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steve1

Scary stories from the old days?

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"I was wondering if this is some kind of an April Fools joke foisted old farts like me."



I can vouch for this, not a joke... I used to watch Steve and Norton do this a lot at Pope Valley... It was very weird looking, and very scary, to see Steve peeking out of the center cell of Norton's canopy... like he was in a sleeping bag!

Hi Steve!!!!! Long time!!!
TGND

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Nope, not an April Fools joke!

It starts as a stack. The top guy decides which half of the center cell he wants. With a little bit of brakes from the bottom to take off the line pressure, he then goes in slowly feet first.

That's about all I know judging from my memory of the photo. Some of those old 1:1 nylon squares had big cells!

I would say it was taken in the late 70's up to about 1982 or so. I was newby when I saw the picture in a book or magazine.

Anyone have any more info?
____________________________________
I'm back in the USA!!

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Nope, not an April Fools joke!
...
Anyone have any more info?



I'll be damned! I would have bet money against this being true. I am wrong.

Truly amazing. Thanks to those who responded to my disbelief; particularly to Jim for providing a link to a previous thread with the picture.

"You people what jump outta them parachutes are nuts..."

The joke's on me.
Guru312

I am not DB Cooper

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Yeah, me too, because I think that is Norton with the orange and black canopy -- those were the colors he jumped.

When Norton first started jumping, he came in R&J a lot (The Altitude Shop in Vallejo, CA) where I worked. He was about 50 or more pounds overweight, and he bought a huge orange jumpsuit. Betty Tavalero and I called him "The Great Pumpkin" (but only behind his back -- we knew he was a HELLS ANGEL!) (Wherever you are Norton, after that "oil slick", sorry about the Great Pumpkin crack!!! We love ya')

Norton was so enthused to be jumping, he lost all the weight so he could fly better. He also made 600 jumps in his first year in jumping... and that with 6 months out for a broken back... (of course he "worked nights" LOL)
TGND

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The D-18 we normally rode in on it's way to Taft for the weekends jumps was getting annualed so we got someone else to drag us up there. We loaded up at Acton and proceded Northwest to be greeted by a Tule overcast.
The pilot wanting to be in our future plans wandered around somewhere above the airport looking for holes. Somehow he gotten the impression we knew what we were doing and sort of relinquished directional control as we chased phantom holes. Upon noting some tanks, a canal and a road all in near proximity resembling the target at Taft we exited. Popping out of the light overcast there was no semblance of our usual target area other than the aforementioned but out of sequence terrain markers. An oilfield worker stopped wondering where the plane may have crashed. He used his CB(way before cell phones) to get help as we gathered together and I got nothing but crap from almost everyone on the load. Lots of granite all around us sticking up into industrial haze and severely undulating terrain. Directly here comes Art Armstrong and he is not at all happy, we are, 16 miles away from where we should have been. He queries us about who spotted and Larry Pearlman pipes up the same time as me to claim the coveted prize for Spotter of the Year. Probably saved me from another grounding. Art muttered something obscene under his breath and loaded us up for the trip back to Taft and refused to stop for beer which as luck would have we were out by then.

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javascript:%20addTag(':(') Gotta tell a Joe Morgan story.

Ben had put up the rotten Beech wing at the entrance and Joe was tasked to add a No Dogs sign to it. Naturally Ben's dog was okay but heck it was a superb rabbit hunter. I still can hear them cry just before mealtime. Anyway, Old Ben and I were headed out to the Mexican restaurant for a pitcher of beer and a giant burrito at lunch time when Ben brings the truck to a screeching stop in a cloud of dust in front of the sign. He looks over at me and says-Remind me to get Joe to fix that sign.

Joe used ample Red paint that had run down from each letter as if written in blood "NO DOGS" I can picture Joe gritting his teeth with glee the whole time he was painting that sign.

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javascript:%20addTag(':(') Gotta tell a Joe Morgan story.

Ben had put up the rotten Beech wing at the entrance and Joe was tasked to add a No Dogs sign to it. Naturally Ben's dog was okay but heck it was a superb rabbit hunter. I still can hear them cry just before mealtime. Anyway, Old Ben and I were headed out to the Mexican restaurant for a pitcher of beer and a giant burrito at lunch time when Ben brings the truck to a screeching stop in a cloud of dust in front of the sign. He looks over at me and says-Remind me to get Joe to fix that sign.

Joe used ample Red paint that had run down from each letter as if written in blood "NO DOGS" I can picture Joe gritting his teeth with glee the whole time he was painting that sign.



Someone also painted on the wing sign “Perris Valley Skydive – Go in here”. :o

Sparky
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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Hi 33Z,
Well, ya' made it to the packing area with yours. I forget who it was now but back in our old Wonderhog daze someone came spiraling out of the sky and when he flared and landed the lines on one of his front riser slacked and fell off the "OPEN!" Rapide link "like yours" and needless to say it scared the HE2xL outa him!! To say your life "hangs" with your gear is an understatement!! If that guy would have pulled off a stall or some other similar manuver the outcome could have been very different!!!!!!
SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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Y'all are scaring me all over again!

I guess I'm going to have to eventually post a few.

Someone here has their signature as "the dudiest skydiver" or sumsuch. Me, I'm thinking, I should should make mine "the scarediest skydiver".

If I got down and saw that 'beaner, I would have had a meltdown. Or two.

lisa

p.s. Help would be appreciated in spelling "scared-e-est" :)

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

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Hi Lisa,
So was that you that fired off the wart at 'bout ground level and scared yourself and bob B' also?? Well, tell the story!! If you could pull that off, then ya' gotta have some doozies in yer locker!!! No shit there I waz....(wherez' the beer!!).
SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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Bill,

Nope,

Sorry, if I implied that earlier up thread. I was a student at Elsinore in '78, not Perris. Fortunately, I never had any close encounters(with the ground ;-), EVER.

There was another Lisa about that time that ended up on the edge of the sewage treatment plant. I showed up the next weekend and everyone I saw thought that was me. Kinda weird, showing up and everyone thought I bounced.

lisa

My other stories will have to wait till I'm not falling asleep
lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

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There was another Lisa about that time that ended up on the edge of the sewage treatment plant. I showed up the next weekend and everyone I saw thought that was me. Kinda weird, showing up and everyone thought I bounced.


Hello nice lady

Read your post about peeps getting confused when they see dead people walking;)

About 20+ yr's ago due to the Local DZ conditions My wife and I took the ride to LP to check it out. No Possee just one jumper and a great wife:)

When we showed up at the local DZ with the video of the after hours entertainment at the bar and Maybe the campfire (OLD) and I don't really need to look at the video's it was that much fun. Some of the locals decided to make the trip to LP. (think pre internet)

Me bad I should have kept my mouth shut. Some person has that opens high enough find them selves in a situation puts them in a slow turn and decides that rather than cutaway they (gender neutral) can counter act the turn by using the breaks on the opposing side. When it was time to landand the jumper let up on the breaks for landing and ended up with a unintential hook turn since the origional problem had never been corrected.

The result was a very major injury. I was in the back of the bus I saw the crowd gathering around the injured person that just happened to be wearing the same color jump suit as mine. There was nothing I could do i just landed away from the injured party Pat Hayter:) was already there and the sounds i heard from the injured jumper[:/].

When I get back to my wife:) she tells me that she's reading her book in her lawn chair and notices some of folks from our local DZ hanging around and asking her if she wants to sit with them.:S

Why? becuase they thought it could have been me and wanted to comfort her just in case it was actually her husband.:S

My Wife:) got >:(>:(>:(. Something along the lines of "I'm reading my book and you want to interupt me just because you think it could be my husband:S

Attend to the injured party get their butt to the Hospital asap If it is my husband and he's still alive when He get to the hospital then come back and tell me so i can visit the dumb ass in the hospital. If he's dead, no rush he's not going anywhere . Now please leave me alone so I can get back to my bookB|

Lucky for the injured party we had Mr Steve Splatt with us that was a emt/paramedic? had lots of first responder experiece a real pro and a hell of a nice guy.

The Dr's OTOH were not ER docs mabe a obgyn, gas man whatever so Mr Splatt took charge, Call the chopper. asap Do this this and this.

The jumper was rushed to the OR due to the extensive the injuries and died on the opeating table when their aorata burst. So they were able to save her life IMO due to Mr Splatts quick action.

It was another day ar work for Steve Splatt :)and just another day at the DZ for my wife :)
except for the dumb ass's who interrupted her just in case.:)
FWIW my wife :) was/is a non jumper had a lot of DZ time and seen a lot of dumb shit due to operator error.

I don't know if it qualifes as a scary story fom the old days only 20+ years old and just another day at the DZ .

FWIW I've noticed this thread is slowly catching up with the DB Cooper.B|

One Jump Wonder

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Hello, nice gentleman,

I'm so confused right now.

"The jumper was rushed to the OR due to the extensive the injuries and died on the opeating table when their aorata burst. So they were able to save her life IMO due to Mr Splatts quick action."

So I guess that gender neutral was a her? Is she ok? (I'm not always a nice lady; sometimes a bitch) ;)

Pretty much the only thing I know is: IF I HAD A NAME LIKE STEVE SPLATT, I WOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER JUMP!

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

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Hello, nice gentleman,

I'm so confused right now.

"The jumper was rushed to the OR due to the extensive the injuries and died on the opeating table when their aorata burst. So they were able to save her life IMO due to Mr Splatts quick action."

So I guess that gender neutral was a her? Is she ok? (I'm not always a nice lady; sometimes a bitch) ;)

Pretty much the only thing I know is: IF I HAD A NAME LIKE STEVE SPLATT, I WOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER JUMP![/rep

Hi Lisa,
"Yer so confused???" Were you talking to Fred Kahl?? and while yer at it, do you remember,"Conrad Frappe???? 'Loved the stories that our late brother Al Frisby told of Conrads' early daze and pre bowling ball speech!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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