SPACE ENGINEER DIVES INTO CAUSE.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

I guess when you spend your days working as an aerospace systems engineer on the space shuttle and your free time building a three-story, wood-frame house in Topanga Canyon with your own hands, jumping out of an airplane at 17,000 feet is no big deal.

Brains, brawn and guts. Lynda Kies has them all.

I recently stopped by her place to get a better understanding of why she and 164 other female sky divers from all over the world will gather next week at the Perris Valley Skydiving Center in Riverside County and jump together out of eight airplanes.

The jump is designed to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October and to help raise research money for the City of Hope in memory of Shari Lewis. The late ventriloquist captured the hearts of a few generations of TV-dinner families with her cute hand puppet Lamb Chop.

But people usually hold walks, runs, carwashes and bake sales for their causes. They don't jump out of airplanes.

Lewis, who won 12 Emmy Awards, died of breast cancer in 1998 at age 64. In her memory, her 36-year-old daughter, Mallory - a sky diver and author who still performs with Lamp Chop - started a nonprofit organization in 1999 called Jump for the Cause.

But here's the thing: Shari was petrified of her daughter's sky diving. She hated it.

``She forbade me to do it, but I was 20 when I started and fell in love with it,'' said Mallory, also an Emmy Award winner as a children's series writer.

``Mom never came to see me sky-dive once, and she refused to watch my sky-diving videos. But I know she would be hugely honored that all these women are coming to jump in the memory of a loved one they lost to breast cancer.

``She'd be proud, but she'd ask everybody to just donate money to cancer research and not jump because she'd be worried they'd get hurt. That's a mother for you.''

The invitation-only jump is for 165 women considered to be the best female sky divers in the world. Each has raised $2,500 or more for City of Hope breast cancer research.

``These women are astonishing, coming from all over the world to try to set a world record,'' Mallory said. ``There are doctors, trauma nurses, cardiologists, an airline pilot and plenty of moms.''

They aim to beat the world record set in 2002 when 131 women jumped out of eight planes at 17,000 feet and met in midair to form a human chain by holding hands for at least three seconds.

For the attempt next week, 150 women are scheduled to jump out of eight planes. Fifteen sky divers will be held in reserve in case they are needed to fill in on the world-record jump, which will take place after a week of practice in synchronized sessions, said Lynda, who was part of the 2002 record human chain.

``Knock on wood, I've never had a mishap,'' said the 49-year-old divorced mother of three grown children. She took her first jump on her 40th birthday, and she has added more than 1,600 jumps since then.

``I was pretty much hooked from the moment of exit from that first plane,'' she said. ``It became a passion after that.''

She will be jumping next week for her grandmother, who died of breast cancer, and for all the women who came after her.

``Hopefully, with successful cancer research, we don't go down that road,'' she said.

With that, the bionic woman of Topanga Canyon had to get back to work. Before it got too dark outside, there were still some nails that had to be hammered on the house she's building.

After sunset, she'd catch a late dinner at her desk working on the space shuttle's electric power system. Her job is finding a way for the shuttle to draw solar power to operate when it's docked, so its batteries can be saved for a longer stay.

Brains, brawn and guts. Lynda Kies has them all.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Lynda Kies of Topanga, one of 131 women in a joint sky dive in 2002, will take part in a 150-woman jump next week.

(2) Women sky divers join hands in a record-setting jump in 2002. They will aim for an even larger human chain next week.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer