May 5, 2011, 1:21 PM
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Ray Finneran, Blue Skies
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I just saw a post from The Ranch that mentioned the passing of Ray Finneran, on April 29th. Anyone who has ever been in a jump plane and heard the war cry, "Sha-Wan-Ga, Fly Baby Fly," should appreciate that Ray originated the chant. I jumped with him a lot in the old days -- at Sha-Wan-Ga -- and at Stormville and The Ranch. He was one of the greats in the sport. He once told all his relatives not to have any celebrations on the weekends -- no communions, birthday parties, weddings, etc. -- because he wouldn't be there. RIP, Ray, and condolences to his family.
May 5, 2011, 2:38 PM
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Re: [Douggarr] Ray Finneran, Blue Skies
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Anyone who has ever been in a jump plane and heard the war cry, "Sha-Wan-Ga, Fly Baby Fly," should appreciate that Ray originated the chant. I jumped with him a lot in the old days -- at Sha-Wan-Ga -- and at Stormville and The Ranch.
You forgot the goat noise, or was that not part of the original chant?
Does anyone know the story of how that started? If so, this would be a perfect place to share it.
May 6, 2011, 2:07 PM
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Re: [Douggarr] Ray Finneran, Blue Skies
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Met Ray once, at the 1977 Z-Hills Easter Boogie. We were a bunch of newbies and we flailed miserably on the one jump Ray made with us. But he was all smiles about it. A truly nice guy, I'm sorry to hear of yet another good one gone.
May 8, 2011, 11:13 AM
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Re: [Douggarr] Ray Finneran, Blue Skies
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Ray was the first guy to sign up for the "tour group" going from Los Angeles to New Zealand for the first world 10-man meet in 1970.
Clarice knew a jumper at Elsinore whose mother organized tour groups so he became the tour group leader and we spread the word. I can't think how we did that now since there was no internet yet.
Every country who had made a 10-man was invited to send a team. That was Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. and England.
Ray was a really colorful and interesting guy.
We crossed paths many times at various boogies and other shindigs over the years.
I bet the Great Party in the Sky up yonder just got a lot more interesting :-) :-)
Shawanga was the name of a DZ not so far from the Ranch where the runway went distinctly downhill, so you lost sight of the plane as it was taking off. That's probably where the chant came from..
Dec 1, 2011, 12:44 PM
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Re: [Pat_Rogers] Ray Finneran, Blue Skies
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Just saw this, and it kindled a lot of old memories of jumps I made with him in the 70's when I lived in Rhode Island before I moved to Hawaii. I think he made it out here in the late 70's or early 80's to one of our boogies because he got the Sha-Wan-Ga going here for a bit. He was a character and spiced up any party back in the day.
Sep 25, 2012, 6:52 AM
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Re: [flipper3] Ray Finneran, Blue Skies
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I was looking around, trying to find out where Ray was these days, when I came across this thread. So sorry to hear it - he was definitely one of the good guys.
We got our WSCR together at Turkey Meet in '75. I first met him when I was jumping at ShaWanGa in the fall of '74. Two 182's...Curt and Rudy, I believe, were the pilots of that downhill-takeoff dropzone
In fact, that winter and that drop zone is why I moved and have always lived in the southern latitudes of the US since then!!
