County boss jumps in 'plane' view of crowd

Friday was one of those picture postcard days in Florida: sunny skies, a brisk breeze, temperatures in the lower 70s.

In short, an ideal day for a county commissioner to step out of an airplane from 13,000 feet above the Hernando County Airport.

The jumper, Dave Russell, said he's had the urge to do that ever since he got his first pilot's license in 1979.

It was everything he thought it would be, and then some.

"It was awesome - totally awesome," were his first words after performing a pinpoint, feet-first landing.

Russell parachuted from a Twin Otter Turboprop in tandem with an experienced jumper, Tom Falzone, team leader of the Black Knights West Point cadet club.

After a brief lesson with the pro, Russell and Falzone attained altitude, jumped, did about 45 seconds of freefall before the chute opened at 6,000 feet and the duo landed gracefully three minutes later on the grass next to the runway.

"It's hard to describe it," Russell said. "It's such a sensory overload. After the initial plunge out of the airplane, it takes a minute for your brain to reconcile what's going on."

Russell, 54, said Falzone informed him all the way down of what he could expect when turning the chute apparatus and landing. He allowed Russell to use the hand controls at one point.

For a man facing his first jump, Russell remained calm and collected during the hour or so leading up to it.

He agreed with a reporter's quip that he's faced more pressure at times behind the county commission.

"I'm ready to rip," Russell said as coolly as if he were voting on a new development project.

Russell wasn't the only jumper at the airport Friday afternoon.

A group of about 23 West Point cadets and seven coaches from the U.S. Military Academy parachute team have been in town since Monday to log some training while on spring break.

Cadet Megan Kelty, a 19-year-old sophomore and Black Knight from Iowa, said she was one of the rookies on the team - she's only jumped 129 times.

Every jump, she said, is a new experience. It all depends on the winds and the conditions of the field.

"You learn something new every time," she said, while getting out of her cumbersome parachute gear.

By the time she's a West Point senior, she will have probably logged more than 500 jumps.

The field was abuzz with spectators, including Sheriff Richard Nugent who found himself unexpectedly involved in the day's proceedings.

While driving to the airport around 11:45 a.m. to watch Russell, Nugent said he noticed a flyer who came down in an outparcel of the nearby Kohl's Department Store, off Spring Hill Drive.

Knowing something was wrong, Nugent drove to the site and learned that the cadet's primary chute had malfunctioned and was forced to deploy his second chute.

The wayward cadet graciously took Nugent's offer of a ride to the airport to join the rest of his team.

Nugent couldn't resist getting some digs in before Russell took to the air.

"I came here just to watch Dave or to scrape him off the ground," Nugent joked.

"With friends like these ..." Russell shot back, not finishing the old adage because someone in another part of the airport had gone up in an ultra light plane.

"That's nothing more than a flying lawnmower," Russell said. "You wouldn't catch me up there in that today."