If you have a fair amount of experience with jumps from biplanes, (preferably with neat or scary stories and pictures) please PM me. (AN-2s don't count for the purpose of this exercise.)
Yo Howard Im not good with the search thingy here but find the one about the biplane incident at SkyFest, I believe it was 2006. The pin was pulled as the jumper climbed out. Bag comes out, pilot catches bag with one hand and holds it against the fusalage, rolls plane over and yells at jumper to let go. Pilot releases bag, jumper flips once as line stretch thru legs and has a perfect opening. Pilot had 30 or so jumps so he knew what was gong on. Thats the quick version. I remember watching from the ground as it happened. When I saw the deployment so quickly after jumpers release I said, what the f^** did they static line that thing? Of course not knowing what happened at the time. Bob Rader got perfect sequential shots from the ground. They were published in Parachutist. I can also get you in contact with the pilot so you can get his story. But I remember seeing a post or something here. What are you up to now? When can we expect to see the published goodies. LOL
Yo Howard Im not good with the search thingy here but find the one about the biplane incident at SkyFest, I believe it was 2006. The pin was pulled as the jumper climbed out. Bag comes out, pilot catches bag with one hand and holds it against the fusalage, rolls plane over and yells at jumper to let go. Pilot releases bag, jumper flips once as line stretch thru legs and has a perfect opening. Pilot had 30 or so jumps so he knew what was gong on. Thats the quick version. I remember watching from the ground as it happened. When I saw the deployment so quickly after jumpers release I said, what the f^** did they static line that thing? Of course not knowing what happened at the time. Bob Rader got perfect sequential shots from the ground. They were published in Parachutist. I can also get you in contact with the pilot so you can get his story. But I remember seeing a post or something here. What are you up to now? When can we expect to see the published goodies. LOL
Great minds...I already gave Howard, Marks contact number regarding that story...
I jumped a Stearman once too. It was at Elsinore. The pilot had rented the plane from Chino airport and landed at Skylark for some dirt field practice.
The first jump course I was teaching was on a lunch break so I just ran out to him with my rig and said, "Pretty please."
Back in the early-mid eighties a pilot friend of mine got hold of a Stearman and invited me out to Joshua Tree to go flying with him for a weekend. It didn't have the full harness, so he couldn't invert it, but I got to do some wingwalking and made some jumps into various little dirt-strips out there where he was visiting friends.
One jump I made into his grandparents' cabin out there, and his grandparents, parents and fiancee were there. When I landed, his dad came walking up to me with a stopwatch - "I timed your parachute descent - 22 seconds!" I thought, 'geez, clear out here and I'm gonna get in trouble'. But he just kept smiling and I realized he didn't know any better. Hehehe.
- "I timed your parachute descent - 22 seconds!" I thought, 'geez, clear out here and I'm gonna get in trouble'. But he just kept smiling and I realized he didn't know any better. Hehehe.
I had a funny biplane jump some years ago after I moved to Michigan. I guess it wasn’t really the jump that was funny, but everything that led up to it. Our house is right next to a small private airport with a grass runway. My wife and I were taking care of a friend’s C-182 and had it in a hangar on the airport. A man named Ron, one of the other tenants there, had a beautiful old red Waco that he had restored. I had asked him about making a jump from it a few times and each time was politely told to forget about it. He would never do it.
Maybe a year later he called me and asked for my help. His son had restored a similar Waco. When he completed the airplane he was offered so much money for it he couldn’t afford not to sell it. The son was flying it in from the east coast and the buyer was coming in from somewhere out west. The idea was that they would have a test pilot from Waco (yes, they still build them in Lansing, MI) come out, do a final acceptance inspection, and give the new owner a check out flying it.
Ron asked if he could use our hangar for three days. All the hangars big enough to hold a Waco were in use. They wanted to keep the sons aircraft inside in case it rained. It was no big deal to me if the C-182 sat outside and got wet so I said yes. I declined Ron’s offer of money for use of the hangar, saying that I didn’t think it would be right for me to make money renting a hangar on someone else’s airport. I got a great ride in Ron’s Waco when they asked me to come up with them and video his son’s aircraft in flight. The inspection and checkout went fine, the deal was sealed and everybody went their own separate ways.
A few days later I looked out from my house and saw Ron pulling his beautiful red Waco out of his hangar to go flying. I grabbed my rig and walked across the runway towards him just as he started the engine. When he saw me standing off to the side his eyes got big, he stared down in the cockpit and just shook his head. Then he shut the engine off, looked at me and said “You win.” We briefed each other on the jump procedures, went up and everything went fine.
So the moral of the story is that never doesn’t always mean never!
(This post was edited by SkydiveJack on Oct 3, 2009, 8:33 AM)
A buddy and I were doing an airshow demo in 2001, it was about an hour or so drive. When we got there the show coordinator came up to us, looking kind of dejected. We asked him what was wrong and he told us the 182 we were going to jump, was out of annual and not available. He told us he was sorry we made the drive (it was a pro bono demo), and asked us if we'd be willing to jump those, pointing to two absolutely cherry Stearman biplanes. We looked at each other, hiding our giddiness and said "geez, if we have to"...........
We flew formation and I spotted off the rear of the wing, while talking to the pilot. My buddy was flying trail, when he saw me go he went. We ended up with a perfect flag jump, with both planes circling us.
Sure beat a 182...........
(This post was edited by skycop on Oct 3, 2009, 11:16 AM)
Approx. 26 jumps from a Pitts S2B. Approx. 6 tail strikes. After the last one, while signing airshow programs for the kids, one kid mentioned the red spot on my leather helmet was getting bigger. The local "Doc in the Box" provided 11 stitches for the trip home.
When ever the pilot wanted to practice the airshow routine I told him I already knew how to fall out of an airplane. If he wanted to practice something he needed to go make a skydive in the event I take off the tail sometime.
Enjoyed the slower Stearman much more. Especially doing a loop with the non-inverted fuel system. I preferred to not drop off at the top of the loop until the engine sputtered and the pilots eyes started getting big. Much easier in the Stearman with that big hand hold on the top wing to hang from. Had to exit the Pitts from a position crouched in the seat facing the tail.
I am no longer young and stupid - I'm now old. RobH
IIRC, the guy that flew the biplane at various conventions was named Bud Fuchs. Anyone have contact info for him? (PM me.) A lot of his jumps included exit photos.
I've tracked down Bud Fuchs to Coral Springs, FL, but he has an unlisted number. I'll try reaching him by snail mail but would still welcome contact info (by PM).
Below is a picture of the aircraft in question with Herman Rheinhart demonstrating how he exited.
Gary Thompson the aircraft owner was doing a "tour" of the United States and I was fortunate enough to get to jump this aircraft into my back yard when he was visiting Xenia Ohio.
I understand that Gary is now deceased and the aircraft is in England.
I got to jump one of only 7 left in the world flying, a D-25 New Standard it had been totally restored and was in Richmond In. giving rides for a model A car club/museum festival....... Can't believe the dude let us jump it, front seat hold 4 Pax, we just exited from the lower wing.
Any contact info for the pilot? How did you get out? Wing? Upside down? (barrel roll, loop?)
HW
I exited from the wing, as David Layne showed, but I was on the other side (at least that's how I remember it). Gary apologized (more than once) that he was dealing with a crack in the exhaust & didn't want to invert the plane. And again, it was funny & cool standing on the wing talking to the pilot while we approached the exit point & watched for traffic.
I would be surprised if he was still alive as Jack was probably pushing 70 then. We did talk a bit both before & after the jump. From what I remember, he & his brother were into restoring old planes as a hobby. The N3N-3 was their last plane. He (Jack) had retired just before it was completed. When the plane was ready, Jack packed his camping gear & just went "barnstorming" (his description) around the country, "sleeping under the wing" when it was nice, & actively seeking out skydivers because he enjoyed their enthusiasm & vibes.
Jack was so cool, he didn't want payment for the lift until after the jump. "If you didn't enjoy it, it was on me" is basically what said before the flight. He was fun to talk to, fun to listen to, & we may have even shared a little single malt later that night.
That jump, as humble as it was, rates right up there with my most memorable jump ships, like the C-130 & an original right-hand-door DC3 later that year in Quincey, the Beech 99 at United (8 minutes & change to 12.5!), & FOUR Caribous @ the Herd one year.
I've got several Bud Fuchs shots, all virtually the same; you could almost Photoshop in anyone. If you have an original print and can get me a good 400 dpi scan, I might use it. I have a photograph of someone else's jump, (about 18 x 24) but the pic is too for me to scan so I photographed it. Where and when was this? My friend whose pic I have said he had to pay Bud $5 extra to go upside down.
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