yamtx73 0 #751 February 12, 2007 Airtwardo.. the consumate story teller once again amuses us with his "Tales from the Dark Side".... Great story 'twardoThe only naturals in this sport shit thru feathers... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve1 5 #752 February 12, 2007 QuoteYou make the kind of stupid shit we did sound so much more interesting than I remember it as being Wendy W. ............................................. Isn't it a wonder, we've all lived this long!.....If it wasn't for people doing stupid shit, life wouldn't be any fun....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tempretired 0 #753 February 12, 2007 I was a plane Loader / Bus Loader at the 1993 Herd Boogie. The old DC-3 was at the boogie and was taking off out of a local asphalt runway airport. So, a shuttle bus was needed to get to the airport. I was still a student at the time but helping as a loader. As I was loading the bus, some of the long time Herd memebers, wanted to board the bus for the jump with pitchers, mugs, cans, and bottles of booze. I thought I'd be the authority and tell them that they couldn't board the bus or drink while skydiving. The laughed at me and called me some names that I'd never heard of. I yelled to the UPC president for some help and he told me to let them do whatever they wanted. They kept laughing as the boarded and didn't hesitate to tell me that they were stopping a "Our Place" (a local bar) for another shot and a beer. About an hour later, the DC-3 let out its group. One of the guys landed directly on the grass runway with an Otter coming in to land. As I was yelling at him to get off the runway, he was pulling a beer out of his jumpsuit. He turned around, saw the Otter, and ran as fast as he could to get off the runway. He thanked me and got on the next load. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bozo 0 #754 February 12, 2007 QuoteI was a plane Loader / Bus Loader at the 1993 Herd Boogie. -------------------------------------------------------- Tie up the dogs and hide the women...here comes the Herd ! bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites airtwardo 6 #755 February 13, 2007 Tie up the women and hide the DOGS! ...here comes the Herd. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites bozo 0 #756 February 13, 2007 QuoteTie up the women and hide the DOGS! ...here comes the Herd. I had to go dig out my tshirt and check it. LOL bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites kkeenan 13 #757 February 13, 2007 QuoteTie up the women and hide the DOGS! ...here comes the Herd. It was always a hoot when The Herd came to Fla. for the ZHills Boogies. One year they had a carbide cannon made from a set of milk cans welded together. They put the carbide in one of the cans, hammered the 8-10 lb. lid on it and lit it off. It was a pretty exciting cloudy-day diversion. They had to quit that day after they put the lid through a guy's windshield, and later sent someone to the hospital with a concussion after a head strike. Kevin_____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites NewGuy2005 51 #758 February 15, 2007 Quote ~~~THESE ARE the good old dayz! They are for me!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #759 February 15, 2007 yeah........a real hoot.....like the time they put jerry irwins eye out with a bottle rocket.a real "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull .they visited our drop zone (which was doing a runway expansion)the herd members took it upon themselves to start up the construction machinery and put it in gear and jump off,leaving it to run into whatever.what did they care? they werent the ones who had to answer to the airport owners the following day.or the time we were being inpected by the NJ state bureau of aeronatics(required each year in order to renew your drop zone licence)Eric Santman got up in the inpectors face over hooking up his seat belt ,then after the jumpwent over tothe inspector to "thank " him in a very beligerent way about saving his life.took us a half hour to calm the guy down,but he had the power to yank our license or fine us or both.yeah the herd .a great bunch of guys.NOT Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites bozo 0 #760 February 15, 2007 Quoteyeah........a real hoot.....like the time they put jerry irwins eye out with a bottle rocket.a real "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull . -------------------------------------------------------- There isnt anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Got accusations ? Back em up. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites SwampThing 0 #761 February 15, 2007 Quote There isn't anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Quote Unless it's their post! Then they have a Herd Load of credibility!! The Pessimist says: "It can't possibly get any worse!" The Optimist says: "Sure it can!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites BillyVance 34 #762 February 15, 2007 QuoteQuote There isn't anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Quote Unless it's their post! Then they have a Herd Load of credibility!! touche`! "Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #763 February 15, 2007 got accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites bozo 0 #764 February 15, 2007 Quotegot accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Jerry didnt post here......you did. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #765 February 16, 2007 they are not just accusations,the herd really did those things.and as proof,all one has to do to prove the jerry irwin blinding is to talk to jerry himself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites tempretired 0 #766 February 16, 2007 There are good people and bad people in every group. The Herd members that I know are great people. Going through the student program at UPC and hanging out with the Herd and all United Parachute Club skydivers was a tremendous experience. Sorry the few that you ran into were not. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #767 February 16, 2007 This story was way back when, and really doesn't have a point, but I thought I'd share it anyway. Back in about 1974, we had an army field problem. It involved flying from Ft. Bragg down to Southern Texas in a C-130 Black Bird, and making a night jump with equipment. Melvin was on my A-team and he was scared to death when it came time to jump...most every jump. But no matter how scared he got he always jumped. So, you had to hand it to ole Melvin...(he had balls). Since I was also a bad ass skydiver, I thought I'd have some fun with ole Melvin. One day I went up to Mel and told him about this dream I kept having over and over again....We were jumping and this one guy kept falling and falling, and wham! The guy smacks into the ground. So, in this dream, I run over there and turn the guy over....."And, and, it's you, Melvin!" "I wonder if it means anything!" Well, at this point, Melvin starts getting all shaky, and I did my best to keep a straight face. Finally after a couple days of this, one of the other guys on our team came up to me and told me to nock it off. He was worried about old Melvin, because he was getting more and more scared as we got closer to jump time. I ended up jumpmastering that load. It was blacker than black that night, and decided to jump first (rather than last) to show everyone that jumping was fun, not scary. I never did see the ground on that jump, and road my equipment right into the ground. One guy was hurt, and had to be helicoptered out, but we all lived to jump another day....including Melvin. Yes, I do have a sick sense of humor!....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #768 February 16, 2007 QuoteThis story ...., and really doesn't have a point QuoteI do have a sick sense of humor Somehow, I think you made a point Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites kkeenan 13 #769 February 19, 2007 Quote... "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull Years ago, one of my instructors told me, "Keep an eye out for the Herd". I guess he was serious._____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #770 February 23, 2007 Back in the day, mid 70’s to be precise, the first Strato-Stars had ropes and rings which, at the time, was the only reasonable way a relative worker could use a square and not damn near die from opening shock. The rope was a clothesline size rope strung thru a bunch of rings sewed to the bottom of the canopy and attached to the pilot chute. On deployment, the canopy would open about 75% of full, whereupon the jumper had to reach up and pull down a red reefing line that would pull down the pilot chute and allow enough slack in the rope to let the canopy fully open. The red line with some slack would sort of float out behind the suspension lines. I had made a couple jumps on a borrowed Strato-Star (another scary story for another day), so when I got my new SS, I was pretty horny to jump it ASAP. But being November, damn near winter in Spokane, un-jumpable weather was the norm. On the phone (the 70’s equivalent of an E-mail list or forum), I talked Mike Culler, a new pilot (another scary story for another day) into flying up to the DZ at Deer Park to jump. It didn’t matter that all he had was Beech Musketeer, a low wing plane with a car type door that required him to slip the airplane about 30 degrees right for us to squeeze out the door and fall off the wing. It didn’t matter that the ceiling was 3-5, ground winds at 25 mph and upper winds at 3-5 AGL at 50 knots (according to Flight Service) , I was young and bulletproof and horny to jump this new rocketship of a canopy. So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing. Up I go, and take the longest damn spot I’ve ever had. As I clear the tail, get stable and deploy my Massey piggy back with Capewells, I look up to see several line twists with the canopy about 75% open, spinning out of control. But not violently, so what’s the big deal? Thinking I’ll unwind naturally and being at 3-5, I reach up to pull the red reefing line down and am more than a little surprised at how hard it is to even pull it 2 to 3 feet. My previous 2-3 jumps, the line was easy to pull but this time, I notice that the red line was bound up tight in the line twists. Still thinking I’ve got time, I pop the brakes, hoping this will aid the unwinding and nothing happens. The dam line twists are not unwinding even as I try to kick and pull, curse and moan. On the SS, steel rings joined the single steering line to the 3 cascaded lines sewn to the tail. If I had time to look carefully, I would have noticed that the steel rings had knotted up the line twists and nothing was gonna unwind. But I didn’t, all I knew was nothing was changing from this scary picture. Well now I’m out of ideas on how to fix this bad boy, down to 1800 feet and just “flying” across the airport still in 50 knot winds. Even though the ground winds were crazy and un-landable, I figure I’m better off with a 26 foot Navy Conical than this partially open and spinning piece of shit. So, capewell covers down, thumbs in the capewell loops, look at my reserve handle, arch and pull the loops. And nothing happens……………WTF????? After a microsecond that seems like an eternity, I notice the risers floating out in space, completely free and…………holy shit……… the red line directly in front of my nose and I’m hanging on it by one capewell cover. These covers are hinged and flimsy and I have no idea how much longer I’ll be stable in this hanging position. So I grab the red line and attempt to do a pull up on it and pull it away and off the capewell cover. I have this image that I need to pull the red line down and away from my body to get off the capewell. That was the wrong idea because the capewell cover hinges in the middle and I would’ve had to pull up and in to get off of it. But I can’t see all that in this situation, so there I am and……. “Nothing works”. Down to 1200 ft and getting dizzy, I figure “nothing to do but pull the reserve and hope for the best.” Much to my chagrin, the pilot chute does not go zinging away clear of the mess, it heads pretty much up into the main. I grab it before it gets too far and attempt to hand deploy it but it’s all over my head and everywhere. But I keep working it, all the way in, never looking at the ground. The next thing I know, I’m laying under a tree, groggy with just a vague sense of where I am but no recollection or logical explanation of how I could have got there. I continue to lay there wondering what I should be feeling, if I’m in shock, or dead or ????. I have no concept of time, but suddenly my buddies are running up to me with eyes as big as saucers, amazed that I’m conscious and not a pile of bloody goo. I slowly get up and we slowly walk back to the clubhouse trying to diagnose what could have happened. As it turns out, I had landed just inside the first row of trees at the edge of the airport and missed the hard ground of an open field. The trees were young springy evergreens with strong upswept limbs that broke my fall about as much as a guy could hope for. Feeling a little shaken but generally alright (no broken bones or real apparent injuries), we threw the shit in the airplane and flew home. I published my story in Parachutist and it wasn’t long before the slider was introduced and quickly became the norm. Danger versus scary; an interesting distinction. Although that was arguably the most danger I’ve ever been in, I never got scared, simply because there was no time to think about it. Maybe I’ll have a couple of Jacks and tell you about the scariest jump I ever made which, ironically was the safest I have made or could ever make.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #771 February 24, 2007 I've always been amazed and amused at how people assess risk by a very subjective seat of the pants means but still think they're being perfectly rational and objective. That was brought home to me about 25 years ago when I had the opportunity to static line my round reserve from the ceiling of the KingDome in Seattle. It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. Four people had already done this before for a Boeing Company event and I was part of a 2nd batch of jumpers to do the same thing a year later. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Squares did not get full cell inflation before the dummy hit the floor, so we used round reserves. Two of our best riggers packed our reserves and designed the suspension apparatus from which we would cut away. We were sitting in the saddle and used our cutaway handle to drop straight down as the reserve bridle and bag stayed tied to the celing. We were just baggage since there was absolutely nothing we coulld do to help or hurt the deployment. Before we could do anything with body postion, we had tensions on our risers. These were virtually laboratory conditions for a reserve deployment. So, by design, this was the safest jump I could ever make. With 1000 - 1500 jumps, I had all the conscious faith in my equipment, my rigger and my abiltiy to use it. So, shouldn't a left brained engineer be able to calmly relax before this piece of cake E ticket ride? You'd think. But NFW. I can't begin to describe the pit of the stomach terror I felt as I walked around on the roof the Dome geared up waiting to jump for about 15 - 20 minutes. With nothing to distract me like the spot or my performance on a 8 way competition jump, primal fear took over to the point that my first jump or my first roller coaster ride were no comparison to this. Well the jump went perfectly of course, but I couldn't do a stand up because my legs were jello from the overwhelming fight or flight adreniline that had just peaked seconds before. I've never experienced fear like that since. Sometimes late at night when I'm high, I wish I could experience that fear again for just...........15-20 seconds would be enough. What a rush.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites howardwhite 4 #772 February 24, 2007 Brings back memories. I was in Seattle one time and a friend who works for Boeing (and was one of the four earlier jumpers) showed me his picture/movies of it. As I remember, it was a paper airplane flying contest for the children of Boeing employees. (He also had some pretty spectacular pictures, taken from a Boeing corporate jet, of the top of Mt. St. Helens soon after it blew.) HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #773 February 25, 2007 Quote So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing.. ............................ Gee whiz Ted, you're lucky to still be here! It would be really tough to continue jumping after a close one like that. There aren't many jumpers around who remember jumping at Deer Park. We went to a boogie there in about 74 or 75. We rented a DC-3 from the smoke-jumpers in Missoula. We were all geared up when we climbed on board. We were about half way there when somebody told B.J. Worth that he had better check his rig. He had a B-12 container and it did look kind of puny. Come to find out, someone had packed a tiny little cargo chute in their rather than his normal para-commander. This was supposed to be a big joke. To tell you the truth I had a hard time seeing the humor in it. I can't recall who the practical jokers were, but at least they were good hearted enough to tell him before he jumped it and gave him his old canopy back. So, anyhow he put his rig back together and we all had a good jump into the boogie At Deer Park. There were a ton of jumpers there from all over the country. Actually they were called jump meets back in those days. If anything the jumpers may have been a bit crazier back then. The risks were bigger and you had to be young and tough just to survive the sport. When it came time to party, most people didn't hold back. I'll bet Deer Park looks different today. The packing tables have probably all been torn down or rotted out by now.....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites RogerRamjet 0 #774 February 25, 2007 Quote It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Wow, that sounds about right on the inflation time too. I jumped with a guy at Z-Hills named Billy Reevis that made a 24' round direct bag static line jump from the old skyway bridge in St. Petersburg (FL). That bridge was 155' at the crown of the highway where he jumped from. The canopy just barely got full inflation when he went into Tampa Bay... BTW, no pre-testing first He just knew it would open in less than 150 feet. ----------------------- Roger "Ramjet" Clark FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #775 February 25, 2007 Quotefull round inflation about 1/2 down. Yeah it was quite a sight to be in free fall looking up at people sitting in the upper decks. A lot of scary thoughts run thru your head in the 2 1/4 seconds til you're open.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Next Page 31 of 61 Join the conversation You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Reply to this topic... × Pasted as rich text. Paste as plain text instead Only 75 emoji are allowed. × Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as a link instead × Your previous content has been restored. Clear editor × You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL. Insert image from URL × Desktop Tablet Phone Submit Reply 1 1 Go To Topic Listing
airtwardo 6 #755 February 13, 2007 Tie up the women and hide the DOGS! ...here comes the Herd. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bozo 0 #756 February 13, 2007 QuoteTie up the women and hide the DOGS! ...here comes the Herd. I had to go dig out my tshirt and check it. LOL bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkeenan 13 #757 February 13, 2007 QuoteTie up the women and hide the DOGS! ...here comes the Herd. It was always a hoot when The Herd came to Fla. for the ZHills Boogies. One year they had a carbide cannon made from a set of milk cans welded together. They put the carbide in one of the cans, hammered the 8-10 lb. lid on it and lit it off. It was a pretty exciting cloudy-day diversion. They had to quit that day after they put the lid through a guy's windshield, and later sent someone to the hospital with a concussion after a head strike. Kevin_____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NewGuy2005 51 #758 February 15, 2007 Quote ~~~THESE ARE the good old dayz! They are for me!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
javelin1 0 #759 February 15, 2007 yeah........a real hoot.....like the time they put jerry irwins eye out with a bottle rocket.a real "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull .they visited our drop zone (which was doing a runway expansion)the herd members took it upon themselves to start up the construction machinery and put it in gear and jump off,leaving it to run into whatever.what did they care? they werent the ones who had to answer to the airport owners the following day.or the time we were being inpected by the NJ state bureau of aeronatics(required each year in order to renew your drop zone licence)Eric Santman got up in the inpectors face over hooking up his seat belt ,then after the jumpwent over tothe inspector to "thank " him in a very beligerent way about saving his life.took us a half hour to calm the guy down,but he had the power to yank our license or fine us or both.yeah the herd .a great bunch of guys.NOT Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bozo 0 #760 February 15, 2007 Quoteyeah........a real hoot.....like the time they put jerry irwins eye out with a bottle rocket.a real "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull . -------------------------------------------------------- There isnt anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Got accusations ? Back em up. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites SwampThing 0 #761 February 15, 2007 Quote There isn't anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Quote Unless it's their post! Then they have a Herd Load of credibility!! The Pessimist says: "It can't possibly get any worse!" The Optimist says: "Sure it can!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites BillyVance 34 #762 February 15, 2007 QuoteQuote There isn't anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Quote Unless it's their post! Then they have a Herd Load of credibility!! touche`! "Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #763 February 15, 2007 got accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites bozo 0 #764 February 15, 2007 Quotegot accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Jerry didnt post here......you did. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #765 February 16, 2007 they are not just accusations,the herd really did those things.and as proof,all one has to do to prove the jerry irwin blinding is to talk to jerry himself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites tempretired 0 #766 February 16, 2007 There are good people and bad people in every group. The Herd members that I know are great people. Going through the student program at UPC and hanging out with the Herd and all United Parachute Club skydivers was a tremendous experience. Sorry the few that you ran into were not. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #767 February 16, 2007 This story was way back when, and really doesn't have a point, but I thought I'd share it anyway. Back in about 1974, we had an army field problem. It involved flying from Ft. Bragg down to Southern Texas in a C-130 Black Bird, and making a night jump with equipment. Melvin was on my A-team and he was scared to death when it came time to jump...most every jump. But no matter how scared he got he always jumped. So, you had to hand it to ole Melvin...(he had balls). Since I was also a bad ass skydiver, I thought I'd have some fun with ole Melvin. One day I went up to Mel and told him about this dream I kept having over and over again....We were jumping and this one guy kept falling and falling, and wham! The guy smacks into the ground. So, in this dream, I run over there and turn the guy over....."And, and, it's you, Melvin!" "I wonder if it means anything!" Well, at this point, Melvin starts getting all shaky, and I did my best to keep a straight face. Finally after a couple days of this, one of the other guys on our team came up to me and told me to nock it off. He was worried about old Melvin, because he was getting more and more scared as we got closer to jump time. I ended up jumpmastering that load. It was blacker than black that night, and decided to jump first (rather than last) to show everyone that jumping was fun, not scary. I never did see the ground on that jump, and road my equipment right into the ground. One guy was hurt, and had to be helicoptered out, but we all lived to jump another day....including Melvin. Yes, I do have a sick sense of humor!....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #768 February 16, 2007 QuoteThis story ...., and really doesn't have a point QuoteI do have a sick sense of humor Somehow, I think you made a point Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites kkeenan 13 #769 February 19, 2007 Quote... "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull Years ago, one of my instructors told me, "Keep an eye out for the Herd". I guess he was serious._____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #770 February 23, 2007 Back in the day, mid 70’s to be precise, the first Strato-Stars had ropes and rings which, at the time, was the only reasonable way a relative worker could use a square and not damn near die from opening shock. The rope was a clothesline size rope strung thru a bunch of rings sewed to the bottom of the canopy and attached to the pilot chute. On deployment, the canopy would open about 75% of full, whereupon the jumper had to reach up and pull down a red reefing line that would pull down the pilot chute and allow enough slack in the rope to let the canopy fully open. The red line with some slack would sort of float out behind the suspension lines. I had made a couple jumps on a borrowed Strato-Star (another scary story for another day), so when I got my new SS, I was pretty horny to jump it ASAP. But being November, damn near winter in Spokane, un-jumpable weather was the norm. On the phone (the 70’s equivalent of an E-mail list or forum), I talked Mike Culler, a new pilot (another scary story for another day) into flying up to the DZ at Deer Park to jump. It didn’t matter that all he had was Beech Musketeer, a low wing plane with a car type door that required him to slip the airplane about 30 degrees right for us to squeeze out the door and fall off the wing. It didn’t matter that the ceiling was 3-5, ground winds at 25 mph and upper winds at 3-5 AGL at 50 knots (according to Flight Service) , I was young and bulletproof and horny to jump this new rocketship of a canopy. So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing. Up I go, and take the longest damn spot I’ve ever had. As I clear the tail, get stable and deploy my Massey piggy back with Capewells, I look up to see several line twists with the canopy about 75% open, spinning out of control. But not violently, so what’s the big deal? Thinking I’ll unwind naturally and being at 3-5, I reach up to pull the red reefing line down and am more than a little surprised at how hard it is to even pull it 2 to 3 feet. My previous 2-3 jumps, the line was easy to pull but this time, I notice that the red line was bound up tight in the line twists. Still thinking I’ve got time, I pop the brakes, hoping this will aid the unwinding and nothing happens. The dam line twists are not unwinding even as I try to kick and pull, curse and moan. On the SS, steel rings joined the single steering line to the 3 cascaded lines sewn to the tail. If I had time to look carefully, I would have noticed that the steel rings had knotted up the line twists and nothing was gonna unwind. But I didn’t, all I knew was nothing was changing from this scary picture. Well now I’m out of ideas on how to fix this bad boy, down to 1800 feet and just “flying” across the airport still in 50 knot winds. Even though the ground winds were crazy and un-landable, I figure I’m better off with a 26 foot Navy Conical than this partially open and spinning piece of shit. So, capewell covers down, thumbs in the capewell loops, look at my reserve handle, arch and pull the loops. And nothing happens……………WTF????? After a microsecond that seems like an eternity, I notice the risers floating out in space, completely free and…………holy shit……… the red line directly in front of my nose and I’m hanging on it by one capewell cover. These covers are hinged and flimsy and I have no idea how much longer I’ll be stable in this hanging position. So I grab the red line and attempt to do a pull up on it and pull it away and off the capewell cover. I have this image that I need to pull the red line down and away from my body to get off the capewell. That was the wrong idea because the capewell cover hinges in the middle and I would’ve had to pull up and in to get off of it. But I can’t see all that in this situation, so there I am and……. “Nothing works”. Down to 1200 ft and getting dizzy, I figure “nothing to do but pull the reserve and hope for the best.” Much to my chagrin, the pilot chute does not go zinging away clear of the mess, it heads pretty much up into the main. I grab it before it gets too far and attempt to hand deploy it but it’s all over my head and everywhere. But I keep working it, all the way in, never looking at the ground. The next thing I know, I’m laying under a tree, groggy with just a vague sense of where I am but no recollection or logical explanation of how I could have got there. I continue to lay there wondering what I should be feeling, if I’m in shock, or dead or ????. I have no concept of time, but suddenly my buddies are running up to me with eyes as big as saucers, amazed that I’m conscious and not a pile of bloody goo. I slowly get up and we slowly walk back to the clubhouse trying to diagnose what could have happened. As it turns out, I had landed just inside the first row of trees at the edge of the airport and missed the hard ground of an open field. The trees were young springy evergreens with strong upswept limbs that broke my fall about as much as a guy could hope for. Feeling a little shaken but generally alright (no broken bones or real apparent injuries), we threw the shit in the airplane and flew home. I published my story in Parachutist and it wasn’t long before the slider was introduced and quickly became the norm. Danger versus scary; an interesting distinction. Although that was arguably the most danger I’ve ever been in, I never got scared, simply because there was no time to think about it. Maybe I’ll have a couple of Jacks and tell you about the scariest jump I ever made which, ironically was the safest I have made or could ever make.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #771 February 24, 2007 I've always been amazed and amused at how people assess risk by a very subjective seat of the pants means but still think they're being perfectly rational and objective. That was brought home to me about 25 years ago when I had the opportunity to static line my round reserve from the ceiling of the KingDome in Seattle. It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. Four people had already done this before for a Boeing Company event and I was part of a 2nd batch of jumpers to do the same thing a year later. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Squares did not get full cell inflation before the dummy hit the floor, so we used round reserves. Two of our best riggers packed our reserves and designed the suspension apparatus from which we would cut away. We were sitting in the saddle and used our cutaway handle to drop straight down as the reserve bridle and bag stayed tied to the celing. We were just baggage since there was absolutely nothing we coulld do to help or hurt the deployment. Before we could do anything with body postion, we had tensions on our risers. These were virtually laboratory conditions for a reserve deployment. So, by design, this was the safest jump I could ever make. With 1000 - 1500 jumps, I had all the conscious faith in my equipment, my rigger and my abiltiy to use it. So, shouldn't a left brained engineer be able to calmly relax before this piece of cake E ticket ride? You'd think. But NFW. I can't begin to describe the pit of the stomach terror I felt as I walked around on the roof the Dome geared up waiting to jump for about 15 - 20 minutes. With nothing to distract me like the spot or my performance on a 8 way competition jump, primal fear took over to the point that my first jump or my first roller coaster ride were no comparison to this. Well the jump went perfectly of course, but I couldn't do a stand up because my legs were jello from the overwhelming fight or flight adreniline that had just peaked seconds before. I've never experienced fear like that since. Sometimes late at night when I'm high, I wish I could experience that fear again for just...........15-20 seconds would be enough. What a rush.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites howardwhite 4 #772 February 24, 2007 Brings back memories. I was in Seattle one time and a friend who works for Boeing (and was one of the four earlier jumpers) showed me his picture/movies of it. As I remember, it was a paper airplane flying contest for the children of Boeing employees. (He also had some pretty spectacular pictures, taken from a Boeing corporate jet, of the top of Mt. St. Helens soon after it blew.) HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #773 February 25, 2007 Quote So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing.. ............................ Gee whiz Ted, you're lucky to still be here! It would be really tough to continue jumping after a close one like that. There aren't many jumpers around who remember jumping at Deer Park. We went to a boogie there in about 74 or 75. We rented a DC-3 from the smoke-jumpers in Missoula. We were all geared up when we climbed on board. We were about half way there when somebody told B.J. Worth that he had better check his rig. He had a B-12 container and it did look kind of puny. Come to find out, someone had packed a tiny little cargo chute in their rather than his normal para-commander. This was supposed to be a big joke. To tell you the truth I had a hard time seeing the humor in it. I can't recall who the practical jokers were, but at least they were good hearted enough to tell him before he jumped it and gave him his old canopy back. So, anyhow he put his rig back together and we all had a good jump into the boogie At Deer Park. There were a ton of jumpers there from all over the country. Actually they were called jump meets back in those days. If anything the jumpers may have been a bit crazier back then. The risks were bigger and you had to be young and tough just to survive the sport. When it came time to party, most people didn't hold back. I'll bet Deer Park looks different today. The packing tables have probably all been torn down or rotted out by now.....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites RogerRamjet 0 #774 February 25, 2007 Quote It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Wow, that sounds about right on the inflation time too. I jumped with a guy at Z-Hills named Billy Reevis that made a 24' round direct bag static line jump from the old skyway bridge in St. Petersburg (FL). That bridge was 155' at the crown of the highway where he jumped from. The canopy just barely got full inflation when he went into Tampa Bay... BTW, no pre-testing first He just knew it would open in less than 150 feet. ----------------------- Roger "Ramjet" Clark FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #775 February 25, 2007 Quotefull round inflation about 1/2 down. Yeah it was quite a sight to be in free fall looking up at people sitting in the upper decks. A lot of scary thoughts run thru your head in the 2 1/4 seconds til you're open.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Next Page 31 of 61 Join the conversation You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Reply to this topic... × Pasted as rich text. Paste as plain text instead Only 75 emoji are allowed. × Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as a link instead × Your previous content has been restored. Clear editor × You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL. Insert image from URL × Desktop Tablet Phone Submit Reply 1 1 Go To Topic Listing
SwampThing 0 #761 February 15, 2007 Quote There isn't anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Quote Unless it's their post! Then they have a Herd Load of credibility!! The Pessimist says: "It can't possibly get any worse!" The Optimist says: "Sure it can!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites BillyVance 34 #762 February 15, 2007 QuoteQuote There isn't anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Quote Unless it's their post! Then they have a Herd Load of credibility!! touche`! "Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #763 February 15, 2007 got accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites bozo 0 #764 February 15, 2007 Quotegot accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Jerry didnt post here......you did. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #765 February 16, 2007 they are not just accusations,the herd really did those things.and as proof,all one has to do to prove the jerry irwin blinding is to talk to jerry himself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites tempretired 0 #766 February 16, 2007 There are good people and bad people in every group. The Herd members that I know are great people. Going through the student program at UPC and hanging out with the Herd and all United Parachute Club skydivers was a tremendous experience. Sorry the few that you ran into were not. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #767 February 16, 2007 This story was way back when, and really doesn't have a point, but I thought I'd share it anyway. Back in about 1974, we had an army field problem. It involved flying from Ft. Bragg down to Southern Texas in a C-130 Black Bird, and making a night jump with equipment. Melvin was on my A-team and he was scared to death when it came time to jump...most every jump. But no matter how scared he got he always jumped. So, you had to hand it to ole Melvin...(he had balls). Since I was also a bad ass skydiver, I thought I'd have some fun with ole Melvin. One day I went up to Mel and told him about this dream I kept having over and over again....We were jumping and this one guy kept falling and falling, and wham! The guy smacks into the ground. So, in this dream, I run over there and turn the guy over....."And, and, it's you, Melvin!" "I wonder if it means anything!" Well, at this point, Melvin starts getting all shaky, and I did my best to keep a straight face. Finally after a couple days of this, one of the other guys on our team came up to me and told me to nock it off. He was worried about old Melvin, because he was getting more and more scared as we got closer to jump time. I ended up jumpmastering that load. It was blacker than black that night, and decided to jump first (rather than last) to show everyone that jumping was fun, not scary. I never did see the ground on that jump, and road my equipment right into the ground. One guy was hurt, and had to be helicoptered out, but we all lived to jump another day....including Melvin. Yes, I do have a sick sense of humor!....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #768 February 16, 2007 QuoteThis story ...., and really doesn't have a point QuoteI do have a sick sense of humor Somehow, I think you made a point Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites kkeenan 13 #769 February 19, 2007 Quote... "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull Years ago, one of my instructors told me, "Keep an eye out for the Herd". I guess he was serious._____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #770 February 23, 2007 Back in the day, mid 70’s to be precise, the first Strato-Stars had ropes and rings which, at the time, was the only reasonable way a relative worker could use a square and not damn near die from opening shock. The rope was a clothesline size rope strung thru a bunch of rings sewed to the bottom of the canopy and attached to the pilot chute. On deployment, the canopy would open about 75% of full, whereupon the jumper had to reach up and pull down a red reefing line that would pull down the pilot chute and allow enough slack in the rope to let the canopy fully open. The red line with some slack would sort of float out behind the suspension lines. I had made a couple jumps on a borrowed Strato-Star (another scary story for another day), so when I got my new SS, I was pretty horny to jump it ASAP. But being November, damn near winter in Spokane, un-jumpable weather was the norm. On the phone (the 70’s equivalent of an E-mail list or forum), I talked Mike Culler, a new pilot (another scary story for another day) into flying up to the DZ at Deer Park to jump. It didn’t matter that all he had was Beech Musketeer, a low wing plane with a car type door that required him to slip the airplane about 30 degrees right for us to squeeze out the door and fall off the wing. It didn’t matter that the ceiling was 3-5, ground winds at 25 mph and upper winds at 3-5 AGL at 50 knots (according to Flight Service) , I was young and bulletproof and horny to jump this new rocketship of a canopy. So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing. Up I go, and take the longest damn spot I’ve ever had. As I clear the tail, get stable and deploy my Massey piggy back with Capewells, I look up to see several line twists with the canopy about 75% open, spinning out of control. But not violently, so what’s the big deal? Thinking I’ll unwind naturally and being at 3-5, I reach up to pull the red reefing line down and am more than a little surprised at how hard it is to even pull it 2 to 3 feet. My previous 2-3 jumps, the line was easy to pull but this time, I notice that the red line was bound up tight in the line twists. Still thinking I’ve got time, I pop the brakes, hoping this will aid the unwinding and nothing happens. The dam line twists are not unwinding even as I try to kick and pull, curse and moan. On the SS, steel rings joined the single steering line to the 3 cascaded lines sewn to the tail. If I had time to look carefully, I would have noticed that the steel rings had knotted up the line twists and nothing was gonna unwind. But I didn’t, all I knew was nothing was changing from this scary picture. Well now I’m out of ideas on how to fix this bad boy, down to 1800 feet and just “flying” across the airport still in 50 knot winds. Even though the ground winds were crazy and un-landable, I figure I’m better off with a 26 foot Navy Conical than this partially open and spinning piece of shit. So, capewell covers down, thumbs in the capewell loops, look at my reserve handle, arch and pull the loops. And nothing happens……………WTF????? After a microsecond that seems like an eternity, I notice the risers floating out in space, completely free and…………holy shit……… the red line directly in front of my nose and I’m hanging on it by one capewell cover. These covers are hinged and flimsy and I have no idea how much longer I’ll be stable in this hanging position. So I grab the red line and attempt to do a pull up on it and pull it away and off the capewell cover. I have this image that I need to pull the red line down and away from my body to get off the capewell. That was the wrong idea because the capewell cover hinges in the middle and I would’ve had to pull up and in to get off of it. But I can’t see all that in this situation, so there I am and……. “Nothing works”. Down to 1200 ft and getting dizzy, I figure “nothing to do but pull the reserve and hope for the best.” Much to my chagrin, the pilot chute does not go zinging away clear of the mess, it heads pretty much up into the main. I grab it before it gets too far and attempt to hand deploy it but it’s all over my head and everywhere. But I keep working it, all the way in, never looking at the ground. The next thing I know, I’m laying under a tree, groggy with just a vague sense of where I am but no recollection or logical explanation of how I could have got there. I continue to lay there wondering what I should be feeling, if I’m in shock, or dead or ????. I have no concept of time, but suddenly my buddies are running up to me with eyes as big as saucers, amazed that I’m conscious and not a pile of bloody goo. I slowly get up and we slowly walk back to the clubhouse trying to diagnose what could have happened. As it turns out, I had landed just inside the first row of trees at the edge of the airport and missed the hard ground of an open field. The trees were young springy evergreens with strong upswept limbs that broke my fall about as much as a guy could hope for. Feeling a little shaken but generally alright (no broken bones or real apparent injuries), we threw the shit in the airplane and flew home. I published my story in Parachutist and it wasn’t long before the slider was introduced and quickly became the norm. Danger versus scary; an interesting distinction. Although that was arguably the most danger I’ve ever been in, I never got scared, simply because there was no time to think about it. Maybe I’ll have a couple of Jacks and tell you about the scariest jump I ever made which, ironically was the safest I have made or could ever make.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #771 February 24, 2007 I've always been amazed and amused at how people assess risk by a very subjective seat of the pants means but still think they're being perfectly rational and objective. That was brought home to me about 25 years ago when I had the opportunity to static line my round reserve from the ceiling of the KingDome in Seattle. It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. Four people had already done this before for a Boeing Company event and I was part of a 2nd batch of jumpers to do the same thing a year later. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Squares did not get full cell inflation before the dummy hit the floor, so we used round reserves. Two of our best riggers packed our reserves and designed the suspension apparatus from which we would cut away. We were sitting in the saddle and used our cutaway handle to drop straight down as the reserve bridle and bag stayed tied to the celing. We were just baggage since there was absolutely nothing we coulld do to help or hurt the deployment. Before we could do anything with body postion, we had tensions on our risers. These were virtually laboratory conditions for a reserve deployment. So, by design, this was the safest jump I could ever make. With 1000 - 1500 jumps, I had all the conscious faith in my equipment, my rigger and my abiltiy to use it. So, shouldn't a left brained engineer be able to calmly relax before this piece of cake E ticket ride? You'd think. But NFW. I can't begin to describe the pit of the stomach terror I felt as I walked around on the roof the Dome geared up waiting to jump for about 15 - 20 minutes. With nothing to distract me like the spot or my performance on a 8 way competition jump, primal fear took over to the point that my first jump or my first roller coaster ride were no comparison to this. Well the jump went perfectly of course, but I couldn't do a stand up because my legs were jello from the overwhelming fight or flight adreniline that had just peaked seconds before. I've never experienced fear like that since. Sometimes late at night when I'm high, I wish I could experience that fear again for just...........15-20 seconds would be enough. What a rush.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites howardwhite 4 #772 February 24, 2007 Brings back memories. I was in Seattle one time and a friend who works for Boeing (and was one of the four earlier jumpers) showed me his picture/movies of it. As I remember, it was a paper airplane flying contest for the children of Boeing employees. (He also had some pretty spectacular pictures, taken from a Boeing corporate jet, of the top of Mt. St. Helens soon after it blew.) HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #773 February 25, 2007 Quote So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing.. ............................ Gee whiz Ted, you're lucky to still be here! It would be really tough to continue jumping after a close one like that. There aren't many jumpers around who remember jumping at Deer Park. We went to a boogie there in about 74 or 75. We rented a DC-3 from the smoke-jumpers in Missoula. We were all geared up when we climbed on board. We were about half way there when somebody told B.J. Worth that he had better check his rig. He had a B-12 container and it did look kind of puny. Come to find out, someone had packed a tiny little cargo chute in their rather than his normal para-commander. This was supposed to be a big joke. To tell you the truth I had a hard time seeing the humor in it. I can't recall who the practical jokers were, but at least they were good hearted enough to tell him before he jumped it and gave him his old canopy back. So, anyhow he put his rig back together and we all had a good jump into the boogie At Deer Park. There were a ton of jumpers there from all over the country. Actually they were called jump meets back in those days. If anything the jumpers may have been a bit crazier back then. The risks were bigger and you had to be young and tough just to survive the sport. When it came time to party, most people didn't hold back. I'll bet Deer Park looks different today. The packing tables have probably all been torn down or rotted out by now.....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites RogerRamjet 0 #774 February 25, 2007 Quote It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Wow, that sounds about right on the inflation time too. I jumped with a guy at Z-Hills named Billy Reevis that made a 24' round direct bag static line jump from the old skyway bridge in St. Petersburg (FL). That bridge was 155' at the crown of the highway where he jumped from. The canopy just barely got full inflation when he went into Tampa Bay... BTW, no pre-testing first He just knew it would open in less than 150 feet. ----------------------- Roger "Ramjet" Clark FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #775 February 25, 2007 Quotefull round inflation about 1/2 down. Yeah it was quite a sight to be in free fall looking up at people sitting in the upper decks. A lot of scary thoughts run thru your head in the 2 1/4 seconds til you're open.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Next Page 31 of 61 Join the conversation You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Reply to this topic... × Pasted as rich text. Paste as plain text instead Only 75 emoji are allowed. × Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as a link instead × Your previous content has been restored. Clear editor × You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL. Insert image from URL × Desktop Tablet Phone Submit Reply 1 1 Go To Topic Listing
BillyVance 34 #762 February 15, 2007 QuoteQuote There isn't anything that an anonymous poster says that is worth a hill of beans. Quote Unless it's their post! Then they have a Herd Load of credibility!! touche`! "Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #763 February 15, 2007 got accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites bozo 0 #764 February 15, 2007 Quotegot accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Jerry didnt post here......you did. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites javelin1 0 #765 February 16, 2007 they are not just accusations,the herd really did those things.and as proof,all one has to do to prove the jerry irwin blinding is to talk to jerry himself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites tempretired 0 #766 February 16, 2007 There are good people and bad people in every group. The Herd members that I know are great people. Going through the student program at UPC and hanging out with the Herd and all United Parachute Club skydivers was a tremendous experience. Sorry the few that you ran into were not. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #767 February 16, 2007 This story was way back when, and really doesn't have a point, but I thought I'd share it anyway. Back in about 1974, we had an army field problem. It involved flying from Ft. Bragg down to Southern Texas in a C-130 Black Bird, and making a night jump with equipment. Melvin was on my A-team and he was scared to death when it came time to jump...most every jump. But no matter how scared he got he always jumped. So, you had to hand it to ole Melvin...(he had balls). Since I was also a bad ass skydiver, I thought I'd have some fun with ole Melvin. One day I went up to Mel and told him about this dream I kept having over and over again....We were jumping and this one guy kept falling and falling, and wham! The guy smacks into the ground. So, in this dream, I run over there and turn the guy over....."And, and, it's you, Melvin!" "I wonder if it means anything!" Well, at this point, Melvin starts getting all shaky, and I did my best to keep a straight face. Finally after a couple days of this, one of the other guys on our team came up to me and told me to nock it off. He was worried about old Melvin, because he was getting more and more scared as we got closer to jump time. I ended up jumpmastering that load. It was blacker than black that night, and decided to jump first (rather than last) to show everyone that jumping was fun, not scary. I never did see the ground on that jump, and road my equipment right into the ground. One guy was hurt, and had to be helicoptered out, but we all lived to jump another day....including Melvin. Yes, I do have a sick sense of humor!....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #768 February 16, 2007 QuoteThis story ...., and really doesn't have a point QuoteI do have a sick sense of humor Somehow, I think you made a point Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites kkeenan 13 #769 February 19, 2007 Quote... "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull Years ago, one of my instructors told me, "Keep an eye out for the Herd". I guess he was serious._____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #770 February 23, 2007 Back in the day, mid 70’s to be precise, the first Strato-Stars had ropes and rings which, at the time, was the only reasonable way a relative worker could use a square and not damn near die from opening shock. The rope was a clothesline size rope strung thru a bunch of rings sewed to the bottom of the canopy and attached to the pilot chute. On deployment, the canopy would open about 75% of full, whereupon the jumper had to reach up and pull down a red reefing line that would pull down the pilot chute and allow enough slack in the rope to let the canopy fully open. The red line with some slack would sort of float out behind the suspension lines. I had made a couple jumps on a borrowed Strato-Star (another scary story for another day), so when I got my new SS, I was pretty horny to jump it ASAP. But being November, damn near winter in Spokane, un-jumpable weather was the norm. On the phone (the 70’s equivalent of an E-mail list or forum), I talked Mike Culler, a new pilot (another scary story for another day) into flying up to the DZ at Deer Park to jump. It didn’t matter that all he had was Beech Musketeer, a low wing plane with a car type door that required him to slip the airplane about 30 degrees right for us to squeeze out the door and fall off the wing. It didn’t matter that the ceiling was 3-5, ground winds at 25 mph and upper winds at 3-5 AGL at 50 knots (according to Flight Service) , I was young and bulletproof and horny to jump this new rocketship of a canopy. So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing. Up I go, and take the longest damn spot I’ve ever had. As I clear the tail, get stable and deploy my Massey piggy back with Capewells, I look up to see several line twists with the canopy about 75% open, spinning out of control. But not violently, so what’s the big deal? Thinking I’ll unwind naturally and being at 3-5, I reach up to pull the red reefing line down and am more than a little surprised at how hard it is to even pull it 2 to 3 feet. My previous 2-3 jumps, the line was easy to pull but this time, I notice that the red line was bound up tight in the line twists. Still thinking I’ve got time, I pop the brakes, hoping this will aid the unwinding and nothing happens. The dam line twists are not unwinding even as I try to kick and pull, curse and moan. On the SS, steel rings joined the single steering line to the 3 cascaded lines sewn to the tail. If I had time to look carefully, I would have noticed that the steel rings had knotted up the line twists and nothing was gonna unwind. But I didn’t, all I knew was nothing was changing from this scary picture. Well now I’m out of ideas on how to fix this bad boy, down to 1800 feet and just “flying” across the airport still in 50 knot winds. Even though the ground winds were crazy and un-landable, I figure I’m better off with a 26 foot Navy Conical than this partially open and spinning piece of shit. So, capewell covers down, thumbs in the capewell loops, look at my reserve handle, arch and pull the loops. And nothing happens……………WTF????? After a microsecond that seems like an eternity, I notice the risers floating out in space, completely free and…………holy shit……… the red line directly in front of my nose and I’m hanging on it by one capewell cover. These covers are hinged and flimsy and I have no idea how much longer I’ll be stable in this hanging position. So I grab the red line and attempt to do a pull up on it and pull it away and off the capewell cover. I have this image that I need to pull the red line down and away from my body to get off the capewell. That was the wrong idea because the capewell cover hinges in the middle and I would’ve had to pull up and in to get off of it. But I can’t see all that in this situation, so there I am and……. “Nothing works”. Down to 1200 ft and getting dizzy, I figure “nothing to do but pull the reserve and hope for the best.” Much to my chagrin, the pilot chute does not go zinging away clear of the mess, it heads pretty much up into the main. I grab it before it gets too far and attempt to hand deploy it but it’s all over my head and everywhere. But I keep working it, all the way in, never looking at the ground. The next thing I know, I’m laying under a tree, groggy with just a vague sense of where I am but no recollection or logical explanation of how I could have got there. I continue to lay there wondering what I should be feeling, if I’m in shock, or dead or ????. I have no concept of time, but suddenly my buddies are running up to me with eyes as big as saucers, amazed that I’m conscious and not a pile of bloody goo. I slowly get up and we slowly walk back to the clubhouse trying to diagnose what could have happened. As it turns out, I had landed just inside the first row of trees at the edge of the airport and missed the hard ground of an open field. The trees were young springy evergreens with strong upswept limbs that broke my fall about as much as a guy could hope for. Feeling a little shaken but generally alright (no broken bones or real apparent injuries), we threw the shit in the airplane and flew home. I published my story in Parachutist and it wasn’t long before the slider was introduced and quickly became the norm. Danger versus scary; an interesting distinction. Although that was arguably the most danger I’ve ever been in, I never got scared, simply because there was no time to think about it. Maybe I’ll have a couple of Jacks and tell you about the scariest jump I ever made which, ironically was the safest I have made or could ever make.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #771 February 24, 2007 I've always been amazed and amused at how people assess risk by a very subjective seat of the pants means but still think they're being perfectly rational and objective. That was brought home to me about 25 years ago when I had the opportunity to static line my round reserve from the ceiling of the KingDome in Seattle. It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. Four people had already done this before for a Boeing Company event and I was part of a 2nd batch of jumpers to do the same thing a year later. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Squares did not get full cell inflation before the dummy hit the floor, so we used round reserves. Two of our best riggers packed our reserves and designed the suspension apparatus from which we would cut away. We were sitting in the saddle and used our cutaway handle to drop straight down as the reserve bridle and bag stayed tied to the celing. We were just baggage since there was absolutely nothing we coulld do to help or hurt the deployment. Before we could do anything with body postion, we had tensions on our risers. These were virtually laboratory conditions for a reserve deployment. So, by design, this was the safest jump I could ever make. With 1000 - 1500 jumps, I had all the conscious faith in my equipment, my rigger and my abiltiy to use it. So, shouldn't a left brained engineer be able to calmly relax before this piece of cake E ticket ride? You'd think. But NFW. I can't begin to describe the pit of the stomach terror I felt as I walked around on the roof the Dome geared up waiting to jump for about 15 - 20 minutes. With nothing to distract me like the spot or my performance on a 8 way competition jump, primal fear took over to the point that my first jump or my first roller coaster ride were no comparison to this. Well the jump went perfectly of course, but I couldn't do a stand up because my legs were jello from the overwhelming fight or flight adreniline that had just peaked seconds before. I've never experienced fear like that since. Sometimes late at night when I'm high, I wish I could experience that fear again for just...........15-20 seconds would be enough. What a rush.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites howardwhite 4 #772 February 24, 2007 Brings back memories. I was in Seattle one time and a friend who works for Boeing (and was one of the four earlier jumpers) showed me his picture/movies of it. As I remember, it was a paper airplane flying contest for the children of Boeing employees. (He also had some pretty spectacular pictures, taken from a Boeing corporate jet, of the top of Mt. St. Helens soon after it blew.) HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites steve1 5 #773 February 25, 2007 Quote So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing.. ............................ Gee whiz Ted, you're lucky to still be here! It would be really tough to continue jumping after a close one like that. There aren't many jumpers around who remember jumping at Deer Park. We went to a boogie there in about 74 or 75. We rented a DC-3 from the smoke-jumpers in Missoula. We were all geared up when we climbed on board. We were about half way there when somebody told B.J. Worth that he had better check his rig. He had a B-12 container and it did look kind of puny. Come to find out, someone had packed a tiny little cargo chute in their rather than his normal para-commander. This was supposed to be a big joke. To tell you the truth I had a hard time seeing the humor in it. I can't recall who the practical jokers were, but at least they were good hearted enough to tell him before he jumped it and gave him his old canopy back. So, anyhow he put his rig back together and we all had a good jump into the boogie At Deer Park. There were a ton of jumpers there from all over the country. Actually they were called jump meets back in those days. If anything the jumpers may have been a bit crazier back then. The risks were bigger and you had to be young and tough just to survive the sport. When it came time to party, most people didn't hold back. I'll bet Deer Park looks different today. The packing tables have probably all been torn down or rotted out by now.....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites RogerRamjet 0 #774 February 25, 2007 Quote It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Wow, that sounds about right on the inflation time too. I jumped with a guy at Z-Hills named Billy Reevis that made a 24' round direct bag static line jump from the old skyway bridge in St. Petersburg (FL). That bridge was 155' at the crown of the highway where he jumped from. The canopy just barely got full inflation when he went into Tampa Bay... BTW, no pre-testing first He just knew it would open in less than 150 feet. ----------------------- Roger "Ramjet" Clark FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Tidlof 0 #775 February 25, 2007 Quotefull round inflation about 1/2 down. Yeah it was quite a sight to be in free fall looking up at people sitting in the upper decks. A lot of scary thoughts run thru your head in the 2 1/4 seconds til you're open.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Next Page 31 of 61 Join the conversation You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Reply to this topic... × Pasted as rich text. Paste as plain text instead Only 75 emoji are allowed. × Your link has been automatically embedded. Display as a link instead × Your previous content has been restored. Clear editor × You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL. Insert image from URL × Desktop Tablet Phone Submit Reply 1 1
javelin1 0 #763 February 15, 2007 got accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bozo 0 #764 February 15, 2007 Quotegot accusations? yeah,talk to jerry irwin!! Jerry didnt post here......you did. bozo Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
javelin1 0 #765 February 16, 2007 they are not just accusations,the herd really did those things.and as proof,all one has to do to prove the jerry irwin blinding is to talk to jerry himself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tempretired 0 #766 February 16, 2007 There are good people and bad people in every group. The Herd members that I know are great people. Going through the student program at UPC and hanging out with the Herd and all United Parachute Club skydivers was a tremendous experience. Sorry the few that you ran into were not. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve1 5 #767 February 16, 2007 This story was way back when, and really doesn't have a point, but I thought I'd share it anyway. Back in about 1974, we had an army field problem. It involved flying from Ft. Bragg down to Southern Texas in a C-130 Black Bird, and making a night jump with equipment. Melvin was on my A-team and he was scared to death when it came time to jump...most every jump. But no matter how scared he got he always jumped. So, you had to hand it to ole Melvin...(he had balls). Since I was also a bad ass skydiver, I thought I'd have some fun with ole Melvin. One day I went up to Mel and told him about this dream I kept having over and over again....We were jumping and this one guy kept falling and falling, and wham! The guy smacks into the ground. So, in this dream, I run over there and turn the guy over....."And, and, it's you, Melvin!" "I wonder if it means anything!" Well, at this point, Melvin starts getting all shaky, and I did my best to keep a straight face. Finally after a couple days of this, one of the other guys on our team came up to me and told me to nock it off. He was worried about old Melvin, because he was getting more and more scared as we got closer to jump time. I ended up jumpmastering that load. It was blacker than black that night, and decided to jump first (rather than last) to show everyone that jumping was fun, not scary. I never did see the ground on that jump, and road my equipment right into the ground. One guy was hurt, and had to be helicoptered out, but we all lived to jump another day....including Melvin. Yes, I do have a sick sense of humor!....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tidlof 0 #768 February 16, 2007 QuoteThis story ...., and really doesn't have a point QuoteI do have a sick sense of humor Somehow, I think you made a point Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkeenan 13 #769 February 19, 2007 Quote... "great " bunch of guys.i for one had my share of their bull Years ago, one of my instructors told me, "Keep an eye out for the Herd". I guess he was serious._____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tidlof 0 #770 February 23, 2007 Back in the day, mid 70’s to be precise, the first Strato-Stars had ropes and rings which, at the time, was the only reasonable way a relative worker could use a square and not damn near die from opening shock. The rope was a clothesline size rope strung thru a bunch of rings sewed to the bottom of the canopy and attached to the pilot chute. On deployment, the canopy would open about 75% of full, whereupon the jumper had to reach up and pull down a red reefing line that would pull down the pilot chute and allow enough slack in the rope to let the canopy fully open. The red line with some slack would sort of float out behind the suspension lines. I had made a couple jumps on a borrowed Strato-Star (another scary story for another day), so when I got my new SS, I was pretty horny to jump it ASAP. But being November, damn near winter in Spokane, un-jumpable weather was the norm. On the phone (the 70’s equivalent of an E-mail list or forum), I talked Mike Culler, a new pilot (another scary story for another day) into flying up to the DZ at Deer Park to jump. It didn’t matter that all he had was Beech Musketeer, a low wing plane with a car type door that required him to slip the airplane about 30 degrees right for us to squeeze out the door and fall off the wing. It didn’t matter that the ceiling was 3-5, ground winds at 25 mph and upper winds at 3-5 AGL at 50 knots (according to Flight Service) , I was young and bulletproof and horny to jump this new rocketship of a canopy. So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing. Up I go, and take the longest damn spot I’ve ever had. As I clear the tail, get stable and deploy my Massey piggy back with Capewells, I look up to see several line twists with the canopy about 75% open, spinning out of control. But not violently, so what’s the big deal? Thinking I’ll unwind naturally and being at 3-5, I reach up to pull the red reefing line down and am more than a little surprised at how hard it is to even pull it 2 to 3 feet. My previous 2-3 jumps, the line was easy to pull but this time, I notice that the red line was bound up tight in the line twists. Still thinking I’ve got time, I pop the brakes, hoping this will aid the unwinding and nothing happens. The dam line twists are not unwinding even as I try to kick and pull, curse and moan. On the SS, steel rings joined the single steering line to the 3 cascaded lines sewn to the tail. If I had time to look carefully, I would have noticed that the steel rings had knotted up the line twists and nothing was gonna unwind. But I didn’t, all I knew was nothing was changing from this scary picture. Well now I’m out of ideas on how to fix this bad boy, down to 1800 feet and just “flying” across the airport still in 50 knot winds. Even though the ground winds were crazy and un-landable, I figure I’m better off with a 26 foot Navy Conical than this partially open and spinning piece of shit. So, capewell covers down, thumbs in the capewell loops, look at my reserve handle, arch and pull the loops. And nothing happens……………WTF????? After a microsecond that seems like an eternity, I notice the risers floating out in space, completely free and…………holy shit……… the red line directly in front of my nose and I’m hanging on it by one capewell cover. These covers are hinged and flimsy and I have no idea how much longer I’ll be stable in this hanging position. So I grab the red line and attempt to do a pull up on it and pull it away and off the capewell cover. I have this image that I need to pull the red line down and away from my body to get off the capewell. That was the wrong idea because the capewell cover hinges in the middle and I would’ve had to pull up and in to get off of it. But I can’t see all that in this situation, so there I am and……. “Nothing works”. Down to 1200 ft and getting dizzy, I figure “nothing to do but pull the reserve and hope for the best.” Much to my chagrin, the pilot chute does not go zinging away clear of the mess, it heads pretty much up into the main. I grab it before it gets too far and attempt to hand deploy it but it’s all over my head and everywhere. But I keep working it, all the way in, never looking at the ground. The next thing I know, I’m laying under a tree, groggy with just a vague sense of where I am but no recollection or logical explanation of how I could have got there. I continue to lay there wondering what I should be feeling, if I’m in shock, or dead or ????. I have no concept of time, but suddenly my buddies are running up to me with eyes as big as saucers, amazed that I’m conscious and not a pile of bloody goo. I slowly get up and we slowly walk back to the clubhouse trying to diagnose what could have happened. As it turns out, I had landed just inside the first row of trees at the edge of the airport and missed the hard ground of an open field. The trees were young springy evergreens with strong upswept limbs that broke my fall about as much as a guy could hope for. Feeling a little shaken but generally alright (no broken bones or real apparent injuries), we threw the shit in the airplane and flew home. I published my story in Parachutist and it wasn’t long before the slider was introduced and quickly became the norm. Danger versus scary; an interesting distinction. Although that was arguably the most danger I’ve ever been in, I never got scared, simply because there was no time to think about it. Maybe I’ll have a couple of Jacks and tell you about the scariest jump I ever made which, ironically was the safest I have made or could ever make.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tidlof 0 #771 February 24, 2007 I've always been amazed and amused at how people assess risk by a very subjective seat of the pants means but still think they're being perfectly rational and objective. That was brought home to me about 25 years ago when I had the opportunity to static line my round reserve from the ceiling of the KingDome in Seattle. It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. Four people had already done this before for a Boeing Company event and I was part of a 2nd batch of jumpers to do the same thing a year later. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Squares did not get full cell inflation before the dummy hit the floor, so we used round reserves. Two of our best riggers packed our reserves and designed the suspension apparatus from which we would cut away. We were sitting in the saddle and used our cutaway handle to drop straight down as the reserve bridle and bag stayed tied to the celing. We were just baggage since there was absolutely nothing we coulld do to help or hurt the deployment. Before we could do anything with body postion, we had tensions on our risers. These were virtually laboratory conditions for a reserve deployment. So, by design, this was the safest jump I could ever make. With 1000 - 1500 jumps, I had all the conscious faith in my equipment, my rigger and my abiltiy to use it. So, shouldn't a left brained engineer be able to calmly relax before this piece of cake E ticket ride? You'd think. But NFW. I can't begin to describe the pit of the stomach terror I felt as I walked around on the roof the Dome geared up waiting to jump for about 15 - 20 minutes. With nothing to distract me like the spot or my performance on a 8 way competition jump, primal fear took over to the point that my first jump or my first roller coaster ride were no comparison to this. Well the jump went perfectly of course, but I couldn't do a stand up because my legs were jello from the overwhelming fight or flight adreniline that had just peaked seconds before. I've never experienced fear like that since. Sometimes late at night when I'm high, I wish I could experience that fear again for just...........15-20 seconds would be enough. What a rush.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 4 #772 February 24, 2007 Brings back memories. I was in Seattle one time and a friend who works for Boeing (and was one of the four earlier jumpers) showed me his picture/movies of it. As I remember, it was a paper airplane flying contest for the children of Boeing employees. (He also had some pretty spectacular pictures, taken from a Boeing corporate jet, of the top of Mt. St. Helens soon after it blew.) HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve1 5 #773 February 25, 2007 Quote So we get up there to Deer Park and find just a handful of fools standing around thinking the same thing.. ............................ Gee whiz Ted, you're lucky to still be here! It would be really tough to continue jumping after a close one like that. There aren't many jumpers around who remember jumping at Deer Park. We went to a boogie there in about 74 or 75. We rented a DC-3 from the smoke-jumpers in Missoula. We were all geared up when we climbed on board. We were about half way there when somebody told B.J. Worth that he had better check his rig. He had a B-12 container and it did look kind of puny. Come to find out, someone had packed a tiny little cargo chute in their rather than his normal para-commander. This was supposed to be a big joke. To tell you the truth I had a hard time seeing the humor in it. I can't recall who the practical jokers were, but at least they were good hearted enough to tell him before he jumped it and gave him his old canopy back. So, anyhow he put his rig back together and we all had a good jump into the boogie At Deer Park. There were a ton of jumpers there from all over the country. Actually they were called jump meets back in those days. If anything the jumpers may have been a bit crazier back then. The risks were bigger and you had to be young and tough just to survive the sport. When it came time to party, most people didn't hold back. I'll bet Deer Park looks different today. The packing tables have probably all been torn down or rotted out by now.....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RogerRamjet 0 #774 February 25, 2007 Quote It's 250 feet down to 2nd base in case you're wondering. We did a dummy drop with our rigs to make sure it would open as quickly as we expected; full round inflation about 1/2 down. Wow, that sounds about right on the inflation time too. I jumped with a guy at Z-Hills named Billy Reevis that made a 24' round direct bag static line jump from the old skyway bridge in St. Petersburg (FL). That bridge was 155' at the crown of the highway where he jumped from. The canopy just barely got full inflation when he went into Tampa Bay... BTW, no pre-testing first He just knew it would open in less than 150 feet. ----------------------- Roger "Ramjet" Clark FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tidlof 0 #775 February 25, 2007 Quotefull round inflation about 1/2 down. Yeah it was quite a sight to be in free fall looking up at people sitting in the upper decks. A lot of scary thoughts run thru your head in the 2 1/4 seconds til you're open.Ted D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698 On the road to wrack and ruin………… but making damn good time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
