JerryBaumchen 1,046 #1 December 27, 2012 Old-time jumper, Lannie Springer, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. Lannie started jumping in 1964 and jumped for 4-5 years, probably making 300-350 jumps. He was one of the nicest men I have ever had the privilege of knowing. These last few years we have been getting together for lunch about once a month or so. My favorite jump story of Lannie is: Back in those days, the mid-60's, during the Spring, Summer & Fall the dz was open for jumping on Wednesday afternoons. It was a gorgeous Spring day and I was in college. Dan, another college student/jumper and I cut our last classes and we headed out to the dz. No one was there, it was closed. Soon Lannie showed up and we were commiserating about not getting to jump. A pilot heard us talking and asked if we were skydivers and we said "Yup, we are." He said that he had a plane and would be willing to take us up if we wanted. He had a C-172 and had never flown jumpers before. We agreed on $4.00 each to go to 10,500; then we took the left door off & removed the left front seat. We 'briefed' the pilot on the jump run, etc and off we went. Lannie sat next to the pilot on his keester with his feet forward, I was behind Lannie & Dan sat behind the pilot. As we got on jump run, Lannie started spotting. The problem was he was sitting down and not looking straight down; he was looking out at about a 45 degree angle. He told the pilot to 'cut' and he climbed out. As I started to climb out I saw that we were way, way off course. I hollered at the pilot, "90 right" as loud as I could. Lannie was out on the step and hanging onto the strut. Well, the pilot did a serious banking 90 right turn , Lannie's foot fell off of the step and he was hanging onto the strut for dear life. I finally got us near the dz and off we went. We only missed the dz by a mile or so. Such was jumping in the 60's. JerryBaumchen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SEREJumper 1 #2 December 28, 2012 Some people would hear jumped for 4-5 years, probably making 300-350 jumps and not give to much credit. In those days though, with the planes and the gear, he did good. Blue Skies Mr. Springer!We're not fucking flying airplanes are we, no we're flying a glorified kite with no power and it should be flown like one! - Stratostar Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wdy_bnckr 0 #3 December 31, 2012 Sorry to read about your Friend Jerry..the sixty's were the greatest..Blue Skies Lannie.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
