0
patworks

Skippy Mannino, Pioneer Texas Skydiver + Wallace Outlaw died of old age! 8-0

Recommended Posts

Skippy Mannino, Pioneer Texas Skydiver + one of the Houston "Wallace Outlaw" tribe died of old age. (!) :oAmazing. Skippy once survived landing in the houston ship channel by using the birthday cake + Box he was parachute delivering to a pary as floatation gear. Skippy, along with Carlos Wallace, RL Ticer, Doc Agnostis, Ed Fitch, Deveney, Works.... et al carried RW into the 1960s with their pre USPA (PCA) approach of 1k pulls, no altimeters, 5-way stars, and round canopies from 7.2K using Cessna 185 and Cessna 195s. A jump-story teller of hugely funny SNAFU jumps: easy to like. Respect.
Skippy died of old age... far out! :)
Stephen Edward "Skippy" Mannino

Stephen Edward "Skippy" Mannino, 72, formerly of Pasadena, Texas, passed away on Sunday, March 12, 2006, in Dallas, Texas. A Memorial Service will be conducted at 11:00 A.M. Wednesday, March 15, 2006, at Clayton-Thompson Funeral Home in Groves with Kevin Groth officiating. Military Honors will follow the Memorial Service at the funeral home. Skippy was born on July 6, 1933, in Port Arthur, Texas to his parents, Joseph Mannino and Irene Latous Mannino. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict as a paratrooper and a member of the boxing team. He was a five-time Golden Gloves champion boxer and loved to skydive, making over 3000 jumps in his lifetime. He was self-employed in the Formica industry and owner of SLH Plastics. Skippy lived in Port Arthur for about thirty years before moving to Pasadena where he lived for forty years. 5200 W. Parkway Groves, Texas 77619 409-962-8336

Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Pat,
Sorry to hear of Skippy's passing. If it was posted before I don't recall, oh well. As a fledgling Skydiver at Hammond Airport, La., I remember Herb Golden and others telling storys about going to Texas and jumping with Skippy and about his antics!! One story was that he would sign log books with his name and Clyde Jacks D-number!! When the person would recognize that the number was Jacks' and not Skippys', Skippy would say,"It's OK, he's dead, he don't need it!!" :ph34r::ph34r::D:D;);) Yup, time sure flys when yer' havin' fun!! That "Star" up there got one bigger. Blue Skyz Skippy!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Skippy Mannino, Pioneer Texas Skydiver + one of the Houston "Wallace Outlaw" tribe died of old age. (!) :oAmazing. Skippy once survived landing in the houston ship channel by using the birthday cake + Box he was parachute delivering to a pary as floatation gear. Skippy, along with Carlos Wallace, RL Ticer, Doc Agnostis, Ed Fitch, Deveney, Works.... et al carried RW into the 1960s with their pre USPA (PCA) approach of 1k pulls, no altimeters, 5-way stars, and round canopies from 7.2K using Cessna 185 and Cessna 195s. A jump-story teller of hugely funny SNAFU jumps: easy to like. Respect.
Skippy died of old age... far out! :)



I knew Skippy from the "old Spaceland" circa 1987. Truly one of a kind and a sweetheart of a man. I remember when I met him he always had some crazy story about being a champion army boxer or landing a T-10 on a supermarket rooftop for a grand opening demo. I always thought it was BS until I went to his house and saw the newspaper articles of his antics framed on the walls all over his house.

Skippy was family to whoever knew him. Made a damn fine dirty rice too.
Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Proof:
Quote

antics framed on the walls all over



Right on Chuck, Skippy did do a lot of highly technical demo jumps with round canopies. Being Santa Clause, or whoever, He'd insist on a roof landing or wherever kids could not hear him talk. Having a cleft palate, he talked and sounded ‘different’ and it bugged him. He said, “I didn't want kids thinking their Santa sounded like me...."

Demo jumps in the 1960’s…. So, picture a very tight landing spot in a back yard, a resort, a shopping center, a beach house, a sports field, a parking lot, a cemetery, whatever for a demo. …. He did all. Think of restricting yourself to landing wherever keeps you separated from the children until a "Real" Santa or Iron Man can step-in...... Try Round canopies and spotting yourself from a small Cessna over whereeverthehell Texas in winds under a small 28' round canopy that boasts about a a 3 MPH Fwd. speed. Think about doing tough guy stand up landings under a 28’ round canopy to wow the folks…. Do some of that, and you'll get the great stories Skippy related. Really crazy shit…. Don’t try it.

Example: one cloudy day at CG Wallace’s DZ in Crosby Texas, some civilian restaurant owner invited us, “…. Common, fly on over and you boys can parachute in to my place…. … folks will love it and I’ll give you all free eats too.”

So, five of us load up in the Cessna 195, climb to maximum altitude just below the clouds at about 1,600 feet AGL, throw 3-streamers to plot the spot and exit at about 1,500 AGL for the free-food demo. Carlos spots. Everybody does a fairly long delay except me. We all exit with our floating ripcords in-hand. Me, a turkey, arch a bit, popping my main just off the step. Ouch! Embarrassing! I’m open above a grand…. Nobody notices as this is a SMALL Restaurant with a not-big parking lot. Cars consumed space, too. It is real easy to get focused on landing. At about 200’ Carlos, freaked by all the obstacles, lands on the restaurant’s roof. Skippy, thinks that that is way COOL does the same. We land amongst parked cars. Me with a messy front-roll PLF (Still do).
The restaurant owner was way impressed, saying something like, “Amazing, wonderful, great that you two fellows could actually land on my roof! Who would have thunk…. Course, you boys don't know you landing dropped our ceiling fluorescent light tubes smack onto my tables, customers, and food…. So, I’m gonna have to close down for a spell and clean thing up. Real sorry about that. But you men come on back by here some other time and I’ll give you that free lunch like I promised.”

Whilst Carlos took the heat, the rest of us decided get beer and slink back to the DZ.

It was to cloudy to jump anyhow.
Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1----- Original Message -----
From: don.deveny

>
>
> Skippy "bought" Clyde's D-42 license from him, on his death bed, for a dollar..
>
2 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Deli"


Hi Don,
After 46 years the real deal surfaces!!!! Who'd a' known??

Deli-out
PS, I wonder if Herb Golden (former Southern Conf. Champ) knows, he told the story??

3----- Original Message -----


On 5/19/2010 5:43 PM, don.deveny wrote:

The story was well known among the real oldtimers in the Houston area. Works knows it. Don't know about Golden.

Clyde was stunting in a Skeeter Hawk and lost it. Broke him all to pieces but he lived for a few days. He and Skippy were old buddies.

4----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Works"
Bill Deli,

Ok, Skippy did not hold much truck with the PCA or the FAA

Clyde Jacks was jumping w Skippy when I started in '61. Then The Instructor at the Houston Parachute CLub was Clyde. Clyde Jacks, D-42 who died Nov 26 '62 when I had about 50 jumps. I was jumping with the HPC (and the Galveston Skydivers). .....Of the 200+ dead skydivers you +me + we know, his hurt me lots. I cried. I burned a candle. ...And, , the plane that killed him was a small 1-seat yellow bi-plane called a Skeeter Hawk... I logged it. HPC president Herschel Lee reported it. Clyde had 1,172 jumps......on "November 17 at Skeeter-Hawk Ranch".... at 1,200' he gave an aerial salute.... perfect left roll" , the right killed him.... about 10 days later after he'd sold his "D" ticket to Skippy for $1 and checked out. (about 10 years later Don Deveney had a similar crash in Galveston but survived mentally, mostly. I think.)

Clyde frapped at his place he called Skeeter-Hawk Ranch where I'd worked cutting brush for jumps from George Armstrong's tiny Luscomb. (very slow climber; Hard to get out of. He'd hand me my reserve after i'd got out on the step, i'd just hook up one D-link and go.... worked for me. I Had a Double "L") .

A energetic, friendly, air athlete, Clyde impressed my 17 year old self much. He was my 1st + primary instructor... Gus "Doc" D114, CG Wallace D152 , and Ed Fitch (I-11), too. He had a creme tanker-truck. He pumped shit out of septic tanks. He was "the best spot jumper in the USA..." because he could land within 20' of the yard-square "dead Center" Cloth target using a 28' round. His girlfriend Sue did freestyle. He did a BASE jump in Downtown Houston in '61... he talked about freestyle and free flying. He and Sue also had sucessful sex from 7200' .... i'm told they gor started real good and a close friend rolled em out the door of the 185. He is also dead as a mackerel. Ouch.

Hey Deli, Somebody ought to post this thread (below + etc.) on DZ.com.... Please do so, OK?
If you will, I'll also send you the responses of several other of his/our friends who knew him to flesh out the record.

Recording what went illuminates what comes.
History don't mean shit if you print blank pages.
Communicate! That is the imperative.
The rest is talk.
Talk don't carry time for shit.


FUVM, Works




5-------- Original Message --------

From: don.deveny

I hadn't thought about George Armstrong in many years. He was a frequent pilot of the Cessna 185 at HPC when I first jumped there shortly after Clyde was killed (I never met Clyde).

I remember that on really hot days, when we would cram in 6 jumpers, George would have to pop the 185 off the ground at the end of the runway to get over the barbed wire fence and then go under the power lines on the other side of the road before he had enough airspeed to climb out. We didn't think anything of it, just SOP.

A few years later George got busted for smuggling weed in from Mexico. The FBI looked hard at all of us after that 'cause they were sure that they had uncovered a big smuggling ring. Lots of seedy, dope smoke'n, pistol pack'n Texas guys with easy access to stripped out planes flying from uncontrolled dirt strips.

Ah, the good ole days.
Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I remember Skippy from old Spaceland. Always willing to take a bunch of younger jumpers up. And he did always have a story for the beer light, and now I can see how. I jumped with him last in Anahuac on someone's SCR. He was 3rd or 4th in. I barely managed to dock before breakoff.

RIP Skippy !!

Larry
'In an insane society a sane person seems insane.' Mr. Spock

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I remember Skippy well. There were few that were as fun to bend an elbow with than was Skippy. The one thing I remember most about Skippy was his incredibly foul mouth when coming in for a landing. You could hear him yelling when he was still about 1,000 feet in the air. His vocabulary and command of the profain was awesome. Those of us on the ground were laughing so loud that we would drown him out. RIP old friend.

cy
Cy Stapleton
[email protected]
www.hotlinecy.com

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0