THUMBS UP: SOME PEOPLE ENJOY JUMPING OUT OF A PERFECTLY GOOD AIRPLANE OVER THE MISSISSIPPI COUNTY AIRPORT NEAR CHARLESTON

Several skydivers tried to straighten the cords of a square canopy last weekend following a wave of jumps from 4,500 feet.

"Go. Dot. Arch. One-thousand. Two-thousand. Three-thousand. Four-thousand. Five-thousand. Check canopy," say the students from the SEMO Skydiving Club based at the Mississippi County Airport.

Students must rehearse their scripts several times on the ground before stepping out on the wheel strut and making their first static-line jump at 3,500 feet. Their scripts help them through the first few seconds of free fall, says the instructor, or jumpmaster.

After climbing out of the aircraft and dangling from the wing strut, the jumpmaster will give a "thumbs up" when over the drop zone. After a skydiver is given the "thumbs up," he says, "go," looks up at the red dot painted on the underside of the wing, says, "dot," and turns loose of the wing strut, still concentrating on the red dot.

When he turns loose, he says, "arch," to remind himself to arch his back for a clean deployment of the shoot.

During a static line jump, the parachute deploys after falling a few feet from the aircraft when the line's slack depletes and pulls the pin holding the compartment containing the main chute. Beginning skydivers are urged to count to five even though the chute typically deploys after a couple of seconds because nervous students have a tendency to count fast.

Many of the skydivers admit they forgot about the counting and simply utter an expletive before their chutes deploy during their first few jumps.

After the chute opens, skydivers check the chute, or square canopy, to make sure it is functioning properly. In the event of a malfunction, the canopy is released, an action initiated by pulling a handle that also activates the reserve chute.

"I really don't remember my first jump," said Tom Sokelinski, who completed his 10th jump last weekend. "There was so much adrenalin."

Sokelinski, originally from Poland, was with several co-workers from Players Casino in Metropolis, Ill., last weekend. Some of his co-workers were being instructed and preparing for their first jump.

"We're all friends and some of the others were coming over here every weekend to do this," said David Taylor, one of Sokelinski's co-workers. "We finally decided to come over too. We're bringing some others with us soon."

Also learning to skydive last weekend was Brad Cato of Eldon, a pilot asked to fly skydivers who thought he also might be interested in jumping out of the aircraft.

"This looked like something I wanted to try," he said.

Cato said flying a parachute appeared to be similar to piloting aircraft. The canopy acts much like a wing and the rear flaps are similar to ailerons, which turn aircraft in flight, he said.

One of two instructors with the SEMO Skydiving Club, Ian Sutherland, has been jumping out of perfectly good aircraft since 1951.

And during the Vietnam War, he was a part of HALO, or High Altitude Low Opening. Sutherland said he would jump out of a plane, free fall for more than 25,000 feet and activate his chute about 2,000 feet above the ground.

Sutherland still jumps regularly although he said he prefers the parachute ride over the free fall these days. Last weekend, he jumped twice from 4,500 feet at Cape Girardeau's Balloon Fest '95.

He said he once tried to get his wife involved in the sport.

"She did it once and never came back," Sutherland said. "I guess I have my thing, and she has hers."