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steve1

Scary stories from the old days?

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Sparky,

I finally unearthed the pics; now I just need to figure out how to do the scanny-thing. Oh, and then the attatchy-thing. I never claimed to be savvy in that area (in fact, just the opposite. I even called myself a techno-ignoramus).

I never touched a modern computer before 18 months ago. I'm trying as fast as I can. :)

lisa

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

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Quick and Certain Ways to Scare yourself Shitless
1. Pull below 500 ft. AGL. The world turns into a bowl and its horizon-edges loom ABOVE you. You feel like you are falling into a hole. Ground-Rush is mind-blowing .
2. Try and land a round parachute in winds over 25MPH....backing up so fast you get ground-rush as the earth leaps up over your shoulder and body-slams you like a bug on a windshield.
3. Land a flat-circular round 24' reserve canopy in high winds in a busy city, full parking lot, or cemetary crowded with tombstones.
4. Night landings in the rain into residential areas you haven't seen with no lights, no moon and zero visibility..... you'll have absolutely zero clue as to where the ground is or what obstacles lurk you.
Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

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Quick and Certain Ways to Scare yourself Shitless
1. Pull below 500 ft. AGL. The world turns into a bowl and its horizon-edges loom ABOVE you. You feel like you are falling into a hole. Ground-Rush is mind-blowing .
2. Try and land a round parachute in winds over 25MPH....backing up so fast you get ground-rush as the earth leaps up over your shoulder and body-slams you like a bug on a windshield.
3. Land a flat-circular round 24' reserve canopy in high winds in a busy city, full parking lot, or cemetary crowded with tombstones.
4. Night landings in the rain into residential areas you haven't seen with no lights, no moon and zero visibility..... you'll have absolutely zero clue as to where the ground is or what obstacles lurk you.




While those are some very good ways to "Scare yourself Shitless". I think I will do my best to avoid them. Although I have come close to the 4th one. Only it wasn't raining at the time.

The first one would put me about 300 feet or more under ground with today's parachutes.

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4. Night landings in the rain into residential areas you haven't seen with no lights, no moon and zero visibility..... you'll have absolutely zero clue as to where the ground is or what obstacles lurk you.




http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1997052#1997052 ~except it wasn't raining! ;)










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Quick and certain ways to scare yourself shitless if you're a jump pilot.
1. Have the pilot chute from an eager hop and popper in the door come across in front of you while flying, drop over the control column and as you look out the door, you notice almost full line stretch and the pilot chute dangling over the column. Better think quick! And, as you grab the bottom of the pilot chute, lift it over the column and it is snached from your hand by full line stretch. FFFFuuuuucccckkkk
2. While flying a DC-3 load, you get a call from the DZ asking you if you have a tail wheel in your aircraft. Sending the right seat guy back to the back end to check, through 30 jumpers who don't know what the hell he's doing, and when he returns, there is no tail wheel....Better think quick.
3. While climbing to 12.5 in a 182 and doing big circles around the DZ suddenly in your upper windshield you see the rivets of a Cessna 310 flash before your eyes some three feet above you at cruise speed and is gone before you have time to react.. No time to think quick.
4. Landing at night in no moon conditions on an unlit grass strip with one set of headlights showing you where to put down and hoping the guy in the vehicle knows where the fuck to put you. Pucker factor 10.
5. Having an observer who was in the back of a 182 move forward to sit beside you on the floor, and as he passes the air door, catches a pocket in the door opening lever, and as the door pops open
Quote

rips his pocket and wallet off which go out the door as you instantly bank hard left to keep him inside the now gaping opening. Think quick.
Any more out there?

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Woodstock Ct. mid 80's C-182 SLer on the step at 2800'. Whats that? I hear a noise, look around left to right, look at student as JM slaps thigh and yells go. He goes, now I'm looking straight at a Piper Arrow(?) about 50'-100' below just about to fly under me. Fuuuuuccck. Cool picture from the ground, some one saw the near miss unfolding and took a pic. Me, Piper and opening student between us. If student had hesitated for one second he would have hit Piper. Picture spend many years on airport wall, wish I had a copy. Made all announcements to Bradley approach, They said Sorry that they really can't see anything below 3,000" on Radar.

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Post: Quick and certain ways to scare yourself shitless if you're a jump pilot.
1. Have the pilot chute from an eager hop and popper in the door come across in front of you while flying, drop over the control column and as you look out the door, you notice almost full line stretch and the pilot chute dangling over the column. Better think quick! And, as you grab the bottom of the pilot chute, lift it over the column and it is snached from your hand by full line stretch. FFFFuuuuucccckkkk
2. While flying a DC-3 load, you get a call from the DZ asking you if you have a tail wheel in your aircraft. Sending the right seat guy back to the back end to check, through 30 jumpers who don't know what the hell he's doing, and when he returns, there is no tail wheel....Better think quick.
3. While climbing to 12.5 in a 182 and doing big circles around the DZ suddenly in your upper windshield you see the rivets of a Cessna 310 flash before your eyes some three feet above you at cruise speed and is gone before you have time to react.. No time to think quick.
4. Landing at night in no moon conditions on an unlit grass strip with one set of headlights showing you where to put down and hoping the guy in the vehicle knows where the fuck to put you. Pucker factor 10.
5. Having an observer who was in the back of a 182 move forward to sit beside you on the floor, and as he passes the air door, catches a pocket in the door opening lever, and as the door pops open rips his pocket and wallet off which go out the door as you instantly bank hard left to keep him inside the now gaping opening. Think quick.

6. Busy day jump-mastering students...haul in the static-line from the last one on board and bomb out after.
Two seconds out the door ya realize you have on your conventional rig not the hogback...and the reserve is tucked neatly under the pilot seat!










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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This might be scary only cause it is soo dumb.

Sitting in the Melody due to high winds, we look around and decide there is enough for a Beech load as the winds subside. Being a up and coming wannabe I write down all the names and we wander on back to the DZ. Since I had the fewest beers etc. and LLP was known to do a breath check, I was again elected, take the list to manifest. Flo calls Larry to see what he thinks and he peruses the list, sees everyone hanging out at the packing tables and opines, "looks like a pretty good load." Everyone gets their hopes up just as Larry then says
"Too bad you manifested on a bar napkin" DUHHHH!
Back to the Melody.

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2. While flying a DC-3 load, you get a call from the DZ asking you if you have a tail wheel in your aircraft. Sending the right seat guy back to the back end to check, through 30 jumpers who don't know what the hell he's doing, and when he returns, there is no tail wheel....Better think quick.

Was this at Zhils? I think I was on that.

In the mid 70's at Rainbow airport in Wi. A jumper and his college roomate come out to the DZ. The roomy wants to go along for the ride. Frank Youngquist was flying his C196. They go to altitude and everybody gets out, everybody. Including the observer. He only had on the main from a student rig. Frank flew around for a while to calm down and the two guys had beat it by the time he landed. He had not seen him open.
Frank's comment was too bad the guy didn't have on an emergency rig, instead of the student gear.
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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Hi star,

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you get a call from the DZ asking you if you have a tail wheel in your aircraft



Some time in the early '70's at Ted Mayfield's dz at Donald, OR. It was a Sunday, about Noon-ish and we had organized a 3-way to 7500 for the C-170. One guy was rather a 'large' fellow and as we were walking out to the aircraft, Ted said that he would fly the load rather than the pilot who had been flying. The guy who had been flying was a preacher and this was his first day of flying jumpers; Ted had seen that we had this 'large' fellow on the load and, with the rather short runway, decided that he should do it.

As we rolled down the rather short gravel runway with a berm at the end, and with me sitting behind the pilot's seat, the plane began to shudder & shake like a rock in an empty beer can. Ted immediately gave her full power, pulled the tail up, yanked on the yoke to get us airborne ( if somewhat shaky :S ) & off we went. Ted said that something was wrong with the airplane and that we would have to get out at 2500. I was last out & was just about to exit when Ted grabbed me and said to look & see if there was a tail-wheel still on the plane. I bent down & looked back and saw it was still there but only being held by some small cable or something, as it was windmilling pretty good. Ted asked me to keep an eye on it when he came into land so that he could retrieve it. I jumped, Ted came in with the tail up for as long as he could, the tail-wheel went flying and we went off to get it.

Just another fun day at the dz. :P

JerryBaumchen

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It was at the Hills Jack, during the turkey meet I believe......the three climbed to altitude and released the jumpers but had to do a no wheel landing...it did okay until it lost rudder and slowly veered off the runway to the left dong a small and dusty ground loop before stopping.
Manifest got all the jumpers to go over to it and actually picked up the tail, others on the fuselage and main gear and pushed the damn thing over to Porter's hangar where another wheel was installed so it could continue carrying loads....was likely in 70 or 71,,,,

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I was on that load. Everyone was geekin' the rear gear as they left the plane, not paying attention to the dive. Didn't they put the tail gear on a mattress or something to carry it over there? It was like a bunch of ants moving a hot dog. I wonder if there is any film of it?
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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All I can remember was some farmer showing up with the tail wheel in the back of his pickup truck over at Porter's hangar.
Word has it he was out plowing his field on a tractor and saw it plummet down and thump in front of him, he dragged it back to his farm, loaded it up and brought it to Porter.
Perhaps Bob or Richard can be more helpful in the true story of what happened.
I know Porter called the jump center about it and they, probably Jeff, called the aircraft to see if it was them. It was.
Apparently there is a large retainer ring on the tail gear, allowing the inside shaft to pivot for steering and that had given way and caused it to drop out.

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I jumped, Ted came in with the tail up for as long as he could, the tail-wheel went flying and we went off to get it.

Just another fun day at the dz. :P

JerryBaumchen


.........................................................................
Does anyone else have any Ted Mayfield stories? I never jumped at Donald, but I did make some at Sheridan. Ted was a character to say the least....Some of his stories did not have a happy ending.

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The guy that told this story to me owns a couple DZ's in Florida. I suspect it could have happened....

Many years ago Ted was in the process of buying an airplane in Alaska. The deal was sealed verbally, and Ted flew to Alaska to get the plane. The only problem was that the seller changed his mind about selling.

Ted pulled a gun, and this quickly changed the guy's mind. Papers were signed and Ted flew his new airplane back to Oregon. Anyone else heard that story?

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I paid $10 for an airplane altimeter and duct taped it to my harness. Bill Newell published a periodical for a while and a cover picture shows it dangling clearly visible from a photographers viewpoint below me as i go thru a hula hoop. Anyway.

About ground rush.

The AFF crowd rarely need worry about this phenomena, but I was taught to pull immediately should this happen to me for I would be about 1000 feet AGL in dire need of a deceleration device other than terra firma. We did static line at 2000± and clear and pulls 3000 or so so it seemed to be a level one might naturally need to be familiar with! One day I decided ground rush was to no longer be a mysterious phenomena. After a botched three way attempt from the Cessna I waited to see if the established accounts were accurate. Sure enough at about 1000 feet there was a distinct change from the normal freefall sight picture to very abrupt perception of the ground coming at me and the horizon on either side being above not even. Satisfied. I deployed my main and landed uneventfully but somewhat off the target.

Wellll, Ed Armstrong being the owner of the DZ's son and sort of safety guy observed this stunt. He waits for me to get to the truck and in his slow drawl asks how high I got open. 2000' says I having already been taught that is the only right answer to the query. No more was said and on the next three way attempt Fast Eddie was now one of the participants(BTW he was a former Golden Knight) I was fascinated by his thongs actually flip flopping as he dived past me to pin the guy that missed pinning me(low man is Base was the standard then) Following his example I then managed to get to the two way but stopped too soon. Since it was 2500' we broke off and as I waved off there was Fast Eddie directly above me. 1500' he was still there. At a grand I flipped him off and dumped as he whistled past and opened below me. This uncalled for outrageous behavior disturbed me somewhat so I when I got to the truck I opined as how if he was so concerned about my opening altitude why did he take me down to a grand? Eddie says in his easy going slow drawl" I just wanted to see if you really knew where you were at."

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Hi steve,

Quote

Ted was a character to say the least....



What do you mean 'was,' he's still alive & kicking as always.

Quote

Many years ago Ted was in the process of buying an airplane in Alaska. The deal was sealed verbally, and Ted flew to Alaska to get the plane. The only problem was that the seller changed his mind about selling.

Ted pulled a gun, and this quickly changed the guy's mind. Papers were signed and Ted flew his new airplane back to Oregon. Anyone else heard that story?



I never heard about any gun; but he did buy a Twin Beech in Alaska. He took a Beech mechanic/driver with him to bring it back. On the way, they lost an engine & they thought that they might have to put down in the boonies but they spotted an airstrip & landed. The mechanic had to get back home so he got a ride to somewhere to buy an airline ticket & Ted stayed with the plane. So he had the mechanic order a replacement engine & had it shipped up to Ted. Since $$$ was tight, Ted slept in the plane & worked on it during the day. He said that the mosquitos were worse than in Texas on a summer evening, but he chugged on. He had borrowed some tools from a local and stayed with the swap. He finally got the new engine hung and flew'er home.

Ted & I travelled to the ParaPioneers get-together in Tucson back in '02. He is a great travelling companion & he 'never' runs out of stories. :P

I can honestly say, that for those who were never there; the stories about his dz's are legendary & all true. You had to be there to believe them.

A while back I was emailing Bob Johns up in Alaska & I mentioned to him about the infamous trip back from Tahlequah & Bob's only comment was, 'Every word is true!'

JerryBaumchen

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Hi steve,

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You couldn't help but like the guy.



I have always thought that this is the most amazing thing about the guy. He is probably the most likeable guy that I have ever met. He is a complete & total optimist.

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Is he still on the city council in Sheridan?



No, he married a woman from the Phoenix, AZ area & they spend about 1/2 of the year down there. He could not keep up with the city council work and be gone so much.

Quote

Is it true that Ted once had a stolen aircraft for a jump plane?



I do not know. I do know that he was convicted of interstate transportation of a stolen airplane; he served time in the federal penetentiary at McNeil Island, WA for that one.

I think I've told this one before but here goes again: While he was at McNeil Island he got on the garbage detail and they would truck the garbage to the mainland ( via ferry ), as McNeil Island is really an island. Then the late Lenny Aikens ( of Skydive Kapowsin fame ) would get there early & stow a jug of booze so Ted could pick it up while dumping the garbage; and the crew in the pen would have something to drink. :P

JerryBaumchen

PS) When he built the building for the dz at Sheridan, OR he had this real wide pull down stairs installed so he could have access to all of the old gear that he would store up in the attic. These pulldown stairs were somewhat like a drawbridge in that they did not fold up/fold down, they just came down fully extended. Some of the dz bums would put pieces of plywood up there, over the rafters, and then lay down a mattress and that is where they slept. Well during parties, it was not uncommon to see some gal & guy sorta disappear up those stairs ( for what reason, I have not a clue ;) ). One Saturday evening the beer was flowing pretty good, the music was playing; a typical Saturday night at the dz. Well, one gal & guy go up the stairs. A few minutes later this completely nude female body comes crashing down through the ceiling; and then she stopped as she was suspended by some remaining sheetrock & she was hanging, completely exposed, up to her armpits. Of course she was yelling & screaming; then someone goes over & starts tickeling her in her crotch area ( :) ) and that got her really kicking around. Finally, she falls completely from the ceiling and if looks could kill I would not be posting this story. She stormed out of the building, got into her car & we never saw her again. I will assume that she must have had a spare set of keys in the car and she was a naked as the day she was born the last that I saw of her.

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That's a funny one Jerry. I remember jumping at Sheridan when they were hanging the sheetrock for that addition. Jack Christopher was one of the jumpers I jumped with, back then. Elevator was flying the Beech. What a great place to jump!

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