their landing!

More of people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes

This was a perfect day for jumping, and the skydivers made the most of it. I watched five planeloads go up, and then do a variety of acrobatics as they spiraled down to land right next to the runway. Some of these jumpers have done thousands of skydives, and think nothing of it.

The shot above is of a tandem jump, with a new jumper being introduced to the sport by an instructor with control of the jump.

I prefer the safety of a cage with great white sharks trying to get in on me--which all goes to show that danger is in the eye of the beholder.

People jumping out of perfectly good airplanes

I would never consider doing such a thing, but those who do seem to have a wonderful time.

These jumpers were at the Mesquite airport, 90 miles North of Las Vegas on a gorgeous Fall day.

Yes, well--it's still hard to express an enormous complex of parks like those around Monument Valley and do them justice. Photography's limits are absolute.

You can see how close I came to succeeding at the YouTube site http://www.youtube.com/divexprt

Any feedback is welcome (well, most feedback is welcome), as I always want to make new shows better than those that preceded them.

After an adventure in a place like Monument Valley, there is great pleasure in trying to take the best of the stills and videos and tell a story that does justice to the subject.

In this case, I'm busily working on the YouTube show. there's plenty of material, but what to put in and what to discard? And what music might best go with the sequence when it is assembled?

Much to do, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...

I'm delighted to hear from Andrew Fox that I'll be traveling back to South Australia to dive with the great white sharks December 10-17.

There is a new spring in my step!

The Town named after a Rock

The little town of Mexican Hat is located in a cluster of parks in southern Utah--Monument Valley, the Valley of the Gods, Goosenecks and Natural Bridges.

Mexican Hat takes its name from this unusual stone formation on the outskirts of town. Known as Mexican Hat Rock, it is a perfect signpost that you are entering Mexican Hat from the North.