NOVA: Skydive To The Rainforest

Cerro Autana, a tepui in Venezuela

source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWXqIkkDbm_/

Recently Youtube served up this video: 

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NfhaosoR3E

That triggered a memory of watching this NOVA from 1986: Skydive To The Rainforest

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnmwf2jTi3w

Served up in glorious 240p :)   And in the mid 1980s the DC-3 was still routinely flying:

A wiki on tepui in general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tepui

Here's the wiki on Cerro Autana which mentions the NOVA in passing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Autana

Why skydive instead of using a helicopter ?  Obviously in hindsight they should have used a 'copter (or stayed home).  But probably the people footing the bill for both the expedition and the film were the skydivers and skydivers like to skydive !  :)  But that woman breaking her leg like a green stick, yikes !  The fellow who was injured was more fortunate.  From a distance the top of Cerro Autana looks fairly flat but closeup there were rocks and hills and wind up there complicating the jumps.  A memorable expedition unfortunately made more memorable by the two injured people.

And I suspect that the government cancelling their permit to skydive down to the rainforest at the end of the expedition was a blessing in disguise.  Just imagine if someone got hurt on that jump, where would the helicopter even land ?  They'd have to tramp down to that river ?

All I know is that Cerro Autana would make a HECK of a Field Day site :)

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm