Meet Rodger Conley: He teaches people how to skydive with Canton Air Sports
Have you ever wanted to learn how to skydive?
Rodger Conley, owner of Canton Air Sports in Alliance, can help people cross that off their bucket lists. His skydiving school has taught tens of thousands of people to take a dive out of a moving, sky-high airplane.
Skydiving is so popular that former U.S. President George H.W. Bush tried skydiving at age 90.
Conley lives in Perry Township. He was married to Mary Katherine (deceased) for 55 years. They have three children (Richard Ray and wife Mary; Katherine Elizabeth and husband Jason; and Sean Patrick and wife Tracie). Plus, there are four grandsons and three granddaughters, three great-grandsons and two great-granddaughters.
He has one furry companion, a Pomeranian named Abby that he is caring for.
“I promised my wife that I would take care of her dog," Conley said.
He has spent most of his career as the founder, owner and operator of Canton Air Sports. He started flying in 1968 and started skydiving in 1969 before opening his business in 1974.
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Why did you start Canton Air Sports?
In 1969, while working at the Timken Co., a young man named Jeff Mills learned that I was a pilot and asked me if I had ever jumped. I told him no and he asked if I knew where to go to learn.
Again, I told him no and he asked, “If I find a place, do you want to go with me?”
I said, “Sure.”
Two weeks later, Jeff showed me a card he found in a barbershop. Jeff had hair and a beard down to his belt, so I don’t know what he was doing in a barbershop.
Jeff and I made about 100 skydives together before he went to Florida and was killed in a motorcycle accident. I started Canton Air Sports in 1974 at Martin Airport in North Canton as a school to learn how to skydive. We moved to the Alliance location in 1996.
How many people have you taken or given lessons to on skydiving?
More than 50,000 people have made their first skydives at Canton Air sports in the past 49 years.
Thousands have returned for additional skydives, and several hundred have achieved “expert” status. Many are serving as instructors in many other parts of the world.
What motivated you to start skydiving and then start teaching it to others?
Skydiving gives a sense of freedom that is hard to achieve any other way. Some customers have said that it saved them from a life of drug addiction and gave them confidence in themselves.
Besides a source of income, what does skydiving mean to you personally?
Aviation has been my life. Most of my friends are pilots or skydivers.
Would you share some fun facts about sky diving?
The first second out of the airplane you will fall 16 feet. During the span of the second, you will fall 46 feet and continue accelerating for the first 12 seconds at which time your rate of descent will be 120 mph or 176 feet per second.
At Canton Air Sports, tandem customers go through a brief training session before getting geared up. After a 15-minute ride to altitude. Connected to their instructor, the door opens and the pair begins a 30- to 60-second free fall at 120 mph until the parachute opens.
Under the canopy, skydivers are treated to a beautiful view of the Berlin Lake recreational area while gracefully gliding back to the landing area.
Tandem skydivers normally land by sliding on their buttocks. Similar to sliding into home plate.
Upon completion of the skydive, participants receive a certificate to celebrate their accomplishment.
Dress like you’re going to be outside for a while, loose fitting comfortable clothing and tennis shoes or comparable with laces through eyelets. No hooks. No slip-ons.
Editor's note: Five questions with ... is a Sunday feature that showcases a member of the Stark County community. If you'd like to recommend someone to participate, send an email to newsroom@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: 5 questions with Rodger Conley who teaches people to skydive
