skybill 18 #151 May 19, 2015 skybillStratoRag!!! Still have my old strat in the archives! 'Twas a fun canopy, the black rainbow color patern. First jump on it was in Najafabad, IRAN in 1976! Me, my ex wife Chris, Lee Sewell and John Paulos out for a Saturday morning bandit jump! Too much fun!! OH I forgot, Man,,,,, My ol' Rigger bud from Grumman, Joel Albinowski, had some PC jumps and had his rig with him and wanted to "Tag" our jump, he hadn't jumped in "A While" so he just wanted to do a "10SD" He went off nice and Stable and I thought, "Damn, he could'a come with us and we'd a had a 5 WAY!!!!" Oh well, was fun back when...almost 39 years ago now!!SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderbow 1 #152 August 17, 2015 My first sqare jump. Around 1978. Red and black with slider. Bought from Dave Kinney who some Rainbow flyers may remember. Landed first jump in the peas standing up at Austin Lake airport near Kalamazoo Michigan. I was in heaven.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brokenwing 1 #153 September 23, 2015 never did a strato star but i did love my flyer but then i was 145lb at the time Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TREEZ 1 #154 June 28, 2018 First square jump , 1976. Tom Humes stratostar. Released the toggles but one line did not unstow as I didn’t pull hard enough. Spun then I steered straight , worked on the toggle and spun again while both hands were on the bad toggle. Steered straight. Repeat. Over the woods , looked down , said f#k this. Cutaway and backlooped , under the reserve coming out of the loop. Chopped it at 600 ft , only lost 80 ft. ( Toms reserve was fast, I watched him deploy twice. ) What could go wrong ? Young and fearless / dumb. ( Bought a Unit and had 200 good jumps, was my only reserve ride ever. )JUMP RUN 1979 movie is at www.callmetree.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bob_Church 7 #155 July 1, 2018 September 30 1979. I had 45 jumps and the rule at Bidwell was 100 jumps before jumping a square but Andy let me and Danny Joe helped. Jump 46 went ok, I slid a little but not bad. Then on my next jump the requirement went. Back to 100. That didn't actually hold then the 100 jump rule, but it was awhile before I had a shot at it. At about thirty feet I felt the canopy stall and just let go of the wooden toggles. I have no idea why. I watched the ground come up but came to looking at the sky. Spurgeon was on the pay phone calling 911 when he saw me stand up. I think those may have been my only Strato Star jumps. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stuntturtle9 0 #156 December 10, 2018 I got a Strato Star in 1975. It was billed "Safe for R.W.". Put it in the very early WonderHog, this was the hot rig in South Florida. Bill Booth showed me how to pack it all up. Put 1000 jumps on that rig with only 1 brakeline replacement. Accuracy and Crew were very doable. Later traded the rig for an air compressor. Great rig with lot's of memories.Quote Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites FlyVinny 1 #157 November 21, 2019 My first home DZ was Livermore, CA. We needed 100 jumps as well to jump a square. I ordered my before that. I packed it from the manual, (at least an hour), and headed to the DZ. None of the Skygods had arrived yet, so I just got on the 182 and made my first square jump. The Skygods weren't happy I'd done it on my own, but realized I had only been told I needed 100 jumps which I had, exactly. No harm no foul. Vinny Salemme D-5468 FB-525 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Skydoc2336 1 #158 December 13, 2019 After a dozen T10 jumps I purchased the hot canopy, a ParaCommander in a military B-12 rig from Para Gear, and a 26' LoPo in a belly mount reserve. After 186 jumps, and watching squares with rings and ropes malfunction regularly, they came out with the Strato-Star/SST rig with shorter lines and a factory slider. I was all-in, and absolutely loved that canopy. Custom colors Black and yellow stripes with red highlights. I put many hundreds of jumps on that canopy, until one boogie, when three of the cells blew out at the tail. I chopped away the two-cell spinner and rode the 26' LoPo down. Getting the reserve repacked was no challenge at the boogie, but what to do for a main? Someone more intoxicated than me said, "just use 100 mile an hour (Duct) tape on it." I found a roll of silver Duct tape, sealed the tail of the three cells, packed it up, and jumped it. It worked just fine! I continued to jump that canopy for years, eventually developing a minimalist pack job I could do in under three minutes (and then organize another load and get back on the manifest). I ditched the bag and all rubber bands. I'd lay the canopy on its side, stow the brakes, pull the slider up, roll the nose to the middle, roll the tail to the middle, coil the lines in a circle into the pack and s-fold the canopy over it. Then shove the pilot chute on top of the mess and close container. The openings weren't much different than standard, just a bit faster, with the occasional BANG opening. After several more years and hundreds more jumps, one day that canopy just blew up on opening. Another 26' LoPo ride. But retrieving the cutaway, lo and behold. It was the OTHER two cells that blew out the tail. The Duct Tape still held the first three together intact! I saved that canopy in a garbage bag and still have it as proof! About that time I was studying for my medical Boards, coloring in schemes for my new PD230. Bill Coe and I were buddies back then. An odd fellow, he was jumping a Hornet (the half-celled canopy that flew horribly) and experimenting with it. He eventually founded Performance Designs and their line of magnificent flyers, and I enjoyed the next 500 jumps on the PD230, never again resorting to the reserve. But the best story with my Strato-Star/SST was when BOTH RIPCORDS BROKE. Its a story for another time, but suffice it to say I was pleased when the reserve opened at 200' after pulling on the swaged end of the ripcord cable (all that was left). John Sherman kindly sent me two replacement plastic ripcord handles in compensation. Although I replaced the reserve handle with metal, I jumped with the plastic main handle, which also broke four years later! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next Page 7 of 7 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
FlyVinny 1 #157 November 21, 2019 My first home DZ was Livermore, CA. We needed 100 jumps as well to jump a square. I ordered my before that. I packed it from the manual, (at least an hour), and headed to the DZ. None of the Skygods had arrived yet, so I just got on the 182 and made my first square jump. The Skygods weren't happy I'd done it on my own, but realized I had only been told I needed 100 jumps which I had, exactly. No harm no foul. Vinny Salemme D-5468 FB-525 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skydoc2336 1 #158 December 13, 2019 After a dozen T10 jumps I purchased the hot canopy, a ParaCommander in a military B-12 rig from Para Gear, and a 26' LoPo in a belly mount reserve. After 186 jumps, and watching squares with rings and ropes malfunction regularly, they came out with the Strato-Star/SST rig with shorter lines and a factory slider. I was all-in, and absolutely loved that canopy. Custom colors Black and yellow stripes with red highlights. I put many hundreds of jumps on that canopy, until one boogie, when three of the cells blew out at the tail. I chopped away the two-cell spinner and rode the 26' LoPo down. Getting the reserve repacked was no challenge at the boogie, but what to do for a main? Someone more intoxicated than me said, "just use 100 mile an hour (Duct) tape on it." I found a roll of silver Duct tape, sealed the tail of the three cells, packed it up, and jumped it. It worked just fine! I continued to jump that canopy for years, eventually developing a minimalist pack job I could do in under three minutes (and then organize another load and get back on the manifest). I ditched the bag and all rubber bands. I'd lay the canopy on its side, stow the brakes, pull the slider up, roll the nose to the middle, roll the tail to the middle, coil the lines in a circle into the pack and s-fold the canopy over it. Then shove the pilot chute on top of the mess and close container. The openings weren't much different than standard, just a bit faster, with the occasional BANG opening. After several more years and hundreds more jumps, one day that canopy just blew up on opening. Another 26' LoPo ride. But retrieving the cutaway, lo and behold. It was the OTHER two cells that blew out the tail. The Duct Tape still held the first three together intact! I saved that canopy in a garbage bag and still have it as proof! About that time I was studying for my medical Boards, coloring in schemes for my new PD230. Bill Coe and I were buddies back then. An odd fellow, he was jumping a Hornet (the half-celled canopy that flew horribly) and experimenting with it. He eventually founded Performance Designs and their line of magnificent flyers, and I enjoyed the next 500 jumps on the PD230, never again resorting to the reserve. But the best story with my Strato-Star/SST was when BOTH RIPCORDS BROKE. Its a story for another time, but suffice it to say I was pleased when the reserve opened at 200' after pulling on the swaged end of the ripcord cable (all that was left). John Sherman kindly sent me two replacement plastic ripcord handles in compensation. Although I replaced the reserve handle with metal, I jumped with the plastic main handle, which also broke four years later! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
