Skydiving, North Florida, late 70s early 80s

[shall555 0]

I was going through some old photos recently and unearthed my skydiving albums from the "Steam Age."

I thought some folks might be interested in seeing them.

I put them on my web site, with some captions here:

Skydiving in North Florida

I'm currently fighting the impulse to get back into the sport a bit, but the last thing I need is another hobby that requires $3K worth "stuff" , again !

Not sure if all of these folks are still jumping. I've seen the occasional post about Maddog Maguire and I'm glad to see he's still active. He was one of the greatest folks I've had the opportunity to know.

I started at Sunrise Parachute Center, Amelia Island, Florida (Fernandina Beach). The DZO was Bill Smith, an amazing guy. He had done test jumping for NASA on some of the original ram-air parachute designs and had over 4000 jumps at the time.

He was an amazing teacher. He could teach skydiving techniques with just the right mix of energy, information and still communicate the safety message.

He insisted that the student rigs all have AADs on the reserves ( this in 1976 ). The student freefall rigs also had KAP-10 (Eastern European) AADs on the mains.

We jumped out of a rompin' stompin' brand new Cessna 185: N224CH. The noisy blast of this thing taking off soon became an alert to the island residents to step outside if they wanted to watch those crazy skydivers.

The folks you see in the photos at the link were some of the best friends I ever had. Despite the fact that I was *the* dropzone turkey... TUR-KEE... they invited me on jumps and usually managed to suppress laughter as I flailed about.

At any rate, check out the antique gear and marvel at the state of skydiving 25-30 years ago.

Cheers,

shall

[JohnRich 4]

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I started at Sunrise Parachute Center, Amelia Island, Florida (Fernandina Beach).

Me too! I made my first jump there in 1978. Also in my class was Mad Dog Maguire's wife, when he was still an air traffic controller. I made my first 94 jumps there before moving further south in Florida, and became an Indiantown regular.

Jumpmasters were guys like Mad Dog, Johnny Sumner, Sandy Sheppard, Dan Stoger, Vance Collie, and of course, Bill Smith.

I'm thinking that I'm the only student graduate from there that is still active in the sport today...

Photo: first jump gear, Bill Smith background left, pilot behind him.

Who was the guy that jumped with his little chihuahua dog stuffed in his jumpsuit?

[shall555 0]

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Who was the guy that jumped with his little chihuahua dog stuffed in his jumpsuit?

Tom Harvey jumped with his dog zipped into his jumpsuit.

The chihuahua's name was "Butch."

[BillyVance 34]

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I started at Sunrise Parachute Center, Amelia Island, Florida (Fernandina Beach).

Me too! I made my first jump there in 1978. Also in my class was Mad Dog Maguire's wife, when he was still an air traffic controller. I made my first 94 jumps there before moving further south in Florida, and became an Indiantown regular.

Jumpmasters were guys like Mad Dog, Johnny Sumner, Sandy Sheppard, Dan Stoger, Vance Collie, and of course, Bill Smith.

I'm thinking that I'm the only student graduate from there that is still active in the sport today...

Photo: first jump gear, Bill Smith background left, pilot behind him.

Who was the guy that jumped with his little chihuahua dog stuffed in his jumpsuit?

If you knew Mad Dog, then you must know the story of him jumping drunkenly off the roof onto a bedsheet held by friends who also had been drinking... hell of a funny story! I'll have to root through my saved emails for it, but I think it happened at Quincy, FL...

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[JohnRich 4]

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Tom Harvey jumped with his dog zipped into his jumpsuit.

Yeah, that's him! Gosh, that was hilarious to watch him land his parachute, unzip his jumpsuit, and have that little dog roll out and go running around in the tall grass.

[JohnRich 4]

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If you knew Mad Dog, then you must know the story of him jumping drunkenly off the roof onto a bedsheet held by friends who also had been drinking...

Maddog drinking? No, say it ain't so! Actually, I hadn't heard that story. But I read about his close encounter with the power line, and I'm glad he's recovered and is doing well.

Maddog had about 300 jumps at the time he was my jumpmaster. My wildest dream was to accumulate that vast amount of jumps and be a skygod just like him. And now I have over 4,500!

I looked up Bill Smith about a year ago. Believe it or not, he's running some kind of private boy's school up in the northeast. Who would have ever predicted that in his future? Ha!

[jonstark 8]

Tom used to come up and fly for us at Skydive City in Sylvania, GA north of Savannah. What a nut!

Tom had a super 8mm movie of the Ladds in a line waving to Mom and pulling one by one. After the last sibling pulled you see Tom's green strato-star then almost immediately there are pine tree limbs. He had really sucked it down unintentionally trying to finish the filming.

Never got to talk to Rachel or Jon or the other Ladd about it.

Anybody know where they went?


jon

[BillyVance 34]

Here's the story as told by Ed Hauck one day on the crwdogs mailing list...

titled "The Night We Frapped Mad Dog"

After 8 hours in purgatory today this was a welcome distraction. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! My wife and kids are looking at me like I have lost my mind HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Man oh man!! Everyone has a "Hey Yall watch this story" I have a personal favorite. Some of you on this list will remember it because you were there.

About 15 years ago one Saturday night at the Quincy DZ by Tallahassee there were about 25, snot slinging, knee dragging, commode hugging drunk, bored skydivers celebrating something or another, when someone came up with the bright idea of doing some blanket jumps. Those of us who could climb on top of loft without falling on our ass lined up for our shot at glory. I don't remember how many people went off the roof that night but it was quite a few.

Now we had guys and girls holding this blanket and some of those holding the blanket were not very strong so it was an incident report waiting to happen. I was one of the first fools off the roof, MA-1 in hand, with a nice hard arch and landed in the blanket safe and sound. Of course I had to climb back up for another shot at it. I was standing next to Mad Dog when it came his turn to "Stand in the door". Now the designated blanket holders had re-arranged positions, some holding it with a beer in one hand and the blanket in the other.

I said "Go" and Mad Dog was in the air. Nice hard arch, pilot chute trailing behind him, and he went right through the blanket thundered into the dirt and bounced! I was right over him looking down and I mean he bounced a solid foot off the ground! There was dead silence. The only noise was the crickets chirping. Not a sound from Mad Dog at all. No one was saying a word. It was maybe a good thirty seconds and then one voice spoke up from the darkness. Tom Balboni said "Oh shit!! we've killed Mad Dog!!

Then we realized he was still alive when this god awful noise started coming from the Blanket ...uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHH!!! We got him stood up, poured beer on his face to wash the dirt out of his crossed eyes, let go of him and he went right back to the dirt! More silence and then everyone on the DZ busted out laughing! It was bad hahahaha! I talked to Mad Dog not to long ago about that night. I laughed my ass off...all I got from Mad Dog was dead silence.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Doogie320 0]

shall, Couldn't get your link to work.

Bill Tharp jumped there around that time frame. He was a mentor to me in my learning days in 95-96. Johnny Sumner was teaching at a local community college around 95-96 when I last saw him.

They had a DZ there in 98-99 before things got....stupid. Great DZ though, good memories. The locals hated us (we could've done without that).

Take care,

[shall555 0]

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shall, Couldn't get your link to work.

Bill Tharp jumped there around that time frame. He was a mentor to me in my learning days in 95-96. Johnny Sumner was teaching at a local community college around 95-96 when I last saw him.

Take care,

Images are back up now. Yes, Bill Tharp was a friend of mine. I helped him get a gig as the mechanic for Caidin's Ju-52 (the behemoth in the pictures).

[airtwardo 6]

GREAT PICS!

I love all the Shot & a Halfs... with Blast Handles...

THOSE were the days!

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

[jaymundo 0]

Damn...Chet seemed really old to me back then.....not now!!!

[Doogie320 0]

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Images are back up now. Yes, Bill Tharp was a friend of mine. I helped him get a gig as the mechanic for Caidin's Ju-52 (the behemoth in the pictures).

I had forgotten about him working on the -52. Thank you for jogging my memory. Last I heard he was up in Indiana or Illinois working on a LifeFlight helo as a nurse.

[JeffSkydiver 0]

At the DeLand DZ a couple of weeks ago, I told MadDog about this thread on DZ. We then went inside to the puter and he read the posts. He was laughing his head off.

For those who may not know, MadDog is regularly at DeLand and stays current jumping. Gotta give him credit, eh?!

You can write to him c/o the DZ or call and leave a message if he's not there.

jt

*

Let's all do this safe enough that we can still do this in our 90's.

[Meux 0]

This thread brought back some happy memories. In 19seventy something I was working on my commercial license, building hours on cross countries. I was stationed at Myrtle Beach SC and my family lived in Titusville, FL, so it was natural that I would fly down the coast to visit.

On one trip I got nose to nose with a giant thunderstorm and needed a place to land. I ducked into Amelia Island. Taxiied in to a ramp and started tying the plane down. Before I knew it there was a truck next to the plane and some guy was helping me, the rain started coming down hard, I was very grateful for this guy.

I'll have to find that old logbook, but I think the guy was Bill Smith. He took us out with a group of friends to a Pizza Hut where we had a fantastic time talking of planes and jumping.

I spent the night at the airport, can't remember the exact floor that I slept on, but with the storm raging outside, I was so happy.

The next morning it was quite foggy so I was delayed again. When the fog lifted, (inside and out) I headed down the coast again to Titusville.

I remember that 185 Charlie Hotel sitting on the ramp and the talk of the skydiving. If memory serves correctly, it was nearly brand new at the time.

Thanks for the post, it's going to force me to find that old logbook for exact dates and maybe a name.

Blue Skies,

Mo

[JohnRich 4]

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On one trip I got nose to nose with a giant thunderstorm and needed a place to land. I ducked into Amelia Island. Taxiied in to a ramp and started tying the plane down. Before I knew it there was a truck next to the plane and some guy was helping me, the rain started coming down hard, I was very grateful for this guy.

That sounds like the airport there. It had a small FBO with a lunch counter, that got very little business, and a trailer attached to the back. For the lunchroom bathroom, you walked back into the private trailer and used their personal bathroom. Since there were no rental cars available, there were a number of times I saw them just loan their truck keys to visiting pilots and let them run off in his personal vehicle. It wasn't fancy, but it was friendly.

[Meux 0]

Yes it was, like so many other small airports around the country. Is it my imagination or has all that changed? Maybe it's just me.

Called my buddy who was the ballast officer on that trip and he confirmed it was Bill Smith who helped us out.

Somewhere I do have some photos and will have to look in my old logbooks for dates and maybe some notes that I kept.

Cheers,

Mo

[oldfart 0]

I made my first jump at Sunrise in 1978 as well.John Rich,you were on that load,the jumper after me.Dan Steeger (awesome jumpmaster and instructor!!),was JM that load.

Shall,thanks for sharing those pics,dude,they brought back some wonderful memories when I was young and had no kids,mortgage or ulcers and grey hair.That's me coming down under that red,white and blue PC at Palatka.Ah,the skydiving cuties Janice Oliva (my dad thought you were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen),Diane Pound,Peggy Fleming and Penny.You could do a pin up calandar with those, shall.

I got back into the sport in '99 and jumped Amelia Island again after a 15 year hiatus from the sport.It was run by a really nice South African dude named Johann and BK,Both gentlemen were excellent instructors and I felt that I learned more about the sport in the short time I had been there,than I had in the 150 some odd jumps I had made years before.It's a shame they couldn't keep the center open.

I too am contemplating getting back into the sport,too shall.I made some 15 or so jumps in '99,hadn't jumped since.It's a $$ matter.

[avenfoto 0]

to whom it may concern.. tom harvey is now a pilot at skydive palatka.. unless he owes you money.. then i have no idea where he is..

but, avoid karaoke nite at the hi-level AT ALL COSTS..lol

one too many late nites with that looney old fucker,.,

i prefer the old salts. way more charcter. no egos. cool.

[htrammel 0]

Tom used to fake heart attacks while climbing to altitude when i had a plane full of first jump students. That bastard ROCKED.

[psychoswooper 2]

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Tom used to fake heart attacks while climbing to altitude when i had a plane full of first jump students. That bastard ROCKED.

I'm sure I've got several videos of him doing that in my old box of Palatka videos. As well as a hilarious video of his drunken butt dancing & singing "get on down...like a luvin machine"
Those WERE the days