Scary stories from the old days?

[drjump 0]

Wendy--When was that "first" jump and at what airport? I remember Lewis, but as time gets older, the details fade! Doc-D-2785

[wmw999 2,382]

The jump was in 1975 at Clover Field. He only put one class out there; the next time I went to jump I think I went to Spaceland, and had a terrible time out of the Beech. Then to Weiser, and various other places (well, Spaceland and Doc's)

Wendy W.

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)

[fastphil 0]

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Wendy--When was that "first" jump and at what airport? I remember Lewis, but as time gets older, the details fade! Doc-D-2785

Airport???, I can't get beyond remembering Wendy at 20 years old (please don't take that as anything but a compliment, Wendy).

Most of my jumps have always been too thought out to be scarey, but when I started I just intended to make one jump, and did I ever get hooked. I immediatly started making more jumps than I could buy or borrow gear for. Of course, the DZ had all the student gear required, but somehow altimeters were in short supply. Anyway I ripped right thru 5 static lines, 3 hop and pops, 3 ten second and three 15 second delays, all the time spending all my non jumping time getting a very accurate feel for counting off seconds.

On my first 20 second delay I can still remember leaving the plane, nice and stable, and watching my JM smile and wave. The plan was to do nothing, meaning just fall flat and stable and all alone, and "nothing" is something that I found that I'm not too good at. I counted off the seconds as the plane flew away and I counted off more seconds as I checked the ground and was probably counting pretty accurate up till about 12 or so, when I fixated on the world below and got my first taste of groung rush. Not wanting to waste my freefall time I forced myself to believe in my count and to continue to count the full 20 seconds off before pulling, but for those last 8 or so seconds I could have put an auctioneer to shame. I did own my own altimeter on the next jump...

[wmw999 2,382]

For exactly that reason, I was told I had to buy an altimeter before they'd let me progress beyond 15-second delays.

I still use it. Someone was commenting that my altimeter couldn't be all that old, since it has yellow on it. However, that's hand-painted, right under the Mickey Mouse

Wendy W.

BTW Phil -- there's a unicycle at Spaceland You ought to come try it. (note to others: Phil can ride a unicycle. Most people can fall off a unicycle. I can't get high enough on it to fall off )

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)

[JumpinJules 0]

Replying to: Re: [steve1] Scary stories from the old days? by billbooth
Post: Although I made my first jump in 1969 on a 28' round, with a front mount reserve, with no pilot chute in it, no automatic opener, no RSL, and only about two hours training, I wasn't scared a bit. (Probably because I was 18 years old, and invincible.) What did scare the hell out of me though, was when I found out some 30 years later, that my instructor only had 6 jumps when he trained me.

I hit the ground so hard, it knocked me clean out...and when I woke up, I was greeted with the unbelieable sight of my jumpmaster trying to get my canopy back from a cow, which was in the process of EATING it. We got it back, patched up the new holes with more duct tape, and packed it up for my next jump.

Students nowadays have it far too easy, if you ask me.

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Oh my god.... !!! I think I just woke my roommate up because I was laughing so hard!!!! ahahahahhahaha

Into the great wide open/ under them skies of blue/ out in the great wide open/ a rebel w/out a clue.....

[kkeenan 14]

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Students nowadays have it far too easy, if you ask me.

I'm sure you will find plenty who agree in this forum.

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[airtwardo 7]

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Students nowadays have it far too easy, if you ask me.

I'm sure you will find plenty who agree in this forum.

Yeah...far to few DZ's are located close to cows anymore!

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

[twibbles 0]

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Students nowadays have it far too easy, if you ask me.

I'm sure you will find plenty who agree in this forum.

Yeah...far to few DZ's are located close to cows anymore!

Yeah, sheeps are just not the same...

Eugene

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

[Glitch 0]

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Yeah, sheeps are just not the same...

...How do you know? Experience?

Randomly f'n thingies up since before I was born...

[twibbles 0]

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Yeah, sheeps are just not the same...

...How do you know? Experience?

Funny enough.. yes
At my home DZ they fence sheeps in parts of the LZ of it to trim the grass, landed among them a few times, they kind of give you a dirty look and go back to eating grass
Eugene

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

[tbrown 26]

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For exactly that reason, I was told I had to buy an altimeter before they'd let me progress beyond 15-second delays.

Fifteen second delays is where we started using altimeters too (upstate NY dropzones, 1975).

We had two women students at Seneca Falls, Lynn and Linda, who earned the nicknames "Low Pull" & "No Pull", after Lynn smoked it down a few times and Linda had a Sentinel fire her reserve at a grand. They were great fun & we all loved them. Linda didn't jump very much after her Sentinel adventure, but I ran into "Low Pull" Lynn at Perris in '79. Caught her bridle line wrapped around her belly band on a jump run pin check once, and then another time she pulled around a grand waiting for her altimeter to get unstuck and go into the red. Fortunately she married some guy and quit jumping.

Best of all though was this little maniac at Otay Lake back in '79 named Jimmy Kiesel. After a bunch of low pulls, the DZO (Jim McDonald, this was the old Borderland Air Sports DZ) demanded that Jimmy start wearing an altimeter. So he got an old broken one and GLUED a needle on it, then replaced the crystal and showed it to Mac, who bought it hook, line & sinker. We all knew it was busted and thought it was just funnier than hell (it was, of course...). A good friend of mine still remembers the time he had a low reserve pull after a total mal and was shocked to see Jimmy screaming past him pulling his main (a round Piglet). Jimmy had mistaken what was going on and thought he'd been challenged to a low pull contest. Needless to say he won, hands down.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[Zing 2]

Sounds like another satisfied customer who shopped the Para-Death Sky-dieing gear catalog.

Solid-state altimeter ... no moving parts ... always reads 2 grand ... never be accused of a low pull again!

Zing Lurks

[kkeenan 14]

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...shocked to see Jimmy screaming past him pulling his main (a round Piglet). Jimmy had mistaken what was going on and thought he'd been challenged to a low pull contest.

Back in my early jumping days, the Piglet was definitely the weapon of choice among the low-pull crowd.

kevin

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[fastphil 0]

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...shocked to see Jimmy screaming past him pulling his main (a round Piglet). Jimmy had mistaken what was going on and thought he'd been challenged to a low pull contest.

Back in my early jumping days, the Piglet was definitely the weapon of choice among the low-pull crowd.

kevin

Yep, I remember some of the Piglet crowd. You could sometimes get a closer view of their deployment if you were on the ground then if you were jumping with them and watching from under canopy...

[RogerRamjet 0]

All the low pull "artists" I knew except one went in eventually. The last one I knew personally was Lou Jecker at the 75 Turkey meet.

The one that didn't go in, Billy Revis, died when he took off in the fog in a plane with no instrument lighting at night with only a flashlight. He turned upsidedown and crashed in the garbage dump not for from the Z-Hills runway he left from. About a year earlier, he told me he wouldn't make 25; he didn't.

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

[bozo 0]

[reply
Yep, I remember some of the Piglet crowd. You could sometimes get a closer view of their deployment if you were on the ground then if you were jumping with them and watching from under canopy...

[airtwardo 7]

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Its in the closet behind me as I type this.

< sniff sniff > And yup...it STILL smells like death!

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

[bozo 0]

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Its in the closet behind me as I type this.

< sniff sniff > And yup...it STILL smells like death!

It ought to.....the last guy that used it was a failed basejumper.

bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

[tbrown 26]

I'm afraid I will never air out my Piglet in the Streamlite container again, in this lifetime.

[airtwardo 7]

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Then if your friends take you up for an ash dive, they'd be releasing you WITH a rig - and how many people even think about that ?

I can see it now ~

"The ONE TIME that damn thing didn't open...."

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

[bozo 0]

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I'm afraid I will never air out my Piglet in the Streamlite container again, in this lifetime.

But check it out, you CAN take it with you AND jump it again if you have the rig tossed on top of your funeral pyre. Then if your friends take you up for an ash dive, they'd be releasing you WITH a rig - and how many people even think about that ? The fact that it's a vintage Piglet in a Streamlite only makes the whole thing more profound. I think we're onto something here....(and no, I'm not ON anything, but thanks for the concern).

[airtwardo 7]

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Parachutes burn into a big nasty ball of melted nylon.

Yessiree they do!

I 'balled one up' in the air with Pyro once over the Kentucky Derby!

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

[kkeenan 14]

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I 'balled one up' in the air with Pyro once over the Kentucky Derby!

I'll bet your NOTAM didn't mention THAT !

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[BigSky 2]

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Parachutes burn into a big nasty ball of melted nylon.

Yessiree they do!

I 'balled one up' in the air with Pyro once over the Kentucky Derby!

Something tells me that a flaming canopy trick wasn't part of the plan for the Kentucky Derby

Is there any major event you havent jumped into?

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, th

[airtwardo 7]

>>>Something tells me that a flaming canopy trick wasn't part of the plan for the Kentucky Derby<<<

Nope...an added surprise for EVERYONE!



Is there any major event you haven't jumped into?


Yeah LOTS!

But I figure I'm only 1/2 way through my demo career, so...

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