Mar 29, 2010, 8:30 AM
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Re: [lgossler] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Larry's correct. That was the Ranger's club, which was operating when I first showed up in October '68. It was run by a couple of people from MacDill AFB. The only name I remember was Woody Malugani.
The east half of the building had, if memory serves, three indoor packing tables. When the 'new' center was completed in the middle of the airport, the packing tables were torn out and the room turned into a maintenance and storage facility, with the west end serving as bunkrooms and an office.
Attached photo was taken in front of the building in December '69. Standing: Pilot Bill 'Tuna' Case, Ron Brissey, Jeff Searles, Laban 'Step' Lively. Front row: Hooper, Lou Aug, Phil Smith, Ron Schott, Bill 'Moriarity' Burr. Can't remember the name of the guy in the sweatshirt.
Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk
(This post was edited by Jim_Hooper on Mar 29, 2010, 8:37 AM)
Mar 29, 2010, 8:40 AM
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Re: [AggieDave] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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The building was also a packing area, a small "dorm" with bunk beds and two little "apartments" or walled off rooms in the West end where I lived for the longest time. Can't remember when Jeff built the other building or even why we moved from this one. Can anyone fill in the blanks?
Mar 29, 2010, 10:12 AM
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Re: [lodestar] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Z-Hills was the DZ where the first large scale national 10-Way meet was held in November 1969. Before that California was the place to go to get into the action.
A team from Chicago came in 1st, just a few seconds faster than the team from California. A few of the jumpers on the California team were from the Arvin / Taft / Elsinore area.
Mar 29, 2010, 11:02 AM
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Re: [SCR216] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Though the 1st Big Z 10-man meet almost got weathered out, we did manage four rounds, at the end of which The Family and the Taft Team were tied at 28 points. The Family won with the largest star, a 9-man. The story of that can be found on Bill Newell's website -
Mar 29, 2010, 11:42 AM
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Re: [lgossler] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Z-Hills
This is the old "Rangers" Building. Across from Porter's hanger/office. A few years before Jeff took over.
Just hung out with Bob and Richard Porter at Z-Hills Saturday. Talk about a trip in the way back machine!
Also present were Mike Branch, Rob and Cheryl Brown, Steve Fugleberg, Peanuts (Marvin) and Carol Wacaser, Phil Smith, and Ski and Donna Chmielewski. With Mike, Rob, Steve, Peanuts and me, that's 5 members of Hooper's 1975 Ten High Bunch speed star team. We would have had 6, but Mike Woods had a prior commitment.
(This post was edited by RogerRamjet on Mar 29, 2010, 11:43 AM)
Mar 29, 2010, 1:27 PM
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Re: [lodestar] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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I stayed in that building in 1968or69. There was a shower that had a sign on the door that said "If you are a jumper this water is not cold ". It had tendency to make me believe otherwise.After Jeff took over a wet t-shirt contest was held out back. Scotty Bill booth and a few others got arrested. Seems a local preacher was enjoying the view until a few parishoners caught him. Now he has to make a statement about the lewdness and vulgarity going on . That might have been the first time out of a few hundred Scotty was permnantly thrown off the DZ. The second place girl was absolutely beautiful. Number one gave a few BJ's and won
Mar 29, 2010, 3:05 PM
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Re: [lekstrom10k] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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The famous wet t-shirt contest took place not behind the old Rangers' building but at the center in the middle of the airport in, I think, 1977, after Searles was gone. At the end of the fifth 20-hour day in a row, I'd told my staff they were in charge and went home, never expecting that an old-fashioned wet T-shirt contest, a feature of the last few Turkey Meets, would spin out of control. There was indeed a lay Baptist preacher amongst the spectators, there to check on the morals of the skydivers. By rare good fortune Carl Nelson had taken some photos that night, one of which showed the pious preacher in the front row, leering at the wet T-shirts. His subsequent self-righteous hellfire-and-brimstone comments about depraved skydivers ended abruptly when I mentioned that I might be forced into attaching a copy to every lamp pole on his street. No one was arrested, but it damn near got the drop zone shut down. As I remember the briefing the next morning, no one got a blow job, but Carbone went down on the three finalists. And yes, that was one of the many occasions I threw Scotty off the DZ. The local press was still referring to that night seven years later when I sold up and went off to get shot at - a far less complicated profession than being the owner of Z'hills Parachute Center. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk
(This post was edited by Jim_Hooper on Mar 29, 2010, 3:16 PM)
Mar 29, 2010, 3:38 PM
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Re: [Jim_Hooper] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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The famous wet t-shirt contest took place not behind the old Rangers' building but at the center in the middle of the airport in, I think, 1977, after Searles was gone. At the end of the fifth 20-hour day in a row, I'd told my staff they were in charge and went home, never expecting that an old-fashioned wet T-shirt contest, a feature of the last few Turkey Meets, would spin out of control. There was indeed a lay Baptist preacher amongst the spectators, there to check on the morals of the skydivers. By rare good fortune Carl Nelson had taken some photos that night, one of which showed the pious preacher in the front row, leering at the wet T-shirts. His subsequent self-righteous hellfire-and-brimstone comments about depraved skydivers ended abruptly when I mentioned that I might be forced into attaching a copy to every lamp pole on his street. No one was arrested, but it damn near got the drop zone shut down. As I remember the briefing the next morning, no one got a blow job, but Carbone went down on the three finalists. And yes, that was one of the many occasions I threw Scotty off the DZ. The local press was still referring to that night seven years later when I sold up and went off to get shot at - a far less complicated profession than being the owner of Z'hills Parachute Center. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk
Mar 29, 2010, 5:06 PM
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Re: [muff528] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Zhills was a tough place in the early days, I mean the City of Zhills, I can remember going to town council meetings with Jeff and fielding all sorts of complaints from citizens who "didn't like that noisy airplane flying all the time" and "those parachutes are so noisy when they open" and other ridiculous accusations about "all these hippie people in town". Jeff and I even joined the local Kiwanis chapter to show them we were human and not animals. And, Oh the Horror!, I actually shaved my beard off and got a haircut...ahem.... Needless to say the city was rather stand offish about the whole thing but could not legally stop us but seemed to delight in throwing all manner of short stops towards the center. And with Hoop's experiences I see it didn't go away.
Mar 30, 2010, 3:57 AM
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Re: [Jim_Hooper] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Larry's correct. That was the Ranger's club, which was operating when I first showed up in October '68. It was run by a couple of people from MacDill AFB. The only name I remember was Woody Malugani.
The east half of the building had, if memory serves, three indoor packing tables. When the 'new' center was completed in the middle of the airport, the packing tables were torn out and the room turned into a maintenance and storage facility, with the west end serving as bunkrooms and an office.
Attached photo was taken in front of the building in December '69. Standing: Pilot Bill 'Tuna' Case, Ron Brissey, Jeff Searles, Laban 'Step' Lively. Front row: Hooper, Lou Aug, Phil Smith, Ron Schott, Bill 'Moriarity' Burr. Can't remember the name of the guy in the sweatshirt.
Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk
Gene Ritchie was the fellow from MacDill AFB that started the Rangers Parachute Center.
The gentleman in the red sweatshirt is Ron Smith. He was an USAF CAPT stationed at MacDill.
Mar 30, 2010, 5:41 PM
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Re: [Jim_Hooper] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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You got it Jim,
As I remember it Skratch Garison and Bill Newell were judges and did the spotting and exit command from the ground. To this day I still give Stratch and Bill a lot of shit for putting us so far out from the DZ. Bill will be attending our runion at Taft on May 29th. Also, there shoud be 4 of us from the Z-Hills Taft team attending. Two of us, Stanley Troeller and I still jump together a few times a year.
Regards, Dennis
(This post was edited by SCR216 on Mar 30, 2010, 5:42 PM)
Mar 31, 2010, 2:24 AM
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Re: [poppenhager] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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The Tampa Skydivers (club) first occupied that building in 1962.They were the first Skydivers to jump at Zhills.Warren Coffman was President. POP
Yep, Warren Kauffman, D-263, was still club president and ASO when I arrived at Z'hills. I got my Instructor rating through him. Good man whose contribution to the sport was never sufficiently acknowledged. The transition from style and accuracy to RW didn't sit well with him, however, and Tampa Skydivers moved to another DZ in 1969 or '70. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk
Mar 31, 2010, 7:10 AM
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Re: [3331] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Jim, what ever happened to Lou Aug. He hepled me alot when I started jumping in Hinkley back in 71. The James Gang was a real eye opener to a young jumper
Mar 31, 2010, 2:11 PM
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Re: [Jim_Hooper] Where is this DZ in Florida ?
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Kaufmann was there when I came down to work for Jeff...I seem to remember the Tampa Skydivers went to a little strip, maybe Birdsong? when they moved. Does that sound correct Hoop?
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