SkySlut 0 #1 February 23, 2004 While I was at my riggers course, we were shooting the poop and this came up in conversation. Supposedly, during the 70s there was a company out of Texas that was selling a kit so people could make their own parachute. A do it yourself, type thing...which was apparently in vogue at the time. Does anyone know of this??? I think that it would be really cool to get a copy of the ad and frame it for display. Anyone??? Bueller??? Bueller??? He wasnt sure that he had heard of anyone jumping it, but any stories would be appreciated to...as an FYI. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #2 February 23, 2004 I've heard of this as well, if I remember the conversation I had with the jumper, they said it was something like "Lone Star Parachutes" or something along those lines.--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkySlut 0 #3 February 23, 2004 Yep, thats it...at least thats what he thought it was. I am now on the hunt... http://www.afn.org/skydive/skydive/usenet/1994/apr/0103.html Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nutz 0 #4 February 23, 2004 If you make your own parachute and jump it - do you need a cart to wheel around the very large body parts between your legs? Just wondering. "Don't! Get! Eliminated!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
markbaur 0 #5 February 23, 2004 "Lone Star Parachutes" is correct; late 70's or early 80's as I remember. One of the Minneapolis-area riggers has one, in original (not yet sewn) condition, which he has declined to sell. I don't recall any ad, but perhaps there was a classified in a Parachutist of the time. Mark Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slug 1 #6 February 23, 2004 We never saw the ad about the homebuilt kit. But we did have a guy at our DZ in Kansas (1970) that jumped a knockoff PC. I think the guy was from california but could be wrong. The guy told us a friend of his had made a pattern from a PC and assembled a small run of "X" canopies. He also said that once the PC people heard about it they told the guy to stop doing that. The canopy looked the same as a reguler PC Except for the suspension lines. The were lighter than 550 cord, I forget their strength but they had a black thread on the outside of the casing.We watched the guy put a few hundred jumps on it without a problem until one day, Plink! a line either broke or became disconnected at the skirt. Our friend wasn't to concerned he just rolled up the the line and connedted it to the riser with a RB. After the second line went plink! he finally came over and we got out the sewing machine (salvation army) and my roomie replaced the two lines.The roomie wasn't a rigger. The same guy had a problem with his ripcord becoming frayed at the "ball end" swage?. He was aware of the problem especially sine the fraying continued to get worse. He finally bought a new ripcord after the old one broke on a jump. R.I.P. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
usedtajump 1 #7 February 23, 2004 Can't remember the guy's name that owned Lone Star Parachutes but the parachute was called a Shrike.The older I get the less I care who I piss off. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkySlut 0 #8 February 24, 2004 Well, I think that we got some pretty good information going on here. I found that there was a related article in Skydiving, but that issue has been long since gone. If anyone has or knows of anything in print...let me know. I think that it would be a cool novelty thing to have framed. Yep, from what I can tell it was called the Shrike. Thanks for the help. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slug 1 #9 February 24, 2004 QuoteWell, I think that we got some pretty good information going on here. I found that there was a related article in Skydiving, but that issue has been long since gone. If anyone has or knows of anything in print...let me know. I think that it would be a cool novelty thing to have framed. Yep, from what I can tell it was called the Shrike. Thanks for the help. Did the shrike use 550 cord for the suspension lines, or some lower strength material.? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkwing 5 #10 February 24, 2004 QuoteDid the shrike use 550 cord for the suspension lines, or some lower strength material? I can't imagine that the Shrike used 550. There were plenty of alternatives available even then. Assorted braided dacron was widely available. -- Jeff My Skydiving History Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rjf98 0 #11 February 24, 2004 I remember leonerd (damn spelling) form AOT jumped a canopy he made once. Called it the stealth. Funny thing was that the slider wasn't collapsible. We should post to the listserve. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #12 February 24, 2004 QuoteWe should post to the listserve. Thinking of Leonard (sp?) I posted to the club asking it to be posted to the old-fart list. I figured he either has one, built one or helped design it...something. I've always heard the canopies he built flew faster/better then anything else around at the time, but opened worst then anything anyone had ever seen. Someone told me once that he had one of the original patents on Xbraced technology in canopies, but I'm not sure about that.--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkwing 5 #13 February 24, 2004 QuoteI remember leonerd (damn spelling) form AOT jumped a canopy he made once. Called it the stealth. Funny thing was that the slider wasn't collapsible. I build a very weird canopy called a Stealth. I jumped it once, on 18 May 1980, the day mount St. Helens blew up, but that's another story. 5-cells, 160 sqft, double-humped airfoil. Flew very well. Only made one. sold it to my team-mate for $150 and he put quite a few jumps on it. It may still exist. I hope it does. I should try to find it. -- Jeff My Skydiving History Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #14 February 24, 2004 I started asking some of the old fart jumpers from the old AOT I know, here's some stuff they said: QuoteWell, David, you found one of the old farts who made the first Shrike and jumped it herself! I'll have to check my logbook but it was somewhere around 1985. Mary Haskett also made a Shrike. Clark Thurmond, who was the DZO of the bygone Austin Parachute Club (APC), created the Lone Star Parachutes Company. He later sold it to John Bunda & Leona Slepitis--who had around 10 jump each. We'll probably be telling you more than you want to know by the time this thread is finished. Jan P.S. Clark wanted to start a numbering system and I would have been DaVinci #1. Clark lives in Georgetown now. QuoteI made one too. My first jump on the new canopy was round 1 of masters accuracy at Collegiates one year because you couldn't do "practice jumps" and I had to make some hop-n-pops on the canopy before taking it to terminal. So I entered the accuracy event. Everyone saw me with the lines off of the links of this new canopy and inspecting it, they thought I was crazy. It was a really fun time. The kits were great and very clear. But it's still a great deal of sewing. Mary Haskett--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkySlut 0 #15 February 24, 2004 Can you ask them if they would know of any promotional material or advertising for these things??? I would love to make some sort of "artwork" of it. I have done a bunch of searches, but havent found anything. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #16 February 24, 2004 I did ask, I haven't heard anything about that yet. Although, Steven Haskett just sent me some more information: QuoteThat was ?JohnBunda and ?LeonaSlepetis making a canopy in their house, I think. They were testing it at Bird's Nest. Or, come to think of it, it may have been ?ClarkThurmond and his canopy factory. They may have even been working together. Clark's shop was up by Texas Crushed Stone, and I flew some of the test drops for him. It's flimsy, but it's all I've got. Sorry this took so long. Mental propagation delay in retrieving data. ?DaveMandot I'm very sure JanRichards worked for ?ClarkThurmond for a while at Lone Star. Didn't MaryHaskett build one of their canopies? DwightMcArthur http://www.aotwiki.com/MoinMoin/AOTWiki/moin.cgi/LoneStarParachuteCompany--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkySlut 0 #17 February 24, 2004 Thanks for all the legwork...I owe you a beer!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites AggieDave 6 #18 February 25, 2004 No problem, you actually really peaked my curiosity as well, so I'm having fun!--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites SkySlut 0 #19 February 25, 2004 I figured as much edit to say...oh, yeah...plus a beer!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites airtwardo 7 #20 February 25, 2004 I was friends with a DZ Bum back in the 70's that took apart an old para plane and made a pattern... and built several 'new' canopies from it. He sold one to my college room mate that put a few hundred jumps on it and never had a complaint... The strange part was they had green 550 lines cut off old T-10's! Another rommie of mine out in San Diego, told me a story about when he was on the US Team back in the 70's... Some members from the Russian team..."borrowed" one of the US Team's 252 Para-Foils for a night... The next day a couple of the Russian team guys were jumping VERY RECENTLY built replicas of the Para-Foil that appeared to be made from a poly blend clothing type material... Wonder how they flew...or how long they lasted?! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites riggerrob 628 #21 March 2, 2004 In 1986 I sewed up a 7-cell Shrike 210 canopy from a kit sold by Lone Star Parachute Company. The Shrike flew hands-off on its first jump and I sold my Cruislite a few months later. I used that Shrike for RW and CReW for several years. They claimed that a person could sew their own parachute in 40 hours. Heck! I probably spent 40 hours just studying the manual and listening to the five cassette tapes that came with it too. Lone Star put together a brilliant manual on how to sew parachutes. I still have my original Lone Star manual in my loft. By the time I bought a second kit, the company had changed owners and changed names to Para-Kit. They never turned much of a profit because their original giant silk screen failed and they had to mark all the fabric by hand, a laborious process. I also have my Shrike - with about 250 jumps - in my loft along with my 9-cell, Sidewinder 220, with about 300 jumps. It was a pretty good canopy, almost as fast as a P.D. and opened soft enough that I made a few camera jumps with it. I jumped my Sidewinder until a couple of years ago. Both canopies were made of F-111 fabric with 600 (?) pound flat braided Dacron lines sewn to the ribs. Sewing those two canopies was a tremendous learning experience. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites SkySlut 0 #22 March 2, 2004 rob, Is that manual in good shape??? I am curious what the cover looks like or if there is anything in there that would be suitable for making a copy and framing (assuming that you wouldnt want to give up the original)? I am thinking that it would be a good conversation piece to have hanging in my home. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites riggerrob 628 #23 March 2, 2004 Skyslut, You are right, I am not willing to give up my Lone Star manual. However, I may be able to find a high-quality photo-copier that will satisfy your needs. Blue skies, riggerrob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites JohnRich 4 #24 March 2, 2004 QuoteSupposedly, during the 70s there was a company out of Texas that was selling a kit so people could make their own parachute. A do it yourself, type thing... Okay, you guys finally got me curious enough to go dig this out of my back issues. Attached are two images of the full-page ad in "Skydiving", from a 1986 issue. My scanner isn't big enough to do the whole page at once, so I've got the top half in one image, and the bottom half in the other image. The 60k image size limit here makes the text hard to read. If anyone would like the 300-dpi jpg images, comprising about 1.5 meg in size total, e-mail me at JohnRich@nww.net, and I'll send you a copy of the high resolution image files. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites RiggerPJ 0 #25 March 7, 2004 I was a Jumpmaster/Instructor for Clark back during the old Bird's Nest days. I last saw Clark in 1998 at the Oshkosh Fly-in. At the time, he was the editor of a newspaper around Georgetown, Texas. Maybe that will help to track him down and get more info on his canopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 1 2 Next Page 1 of 2 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 0 Go To Topic Listing
AggieDave 6 #18 February 25, 2004 No problem, you actually really peaked my curiosity as well, so I'm having fun!--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkySlut 0 #19 February 25, 2004 I figured as much edit to say...oh, yeah...plus a beer!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites airtwardo 7 #20 February 25, 2004 I was friends with a DZ Bum back in the 70's that took apart an old para plane and made a pattern... and built several 'new' canopies from it. He sold one to my college room mate that put a few hundred jumps on it and never had a complaint... The strange part was they had green 550 lines cut off old T-10's! Another rommie of mine out in San Diego, told me a story about when he was on the US Team back in the 70's... Some members from the Russian team..."borrowed" one of the US Team's 252 Para-Foils for a night... The next day a couple of the Russian team guys were jumping VERY RECENTLY built replicas of the Para-Foil that appeared to be made from a poly blend clothing type material... Wonder how they flew...or how long they lasted?! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites riggerrob 628 #21 March 2, 2004 In 1986 I sewed up a 7-cell Shrike 210 canopy from a kit sold by Lone Star Parachute Company. The Shrike flew hands-off on its first jump and I sold my Cruislite a few months later. I used that Shrike for RW and CReW for several years. They claimed that a person could sew their own parachute in 40 hours. Heck! I probably spent 40 hours just studying the manual and listening to the five cassette tapes that came with it too. Lone Star put together a brilliant manual on how to sew parachutes. I still have my original Lone Star manual in my loft. By the time I bought a second kit, the company had changed owners and changed names to Para-Kit. They never turned much of a profit because their original giant silk screen failed and they had to mark all the fabric by hand, a laborious process. I also have my Shrike - with about 250 jumps - in my loft along with my 9-cell, Sidewinder 220, with about 300 jumps. It was a pretty good canopy, almost as fast as a P.D. and opened soft enough that I made a few camera jumps with it. I jumped my Sidewinder until a couple of years ago. Both canopies were made of F-111 fabric with 600 (?) pound flat braided Dacron lines sewn to the ribs. Sewing those two canopies was a tremendous learning experience. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites SkySlut 0 #22 March 2, 2004 rob, Is that manual in good shape??? I am curious what the cover looks like or if there is anything in there that would be suitable for making a copy and framing (assuming that you wouldnt want to give up the original)? I am thinking that it would be a good conversation piece to have hanging in my home. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites riggerrob 628 #23 March 2, 2004 Skyslut, You are right, I am not willing to give up my Lone Star manual. However, I may be able to find a high-quality photo-copier that will satisfy your needs. Blue skies, riggerrob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites JohnRich 4 #24 March 2, 2004 QuoteSupposedly, during the 70s there was a company out of Texas that was selling a kit so people could make their own parachute. A do it yourself, type thing... Okay, you guys finally got me curious enough to go dig this out of my back issues. Attached are two images of the full-page ad in "Skydiving", from a 1986 issue. My scanner isn't big enough to do the whole page at once, so I've got the top half in one image, and the bottom half in the other image. The 60k image size limit here makes the text hard to read. If anyone would like the 300-dpi jpg images, comprising about 1.5 meg in size total, e-mail me at JohnRich@nww.net, and I'll send you a copy of the high resolution image files. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites RiggerPJ 0 #25 March 7, 2004 I was a Jumpmaster/Instructor for Clark back during the old Bird's Nest days. I last saw Clark in 1998 at the Oshkosh Fly-in. At the time, he was the editor of a newspaper around Georgetown, Texas. Maybe that will help to track him down and get more info on his canopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 1 2 Next Page 1 of 2 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 0
airtwardo 7 #20 February 25, 2004 I was friends with a DZ Bum back in the 70's that took apart an old para plane and made a pattern... and built several 'new' canopies from it. He sold one to my college room mate that put a few hundred jumps on it and never had a complaint... The strange part was they had green 550 lines cut off old T-10's! Another rommie of mine out in San Diego, told me a story about when he was on the US Team back in the 70's... Some members from the Russian team..."borrowed" one of the US Team's 252 Para-Foils for a night... The next day a couple of the Russian team guys were jumping VERY RECENTLY built replicas of the Para-Foil that appeared to be made from a poly blend clothing type material... Wonder how they flew...or how long they lasted?! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riggerrob 628 #21 March 2, 2004 In 1986 I sewed up a 7-cell Shrike 210 canopy from a kit sold by Lone Star Parachute Company. The Shrike flew hands-off on its first jump and I sold my Cruislite a few months later. I used that Shrike for RW and CReW for several years. They claimed that a person could sew their own parachute in 40 hours. Heck! I probably spent 40 hours just studying the manual and listening to the five cassette tapes that came with it too. Lone Star put together a brilliant manual on how to sew parachutes. I still have my original Lone Star manual in my loft. By the time I bought a second kit, the company had changed owners and changed names to Para-Kit. They never turned much of a profit because their original giant silk screen failed and they had to mark all the fabric by hand, a laborious process. I also have my Shrike - with about 250 jumps - in my loft along with my 9-cell, Sidewinder 220, with about 300 jumps. It was a pretty good canopy, almost as fast as a P.D. and opened soft enough that I made a few camera jumps with it. I jumped my Sidewinder until a couple of years ago. Both canopies were made of F-111 fabric with 600 (?) pound flat braided Dacron lines sewn to the ribs. Sewing those two canopies was a tremendous learning experience. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkySlut 0 #22 March 2, 2004 rob, Is that manual in good shape??? I am curious what the cover looks like or if there is anything in there that would be suitable for making a copy and framing (assuming that you wouldnt want to give up the original)? I am thinking that it would be a good conversation piece to have hanging in my home. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riggerrob 628 #23 March 2, 2004 Skyslut, You are right, I am not willing to give up my Lone Star manual. However, I may be able to find a high-quality photo-copier that will satisfy your needs. Blue skies, riggerrob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnRich 4 #24 March 2, 2004 QuoteSupposedly, during the 70s there was a company out of Texas that was selling a kit so people could make their own parachute. A do it yourself, type thing... Okay, you guys finally got me curious enough to go dig this out of my back issues. Attached are two images of the full-page ad in "Skydiving", from a 1986 issue. My scanner isn't big enough to do the whole page at once, so I've got the top half in one image, and the bottom half in the other image. The 60k image size limit here makes the text hard to read. If anyone would like the 300-dpi jpg images, comprising about 1.5 meg in size total, e-mail me at JohnRich@nww.net, and I'll send you a copy of the high resolution image files. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RiggerPJ 0 #25 March 7, 2004 I was a Jumpmaster/Instructor for Clark back during the old Bird's Nest days. I last saw Clark in 1998 at the Oshkosh Fly-in. At the time, he was the editor of a newspaper around Georgetown, Texas. Maybe that will help to track him down and get more info on his canopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
