airtwardo 6 #26 August 17, 2006 Helio Courier *** I have about 30 jumps from "Ole #1" the very Helio Courier built. I was on the air show circutt for quite some time but haven't seen it in a while. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mjosparky 3 #27 August 17, 2006 QuoteHelio Courier *** I have about 30 jumps from "Ole #1" the very Helio Courier built. I was on the air show circutt for quite some time but haven't seen it in a while. It could be yours if you play your card right.http://www.heliocourier.net/My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wartload 0 #28 August 18, 2006 QuoteI jumped out of this Stinson many times at Norfolk, MA in the late '60s. ... I understand it is now in the Museum of Flight in Seattle. HW Doesn't that make you feel OLD??! A plane that I test flew is hanging up in the ceiling of a museum in Richmand, VA. Dayyyummm! It ages me to think of that! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NickDG 23 #29 August 18, 2006 Although I worked for a few years restoring Helio Courier's, and made lots of jumps from them, the brute in that family is the Helio Stallion. Bigger than the Courier, and with a Garret or similar turboprop, it was STOL up the ying yang. Stallions flew in and out of dirt patches all over Vietnam for the CIA during WW II and two thirds. The last Stallion we had in So Cal used to be in San Diego and then we took it to Elsinore and it wound up in Perris where it crashed while descending. Probably the silliest thing I've ever done in my entire jumping career I did in a Helio Courier. Art Linkletter, a famous radio & early day TV personality, had a son who was a pilot and he owned a Courier. He dropped it off at our shop saying the turbo chargers weren't working right. After he left my boss and I grabbed two pilot's rigs and some o2 hoses and took it to altitude. We were right over the airport and just leveling off at Flt Level 20 (20,000-feet) when an oil line blew. We shut it down and prepared to go into the Helio Spin-Turn. This was something another owner showed us and something I've never seen done in another type of airplane. It's like a wings level spin, but you have complete aileron and rudder control and you come down not too fast but not too slow either. But, before that, I hit the push-to-talk. "Hey Boss." "Yeah?" "This is sort of an emergency, isn't it? "I'd say it is, yes." "Then I'm going to jump." "Okay." I took a few more breaths on the o2 hose, pushed open the door, and went. I felt a little loosy goosy at that altitude in my shorts in tee-shirt and awful cold too. After I got going it was fine and there I was holding my sunglasses on with one hand and flying with the other. The rigs had new Phantom rounds and I just repacked them so all I had to do was wait but since I had no altimeter I was paying rapt attention. The airport manager was a dickhead and is always giving the tenants here a hard time. I made dozens of night bandit jumps on this airport and he was always threatening to turn me in - if he could catch me. The winds were blowing a bit so I didn't want to open too high and also the lower I went the slower I'd be going which is always good with these light-weight rounds. I also wanted to land as close as possible to the manager's office. I got as big as I could and pulled the ripcord somewhere around 2-grand and got a brisk but otherwise fine opening. I missed the manager's office by about 50 yards, but I marched right in to let him know in case any wuffos called it in. We fixed the airplane and a few weeks later the owner lost control during a landing and rolled it up into a pile of junk. Art Linkletter also had a daughter who while tripping on LSD jumped from hotel window and is killed. The joke now was Art Linkletter and a son and a daughter and neither one of them could fly . . . NickD BASE 194 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve1 5 #30 August 18, 2006 Does the Travelair come in a bi-plane model also? The only ones I've seen had the single wing on top. Bob Johnson of Johnson's flying service (in Missoula, Mt.) used tri-motors and travelairs for flying cargo and Smoke jumpers back in the 40's. I think there are extremely few still flying. My Dad lived with Johnson when he was in high school and flew co-pilot in both of these aircraft during that time period. At any rate this aircraft has a lot of history behind it....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve1 5 #31 August 18, 2006 QuoteDayum... look at all the hippies.. Nope never jumped one of them.... No...Those aren't hippies!...That's what hard-core jumpers looked like back in the 70's. Notice that a couple of us were wearing farmer's coveralls. We planned to go to the collegiant nationals that year, wearing them. The plan was to look like farmers with rigs. I was broke that fall and didn't go to school, so I missed out on all the fun....Steve1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #32 August 19, 2006 Woo hoo.. its flying.. THIS is the weekend I get to add it to the list...... Helio Courier. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #33 August 19, 2006 QuoteWoo hoo.. its flying.. THIS is the weekend I get to add it to the list...... Helio Courier. Those things are BUILT...the plane I mean! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimp 1 #34 August 19, 2006 Gee, you didn,t get to jump NC436W when it was at Issaquah in the early '80s? It's a Curtiss-Wright Sedan 15D, manufactured in 1931. The current owner is Albert Stix, 1444 Old Farm Drive, St Louis MO 63146 Maybe... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
drjump 0 #35 August 20, 2006 Wartload--Did you ever figure out how the pilot 'closed' the jump door on that old Stinson? Remember when we opened it, we would put a nail through the rod to hold the door open? I drove around the Norfolk airport a year ago and the place is all but abandoned, what a waste. What was the name of the pizza joint on Rt. 1-A that put up with us on Sat. nights.--Don Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #36 August 20, 2006 QuoteWartload--Did you ever figure out how the pilot 'closed' the jump door on that old Stinson? Remember when we opened it, we would put a nail through the rod to hold the door open? I drove around the Norfolk airport a year ago and the place is all but abandoned, what a waste. What was the name of the pizza joint on Rt. 1-A that put up with us on Sat. nights.--Don Doc Your question should probably be aimed at me, since I posted the picture (which was taken by Vince Marchese). For Norfolk Airport, see: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/MA/Airfields_MA_C.htm#norfolk Asking me to remember the name of a pizza place almost 40 years ago is taxing...though I well remember the Mayflower at Taunton, which served the same purpose there. I do remember making winter jumps at Norfolk with Bill Bainton, either the Stinson or a 182, but in either case with no door. We wore paper bags over our heads until jump run to keep our faces from freezing. But I don't remember the details of the Stinson door with the same clarity I remember the putty ball. HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davidlayne 5 #37 August 20, 2006 Hope this picture of a Stinson taken in Xenia in 1966 works out.I don't care how many skydives you've got, until you stepped into complete darkness at 800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs of parachute, son you are still a leg! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JerryBaumchen 1,048 #38 August 20, 2006 Hi david, That's Gullwing OK. Made my very first jumps out of one. We removed both left doors and she flew well. Later the FAA came by and said that she would structurally collapse if we flew her with the rearmost door removed. Sure!!!!!! Jerry Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #39 August 21, 2006 No I never got to jump Issaquah.. everytime I drove over from Eastern WA... it was rained out.. or super low clouds.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
drjump 0 #40 August 21, 2006 Howard--My log book of July 1968 states a Stinson Reliant as the jump plane at Geroge Anderson's DZ in Norfolk, Ma.-N13477. If I remember the jump door was on the right side, just forward of the rear bulkhead. It hinged at the top and was held open with a rod. The pilot used to trim nose down unfasten his seat belt, crawl to the back, and pull the pin in the rod, fasten the door closed. Then get back in the seat to land. Ah, the old Mayfair, steamed clams, pitcher beer, and cardnial puff attempts. Jumping is not like it used to be. Those were the good old days. After we were kicked out of the Mayfair we moved to the Pioneer in Middleboro(?), last there for a couple of months then back to the Mayfair. Dave Eisnor had a great following of jumpers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
howardwhite 5 #41 August 21, 2006 QuoteHoward--My log book of July 1968 states a Stinson Reliant as the jump plane at Geroge Anderson's DZ in Norfolk, Ma.-N13477. Ah, the old Mayfair, steamed clams, pitcher beer, and cardnial puff attempts. Dave Eisnor had a great following of jumpers. Yup, that's the same Stinson I posted the pic of. I had forgotten George Anderson was DZO, but it figgers. He moved on to a tiny backwoods DZ in southern Maine, where one of his exploits was landing a FJC static line lady on top of a moving train. Mayfair -- yes, that's it (I thought so when I typed Mayflower). There was another bar, relatively near, where I remember drinking beer with the Black Hat Skydivers ("No Sky Too High, No Muff Too Tuff") and watching Ripcord reruns on TV. HW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
drjump 0 #42 August 21, 2006 Black Hats--Bill Bainton B-4816, Dan Thompson C-1756, Bud Creekmore C-1418, Don Dupont C-4365, Ed Dunn C4436, Paul Johnson C-4384. And several others!!!!!!!!! The initiation into that group was rather difficult............. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
precision 0 #43 August 21, 2006 QuoteI have about 30 jumps from "Ole #1" the very Helio Courier built. I did the opening jump at Oshkosh in '83 (or was it '84?) out of "Ole #1" with pilot Bob Griffin. The sky was low overcast, so I just told Bob to get me what altitude he could and give me 90 knots. Before we went up, I had made up my mind that I wouldn't go unless we could get 1500 feet AGL. We were into the bases at 1450. It was a jump to remember. George Galloway Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #44 August 21, 2006 Quote QuoteI have about 30 jumps from "Ole #1" the very Helio Courier built. I did the opening jump at Oshkosh in '83 (or was it '84?) out of "Ole #1" with pilot Bob Griffin. The sky was low overcast, so I just told Bob to get me what altitude he could and give me 90 knots. Before we went up, I had made up my mind that I wouldn't go unless we could get 1500 feet AGL. We were into the bases at 1450. It was a jump to remember. George Galloway Hi George!Had to have been 83...I've 'helped' open the show every year since! Bob flew us the first couple years, then JARS began to bring their DC~3 and we used that, so Bob could actually PERFORM his slow flight and STOL routine in the airshow... That pic I posted above of the 'wrecked' helio is a crash that Bob was recently in...no one injured, plane dinged but not totalled. That's Bob with his back to the camera... ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #45 September 11, 2006 Yoo Hoo...... That was a different feel to a skydive.. he slowed it down soooo much that it was really easy to open the back door... the one behind the bench seat... and then to fall out in almost dead air..... hell it more like a helicopter jump than a skydive... Oh and check out the t-shirt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #46 September 11, 2006 Oh and check out the t-shirt *** It's all lumpy..can't read it....what does it say?! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
orangesky 0 #48 September 25, 2006 This was written for another post, but it fits here too. This about the Bill Dause DC3. He also had two B18s that I jumped out of a long time ago. --- I was on the last jump out of that DC3, it was midnight Dec. 31, 1999 over the Lodi DZ. Except for a later static demo flight which included a cockpit fire, the DC3 has been parked and ignored since. Bill dosn't organize too many loads these days, but I learned so much from him. Although he's not the type of guy that is long on detail, after enough Bill jumps, it just seems to rub off. He's a bird of a different feather, but all in all he has done more for the sport doing just what he does. I jumped out of that DC3 when tickets were $10 and that was the main elevator. Now there is a Twin Otter, two B99s. and a number of King Airs that are farmed out in Canada and elsewhere. It is interesting to hear about jumping with Bill that long ago. Keep it coming. Oh yeah, that jump had about 45 skydivers on it, my group was a 10 way that flew as planned! The late Jan Davis shot video of our jump. It was spectacular!The plane flew like a hot knife through warm butter, smoothe and solid!Blue Skies. os/cg D-22216 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LAP 0 #49 September 7, 2007 My contribution....a Dehavilland Herron that was based out of Tulsa, OK. for a while and ran at Texas DZ's. Four recip engines, held a 20-way, a dog to altitude (but had 4 engines) and a wing spar that made extra work for the swoopers because thay had to really work to get over it on exit. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lgossler 0 #50 September 8, 2007 Steve1, Do you know the jumper; Far Right Kneeling, Red/white head band? It looks like Terry Maznio: C7099, SCR944 GooseQuote Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Prev 1 2 3 Next Page 2 of 3 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
