Born:

October 29, 1956, Evergreen Park, IL

Personal:

My first sport love is skydiving. I made my first jump March 14, 1981 at Perris Valley Paracenter, Perris, CA. Almost seventeen years and 3500 jumps later, it's hard to believe I only wanted to do one jump, especially since at one time I was too scared to jump. I played softball and basketball in high school, tennis as a undergraduate and was on the Purdue bowling team while I was working on my Masters degree. Now, I cross train in bowling and weight lifting and, of course, jump nearly every weekend.

Sports and competition provide me with experiences that build my self confidence and muscles. I just plain feel good after playing sports. My body breathes easier and is more relaxed after a bike ride to work, bowling or skydive. I'm more alert during the day and sleep better at night.

I hope my future holds these events for me: do 10 chin-ups by my 42nd birthday next October (I can do 2 now), compete on an all woman skydiving team, be part of a World Record, bowl a 600 series and bench press my weight. I'd like an athletic shoe named after me, called the Meyer Flyer (he he he).

Athletic and Sports Accomplishments:

3500+ premeditated parachute jumps.

1998:

• 1st place Captain's Draw Distant Thunder, Lodi, CA
• 1st place Pair of Kings, Byron, CA
• 84-way Rubic, Skydive Arizona
• Last Mission Impossible Load, for awhile anyway
• Elsinore Field Record - Eighty something ways

1997:

• POPS plane captain, Perris, CA
• +100-way Starfish Perris, CA
• 1st place Best of the West 10-way speed star, Lodi, CA

1996:

• POPS loads at Perris, CA I even got to be a plane captain
• Best of the West 10-way Speed Star: First Place Lodi, CA
• 297-way Anapa, Russia
• Fastest 100-ways ever built (40-seconds) at Perris Valley
• 64-way Star at Skydance Skydiving
• 16-way Compressed accordian dive on the Mission Impossibles

From Left to Right: Jan Meyer, Duncan Meech, Mike Genis, ???,
Scott Barry, ???, Dany Brooks, George Jicha, Dan O'Brien,
Randy Pacheco, Ray Ferrell, Tom Slocum, Robyn Linaberry,
Josie Kerlinsky, Janie Bennett, and Ralph Koo.
Photo by Mark Lichtle

1995:

• Best of the West 10-way Speed Star: First Place, Lodi, CA
• Trans America Cup: Third Place Intermediate 4-way; Second Place 20-way, Davis, CA

1994 Trans America Cup: Third Place 20-way, Davis, CA

1993: Best of the West 10-way Speed Star: First Place, Lodi, CA

1993 National Skydiving Competition: First Place Intermediate 4-way Relative Work and First Place Intermediate 8-way Relative Work, DeLand, FL

1986 National Colliegiate Skydiving Competition: Second Place 4-way Relative Work, Marana, AZ

Accelerated Freefall Jumpmaster and Instructor, Static Line Jumpmaster and Instructor;

Gold Wings (1000 freefalls), Gold Freefall Badge (12 hours)

Member Purdue Bowling Team, West Lafayette, IN 1977-1978

Mid Surburban Basketball Conference Champions, William Fremd HS, Palatine, IL 1974

Athlete of the Year 1970

Publications:

Web Sites: Sacramento WebGrrls, Women in Sports, Aerosoftware 1995

Skydiving Clipart (software) 1992

FAA Rigger's Exam (software) 1992

Study Guide for USPA License Exams (software) 1991

"Sport Parachutist's Safety Journal" 1989-1992

"The Peregrine"

"Student Workshop-No Pull Low Pull" PARACHUTIST

"Parachuting Manual with Log for Accelerated Freefall" Para Publishing 1991

"4-way Formation Cards" 1987

"Average Landing Force Dependance on Length and Direction of Landing, Parachute Velocity Components and Wind Speed" AIAA 9th Aerodynamic Decelerator and Balloon Technology Conference, 1986

"An Introduction to Deployable Recovery Systems" Sandia Report SAND85-1180, August 1985

"Vortex Lattice Theory Applied to Parachute Canopy Configurations" with Jim Purvis, AIAA 8th Aerodynamic Decelerator and Balloon Technology Conference, 1984

Community Service:

1992 Volunteer of the Year Award from the City of Woodland, CA

1983-1991 Organizer at USPA National Boogie, Muskogee, OK

1986 Speaker at AIAA 9th Aerodynamic Decelerator and Balloon Technology Conference

1984 Speaker at AIAA 8th Aerodynamic Decelerator and Balloon Technology Conference

1983 Speaker at Rigger's Convention

Occupation:

Software Developer (this is what I say now so that i can get hired as a "programmer". i'm really an engineering scientist and software development is the paper and pencil of engineers. can you say "computational fluid dynamics"?)

Education:

BS Illinois State University, Physics, second major in Mathematics 1976;

MS Purdue University, Physics 1978;

Ph D Program (thesis not completed--ok I'm a college drop out!) University of Arizona, Aerospace Engineering

©Copyright 1996-98 by Jan Meyer.