With open arms he embraced our thoughts and views of airplanes and parachutes to face his fear and make his first jump. Arriving at 8am to the dropzone, President Pastides was greeted by the club, in which the members was already awake and eager for his arrival. Once on site, President Doug Pavlovsky continued to walk Pastides through the hangar, for a quick tour of the facilities before gearing up.

While President Pastides and our Advisor Dr. Patrick Hickey were gearing up for their tandem skydives, the USC students were manifesting for the ALL USC LOAD. This load was to be only USC Students and Faculty. Our plane is a DeHavillind Twin Otter, which is designed to hold around 22-24 jumpers. We were able to fill of the airplane with students, mostly those off of AFF, working on their license, or those who are already licensed. Unfortunately we even had to keep a few students on the ground due to the lack of rental rigs available.

As the plane taxi'ed up to the runway, and began its journey into the sky the only sound other than the engines was "GOOOO" all the way up from the begining to the runway through takeoff in which the we yelled "COCKS, FIGHT, WIN" you know the rest.  During the whole ride up to altitude we delievered gamecock chants with the enjoyment of everyone on board. 

Once up to altitude our usual last minute checks, and handshakes were delivered we recieved the red light. This is the cue for the door to open, and now we sit with an open door, and twenty something Gamecocks about to jump; this was truly a sight to see. As the Red light turned Green, Gamecocks began jumping out of the airplane like you have never seen. 

Once on the ground, everyone was so excited to see each other again. We all had a great time and wanted to share it with each other. With a few pictures and some high fives we walked back into the hangar to take off our gear and cherish the jump.

 Photos Courtesy of Terry Hopkins

We would like to thank President Pastides for coming out and making his first tandem skydive with the Flying Gamecocks Skydiving club.  We would also like to give a special thanks to Dr. Patrick Hickey, FreeFall Photo, and Skydive Carolina for ensuring everything fell into place!

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