Remember 09-11-01
Beacon The Coshocton County
Volume 1, Number 10
FREE
Shining a Positive Light on Coshocton County
PRSRTD STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID COSHOCTON, OH PERMIT NO 302
September 10 to September 23, 2008
Women Dive Into Coshocton – Skydive – That Is! InsIde
the
Beacon...
Air Show Schedule Page 2 Port Authority Update Page 6 2008 Area High School Fall Sports Teams & Marching Bands Inside! Skydivers Cindy Irish and Brenda O’Brien from Michigan are passionate about jumping out of planes. They are members of the Misty Blues All Woman Skydiving Team, the only one of its kind. Irish has been with the team for ten years and has been jumping from planes for 18 years. O’Brien has been a member of the Misty Blues for five years and has been an active skydiver for 25 years. The Misty Blues will be performing at The 2008 Jones Metal Products, Co. Wings Over Coshocton Air Show on Saturday, September 20 (rain date September 21) at the Richard Downing Airport in Coshocton. The gates will open at 9:00 a.m. with the opening ceremony beginning at 1:30 p.m. and the Air Show at 2:00 p.m. Musical entertainment, kids zone
inflatable toys, bird show, model airplane show, aircraft displays, food and other vendors make the daylong event perfect for the family. “To be a Misty Blues team member you must have at least 500 jumps,” said Irish. “Then we have the training with the flags and banners that we use for our acts.” “I have learned some of the special skills needed for doing this act, such as flying the banners, by practicing at the drop zone during the ‘off’ show times,” explained O’Brien. The team jumps from a Cessna 182 plane, which Irish owns. This is a weekend hobby for all of the team members. In their weekday jobs, Irish is a financial analyst and O’Brien is an engineer for
the Michigan Department of Transportation. The other two team members include a welder and an airport owner. Irish says she has performed in shows all over the world including Japan, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Mexico and Toronto. Sometimes some interesting things happened while they are in the air. “I was doing an air show in Daytona Beach,” explained Irish. “We had blocked off our landing area according to the high tide information we were given. When we were in the air, we noticed our landing area was gone! The timing was wrong and the high tide had washed our landing area away. We had to find any open area to land.” O’Brien says she has performed throughout the United States from California to New York and places
in between. “The most memorable jump for me was when we jumped into the St. Louis State Fair and air show,” stated O’Brien. “We flew our canopies through the arch and landed at the base. We’ve also jumped into the baseball stadium in downtown Dayton, Ohio, and out of a C-130 transport plane. We’ve even jumped out of a hot air balloon.” Both Irish and O’Brien say they love meeting the people in the crowd when they land. They both especially enjoy interacting with kids. “I was around five years old when I saw skydiving for the first time,” said O’Brien. “I knew then that I would someday make a skydive. I love to see that same spark at the air shows when I’m talking with the kids.”
This edition of The Beacon Published For
Reverend Ralph & Ida Hollingsworth
Next Issue of The Beacon will be on September 24th! Coshocton County’s Locally Owned Paper!
Skydive continued on page 2
0040-091008
By Jan Myers