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steve1

Scary stories from the old days?

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Z-Hills, C-47, Wing War days. The rear floater jumpsuit (inseam-cuff hem junction) gets pushed back between the door and the airframe. Ready, set. go everyone leaves and the floater is hanging upside down.



That was one of the incidents reconstructed in 'Dead Men's Tales'. Well worth a watch if you can get hold of it - dramatisations of miraculous parachuting and skydiving escapes, and it's pretty well made. I remember the story that you're talking about included an interview with Jim Hooper who I believe was the owner at the time.

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I've seen many "Mae Wests". For u youngsters thats when the main & reserve chute are open then twist about & u crash to the ground I grew up at the dropzones & seeing the mangled bodies was pretty gruesome. Some lived some died. Thats why I have one jump...... at age 16 I went for it, had a minor malfunction & the weather decided I shouldn't try again. My how the sport has progressed!

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A MaeWest was named after a famous actress with big boogs (if I remember right) her name was May West.

It can happen on either the main or reserve. A line goes over the top creating two big lobes.

The army started using netting on the bottom of the canopy to help with this line over problem (on static line jumps).

You used to see a fair number of MaeWest malfunctions with the old round canopies. A friend of mine even rode one in, without serious injury. Maybe the snowbank he landed in helped with that....

I'm sure others can add to this.

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I've seen many "Mae Wests". For u youngsters that's when the main & reserve chute are open then twist about & u crash to the ground I grew up at the dropzones & seeing the mangled bodies was pretty gruesome. Some lived some died. Thats why I have one jump...... at age 16 I went for it, had a minor malfunction & the weather decided I shouldn't try again. My how the sport has progressed!




Ummm...that's not really what a Mae West is. :)




;)~ But hey ya know what, it's an understandable and all too often made mistake...I know the type you are confusing it with, and no doubt the minor malfunction you had as a youth would be considered something of a MAJOR Malfunction...at least by any REAL old timers in this thread. :)



What drop-zone did you 'grow up' at?

Just curious...because it 'sounds' like it was The Pecos Parachute School.

Just sayin'~ seeing as how all the 'many' Mae Wests & mangled bodies ya witnessed as a youth REALLY would have made the 'news' before now...that is IF it happened anywhere other than Pecos.

Those guys were outlaws in the game, ran a pretty loose operation but managed to keep it under the wire and off the BIG screen for a long time!B|

IIRC even the diver-driver was a DGIT! :S










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

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hi ripcord......the accuracy of the "Mae West" is an "old school" term that is a fact. When both the "old" military round chutes were deployed because the main chute didn't release then the reserve deployed & tangled with the main it would look like two giant boobs descending from the ground perspective. I grew up surrounded by those great pioneers that designed those wing suits which we called those crazy "bell bottom" suits & when Perry started experimenting with different chute designs, he wore a lot of casts. I grew up surrounded by the FIRST USA flight team. I don't remember their names, but I have the pix & the memories :)

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hi airtwardo.....(sry to call u ripcord, name i saw a btm of screen) ....gotta luv technology.....hit send & get disconnected....i'll try again
Those winged fly suits used now were called those crazy "bell bottom" suits. If u went over 10,000' u were limitied to 2 jumps, weather permitting. Freefalling was still in its trials. If u had over 500 jumps (non military counted) u were a stud! A great comparison is Evil Knevil...if his bikes had the technology they do today..........get it?
Oh & big screen.........those were for movies:)

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A pasted post I put in another thread discussing 'Crabby Pilots'...Yeah I've met several, heck even married one! :ph34r:;) (just kiddin' hon!)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


We were jumping an air show in Mansfield, Ohio years ago...only available aircraft with a qualified and semi-willing pilot was a Cherokee 6.

The guy said he had lots of diver-driver experience and 'had seen it all'...we thoroughly brief the pilots flying us for demos anyway, just in case. >:(

Mr. Pilot did about as well as could be expected, kinda hard to set up the spot with the low-wing, small door & all kinds of demo junk hanging off ya...timing is critical at shows and there was a bit of stress communicating back forth during the opening act, less so for the mid-show jump.

Then came the Night Pyro Jump B|

...four LARGE guys with 80+ pounds of bombs strapped all over 'em, hot & muggy, short strip, night time, everybody is tired...what could possibly go wrong? :)

We gear up an hour and a half prior to take off and practice everything.

Even just simply moving inside the aircraft, doing gear checks, arming the pyro prior to exit, various night demo specific EP's like when we simulate one or more bombs going off in the cabin ...and who does what when where & how.

We've done this drill countless times, so it goes fairly quick.

I can see the pilot watchin' from outside and his eyebrows are going ever higher with each disaster scenario we act out...:o:S:D


I work to calm his nerves sayin' stuff like ~

The skydiver exploding INSIDE the airplane almost never happens...anymore! :$



Everyone is all squared away, sittin' up & belted down as we get ready to crank and taxi.

...immediately after the mag check, I give the team a 'spark clips out and on' command.

We ground ourselves to the aircraft, cheap insurance with electrically fired pyro...B|

The pilot looks over at me in absolute HORROR...questioning if a ~

"Static charge can ignite those?"



"In theory I guess yeah, never really wanted to prove it though..." I told him. :)

He stood on the binders hard, right there on the taxiway...screaming~

"Everybody Stay Where They ARE!"

~as he switched the spinner off, set the brakes and steps outside...

"FUCK THIS!" ~ is all I hear, and HE IS fast walkin' the center-line down & away with purpose and intent... to say the least. >:(



Inside the airplane it's crickets...total silence from all of us.

Until the spotter aft whispers up front~

Hey Twardo,..ummm.... I don't think he's comin' BACK! :o



Crabby bastard DIDN'T! :|


~Guess he hadn't really SEEN IT ALL... after all!! ;)











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

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Tell us more about that Pecos D. Z....Airtwardo.

The wildest place I heard of was Casa Grande or better named the "Gulch". Was Pecos worse than that? I'm getting scared just thinking about it. This is almost as good as listening to ghost stories;)

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Last I heard, some folks wanted to rename the Mae West as a Dolly Parton.




These dayz I'm afraid we're gonna have to name it after a popular Bimbo that's sportin' Square Tits that Spin!

Coming soon to a DZ bonfire near you...

Braggin' rights for successfully surviving a 'Lady Ga Ga'! B|










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

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You are quite a character! & that is a compliment :)
Okay.......here's a scary story I witnessed & fortunately my dad was not flying the plane.....very short runway in Antioch & it was a B something & loaded with 10 jumpers...all that ground rehearsal was gonna be done in he sky but the plane crashed into the hill at at the end of the runway...........good ending tho......all lived!! (except the plane

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Hi pchapman, gotta say......ur too young sportin ur square chute....do u know what a PLF is? (nobody help him) :) Weren't a lot of tech terms back then but that was one along with Mae...& yes I heard that Dolly was a runner up but Mae was first :)



Hi BirdBoy, Yeah I know... I get that 'quite a character' stuff a lot...:$ At least I think that's what they said...tough to really tell when they're spittin teeth I guess...>:(

Gotta say...I started jumping 37 years ago, and still do regularly to this day...face it, like every other Skydiving 'Tourist' ya got ONE jump story to tell, and at is point it's starting to sound like you'll probably get it wrong...:ph34r:



Like most of the old farts that follow this thread, I too have hundreds & hundreds of jumps on old round military canopies...

I was a static instructor at he age of 18, I actually taught so many students on that type of equipment that demonstrating PLF's & holding a dope roped 4-pin with one foot on a Cessna step, paid my way through college.

I know what a fuckin' Mae West is...:S

What I don't know is just who it was that told you that two canopies deployed is called that exclusively...but rest assured, they were wrong then and you're wrong now.

Perhaps 'they' were going off a different book than every other instructor on the planet, or could be your memory is fuzzy from all the skydiving you almost did...but either way little bird, might not be the best idea to keep layin' little eggs in a Vipers playground.
;)

~Just sayin' :)










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~
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I have the Army Field Manual for paratroop jumpers and it shows a picture (drawing) of a line over and specifically names it a Mae West - for obvious reasons. And, that's what we were taught in Army paratroop school at Fort Benning in 1964. Also Bud Sellick's book of about 1960 or 1961 so names it. Main/reserve entanglement with round canopies named a Mae West? Nope.
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Hi Jimmy,
'Just love yer last paragraph,... the whole post really,...."....or could be your memory is fuzzy from all the skydiving you almost did... but either way little bird, might not be the best idea to keep layin' little eggs in a Vipers playground." It is time for Junior Barnes to concede his error!! "Jimmy the Viper" has spoken!!
SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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I really think the admn's here should implement a "like" button. I would then have to go through the entire thread and hit a lot of "like" 's.

Though may be the oldtimers providing us with these stories might have a problem understanding the "like" concept =P
"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return." - Da Vinci
www.lilchief.no

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Tell us more about that Pecos D. Z....Airtwardo.

The wildest place I heard of was Casa Grande or better named the "Gulch". Was Pecos worse than that? I'm getting scared just thinking about it. This is almost as good as listening to ghost stories;)




The Pecos Parachute School was the DZ in Fandango ... 'Big Screen' YouTube documentary of daze gone past. ;)










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

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