Para-Plane pics

[wayne8577 0]

Anyone have any old pics of a paraplane canopy? Maybe one with a slider! Thanks in advance!

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[TomSpoon 2]

Got this one . No slider though.

[wayne8577 0]

Thanks! Wayne

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[ripcord4 0]

Wayne....

You'll be sooorrreeee!

LOL
A fellow old fart

[upndownshop 0]

Are you gonna jump one? I have two on my fathers, one of the first to come off the production line. I jumped it in his security system, was very interesting.

Stood up in the peas.

The second jump i did on it I couldnt get the slider down, was stuck about 8 feet up. I did everything I could, the closest I could get it near me was about 3 feet, then it went right back up. I think the grommets should have been larger with those lines. Was going to chop it but didnt want the round landing.
Opening was ok (did take it to terminal 2'x's), the canopy is not very rigid, slow response on the toggles, and must start flare much higher.
When the slider was stuck up the 99 stiletto doing video with me had no problem hanging with me. Kinda cool.

Will see if I can find the pics.

[wayne8577 0]

Larry, I heard that! What I'm doing is collecting different types of old canopys that are still jumpable. I've got a PC I'm putting in an old secerity crossbow piggyback witha 26' conicol reserve. I have the ParaPlane but I need to have it inspected first. It does have a slider though! Not sure what harness and container I'll put it in yet! It's just pretty neat to have a collection of all the old gear I have jumped.Wish I still had my original PC, only 6 like it was ever built in that color skeem. As for jumping all of them... Will probale have to at least once???? Sill thinking about that though! Wayne

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[wayne8577 0]

J,Thanks for looking for the pics! Yea, I used to jump them way back in the early 70's. No one had the cojonas to do a terminal more than once then, only h&p.(no sliders). I might jump it, haven't deceided yet! My wife thinks I'm crazyand my 2 boys who just started jumping saying "yep, if I know my Dad, He will" Some things never change in a jumpers mentality, right? Wayne

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[upndownshop 0]

Here is the second jump I made on it. My rigger used a different slider this time around and I think it had smaller grommets.

The other pic is from the first jump, we did a 3 way so we had the round, square and triangle.

I have some more pics but not scanned yet, these are from when the canopy was new. Ill try to get them in, may be a while, moving right now, scanner packed away.

I love the old gear, just picked up a strato star to add to my "jumped" list. My brother thinks I'm nuts, my mother says " there are enough pepole around to take me to the hospital when I break my leg. Thanks mom

[ripcord4 0]

Ahhh....the 'Dactyl...like to killed myself on that canopy!

[wayne8577 0]

You and me both! Great pictures Man! Ya just gotta love it! Wayne

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[nitrochute 2]

that apears to be the 230 ft para plane cloud.

[nitrochute 2]

i actually have acopy of the original paraplane owners manual,circa 1970. i took the cover photo of dick morgan stomping the disc labor day 1970.

[wayne8577 0]

Man, would love to see it! Wayne

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[upndownshop 0]

Wayne, I have done you wrong. That s actually a Parafoil. I have always gotten those two confused. Thanks to nitrochute (charles) in correcting my mistake.
He had some interesting info in his PM (hope you dont mind me posting it) but here it is:
________________________________________________
is a parafoil that snyder built circa 1969.the para plane has no flares or stabilizers on the bottom surface.that was what snyders patent was based on.the para plane came about because snyder and p.f.i.(para flite inc)had a license to build a small number of parafoils from jalbert and nickelidies(sp).something to the tune of about 50 or so.snyder tried to get a license to build more but jalbert et al said no.so snyder sat down and figured out that the flares on a foil were not necesary, and moved the reinforcement up onto the rib and attached the lines to the bottom surface.then he patented it. i worked for snyder and was also present during much of his ram air developement and drop testing.snyder actually tested the direct line attachment rite under everyones nose,thinking that no one would notice the difference,and he was rite to a point. i was just starting photography at the time,borrowing a jumping freinds nikon and taking tons of pictures. i took a picture of snyders first jump on his para plane protoype.nobody noticed anything till we were looking at the pictures the next weekend. snder almost had a fit because i had taken the pictures and was afraid that they would fall into the wrong hands.he bought all the prints and the negatives from me just to keep this thing secret till his patent paperwork was filed.if i can find it i actually have a copy of the very first para plane owners manual.as i supplied the cover photo.if i acn locate it i will scan it in here.
_______________________________________________--

When I can scan my fathers pic's I will post them too. And Charles can tell us Plane or Foil
Maybe some of you can come to SkyFest in July and hang out with Bill Newell and some others. Would love to have some sort of gathering and meet you folks.

If I may, I would like to say thanks again to all of you pioneers, not enough people understand or appreciate what you have done for the sport.. My hat is off to all of you!

[wayne8577 0]

J, It's been so long ago I didn't see the dif. It's been 34 yrs to be exact. All done for reeducation. Thanks for the reply! Your right, a gathering of OLD FARTS would be very interesting to say the least. I'll be at the POPS boogie in Thomaston Ga. this year for sure. We'll have to bend an elbo or two if you come down! Don't stop posting, I love to hear all this stuff! Wayne

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[steve1 5]

Our club had a para-plane back in the early 70's. It was awesome to watch it landed correctly. It was the first square canopy I ever saw.

I jumped it once. I was so worried about it malfunctioning that I didn't even notice the opening shock. That canopy malfunctioned about once out of every ten jumps. Maybe we were packing it wrong.

I heard that Wally Benton broke his back demoing a para-plane into a football stadium (in Boise, Idaho) in the early 70's.

I enjoy jumping an old PC these days, just for fun. I don't think I'll jump a para-plane again.....I just don't have a hankering to do that.

But I'll never forget watching Randy Mosley racing in to do a perfect standup under one, back in the good ole days....Steve1

[wayne8577 0]

Steve, I hear ya! I'm probably going to jump the beast some. Beleave it or not, the first malfuntion I ever had was under a paraplane. Line twists up to my neck! No dought my fault with my shoulders, but violent none the less. It cost me a case of beer cause I lost my reserve ripcord! Also who knew anything about canopy loading back then any! Every time I jumped that beast it was a fast trip down! We were swooping and didn't even know it! All we would say was "Far out, Man". Wayne

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[wayne8577 0]

I think the reason it came down so fast was the guy I bought it from had some kind of mod don to the lines if memory serves!

Here's to Old Farts in the Wind!

[tbrown 26]

I remember Para Plane Clouds from my student days, there were a couple guys & girls at Seneca Falls who jumped the things. They stick in my memory because they looked more like a "mattress" than any canopy I've ever seen. In those days they had the old "ropes & rings" reefing system that went around the top of the canopy, not under like on the Strato Clouds & Stars. Used to watch the openings, which went from one side to the other and made a "ba-whap !" noise you could hear on the ground. When they opened at all that is, which they usually did, but cutaways were frequent. More than a few people would buy a Cloud in the springtime and be trying to sell it by August, because they couldn't take the brutal openings and had enough fun with the cutaways and decided their old PC wasn't so bad after all.

In those days of course you had to have over 200 jumps at most dropzones before they even let you try a square. But when I finally got around to it, my first square jump was on a Cloud that had been relined and sliderized to Strato Cloud specs. It still had the old hard plastic toggles too.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[nitrochute 2]

ummmm ............actually the para plane clouds came with aluminum toggles that must have weighed a pound or so each.

[lekstrom10k 0]

I still have a ste of toggles from my para plane I brought out for show and tell no one guessed what they were and they were indeed plastic. there was a cross drilled hole and one from one end to meet a diagonal hole from the center hole. you fed the steering line through the center hole and put a knot to set your brskes then you fed it out passed the ond and tied aloop for a handle to extract it from your floating brake loop . That was sewn on to your steering line up above anywhere near you could bring the lines past the ring in a flare nice huh if you didnt like how your canopy was opening you just tied a few knots in brake line until it opened ok, really pissed of riggers that do you a favor by taking them out only to have you tie them in again. I built a machine to reline para planes .The 1000 lbs line with heat shrink and the 1000lbs micro stretch would never work when converting to sliders. Well enough said about Para Planes other than never did a cutaway until them my rigger loved ma after that.

[JerryBaumchen 1,048]

Hi steve1,

Quote

I heard that Wally Benton broke his back demoing a para-plane into a football stadium (in Boise, Idaho) in the early 70's.

The Boise club pooled their money and bought a ParaPlane in '68, a blue & white one.

I jumped it at Issaquah in the Spring of '68; my first square jump. Damn, that thing was fast. I got it into the Issaquah peas but stalled just a little high and ended up on my butt/back.

I think it was either later that year or the next year that the club was doing a demo into a Boise State College football game. Wally was determined to land it on the 50-yd line. He hooked it in and smashed himself up; probably more than just his back. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Jerry

[darkwing 4]

Quote

...I think it was either later that year or the next year that the club was doing a demo into a Boise State College football game. Wally was determined to land it on the 50-yd line. He hooked it in and smashed himself up; probably more than just his back. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Jerry

Not true on the wheelchair. Wally was ambulatory when I first met him in 1973, when I did my first jump at his DZ. He limped a lot, but I never saw him in a wheelchair. He died of "natural causes" (lots of mileage on him) in about 1987 (I'm pretty uncertain about the year).

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[JerryBaumchen 1,048]

Hi Jeff,

I defer to your observation. Everytime that I saw him (maybe only 3-4 times) after the crash he was in a wheelchair. It always made me cringe to see him. He tried to make the best of it but you could tell it was taking a toll on him.

Jerry

[RogerRamjet 0]

Quote

J,Thanks for looking for the pics! Yea, I used to jump them way back in the early 70's. No one had the cojonas to do a terminal more than once then, only h&p.(no sliders). I might jump it, haven't deceided yet! My wife thinks I'm crazyand my 2 boys who just started jumping saying "yep, if I know my Dad, He will" Some things never change in a jumpers mentality, right? Wayne

I put a couple of dozen terminal jumps on a para-plane. It opened "briskly" to say the least, but I was never bruised or anything. Probably weighing only 135lbs helped.

The most important thing to remember when packing the original plane or cloud (with the top rings and ropes) is packing it for the jump you intend to do. They have a sub-terminal and a terminal packing method and you sure don't want to mix them up. One causes a bag lock, the other broken ribs (or worse).... I'll let you guess which is which

I jumped all the squares I could find back then, the foil, sled, plane, cloud... they called me Roger Ramiar for a while until the Strato-Star came out and then everyone jumped squares...

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