slotperfect (D 13014)
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Mar 20, 2006, 2:59 AM
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Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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Chris Bickerdike was a US Army Parachute Rigger in the very early '80's, and an avid Raeford skydiver. If I'm not mistaken, he was one of the first CRW dogs at Raeford. I never met him - his time at Raeford was well before mine. I only knew of him from friends and co-workers, and talked to him on the phone on one occasion when he called my first unit looking for a job.
Chris has a lot of artistic talent, and had many skydiving drawings depicting jumpers with huge smiles on their faces. I know Ted Strong used some of Chris' work in his tandem manual at one point - maybe he still does.
I have attached one of Chris' drawings that I stumbled across last week. Does anyone have any more? It would be cool to collect them here in this post for posterity.
Mar 20, 2006, 6:25 AM
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Re: [slotperfect] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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I have a poster Chris made for Metroplex Skydivers while he was living at the drop zone in Decatur, TX in 1982 but am too tech challenged to upload a picture of it.
Mar 22, 2006, 12:04 AM
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What a surprise to see Chris' name pop up after all these years. I was one of those early CRW dogs with Chris at Raeford along with a few others.
It's a long shot, but does anyone know how to get in touch with Chris' parents or any family members. If I recall, his family lived in San Antonio, Texas. His log book and log book bag was an art collection in itself. He illustrated many of his jumps in his log book. He's got me in their doing a 2 stack with him. Good luck and happy hunting.
Mar 22, 2006, 5:51 AM
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Re: [zoobrothertom] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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What a surprise to see Chris' name pop up after all these years. I was one of those early CRW dogs with Chris at Raeford along with a few others.
It's a long shot, but does anyone know how to get in touch with Chris' parents or any family members. If I recall, his family lived in San Antonio, Texas. His log book and log book bag was an art collection in itself. He illustrated many of his jumps in his log book. He's got me in their doing a 2 stack with him. Good luck and happy hunting.
PS - I did a white pages search on just his last name in Texas and, in the phone book at least, there are only 13 people listed. A couple were in the age range to be a brother or sister. 3 are in San Antonio.
Mar 26, 2006, 7:03 PM
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Re: [slotperfect] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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I'm happy to say Bickerdike was a bud back in the early 80s. I have several log entries where he either drew something related to a dive I did with or without him. Some were strange dives, like the time I got my 28mm lens and went out hooked up with him while he was attached to a D bag static line! Here are the first five.
Picture five was the photo I took that is depicted in the type of dive in picture four. There's a print from a Kodachrome slide attached to the log entry of four.
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(This post was edited by efs4ever on Mar 26, 2006, 7:06 PM)
Mar 27, 2006, 8:06 AM
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Re: [slotperfect] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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No. He died in a skydiving accident in the mid-1980's. I'm not sure of the exact year - surely someone will elaborate
Chris was still recovering from his self described achievement of becoming "Ground Plane #1". (Survived landing a down plane) He was jumping in cold weather with heavy gloves and a CAST on one arm. He went in San Antonio with nothing out. Took out part of a house too.
The attached photo is a shot of a drawing he did on a dry eraser board. It's me putting students out on rounds at Metroplex Parachute Center in Decatur, Texas. It's a classic, and I'm glad I photographed it.
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(This post was edited by efs4ever on Mar 27, 2006, 9:26 AM)
Mar 27, 2006, 8:35 AM
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Re: [efs4ever] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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No. He died in a skydiving accident in the mid-1980's. I'm not sure of the exact year - surely someone will elaborate
Chris was still recovering from his self described achievement of becoming "Ground Plane #1". He was jumping in cold weather with heavy gloves and a CAST on one arm. He went in in San Antonio with nothing out. Took out part of a house too.
Thanks guys. I was hoping that wasnt the case. I remember the story now....the gloves were the reminder.
Mar 27, 2006, 11:44 AM
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No. He died in a skydiving accident in the mid-1980's. I'm not sure of the exact year - surely someone will elaborate
Chris was still recovering from his self described achievement of becoming "Ground Plane #1". (Survived landing a down plane) He was jumping in cold weather with heavy gloves and a CAST on one arm. He went in San Antonio with nothing out. Took out part of a house too.
The attached photo is a shot of a drawing he did on a dry eraser board. It's me putting students out on rounds at Metroplex Parachute Center in Decatur, Texas. It's a classic, and I'm glad I photographed it.
Mar 27, 2006, 11:50 AM
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Re: [usedtajump] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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The story I got was that Chris had a total and the combination of his cast and the ski gloves prevented him from deploying his reserve. He went through the roof of a house into the living room where a guy was kicked back on his couch listening to his stereo.
Mar 28, 2006, 6:35 PM
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Sad, but true. Chris died in either late '86 or early '87. I have his incident report from Parachutist in my log book somewhere. I also have the report from the Stars & Stripes newspaper. But I didn't write the date on them. Oddly, I learned about his death when I walked into work one morning in Germany while in the Army. One of my men handed me the Stars & Stripes newspaper and asked me, "Hey, Sarge. Did you know this guy?" I was a little shocked. It was a one paragraph obituary about Chris' death and military service. Since the Stars & Stripes isn't distributed in the US, most of the skydiving community didn't know that his death was literally reported around the world to every base and ship outside the US. Sad, but I felt honored to have been his friend and found it only fitting that the world should know of his passing. I know when I go, a million people won't read about it.
Mar 28, 2006, 6:49 PM
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Chris was still recovering from his self described achievement of becoming "Ground Plane #1". (Survived landing a down plane) He was jumping in cold weather with heavy gloves and a CAST on one arm. He went in San Antonio with nothing out. Took out part of a house too.
_____________________About the Downplane #1 and #2
Yep, Chris "landed" a downplane with Tod Cudnohowsky (SP?) at Raeford in June of '86. They were smoking one low over the landing area when they encountered the infamous "leg-grip death-lock" at break off. They fought/kicked to unlock but they were too low. Anyhow, Chris wound up with some serious upper body injuries like broken wrists and arms. I'm not sure of the total extent of his injuries. While in Germany, I returned to the States for training just after it happened. On July 4th, 1986, I went down to Raeford to see the old gang. That's when I learned about it. I heard first hand reports from eyewitnesses. I met Tod about 10 days after it happened at St, Mere Dropzone on Ft. Bragg. He was knocked out during the landing, but other than bruises was and jumping already. He didn't remember any of it.
slotperfect (D 13014)
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Mar 29, 2006, 2:19 AM
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Re: [zoobrothertom] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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Chris died in either late '86 or early '87
I'm pretty sure it was 1986. He was friends with one of the NCOs I worked for, and I can remember her being upset about it. All of that happened before I went to PLDC in December of 1986.
Mar 31, 2006, 7:46 AM
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I'm pretty sure it was 1986. He was friends with one of the NCOs I worked for, and I can remember her being upset about it. All of that happened before I went to PLDC in December of 1986.
Do you recall what her name was? I left Ft. Bragg in November of '85.
slotperfect (D 13014)
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Mar 31, 2006, 7:51 AM
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Re: [zoobrothertom] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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Biane Kidwell. I had been at Bragg exactly a year when you left.
Apr 17, 2006, 1:37 PM
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Re: [efs4ever] Chris Bickerdike's Skydiving Artwork
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OMFG! I remember seeing that drawing on the board! I remember Chris from the Decatur DZ, and remembered hearing that he went in a few years after I quit jumping...
I can't believe you have that. That's fucking cool.
Apr 17, 2006, 6:25 PM
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Picture five was the photo I took that is depicted in the type of dive in picture four. There's a print from a Kodachrome slide attached to the log entry of four.
I like the RW exit altitude in that pic! That would not be happening today!
Apr 21, 2006, 9:06 AM
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I'm happy to say Bickerdike was a bud back in the early 80s. I have several log entries where he either drew something related to a dive I did with or without him. Some were strange dives, like the time I got my 28mm lens and went out hooked up with him while he was attached to a D bag static line!
I just noticed a mistake here. It was my 16MM lens.
Sep 17, 2006, 1:59 AM
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One of these daze when I get a scanner, I'll scan in my few pictures of Chris. We used to do demos together on the 82nd Airborne Team. Got one of us in a B-25 in Corpus Christi, TX in Easter of 85.
bickerdike tandem.jpg
I have a better shot of the lines coming off him, and I'll post it when I find it. 
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