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("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) (Music) So we are so excited to be here at Grand Rapids Public Museum.

Thank you for giving us this kind of behind the scenes look at tthe Spillman Carousel Restoration.

This carousel actually predates some of our oldest populations that are here right now in West Michigan.

Can you talk with me a bit about it today history?

The Spillman Engineering Company created our carousel in 1928.

We purchased it in 1982, and then we started working on it in 1983.

Peter Cook and Dave Mehney, I believe, are the ones that wanted to get a carousel here for the community to enjoy when they decided that they wanted to make a new museum building.

So what they did is they went to Pennsylvania and the Guinan family who had owned this carousel since 1928, which is very rare because a lot of carousels are actually broken up.

We got to purchase the whole thing and then bring it back, and then they started the restoration on that in 1983, and then it opened to the public in 1994.

One of the things that makes our carousels so unique is there’s only three ever made, and our carousel is what they call a park carousel.

It doesn’t travel.

And the other thing about our carousel that’s very unique is it’s all wood, and a lot of all wood carousels stopped in the ’30s.

It’s more elaborate, so that’s why we have more of a decorative ceiling panels.

You can’t really see the gears and mechanisms, and then all of the Menagerie animals are a little bit more finely carved.

A lot of people don’t realize that an animal is normally about nine pieces, and so, a lot of times it went up the carving kind of journey scale of, like, the most master carved the face, and then somebody else carved the neck, and somebody else carved the legs.

And so it was always a community effort.

So, we talk about, obviously preserving this for more people to come.

You’ve got a community behind you right now.

Can you talk with me a bit about your team and what they’re doing today?

And so my team right now is we’re restoring still some of the animals.

We have 57, technically, 52 that live on the carousel.

We started the process in 2020.

We did get all of the mechanical work done, but we still have to continue with the figures.

And so we’re about halfway done.

It’s not every day that you get to work on a 100 year old art piece, and so it’s really cool to get in on the ground floor on that.

I do some body, some striping, the decorations, so all sorts of things.

I just like painting everything, and I really like it when we come up with a new decoration or design, and then we get to put it on there, it’s really exciting.

Right now, I’m darkening up his stripes, finalizing his face.

He’ll have to be flipped over on his side so he can get all of his belly done, and all of his striping and decorations will be all shaded too Typically, it takes about 300 hours to paint an animal.

will pretty much them start to finish.

So originally, the paint was from car paint that they painted in 1994.

We wanted to go with a water based paint because it was kind of toxic to touch up downstairs but to do that, you have to strip the animal down completely to barewood.

So that’s the process first, you just strip it down, then you repair it, then you have to put a primer and then a base coat, and then what they’re painting right now is the undercoat on it, and then we do all the striping in the final pieces.

We kind of like talk about it as like a kid growing up.

So it’s like, you have your little stage, and then you have your awkward middle school, the high school stage, and then it’s like, they go to college and then they kind of come to life with this kind of personality.

And it’s like, once they get their faces done, it’s like, you just can see it, and then we pick names.

That’s my favorite part, when their personalities start to come out, then it’s really exciting to paint them.

He has been a challenge.

He’s the most challenging one I’ve worked on, so he’s full of it, so he’s full of sass.

So that’s that’s why he’s called Sassy.

One of the things about the carousel that is always fun is everybody wants to pick out their own unique animal.

And so each animal that we decided to do is make them their own personal kind of personality.

There was a woman.

She’s passed away now, but she loved the giraffe and if somebody else was riding it, she would sit there and she would wait until it got open again, and she would like, I mean, people really are invested in finding their animal.

So what we decided to do is, even when we first opened up the carousel, is we were trying to figure out how we could be more accessible and sensory friendly as well for everybody, which we were trying to do throughout our entire museum.

So it only made sense to also include the carousel on this.

So the first round is we put some ride lights in there so we wouldn’t have to use as much sound that would help.

And then what we decided then is to go into having an ADA chariot.

So, this is a part of our ADA chariot, which is really exciting, because it’s not just going to be a bench, it’s going to be something that can involve everyone.

So, if a little kid has a friend who wants to sit with them as well, who’s in a wheelchair, they’re able to sit on this rabbit and the bench and really get a full experience of just being with their friends on something that’s really fun.

It’s been around for so long.

There are generations who’ve enjoyed it.

You grew up in this area.

Yes.

Did you ride it as a kid?

Yes, I did.

I actually, it’s really funny.

I started off here as an intern, and that was actually one my things was talking about how much I loved this museum as a child, and I wanted to give back to my community I didn’t know anything about carousels.

It’s been a great experience.

I’ve learned so much, not just about carousels, but also about teamwork.

We all do part, so other team members will get all that set up and I’ll move on to another one.

I’ve been learning so much about just, like painting techniques and the wood and the preservation of everything.

It’s really gonna, like, inform everything I do from here on out.

I really hope that people really keep enjoying it, the community community enjoys it.

When kids come and see it, it’s just like, "Hey, let me show you how the gears work."

That’s what makes it worth it.

Honestly, to see their faces and stuff, it’s great.

(Intense music) (Calm music) I love seeing people experience it for the first time.

It’s incredible.

I’ve been jumping since the ’90s, you know, just for a fun weekend thing, and one day just decided to make a business out of it, you know.

the way it worked, I’d been at AT&T for, like, 15 years out doing business sales, going door to door, wearing a suit, you know, getting people to switch their phone service.

It was miserable.

I hated life in a cubicle and, you know, cold calling, it just wasn’t my thing.

But I did it for a long enough time that I saved up enough money to buy an airplane, and you know, we ended up buying the Cessna.

We just started with one single engine Cessna.

and then a second one, and then a third one, and then we moved into the turbine aircraft to get the big King Air.

and yeah, yeah, it’s just been one thing after another, you know?

I didn’t really see it coming.

It just kind of happened, you know?

Dad, will you please take for a skydive?

It just feels like part of life to me.

He’s been jumping since before I was born.

So it is something that’s been a part of my life for my entire life.

So for me, it’s just, this is this is what I do.

This is what my family does, and it’s just how life works.

Did my first tandem with my dad, he was my tandem instructor, so I was just like, "Oh, cool, I’m going to work with dad, like, this is what he does every weekend.

So, yeah, it was a long time ago, and then I got real hooked on it when I did my first solo jump.

That was when I was like, oh, yeah, there’s that’s why we do it.

Like, that’s that’s what I was looking for out of it.

So.. Good job,.

Not every dad did do that for his daughter.

Haley runs the whole business pretty much.

She’s kind of the business manager of it, and kind of handles HR and pretty much everything that I don’t want to do.

I work on the planes, fly the planes, pack the gear, but I’m not much of the business end of it.

Zach, my son’s an instructor and a rigger and all that stuff, too.

My daughter, Hannah’s a skydiver.

She’s learning She’ll be getting her rating soon.

Couldn’t cook.’t be prouder of them, man.

These guys have just done a fantastic job running this place and building it up into what it is.

I don’t know how you guys go and do this with a stranger.

Like, you’re crazy, because I would have been terrified if I didn’t have my dad on the back of me, but... You, everybody get everybody together as a group and get everybody checked in all at once, and they do do the training as a big group, and we’ll go through everything that everybody needs to know.

It’s not really a lot of training, more of a briefing on the procedures and equipment, just to make sure everybody knows what to expect, and there’s no surprises.

And then we start the show, we’ll get to jumping right after that.

All right, so this is the gear we’re jumping.

The way these things are set up, we got a main parachute in the bottom half of the container, we’ got a reserve in the top half.

The reserve parachutes are packed every 180 days by an FAA certified senior parachute rigger.

Whether we use them or not, we open them up, air them out, inspect them, repack them.

All the rigs also have what’s called an automatic activation device.

There’s a little computer in there, knows how high we are and how fast we’re falling.

If we burn through 2,000 feet at free fall speeds, that thing should fire the reserve for us.

So it makes you feel better it’s on there, we don’t trust them, we’ll pull our own handles, but they’re there to make you feel good.

The part we do need to worry about is down here in this pouch.

This is a drogue that’s a round parachute about this big round, it trails behind us in free fall.

does a couple of things.

The first thing is it slows us down, because we got to wait two people stacked up like this.

We’ve only got the surface area, one person catching air, creating drag.

We get going way too fast.

You know, normal sized guy in free fall goes about 120.

Without that drogue, we hit 200 in a hurry on a tandem.

You don’t want to have to open a parach, you’re going 200 miles an hour.

So the way we get stable and bellied earth is through the body position.

You know, like a badminton birdie, when you throw it up in the air, it always falls the same way down, the heavy end, the center of gravity is always low point in freefall, right?

It’ll be the same with us, but our center of gravity is our butt and our hips.

You, if you leave the plane like this, your center of gravity is back here.

If this is your butt, when we get in free fall, it’s going to be the lowest point.

It’s going to flip us over on your back.

So we want the opposite of that, right?

If you draw a line between your feet and your shoulders, if your butt and hip drop out in front of that line, now your center of gravity’s out here, it’ll be the lowest point in freefall is going to put its belly to earth.

Makes sense?

Mm hmm.

(Music) Yeah, for sure...

Nothing in your pockets?

No.

Maybe 25 people on the team here, 20 to 25 people, depending on the day.

A lot of these guys were instructors when I was a student, they taught me the skydiving, and they’re still at it, you know?

(Intense music) You know, I’ve been jumping for ten years, I’ve been in and out of here, like I said, I just started working here last year.

But these guys are great.

Tony’s an amazing DZO, you know, we get to fly over Lake Michigan, look at the water every day, watch sunsets, land on the beach (Intense music) Once you get your license, there’s all different kinds of things you can do.

Wingsuit flying, canopy relative work, where you’re flying canopies and hook our feet in each other’s lines and, you know, get big groups of canopies together, parachutes open, flying through the air.

free flying.

You know, people like to be head down or standing up, flying.

It makes you go really fast because you don’t have much drag, people like that.

There’s just so many different disciplines.

We have a student training program here.

We can get to help people get their license and become instructors and riggers and, you know, make them a pilot, pretty much everything I can do we can teach you to do.

So the job was absolutely very rewarding.

Everybody’s different.

Some people are super still through, so some people are super scared.

So, you know, you kind of handle everybody a little differently, and no matter what everybody has the same reaction.

(Intense music) This is just unbelievable, man.

All right, bro, let’s go ahead.. To me, it’s crazy that you guys are just like, "Oh, yeah, nice to meet you.

Let’s go throw our bodies out of an airplane together."

We’re really, really relaxed as a team, so they make a lot of jokes the whole time.

They’ll tell you you’re gonna die about 57 times during the whole experience.

Of course, we’re kidding.

Usually doesn’t take this long, there must be something wrong.

Yeah we might die.

And I think the sense of humor that comes along with it is something that really eases the nerves on it.

Just showing people that they can do something they didn’t think they could do, you know, the people that are the most scared always end up having the most fun.

So it’s kind of a nice thing when somebody walks in all freaked out and they leave with a smile.

And we do a lot of jumps with paraplegics and things like that, you know, people that are disabled you know, we’ve got a lot of different techniques and equipment we can use to take pretty much anybody’s skydiving.

Andrew, welcome to Skydive Grand Haven.

How are you?

Good, man, good.

I’m ready.

You ready to make your first Skydive?

Yes, I am.

Any special occasion?

Out here, Living West Michigan, WGVU Public Media, happy to be here.

Are you gonna be nice?

to him?

I’m gonna be so nice.

You’re not gonna be nice.

I’m not gonna be nice.

I’ve been talking about this for a year.

True.

I can’t believe it’s finally here.

I can’t believe I peer pressured this whole station.

This is for you, WGVU.

Sick.

(Plane and wind noise) It’s getting real now.

It’s getting real.

You’re locked in.

You made choices.

Now you’re here with me.

We’re gonna go test gravity.

Together for life.

You think it’s still gonna work?

I hope so.

I’m in.

We’re turning on the runway.

We are going.

We’re getting ready to take off.

How you feeling?

I’m feeling.

I don’t know when I’m going to feel the most nervous.

I kind of feel calm right now, actually.

A little calm before the storm?

A little calm before the storm.

We’ll have a couple minutes of flight time up to altitude.

Have a minute of free fall, couple minutes of canopy flight.

Heck yeah.

sound good?

Heck yeah, man.

Sounds awesome.

Looks like our shepherd of the day is going to be Scott back there, taking care of you.

I’ll come capture the moments.

(Plane noise taking off) Alright, man, so we’re almost two miles in the air What, you think this is a bad idea?

I don’t know anymore.

I don’t know anymore.

Well, I can tell you.

I’m making this.

(music) Door!

I tried really, really hard not to, like, take it for granted, because I, like I said, grew up around it.

I love seeing people experience it for the first time.

It’s incredible.

What a big thing.

Like, something so normal to me is such a big thing for people.

Like, it is truly a life changing experience for a lot of people.

They will comment on our Facebook posts four or five years down the road and be like, "This is one of the best days of my life."

And I’m like, "Yes, that’s what I’m looking for.

That lasting, like, that was a day I remember forever.

Let’s go!

(Beautiful music) Oh, my gosh, that is so cool!

Give a thumbs up to the camera real quick.

You did amazing.

You’re joking me.

What do you think?

What?

Turn to my arm and smile.

Whoo!

Heck yeah!

Living West Michigan, let’s go!

(music) Hey, how do we land?

Oh, that was perfect.

Here we go!

Whoa!

Oh!

There we go.

(music) Whoo!

We’re on the ground, I can tell you had fun.

This is my guy.

Let’s go, buddy!

Let’s go!

That was so fricken cool.

Oh my.

Gosh, that was awesome I mean, you, like, can’t process.

You just.

I don’t even know.

I don’t know.

It’s just like, it’s so quick.

You don’t have time to think.

Did it!

That was so cool.

Did it, buddy.

Dude.

We did it.

How was that?

Oh, man.

It was awesome Dude.. I’m like.

Yeah, as much as I want to say I look cool, yeah, I think we...Your hair is insane.

hair is crazy.

You look like wolverine.

I was just falling at terminal Velocity.

This is my terminal velocity hair.

Skydive Grand Haven, Check it out.

(Beautiful music) Before we went skydiving, we visited the Piston Fly Aviation hangar, a maintenance company near the Gerald R. Ford International Airport that specializes in a number of services.

We talked to Miguel Del Rosario, the owner, FAA technician, and chief inspector.

He gave us a tour and delved into the work they do to get the planes ready, such as the ones they use for skydive Grand Haven.

(music) First, you know, get to the office, and one of the things that I look at is, depending on the jobs that we’re working on.

So for example, right now, this is a job that’s offsite, but we have these packets that we create for every aircraft that we’re working on.

And when we go to the other side, I’m going to show you the other packets that we’re working for the jump plane, the skydiving playing on some of the other big projects that we’re working on as well.

We get in here, first thing that I do is actually look to see through the notes and everything else that most was written the day before Sometimes there’s notes that end up on the board as well.

Some of those notes, we just make sure and try to check and see who’s working on them.

The way that it works with planes like the ones that Tony has or, or most airplanes, actually, for a matter of fact, is that you have your schedule inspections.

In this case, Tony came in, I want to say six weeks ago for phase three and a phase four inspection.

Phase three and phase four, and if actually if you look at the screen it’s basically a plethora of a big checklist of all the items that need to be looked at.

One of the issues with that is that on top of the schedule inspection and your scheduled items that you need to tackle one by one, sometimes there’s other issues that we’re not planned for, and when they come in, we also address those as as well.

If you look at it, there’s an Schematic of the fuel system over here, and that’s one of the issues that Tony came in, is one of the transfer pumps was leaking for the fuel pumps, and then that’s one of the things we ended up addressing for him.

When we’re not doing these things, then we’re working on the airlines.

So if we’re working on the airlines, they break all the time, passengers may never know about it, but we’re kind of the secret heroes working behind the scenes to keep the airlines moving.

One of the easiest things that will make your life easier is having the right tool for the right job.

My freaking best tool that I have is a really good flashlight.

When you’re going through a general inspection.

If anything stands out, you address it as needed, or sometimes the issue would already be premeditated, they will let you know what’s wrong with it.

You go with it, address it, get either a new component or repair it as needed.

You got all of your checklists of inspections that need to get taken care of as well.

And then, when we take them in, is just follow the leader.

The more access you have, the better, and the easier that you can access those components, the easier it makes your life as well.

Just like we work on the engine again, then you move over to the landing gear, along with all the electrical switches that need to get clean, lubricated and protected with an anticorrosion compound.

At the end of the day, our job is simple.

We got to do everything that we can in order to do it safely and efficiently.

We need to try to stay within the bounds, within the financial bounds of the customer’s budget.

That’s always good if we can stick to the budget, but then again, at the end of the day, we have to do a job.

And for us to do a job safely and efficiently, we need the time, we need the equipment, we need the checklist, and we need the part that, we need in order to complete our job.

And that’s what we can guarantee that the skydivers jump out safely when the season starts.

("Rest" by Basic Comfort plays) Have a good day!