Mar 12, 2012, 2:14 PM
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YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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I wrote this 2 weeks after we managed a 10 way NSCR load in 1976. The verbage is right out of 1976. I didn't 'clean it up', or change anything when I put it into MS Word years ago. I forgot I had it.
My 'girlfriend' that I mention has been my wife for 35 yrs. My son has 350 jumps, so she's lived with jumping a long time.
Of the jumpers I mention, me (Harv), Wild Bill Martin, Ted Barnes, Skip Eckert, and Dave Demme still jump. Bill Simonsen went in at the Herd Boogie in '77. You'd have liked him. What a great guy.
Mar 13, 2012, 11:56 AM
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Re: [sfullerman] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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It's always easier to ask forgiveness than permission as you know. Jane and her friends were pissed, but I didn't give a flying shit. I had just earned a NSCR and was walking on water. The fact that I'm still married to her (and my friend made a tandem after that) speaks volumes I guess. I was worth any whit I got. The shit went away...I still have the NSCR...glad you liked it.
Mar 13, 2012, 7:09 PM
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Re: [beets] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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That is one of the best jump stories I've ever read.
The last night jump that I made, which will remain the last ever in my life, was an all-deaf 3 point 8 way at Lake Wales in 2005. The videographer spotted the load, which seemed to take fucking forever, then he started climbing out and we followed suit like lemmings...
The dive went nearly perfect, except for one detail. After break-off, track and deployed mains, we couldn't find the fucking LZ that was laid out with the cars in a row with the headlights on. Turns out we exited more than a mile off. Only one lucky bastard made it back. I found a well lighted parking area behind a commuter bus depot next to the highway and landed there. Most of the rest of the load landed in the black nothingness beyond. Eventually everybody walked out to the highway where the search crew picked us up, except one...
The fucking videographer.... he ended up being lost in calf to knee deep muck for 3 hours before somebody found him blinking his flood light while on his cell phone.
Mar 14, 2012, 6:32 AM
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Re: [SansSuit] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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That was my last night jump. Some people love em, but I've told people at the DZ when they ask me about going on one, there's not enough muscle around here to get me on the plane after dark.
I've got some more stories, and I'll post one or so coming up.
Like the rest of the old timers, we've accumulated so many funny stories, they're hard to remember.
Mar 14, 2012, 9:45 AM
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Re: [beets] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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Hey, I just noticed; I got my NSCR on the same nite at Spaceland TX, you beat me by a couple of hours (NSCR# 985). Oh well, nobody beat me on the NSCSA. Can't believe it was that long ago, I haven't aged that much...
Mar 14, 2012, 11:46 AM
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Re: [fastphil] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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Sounds like it was a good night for flying way back then.
I made 1 successful SCSA jump at Chambersburg in the early 80's, but during the daytime. Night is incredible. Exit at 14K, and used every inch of altitude to get it. A bunch of the people on the NSCR were on the SCSA, but we never sent off for it.
Mar 15, 2012, 9:24 AM
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Re: [beets] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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I don't know what year the first NSCR was built in Montana. I'll bet Fred Sands knows. We planned to build one in 75 or so. We ordered up a twin beech from Johnson's Flying service. All the better jumpers were there. B.J. Worth, John Ward, Maxson, Nardi, John Andrus, Bob Smith, Jack Wenger, Paul Juel, and a few others that I can't recall. I felt lucky to be asked along. We didn't know about glow sticks then. Everyone had some kind of flash light rigged up.
About then everyone started to notice how black it was. There was almost no moon or stars. It was hard to even see your hand in front of you face. Nobody wanted to call it off. I'm glad somebody had guts enough to say, this is crazy.
I quit jumping in 76, for a very long time. Maybe somebody else can fill in some history here.
For me having NSCR patch was an elusive dream. That was big doings back in the early 70's. I never earned a 16 way patch either. I don't think anyone in Montana had those prior to 76.
It seemed like all the sky gods lived in Elsinore back then. Later it was the Gulch. This was a time of big change in skydiving, including gear.
Mar 19, 2012, 8:32 AM
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Re: [Krip] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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I think the term "Sky God" later took on the meaning of a jumper who thought his manure didn't stink. I don't think "Sky God" had that meaning in the beginning.
Back in the early 70's a "Sky God" was somebody you really looked up to in the sport. This was someone whose abilities far exceeded your own.
One of the skygod's I met, back in the day, was Jerry Bird. Ray Cottingham was another. I guess I need to be careful how I use that term. I mean it in a good sense....
(This post was edited by steve1 on Mar 19, 2012, 8:34 AM)
Mar 19, 2012, 7:44 PM
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Re: [steve1] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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I think the term "Sky God" later took on the meaning of a jumper who thought his manure didn't stink. I don't think "Sky God" had that meaning in the beginning.
Back in the early 70's a "Sky God" was somebody you really looked up to in the sport. This was someone whose abilities far exceeded your own.
One of the skygod's I met, back in the day, was Jerry Bird. Ray Cottingham was another. I guess I need to be careful how I use that term. I mean it in a good sense....
Ever notice the real ones don't ask for it . The birdman was just a rguler guy that wore a hat a lot. Still remember the first dirt dive "don't go low and you'll get in
The wanna be's demand the skysnob status with their BS games. "Almost" feel sorry for them
Aug 21, 2012, 6:15 PM
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Re: [beets] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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Harv, Great story. It was three years ago tomorrow that Dad passed away. Reading about him cursing the beech on take off for your night jump makes me smile. He was a pilot of few words, unless things were not going right. The first time I heard him say the "f" word, I was 12 years old and we had just come to an abrupt stop after the sissors on the right landig gear of the beech broke sending us ground looping into the ditch along the runway. In a cloud of dust and a broken airplane he yelled , "GET THE FUCK OUT!! I listened and was out of the copilots seat , down the isle , and out the cargo door in an instance only to see the heels of the jumpers on the load 200 yards in front of me running for their lives from the inevitable explosion. The plane never blew up and we all lived with no injuries. The 10 way on board had their fastest exit time ever, too bad we were on the ground. Thanks for the memories. BSBD, Cliff
Aug 23, 2012, 6:47 AM
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Re: [beets] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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if the names were not in that story i never would have recognized many of the participants. Made a few jumps with most -- Demme, Tom & Cindy, Whittington and Randy and this just does not seem like any of them. Ask Randy sometime about his swimming adventure at Eustis (sp??) back around 1979 -- i always thought it was a myth about turning blue. Just does not sound like the 70s i remember.
Aug 27, 2012, 5:53 AM
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Re: [brokenwing] YORK SKYDIVERS 1976 NSCR STORY
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Randy told all of us about his unexpected water jump back then.
I gotta say though, that all except Tom, Cindy and Bill Simonsen (RIP) have read the NSCR story and thought it captured the moment perfectly.
Most of us remember the 70's kinda foggy, but having written the story almost immediately after the jump, it was on the money. If you've forgotten Georgie's rotten farts on the way to altitude, you've lost some of the worst of the period. Demme, Martin, Barnes, Skip and I still jump and all agree this is about as accurate as can be. When my DZ (Maytown) has night jumps, I tell them there's not enough muscle or humiliation to get me back for another night jump.
YORK NSCR 1976.doc
Only one lucky bastard made it back. I found a well lighted parking area behind a commuter bus depot next to the highway and landed there. Most of the rest of the load landed in the black nothingness beyond. Eventually everybody walked out to the highway where the search crew picked us up, except one... 
