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wartload

Skydiver and Pilot, too?

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I started jumping in 1984 and have a private pilot's license. I don't fly very often but whenever I'm current i like to do short sightseeing flights with friends. Usually no more than 100 miles from home. $100 hamburgers and visits to the beach and round trips to go inspect the Mt. St. Helens crater and stuff like that.

I also got my tailwheel endorcement and got checked out in a powered parachute. I LOVED that!


First Class Citizen Twice Over

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Started Jumping 1969.

Private Pilot 1978.

Now full time CFI, part time 135 pilot.

Flew jump planes fo a couple of seasons at Hemet and Elsinore.

Now don't like to land in airplanes on weekends.
"Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there."

"Your statement answered your question."

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I also got my tailwheel endorcement and got checked out in a powered parachute. I LOVED that!



Funny thing ... I never got a legitimate tailwheel endorsement. I bought an Aeronca Champ (7AC)from a guy who reluctantly said that he'd check me out in the thing. He flew with me from where I picked it up to my home airport, and then sat in the back, giving me sparse advice, while I managed to land it twice ... then he took a bus back to his hometown.

My first clue was when I asked him to sign the logbook with his license number and he didn't know what it was. I soon found out that he never got a license, and sold the plane because nobody would give him instruction in it.

Oh, well, I got 2,000+ hours in taildraggers without breaking one.[:/]

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Just curious how many of the people who started skydiving before, say, 1990 also hold a pilot's license? If so, what sort of flying do you prefer to do?



I started skydiving in 1961 at Ft. Bragg with the XVIII SPC.

I started DZs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1969. Having the responsibility of running a DZ back then...and doing most of the rigging...kept me from flying as much as I liked. As much as I love jumping, flying jumpers is more challenging and more fun.

I have 2000+ hours flying up and down, up and down. After getting out of the DZ business for myself, I flew for many DZs on the East Coast but the absolute most fun was flying for Mike Schultz at Pelicanland in Maryland. I did that for 2-3 years. Best years of my life!

I have an ultra-light which I'm rebuilding. No license required, of course, but it scares the crap out of me. Only 11 HP from 2 5.5HP chainsaw engines. Every flight is a Number 9.9 pucker factor.

Still...flying jumpers in a Cessna 182 is the most fun of all.
Guru312

I am not DB Cooper

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Still...flying jumpers in a Cessna 182 is the most fun of all.



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Agreed!
I started flying and jumping in 1977.
Flew Cessna 172s full of jumpers in 1983 and 1984.
Flew Cessna 182 jump plane in 1985 and 1986.

Nowadays I am too valuable at rigging, tandems, PFF, etc. and my boss is afraid that I will complete my commercial pilot license and want to fly again.

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Just curious how many of the people who started skydiving before, say, 1990 also hold a pilot's license? If so, what sort of flying do you prefer to do?




I've known (and know) a few:

Jeff Searles: 2000 jumps and pilot, owned Z-Hills in early to mid 70's.

Bill Booth: Lots of jumps and lots of hours, still active.

Bill Buchman: Lots of both and still active.

Mike Patterson: Lots of both, status unknown.

Louie Howell: Lots of both, status unknown.

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

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I got my pilots license back in April of 1995. I trained at the Flying W in Lumberton, NJ. I owned a Piper Arrow for about a year and had about 200 hours before I lost interest. I even started my instrument training at one point but just didn't have the motivation to jump through all the hoops. I made two more flights back in 1999 to get current again, and haven't flown since.

I started jumping with my first tandem back in March of this year and was instantly hooked. Now I spend most of my free time jumping, thinking about jumping, or talking about jumping. I may get back into flying again some day, but right now I much prefer jumping out of them, although I will admit sometimes on the ride up I look toward the cockpit and miss being in the left seat.

I can say the pilot training helped immensely with some of the fundamental concepts of canopy flight, particularly the notion of flying a standard pattern approach for landing. Of course the big difference under canopy is that you can't add power when you realize you're dropping below the glidescope.

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I recently gave up my hot air balloon licence, my fixed wing licence. I built 5 aircraft in total, almost all of them for someone else who had money.

One of the aircraft I built can be seen on the internet, by clicking on
< Siemens-Schuckert D IV > It is in New Zealand at this time.

A couple of years ago built a fuselage for a Mark 6 Spitfire which is being finished by others. I deemed the guy who owned it as being rather unsafe so I quit.

Bill Cole D-41




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First Jump in 69 (the 1 year signifies skydiving not parachuting;).
Pilot's License in 75

Bought a plane in 78 to commute to work - several thousand hours later started feeling like a driver with limited parking privilages.

---------------------------------------------
Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

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This is probably a tad late but I started skydiving in 1963 at Ft. Lee, Va and got my Private in 1967 at the old Vacaville Glider Port just before I went to Vietnam. Returned and started a skydiving club at El Centro (jumped at Holtville) and talked an aircraft salesman into letting us use a NEW Aerocommander Lark. This was the equivalent of a Cessna 172. Imagine trying to fly jumpers with a 172 in the El Centro summer. I was the only pilot we had most of the time. Also flew a few loads at Antioch in the mid/late 70's when Norm wanted to make a jump. Haven't jumped since 1983 and haven't flown in three years. It's just too expensive to rent these days.
If you know how many guns you have - you don't have enough!

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Add Ted Strong to that list. He used to own a 180.




Anybody remember Ted's Ex ~ Myrtle?

I'd made a few jumps with her back in the 80's when they were demonstrating the then new Tandem system at air shows...

Is she a pilot too??! ;):ph34r:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023269/Pilot-Myrtle-Rose-75-entered-restricted-airspace-Obamas-Chicago-visit.html

YUP! B|:D

Had a long conversation with her at Oshkosh a few weeks ago...amazing woman!!










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

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1st jump 1972, 1st solo 1974 when the guy teaching me bailed out (he wasn't a CFI), Pilot license 1976. I have been in the aviation business ever since and stay current and active in both jumping and flying.
You live more in the few minutes of skydiving than many people live in their lifetime

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Add Ted Strong to that list. He used to own a 180.




Anybody remember Ted's Ex ~ Myrtle?

I'd made a few jumps with her back in the 80's when they were demonstrating the then new Tandem system at air shows...

Is she a pilot too??! ;):ph34r:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023269/Pilot-Myrtle-Rose-75-entered-restricted-airspace-Obamas-Chicago-visit.html

YUP! B|:D

Had a long conversation with her at Oshkosh a few weeks ago...amazing woman!!


And she was a wing walker at the show back in 70's.
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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I bought a C-172 jump plane in 1970 when I had 150 jumps. A guy named Ed Scmock crashed it . I got out of flying then . Around 1980 I returned to flying jumpers. I have 650hours flying and my instrument instruction flying. We had a yahoo crash the plane I flew most. I havent done any bi annuals since then but still keep my third class current for tandems

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Also flew a few loads at Antioch in the mid/late 70's when Norm wanted to make a jump. reply]


Would that be Norm Ross?

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

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Yeah, it would. I worked for Perry for a few months running the DZ during the week and packing student rigs, when I wasn't freezing my ass off and once in a while Norm would want to make a jump, bare feet and all, so I'd fly the 182. What ever happened to him? Last I heard he was at Z Hills, I think (a long time ago).
If you know how many guns you have - you don't have enough!

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