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steve1

Scary stories from the old days?

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hardarch

Here's kind of a scary story - in a video...

Two tandems going up and the plane looses power at 700 feet AGL...forced landing....at a NEARBY RC FLYING FIELD yet.
Check out the vegetation caught in the landing gear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyoAMuXIXXM

Repost and it ain't OLD DAYS http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4704062;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

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akarunway

***Here's kind of a scary story - in a video...

Two tandems going up and the plane looses power at 700 feet AGL...forced landing....at a NEARBY RC FLYING FIELD yet.
Check out the vegetation caught in the landing gear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyoAMuXIXXM

Repost and it ain't OLD DAYS http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4704062;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

oops. Sorry. Not old days....
But it IS an "Old" post...............LOL

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Bobutt

I borrowed Dirty Billy Bishops (deceased) Security rig for my first hogback jump. Opening shock disconnected both leg straps! Darn quick disconnects. Fortunately he had sewn a piece of webbing to the leg straps for a seat. It caught me at the knees. I landed on my butt. Painful, but better than the alternative. 41 years later, I still double check my leg straps even with a step in harness before going out the door.

Dirty Billy was a piece of work. His Dad had one of the first ever computers from Caltech in the basement.
Dirty was in the Beech and needed to relieve himself. A real problem for him. So he goes to the door and proceeds to get only most of the liquid out in the windstream. With an approving nod from Poteet , he got a kick in the pants from Dennis ? and entered freefall with his member in the off hand and a loose legstrap. Decisions decisions. Poor guy, got thrown from a car in Mexico and was literally plowed into the ground by a passing farmers plow.


Hi Bob Butt (and MJ),
"Dirty Billy" What a guy!!
Made some jumps with him on 4th of July weekend at Parker AZ "1975" To start with Don Hansen organized the "Event" we had a Premo Beech 18 (H) model from Leo Pike , an Airmail contract pilot from Bakersfield!! (H) model had the stretched (Higher) cabin interior and would climb like a home sick angel!! We took off from Chino that Saturday morning after we got some breakfast at "Flow's!!" then on to Parker! Since "Dirty Billy" "Knew" the area at Parker, "He Spotted!!" Mistake #1 !! Got under canopy, Airport? what airport? Oh That's it over there.....on the horizon!!! Oh! that was just the beginning of a "Fun!" weekend! At least I got a "Splashdown"(Sat. sunset) in the middle of the Colorado River in front of the Blue Water Marina under my 28' LL get picked up by a ski boat that we got to help us out, as I came up the ladder this dude shoves a "Ice Cold Budweiser!!" into my grubby fist!! What a water jump!! Thx for the spot Billy!! Some of the people there that weekend, Me, My (Ex) Chris, Chuck Knight, Chet Bennett, Jay Mejia, Dirty Billy, Don Hansen (organizer,) Madam Salley and others, have o dig out my logs to be sure who else!...............
RIP Billy!!
SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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mjosparky

Quote

I may fly like a Man Hole Cover~



But a "Man Hole Cover" with "Cool". After all, you have been to Kill Devil Hills.B|

Sparky

Hi Spark,
As an old resident of the "Eastern Carolinas" for a few years, I "hear tell" of why they called it "Kill Devil Hills." It seems the old "Rum Runners" usedta' bring up their contraband cargo up on them thar hills. "RUM" that "elixir" of the Gods was "nick named" "Kill Devil" as it was suppose to "Kill The Devil in ya'!!!!!" 'Drank enough of it, I should know!!!"
"Cuba Libre's para tu!!!"
III%
SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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Spooky52

I'm from North Carolina and had never heard an explanation for the name Kill Devil Hill.



From Wikipedia:
"The name Kill Devil Hills dates back to the Colonial era. Shipwrecks were common at the time, and many of the ships were transporting barrels of rum. When a ship foundered, local wreckers would scavenge what they could of the ship's cargo before it sank, hiding their pilfered rum behind, and sometimes in, the same large sand dunes where the Wright Brothers would later perform glider tests, before flying their first plane from level ground nearby. Since rum was called "Kill Devil," by the English, at the time, the dunes became known as "Kill Devil Hills."

You gotta wonder if some of those barrels are still in there...

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It's taken months, hours and hours of what could have been productive time at work and here I am, at the end of 60 pages of fantastic stories. :(

I'mma give this thread a shameless bump. There is just far too much gold in here for it to be stuck dusting over on page 3. Hopefully the statute of limtations will have run out on some more of Twardo's stories.

Also, really sorry if I got the hopes up of anyone seeing this thread back in red at the top of page 1. Fingers crossed someone will add some more scary stories!

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About 93-94 at Parachutes & Associates in Indiana I was watching over a sl/jm in training. We had one 1st ripcord pull going out then following a 30 sec. delay from a C182. I was the hop n pops jm for the previous two prcp's and she had done great both times earlier that day. So I'm kneeling behind the jm in training watching him put the 1st student out and the 30 sec. delay is seated behind the pilot. He tells her to go and she immediately flips on to her back and starts to spin. The assistant jm starts yelling pull pull as we are both leaning out the door watching. Next thing you know we are both yelling f--king pull at the top of our lungs!! Finally after what seemed like an eternity, she pulls on her back and it comes out as a line over!! So now our screams go from pull pull to cut away cut away. Luckily she had the sense to chop it right away and landed a round reserve in a parking lot. That's when we realized we still had another student on board... Lmao, you should of seen the look on his face when we turned around. We got him calmed down and went on to do a successful 30 sec. delay and he later ended up making 1000+ jumps and became a great friend. The lady got off pretty lucky. She broke her ankle landing in the parking lot and never returned. He told me later on in his jumping career that he almost told us he wasn't going to jump and quit right there on the spot.[:/]

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I will try and pick my dads memory as he has quite a few, but here is one I remember. Its 1979 and he is putting out a bunch of sl students from a c 180 tail dragger in Otay now Skydive San Diego. This guy was a 6'2" 240 lb hard charging, motivated Marine that did not quite fit on the strut/ under the wing very well. There was no step on the wheel strut so you just stood on the wheel while the pilot held the brakes. So the pilot gives a cut and the guy climbs out, and my dad yells, GOOOO! The guy doesnt budge. So dad Yells again, GGGOOOOOOO!!! and smacks him on the ass, again ,nothing. So now the pilot is loosing airspeed and starting to loose altitude and tells my dad, "Teague get this guy off my plane" and my dad tells the pilot "let go of the brakes". So the pilot releases the brakes and this guy goes into treadmill mode doing his best 6 million dollar man impersonation. Finally he cant hold on and lets go and promptly bounces his face and front of his open face old school motorcycle helmet off the wheel, which throws him in a back flip, so my dad short ropes him and the canopy deployed through his legs but worked itself out.

I run over as usual to help to help gather up the gear and point him in the direction to go. I notice his helmet is cocked to one side with what was a black smudge on it. He thought that was the best thing ever. When he got to my dad he thought the jump went "BITCHIN". After my dad showed him his helmet it was apparent that the jump was not as "BITCHIN" as he thought.

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I guess I was lucky; I found that if I hit them hard enough on the leg, and yelled loud enough, they went.

I might have spent longer on the ground with my students, but I always figured that was an investment in an easy exit. Luckily I was at a DZ that was an early adopter of AFF also, so they understood the value of time with the students on the ground.

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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wmw999

I guess I was lucky; I found that if I hit them hard enough on the leg, and yelled loud enough, they went.

I might have spent longer on the ground with my students, but I always figured that was an investment in an easy exit. Luckily I was at a DZ that was an early adopter of AFF also, so they understood the value of time with the students on the ground.

Wendy P.




With the couple of students who "froze" on the step, I applied my foot to their hip and moved their cg out till they "decided" to go. With AFF, during the "up, down, ..." some gentle pressure out will move the cg without them knowing and them it's only a few inches to freefall so never a problem there.
Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

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I will ask the old fart but I am pretty sure it was the 180. It was white and the only other plane I remember Jim MacDonald had(pre Muma) was the 182 and it was brown with a yellow stripe and had tricycle gear and a small a step half way down the wheel strut. My dad bought both of them in 1980 and started a small DZ in Ramona. Every time we fired up the 180 it would back fire one time then start, but would always start the grass on fire so I always had to watch the start up with a fire extinguisher and put the grass out.

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Ok heres a real scary one. I only wish I wrote as well as twardo.

Its 1982 and dad is doing a demo at El Toro air show at the military base. He was the part of the show that demonstrated the differences in fall rate(pre FF) and dad being 6' and 230 he has no problem falling like a greased safe full of nickles. So him and another guy who's name I cant recall at the moment, but apparently is light in the ass, so he is supposed to get out a imitate a star fish with one of those 80's balloon suits and my dad has on some coverall type jumpsuit(less drag,like he needed help) and gets into a mean delta. They pop smoke and exit together and the show starts. Now mind you my grand mother on my dads side has finally decide to watch her son skydive and do it at a huge demo. He has done many demo's including this one before, but MURPHY, you know the law maker has decided to attend this time.

After about 20 seconds dad checks his altitude with his chest mount alti, 6000 ft, ok 2000 more and time to flare and deploy. When he checks his alti again, now it reads 3000 ft, (still in his delta track), OH shit. So he starts to pull out of the dive and as he does he watches his alti jump from 3000 to 1500'. So he dumps(when in doubt whip it out I think was the saying). Apparently he was in doubt. At his speed he broke several lines and before it finished becoming a ball of laundry, he was already going for plan B.

He went out of sight behind a tall hangar in the distance and was still in freefall from our perspective. He said the reserve( a round) opened and oscillated one time to the side and he landed.

He was just outside the military property, and some kid comes riding up on a dirt bike and says" that was kool mister" and he ask"which way to the base?" and the kid points and says" hop on I will give ya a ride". So down the RR tracks they go till he sees a hangar on the other side of this chain link fence with razor wire. As he pulls up he sees a fire truck and some fire men setting up a ladder. They are shocked to see him up right and still sucking wind. So he climbs over and hi tails it to the line up just in time with the MC, Roger Henry also the air wing commander at El Toro(and a skydiver) rolls with it and continues to introduce all the participants with out a hitch.

What had happened with his alti was a low pressure burble that it was in that broke when he rolled out of the dive.

Come to find out my grand mother past out in the stands and needed medical attention.

He is one jump shy of having an A license under reserves, and 95% of those were on demo jumps. He used to say his canopy must have been crowd shy.

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So I talk to the old man today and he says the 182 had a step on the wheel strut, and the 180(eight zero charlie) had bigger tires on it to handle the rough dirt runway and students would reach out with their left foot first then grab the wing strut and pull them selves out.

So dad is not much of an internet/computer guy so I cant get him to tell these stories but he has no problem retelling them to me. I was at the dz for most of these but being a young kid my memory of the details is not accurate from my POV. So I will try to keep them as accurate as I can from the recent reiteration.

Circa 1975ish at Otay some people where trying to get certified or recertified for either a license or to keep a rating and back then water training meant you did a controlled water jump, no heated pool at local instructors house.

So the old man was the JM for a load of people making intentional water landing. The city would not let them land in Otay lakes so they went a couple miles east of the DZ to a smaller lake.

About an hour before the jump Mike Dominiky, not sure on the spelling of the last name,anyway, he was a single leg amputee at the knee, walks up and ask my dad if he can get on the water jump to tr-certify, and my dad says no prob, where is your flotation device? Mike says I dont have one do you have one I can barrow? My dad says no I lent them all out to the other people on the load. He tells Mike, get a flotation device and come see me.

So little later every one is gearing up and loading the plane, and Mike comes running up all geared up and ready to get on the plane. My dad asks him"Mike where is your flotation device?" and Mike sits down in the door way of the plane as the pilot starts up the plane and starts to unscrew his prosthesis and takes it off and hands it to my dad, asking him to hold it. My dad says "are you taking this off cuz you dont want to get it wet?" and Mike says "no" and puts it under his arm and says " this is my flotation device"

My dad cant believe this and says" a coast guard approved one".Mike says" this one is better, its nature approved, its wood".Apparently he made the jump some how. Nick D and or his girl friend at the time, Karen, were in the water in a boat as the recovery crew.


Again circa 78ish one weekend a guy showed up at the DZ in Otay and was thinking about taking the FJC s/l and was asking about the price. It was about 75 bucks. Apparently that was a little to expensive for him so he said no thanks. Then he notices a sign that advertises observer rides for 10 bucks.

So he signs the waiver and gets an old seat pack type emergency rig and up he goes. I think my dad said it was a beech 18. So a couple of small RW groups go and my dad is by the door checking the spot for his group, when all of a sudden some guy shoves my dad out of the way and does his best 10 way speed star exit and goes ass over tea kettle. So my dad and every one still on the plane crowd the door to see how this movie will play out as they all realize who just left the plan, yep the observer decided how hard can this be, I got this.

After a couple of somersaults he manages to deploy the T-10 and it some how comes out with out a hitch.

By the time he walks in from landing pretty far away, dad and his group are standing around the packing tables and watch this guy walk in with his arms full of this T-10. One of the instructors on the DZ (dad cant remember his name) walks up and punches the guy right in the chops and lays him out. When he gets up he walks over to drop of the equipment where he got it from, and here comes old man MacDonald(DZO) and asks him"what the hell are you doing?" and before he can finish answering, old man MacDonald gives him round two, pow down and out again. He tells him get off my property and dont ever come back.

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so there I was and this is no shit.....sitting in the door of a one eighty two, I think stinky was in the pilot seat if I remember right. I got a dozen long stem roses in a box taped securely you me, mid chest to right knee and a teddy bear taped to my chest and a prototype Pd 190 on my back. I think I could have still got to the reserve handle if I needed to......so I'm checking my spot with no wind drift indicator (to much stuff to hit with it) giving stinky corrections, at about 6000' give or take I glance at my "out" which is the cemetery, figured I could land my round reserve there pretty good if I needed, I leave the plane and right away I have trouble getting stable cause that damn box won't let me bend my body the right way, before things get to out of hand I pull and everything comes out good, got time to set up and bleed off altitude so I'm looking and planning annddd what are those cars doing driving into the parking lot I'm supposed to land in.....where the hell is my ground crew for traffic control.....shit are the really gonna park there......ok people moving cars good....fuck I'm coming in hot and a little high.....shit.....left toggle turn....deep right toggle....whats my canopy doing down there......swing under...full brakes with arm extensions deployed I think about three feet....slide on feet on gravel and run out about ten steps annnndddd stop.....deliver roses and teddy bear and head for car to get a drink.......gotta quit scaring myself like that ya know....
Experience is a difficult teacher, she gives you the test first and the lesson afterward

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