
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 18, 1993                   TAG: 9310180015
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROCHELLE OLSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FAYETTEVILLE, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Medium

JUST YOUR TYPICAL SATURDAY LEAP FROM 876-FOOT BRIDGE

Vendors sold T-shirts and pickled possum parts. And hundreds of parachutists took to the air with the greatest of ease - and not an airplane in sight.

"I've never been so . . . glad to see a parachute open," said Todd Heilman, 32, who wore a white Elvis Presley costume for his leap off the 876-foot-high New River Gorge Bridge, the nation's second-highest span.

About 400 parachutists and at least five rappellers participated Saturday in the 14th annual Bridge Day, the only day pedestrians and jumpers are allowed on the steel-arch span 40 miles southeast of Charleston.

Heilman said he had parachuted out of a plane before, but that didn't compare to jumping off a bridge.

"There's no sensation of falling. Here, you're starting at zero and picking up speed," he said. He lost his Elvis wig before landing in the river, which cuts through the heart of the Appalachians.

Parachuting and bungee jumping from the bridge are illegal the rest of the year and are punishable by up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to the National Park Service, which controls the portion of the New River that goes through the gorge.

Along with serving as a local autumn festival in the forested hills, Bridge Day is an annual reunion for the 7,000-member World BASE Association, based in Houston, said Executive Director Andy Calistrat. BASE stands for buildings, antennas, spans and earth forms, from which members I've never been so . . . glad to see a parachute open. Todd Heilman A flying Elvis Presley leap, usually in secret.

The average jump lasted about 45 seconds, with the parachutists taking a three-second free fall before releasing their chutes. The fall to the New River would last only 8.8 seconds if a chute failed, officials said.

As each parachutist prepared to leap off the bridge, BASE organizer Harry Parker of Miami, Fla., asked: "Have you made a BASE jump before?

"Do you know what you're doing here? Are you OK?"

Seven parachutists were treated for knee and leg injuries, officials said. One was hospitalized with a broken ankle. A river rescue worker suffered a thumb injury.

by CNB