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wrightskyguy

First Flight Centennial

By wrightskyguy, in General Skydiving Discussions

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wrightskyguy    1

wrightskyguy
I just got back from the First Flight Centennial jump out in Kitty Hawk and I had a ball. It was a real honor to be invited and to skydive with such a large group of professionals. Alot of people worked very hard to make this thing come off but no-one worked any harder than Paul and Nancy Fayard of Carolina
Sky Sports. They handled all the logistics from picking people up at the airport and arranging hotels to moving 100 jumpers and support people the 140 or so miles to the jump site. I'd like to say things went off without a hitch but, as we all know, that never happens. The security was a bear and really threw a wrench into the works at times, but "be flexible" was our motto from the start and we pulled off a flawless performance. The Crew Dogs were especially impressive and flew a beautiful Kite down to pattern altitude. A special thanks to Al Saylor for inviting me and of course Paul and Nancy Fayard. If you've never been to Carolina Sky Sports, you're really missing something, what an amazing skydiving facility!.

Jump Nice
John Wrigt
John Wright

World's most beloved skydiver

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mdwhalen    0

mdwhalen
Just want to echo John's words of thanks. Three Casas and a Twin Otter. 100 jumpers in the air at one time doing RW, CRW and a couple of tandems. Openings staggered from 13,000 to 2,500 for a 10 minute show, on time and on target. It was a great job by all involved and I was proud to be a part of it. We had jumpers there from all over the country but were able to work out all the little kinks with three practice jumps at Carolina Sky Sports on Monday. The weather washed out our practice day Sunday but improved steadily up to jump time when conditions were ideal. There were estimated to be about 35,000 in attendance (George Sr. rumored to be there but I think he might have been a no-show).
Thanks to Paul and Nancy for being wonderful organizers and hosts, Al and Glenn Bangs for the invite and our group leader Roger Ponce de Leon for a successful Texas Star 20 way (whatever that is).

Michael Whalen
"I have magic buttons ;)." skymama

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JohnRich    4

JohnRich
Here is my story from the Dec. 16th demonstration jump into Kitty Hawk, NC, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first manned flight.

Several organizers were selected from around the country to help put together groups of people for plane loads. I was selected, along with numerous other Texas jumpers, for a 20-way group. My apologies for my incomplete knowledge of the full scope of things. My perspective is focused on one Casa, and my 20-way group.

The 100 skydivers first got together at Carolina Sky Sports, north of Raleigh, NC, on Sunday, Dec. 14th, to practice the air show. Unfortunately, that day's weather was cold, rain, and low clouds. We used the time to get briefed on the air show plan, and to
organize the individual planes and groups.

The program requested by the event organizers was to have 100 parachutes in the sky simultaneously, with about a 10-minute display. So the Fayard's came up with a plan... The jump would use three Casa's and one Otter. The planes flew in a "helix" formation: along a straight line, offset left-right-left-right, with the Otter in trail.

Jumpers from the first Casa would open between 2,500' and 4,500', jumpers from the second Casa between 4,500' and 6,000', the third Casa between 6,000' and 7,500', and the trail Otter were all CReW dogs, doing hop' n' pops at 10,000'. Within each Casa, canopy openings were stacked depending upon individual canopy size and wing loading. The idea was to create one continuous stream of parachute landings that would last for a full 10-minutes. Jumpers were to follow a landing pattern that would lead to the landing area in two rows. Exits were timed apart with a specific interval in seconds, depending upon winds aloft, to spread the groups across the sky for safety, but not too far from the drop zone.

Within each plane, there were different sized groups doing different things. Because of the staggered opening altitudes by plane, the first plane got the most freefall, and the following planes received less.

The jumpers returned on Monday, and the morning winds-aloft weather report showed 80-knot winds at altitude! By noon, the winds had dropped to acceptable levels for a formation load and accurate spotting, and we were off for a first practice jump.

All groups had good first jumps for skydivers from all over the country, most of whom hadn't jumped together before. Subsequent jumps were fine-tuned, and everyone was nailing their plans.

The first Casa had a 16-way group, all in white jump suits purchased specifically for this demo, that did an incredible freefall formation spelling out the letters "USA" in the sky. I'm sure you'll see that photo in an upcoming "Parachutist" magazine. They were followed by a 10-way. The second Otter had a solo style and accuracy jumper, followed by a 20-way, followed by a tandem. The accuracy jumper was veteran John Wolfe. The 20-way was comprised mostly of Texans, organized by Roger Ponce DeLeon. The 20-way team formed an 8-way round base, with four three-way "points" off of it. The tandem was Bill Booth himself, taking his 18-year-old daughter for her first jump, with a USPA waiver for the demo jump. (Bill's daughter found out later that she had been accepted to Yale college, the seventh generation Booth to attend that school.)

The third Casa had some big-way RW groups, followed by Paul Fayard on tandem, with an experienced jumper for passenger. The fourth plane, the Otter, was canopy relative workers, with matching lime-green canopies, that did some terrific diamonds, and
awesome "follow the leader" landing patterns.

The next day, we gathered at the drop zone by 7:00 am, for the demo day. We were off the airport in all four aircraft by 8:30, for the one-hour flight to the North Carolina coast. My Otter got some prop wash tubulence from the lead plane, several thousand feet up after takeoff, which caused the left wing to dip abruptly, causing some consternation for a few seconds.

We landed at Manteo County airport, the base of operations for the Kitty Hawk air show aircraft, located about 10 miles south of Kitty Hawk, on the narrow barrier island. There, we offloaded from the planes, and security personnel walked a bomb-sniffing dog through the planes, while the engines kept turning. Security was tight, because President Bush was visiting the next day, and it was a large crowd that might attract terrorism. Military personnel patrolled the area on foot, and in Humvees. Everyone had to carry a photo I.D., and be on the approved list submitted in advance.

We then reloaded the aircraft, took off, and hopped over to the Kitty Hawk landing strip, named "First Flight". Our jump aircraft were some of only very few allowed to land there. Most others did their air show routines out of the Manteo airport. At "First Flight", we de-planed, and all jumpers had to pass through metal detectors.

At this point we had about 1.5 hours to kill before our demo jump. We gathered on the hill by the Wright Brothers monument for a group photo, and to survey the landscape and landing area, establishing our canopy holding areas, landing pattern, and "out"
locations.

Kitty Hawk is a barrier island, only about three-quarters of a mile wide, with the Atlantic ocean on one side, and very wide inland water way on the back side. Everyone was required to wear a flotation device, and the collection ranged from the tiny Aqua-buoys, to military surplus flight gear, and more modern CO2-activated vests. The Coast Guard had three rescue helicopters there to respond, to fish jumpers out of the water if necessary.

Finally, it was time for the jump! Conditions were ideal: light winds, even at altitude, almost straight down the long axis of the roped-off 400' x 800' landing area, and angled from the south-east, so that no one had to exit way out over water - we were spaced out across the land mass. The sky was clear with no clouds, and the ground temperature was about 60 degrees.

The four planes took off from "First Flight", one following another, and climbed to jump altitude. We were held at 13,000' for about 30 minutes by the air show boss, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the jumpers weren't feeling a bit woozy from hypoxia. Tension climbed, but finally the red light, then green light came one, our exit interval was counted off, followed by READY... SET... GO! We stampeded off the tailgate of the Casa, and hit the cold air. My 20-way group exited the 2nd Casa, and we had our formation built by 9,000', with Steve McConathy trailing red smoke from a boot bracket, borrowed from the Liberty Demo Team jumpers. We were directly over the Wright Brother's Monument, which made for a fantastic view, when you stole a glance while awaiting break-off altitude at 7,000'.

Under canopy, you could look up and down the line of flight, and see 100 parachutes in the sky, from down low to up high, spread across about a mile of sky. We headed for our assigned holding area, and circled like buzzards. Upon reaching about 1,500 feet, we peeled off from the holding area, following the assigned landing pattern on the downwind, crosswind and final pattern legs. The landing area was very soft sand, and you sank into it up to your ankles, which made running out fast landings a bit challenging. 99 of the 100 jumpers made the landing area. The one jumper that missed was but 20 feet short, and still in a safe, roped-off area. The landing area was surrounded by an admiring crowd of thousands of spectators, while thousands more watched from the hillside leading up to the monument, or from massive grandstands.

The jumpers then came together for a congratulatory self-celebration, and then we fanned out into the crowd, looking for dry grass without sand spurs, upon which to pack. Admiring kids asked for autographs, and curious adults gathered around to watch the packing process, and ask questions. Many jumpers brought small toys to hand out to kids, like toy parachutes and die-cast airplanes. Some even went so far as to package them in gift wrap.

Yeehaw! What an incredible event, for an incredible occasion. I think I saw tears in some eyes. And if not then, it wasn't long after, when Lee Greenwood sang his emotional "God Bless the USA" song on a huge stage, which brought more wet eyes. And if that still wasn't enough, later on in the air show, four F-15 Eagles flew over, with one pulling out and going straight up on afterburners, for a "missing man"
formation, while "taps" was played on a trumpet over the loudspeakers.

Static aircraft on display included a V-22 Osprey, vertical takeoff aircraft, and an assortment of others. Another highlight was a fly-over by the latest and greatest figher aircraft; the F-22 Raptor. There were acrobatic displays by Patty Wagstaff, and by a group of four T-6 Texans.

It was so much fun we hated to go home. But about 4:00 pm, we gathered by the planes, started up the engines, loaded the battery carts in back, and hopped back over to the Manteo airport to top-off on fuel. Since this was the base for the airshow aircraft, as well as hundreds of fly-in visitors, the small airport was chock full of interesting aircarft. While the jump planes were being fueled for the return home, skydivers fanned out all google-eyed to fawn over the wide variety of aircraft present.

My Casa suffered some bad luck at that point, receiving less than the requested amount of fuel. While the other three planes headed for home in Raleigh, we awaited the return of the fuel truck. The fuel truck, meanwhile, had run out of fuel servicing all the other aircraft at the busy strip. So it had to go off and refill its tank before finally returning to finish us off about an hour later. The wait wasn't unpleasant however, as we watched aircraft take off and land, like a giant cargo plane used in the Berlin Airlift at the end of WWII, and some WWII bombers. Finally we were airborne again, and arrived back at Carolina Sky Sports at 8:00 pm, tired, but happy.

My hat is tipped to everyone involved. The jumpers paid attention and did things as planned. The organizers, pilots, ground crew, and staff of Carolina Sky Sports were terrific in all respects. They are first-class!

They juggled four planes, fuel, pilots, manifest lists, schedules, security, motel rooms, commercial airport pickup vans, and 100 jumpers, and kept them all straight and safe. It was an extremely complicated affair, which they did so well they made it look easy.

The only disappointment, was that the recreation of the Wright Brother's flight in a replica aircraft, was to occur the following day, after we were gone.

Thanks to everyone for making this happen! It's a memory I'll never forget.

Attached: photo of one of the Casa's, flying in formation, through the porthole side door window of another Casa.

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heinsx3    0

heinsx3
Sounds like you guys had a great jump. The weather was terrible for us and we had to cancel today after waiting around at Manteo for a couple of hours. It would have been my one demo jump on the Golden Knights after spending 8 years on the comp team.
Great job and congrats!!
Eric Heinsheimer
USAPT Golden Knights

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John4455    0

John4455
There was a mix of all size canopies.
I was in the third Casa and was a high puller. When I bailed out off of the tail gate at 13,000 feet the visuals were incredible. The otter with the crew dogs were at an altitude of about 10,500 feet. I tracked off to my left, keeping an eye on the jumper in front and down below me. I could see the monument from the air. To my left as I was freefalling by, the crew dogs were hopping and popping out of the Otter. I had to be open by 8000 feet so I threw out at 9. I looked down and canopies were everywhere. I saw our team leader Paul McCowan drop his huge American flag, and I flew over to get a closer look while trying to keep the right amount of spacing with the canopies below. At 4000 feet I fired my smoke canister and spiraled as much as I could without bleeding too much altitude. The landing area, even though it was big was still crowded due to the limited amount of dry area, but everyone was really heads up. It was an incredible jump and an incredible day.


How do ya like it Johnny?

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JohnRich    4

JohnRich
Quote

The landing area, even though it was big was still crowded due to the limited amount of dry area, but everyone was really heads up.



Yep. For the readers here: as I mentioned in my original story, the landing area was 400' wide by 800' long. Sounds plenty big, right? But about a third of it on the downwind side was a mud bog, and nobody wanted to land there. So everyone crowded up into the far end, or along the edges. It was just one more stress factor, which everyone handled real well.

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JohnRich    4

JohnRich
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Sounds like Bill Booth got to go to the event after all. And what a way to do your first jump...



Here's a photo I got of Bill and his daughter, after the jump, while refueling after sunset at Manteo. The photo isn't very good, because it was dark, and I used a long shutter time, but wiggled a bit, and someone even walked by in the background. Oh well. But the picture is good enough to show you a nice father/daughter shot, in front of the Casa from which they jumped.

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JohnRich    4

JohnRich
This is off topic, but what the heck, you guys will appreciate it.

The attached photo is the nose art on a USAF polished aluminum twin Beech found parked at the Manteo airport, while waiting for the four jump planes to refuel. The plane was as beautiful as the nose art.

Second photo: the Beech.

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JohnRich    4

JohnRich
For the readers, here is a photo of the demo landing area, taken later in the day, and looking down from the hillside atop which resides the monument.

The landing area was the roped-off sandy area, and the direction of landing was toward the camera. Note that there are tall trees on one side, and crowds of people on the other side and the upwind end. The downwind end had mud, and the TV crew tents up on platforms.

Once you committed to land there below about 400 feet, there weren't any safe alternative landing areas - it was either there, or trouble...

The "First Flight" runway is hidden behind the trees to the left, where you see the smoke arising from a show plane that made a low pass.

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mjosparky    3

mjosparky
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I believe that there were 7 or 8 people not from Texas on that 20 way, we were the ones flying smoothly in our slots. It was a great time, was'nt it?

John Wright



You are Wright John, at least 4 were from So. Cal.
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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kallen    0

kallen
I know the organizers do but I'm not sure we could get it for this forum. Given all the folks that were there from USPA I imagine that it will get a lot of attention in Parachutist Magazine.

Here is a picture of this jumper receiving his Gold Wings and Badge. Note Roger Ponce, BJ Worth, Chris Needles, Me, Bill Ottley, Glenn Bangs, Bill Booth.

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