Know Your LO: Amy Milhorne

Meet Amy Milhorne

Have you registered for CarolinaFest yet? Get it done now!

Amy Milhorne has been a staple at Skydive Carolina for years. She is an outstanding skydiver with high skill and a sharp eye for safety. We’re proud that she’s an LO at CarolinaFest and we know you’ll have a great time jumping with her!

1. What year did you make your first skydive and where?

My first time in an airplane was also my first skydive – a tandem out of a CASA in Louisburg, NC in 1999.

2. What hooked you to the sport after that first jump?

Trick question. I totally wasn’t hooked. I didn’t jump again and start AFF until 2004.

3. Over the years, you’ve represented Skydive Carolina at the US Nationals on different teams. Looking back on the years that you competed, what were your biggest takeaways both positively and negatively?

You learn a lot about yourself and how to work with others being on a team. Good coaches are worth every penny, both for learning about team dynamics as well as body flight. It was simultaneously the most difficult and amazing experience over the course of 5 years. It constantly pushed me to be a better skydiver, we couldn’t have asked for a more supportive DZO, and the friendships I made were priceless.

4. What was the most exciting or highest moment for you while while competing at the US Nationals?

Every year it was always amazing and humbling to be in the company of the best skydivers in the country. Segway tours in downtown Chicago are also pretty epic with a group of skydivers.

5. Now that you’re not competing, what are you focused on now within skydiving? Who said I am done competing 😉

• Landing off in a farmer’s field on my AFF level 2 out of the CASA at the Rodriguez Brothers Boogie.
• My first balloon jump.
• 2-way with Gene at Skydive Empuriabrava. We drug my gear all over Spain for a week to ultimately make 1 jump due to weather. The view under canopy was phenomenal – mountains on one side, the beach on the other and the small town filled with tile roofs underneath.

6. You are known for your attention to safety. What three tips can you impart to jumpers who are following in your footsteps?

• If your mentors are on the ground due to winds/weather, you should be too.
• Take a canopy class. Actually, don’t just take one–more is better.
• Just because a camera is small doesn’t mean it is safe. Find an expert camera flyer and learn from them.

7. What is something about you that few people know about, but would be surprised to learn?

Heights are terrifying to me, when not in the context of skydiving.

8. If you could sit down with anyone, alive or deceased and have a coffee, who would that be and why?

I don’t do coffee or tequila, but I would give anything to sit down at the end of a jumping day, do a tequila shot and talk about random things with Pete Langehans again. He was the backbone of our fun jumper community and we tragically lost him last year.

9. What are you passionate about outside of skydiving?

My family, my pup and grilled cheese sandwiches 🙂

10. What are you most looking forward to about this year’s CarolinaFest?

It is impossible to pick one thing, but the karaoke last year was pretty epic – I suspect this year will be even better! We are so lucky to have such an amazing boogie at our home DZ.