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DC-3's

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Jack, who were you flying charter for? Used to be in the jet charter business myself. You probably don't remember this but you rode from Muskogee to Dallas with me one time after the Nationals in the mid 80s and we did a demo with Jerry Rouillard into something, maybe the Cotton Bowl or a rodeo, just can't remember the specifics..... or much of the drive, either.:D:D



Hey Jerry!!!
Nice to hear from you. In spite of all the drain bamage I remember that trip. We jumped the Cotton Bowl. I think we all lived and were legends in our own minds!

I was flying Lear Jets for Kalitta Charters here in Michigan from 1999 till last year. Now I have a corporate job for a local company flying a GIV. Jumping less and enjoying it more. Hope y'all down in Texxas are doing well.

Blue Sky,

Jack

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GIV, nice gig. B| I worked for over 30 years in jet charter sales for about four different charter operators in the Dallas area, The last two, the ones still in business, were Million Air and Jet Aviation. I'm retired and living on our farm in Western Kentucky now.:)
The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

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I remember an all-white DC3 flying at Roche Harbor Boogie on San Juan Island, WA in the mid-80s. I think it was called Gypsy Rose. It was a beautiful sight.

AZChallenger JFTC99/02 GOFAST300 STILLUV4WAY
"It's nothing 1000 jumps won't cure..."
- Jeff Gorlick, Seattle Sky Divers

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This pic was just recently posted at the Air Trash website. I wasn't there when this plane burned, had already left the sport and moved north, but this is the plane that threw the prop blade just before taking off. Everybody got out alright, though the pilot had to go out the windshield.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

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The Gypsy Rose was Ken Spiva's airplane back then. When I flew it at Ghoulidge, it was red/white and blue and it was REALLY nice. It has N-number 101KC and is currently polished metal with a green stripe down the side and is called simply "Rose." No longer hauls jumpers, but does nostalgia flights and type rating stuff out of the Corona Airport in SoCal.

For DC-3 buffs ... try centercomp.com/dc3 It's an on-line DC-3 museum with tons of stuff and pictures ... look far enough into the photo galleries and you'll find about 80 pics I sent in. Lots of history on this site
Zing Lurks

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"Our Douglas, once was the John Travolta use to own. Jan Aavik took it over in the 80s and was based at Cal City. He sold about 3 years ago and got involved with a turbine DC3. I got a change to jump it. Fast but I miss the noise, oil and smoke. He using it to take hunters and fisherman to Mexico.
I miss the ol' 3s too!
bob

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I don't think they went out the windshield. A teammate and buddy of mine was flying right seat. He told me that he and the pilot ( I think it was Skip, might be wrong ) went out of the forward hatch. He told me he was considering jumping off the nose until he realized how high it was. Both pilots ran down the fuselage and jumped off the tail.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

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It was Skip Evans flying 86Ugly that evening. Three people went out the overhead emergency exit above the pilots' seats. Two went down the fuselage and slid off the right side. One dropped from the nose. Somewhere, I've got an interview I did with Skip (back when I was mild-mannered reporter for a metropolitan newspaper) about the incident. Much better tale than both of my best flying lies.
Zing Lurks

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Turns out that the plane's owner had tried to extract the DC 3 from a situation where the wheels were sunk in the ground. A big piece of wood or a log was used in the process and it got kicked up into the turning prop as they were trying to move the plane. Nobody told Skip and the prop was not x-rayed or magnafluxed. Apparently it had suffered a crack that resulted in the blade loss during takeoff. Skip told me that if the blade had come off after they had taken off it might have been the end for everyone. As it was they had a VERY close call. Skip sure knows DC 3s inside and out. I like flying in DC 3s and feel more confident with him in the left seat.
2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

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Were you around for the "after the boogie" high-jinks at Z-hills ('79 I think) when a freak windstorm overnight backed one of the DC3 s up the hill and left it in the space between the mainfest and the pea gravel pit? Years later I "flashed-back" when I saw the movie Close Encounters. In the early part of the movie, a flight of "lost" WWII planes re-appear in the desert in Mexico. The look on the faces of the investigators, one of whom vaguely resembles Jim Hooper, was just perfect!
Sundance: (chuckling) "You just keep thinkin' Butch...that's what yer good at."

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What about the "Firestone" DC-3 - out of Ohio, if I remember correctly (and that is a challenge, these days).

Also Sky Train which flew at the Hills for awhile and crashed in Alaska, I think, flying fish.

Flew DC-3s for a charter airline out of IND in '77-'78 and flew right seat off and on over the next few years at the Hills, the Nationals, etc. with Dave Sickler, Chris Price and others whom I can no longer remember.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling

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Were you around for the "after the boogie" high-jinks at Z-hills ('79 I think) when a freak windstorm overnight backed one of the DC3 s up the hill and left it in the space between the mainfest and the pea gravel pit? Years later I "flashed-back" when I saw the movie Close Encounters. In the early part of the movie, a flight of "lost" WWII planes re-appear in the desert in Mexico. The look on the faces of the investigators, one of whom vaguely resembles Jim Hooper, was just perfect!



Speaking of Hooper, DC-3s, and Z-Hills, I just received a very nice shot of 40T from Jim a couple of weeks ago (the 196 is in formation also, guessing the shot was taken from the L10E, but don't know):

http://static.flickr.com/96/266069808_f82259ae8b_o.jpg

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

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What about the "Firestone" DC-3 - out of Ohio, if I remember correctly (and that is a challenge, these days).

Also Sky Train which flew at the Hills for awhile and crashed in Alaska, I think, flying fish.

Flew DC-3s for a charter airline out of IND in '77-'78 and flew right seat off and on over the next few years at the Hills, the Nationals, etc. with Dave Sickler, Chris Price and others whom I can no longer remember.



The "Firestone 3" went to Georgia, and flew under the name of "Sugar Alpha", which raised suspicion from the DEA that it may have been used to haul 'sugar' during the week.
It's owner Steve Moran, and one of his pilots Howard Smith were killed doing low level acro in a T28.
Steve's widow Nina sold it, and I haven't heard about it since the mid 80's.

359
"Now I've settled down,
in a quiet little town,
and forgot about everything"

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Speaking of Hooper, DC-3s, and Z-Hills, I just received a very nice shot of 40T from Jim a couple of weeks ago (the 196 is in formation also, guessing the shot was taken from the L10E, but don't know):



Thank-you for that great shot. 40 Tango was the first DC-3 I ever jumped. Always loved that paint job!

Speaking of Jim Hooper, where is he and how and what is he doing?
--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

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Speaking of Hooper, DC-3s, and Z-Hills, I just received a very nice shot of 40T from Jim a couple of weeks ago (the 196 is in formation also, guessing the shot was taken from the L10E, but don't know):



Thank-you for that great shot. 40 Tango was the first DC-3 I ever jumped. Always loved that paint job!

Speaking of Jim Hooper, where is he and how and what is he doing?



Jim is alive and well living in England. I have been exchanging quite a few emails with him lately mostly discussing "the old days" and where some people might be today. He sent the photo just a couple of weeks ago and it seemed to fit this thread, so I posted it. I have many jumps from both of those aircraft, all before they were painted with the rainbow scheme. I was a member of Hooper's 10 man team (Ten High) as well and we made most of our practice jumps from the L-10E which may be the camera ship for this photo.

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

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"Amelia" - the Lockheed L10E Electra - had long been sold to Paul Fayard when the photo of 40T and 95N was taken from my 182. The distinctive rainbow pattern was painted in 1978 by Dean Daubenspeck. (Peter Gabrial had first painted a rainbow on the old building, and it became part of the Z'hills logo.) Given its history, I suspect the DEA breathed a sigh of relief that no one would ever be so foolish as to use it for importing questionable produce.
Hoop
SCR242, SCS90, NSCR26

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