What is this rig? #2

[howardwhite 5]

Well, rig plus jump suit...
Who made it, who jumped it, when, and why didn't this idea seem to catch on?

HW

[stratostar 5]

Handbury?

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[wmw999 2,148]

No, I think the Handbury rig had squared off corners, not rounded ones. But I'll be dipped if I can remember what it was...

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[NickDG 23]

Early Canadian "Innovator" ???

NickD

[fastphil 0]

The jumpsuit looks like the Squirrel Suit???

[Gene03 0]

Shoobi Suit and "Shoobi" Stingray.

Designed and built by Mike Melvin (deceased) in East Troy WI in the late 70's-early 80's.
The business was called Body Flight/Shoobi Systems.

Bill Buchmann built a copy of it and called it the Eagle and his was copied by Strong Enterprises.

The jumpers are Rick White closing on Sam Hoskins over the Sky Knights SPC in East Troy.

The jumpsuit had firm foam "paddles in the wrist and foot area and the jumpsuit had seperable HBS so you could integrate the rig into the suit, more wing area.

Shoobie was a Texas A&M grad in fluid dynamics.
I think if he hadn't died from an inoperable brain tumor he might have gone on and refined it into a wingsuit.

Anybody need the packing manual?

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[howardwhite 5]

I'm impressed.The selling point (this was a magazine ad) "Why buy rig and jumpsuit from different manufacturers?" Integration of the rig and suit (with harness inside the suit) was supposed to improve flying.
So, why didn't that idea catch on?

HW
(I was on a night jump one time with someone wearing a Shoobie suit. It was pretty easy to see what was going on, 'cus the movie guy had a really bright lignt. As the guy was just about to dock, the jumpsuit zipper opened up, the suit suddenly became a wingsuit, and he disappeared up into the night sky.)

[Gene03 0]

Thanks for the further info and the memories Howard.
God, I would love to see that film/video.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[pchapman 262]

So where was the deployment handle?
(Is that it visible in the BOC location? Is it a pullout?)

I'm not sure from the photo, but it looks like the suit had straps under the feet to tension the legs, but no toe cap coverage, so it doesn't quite qualify to be a very early version of booties.

[Gene03 0]

BOC/pullout, parapack pouch.
The suit did have booties, they just came off in the picture.
The white strap is a piece of elastic upholstery webbing acting as a stirup.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[pchapman 262]

In that case, those may be some of the world's first booties?!
(Even if there's so much other fabric out there to try to outfly...)

[Gene03 0]

Quote

and why didn't this idea seem to catch on?

HW

The only explanation I have is the "wing wars" died a merciful death and the standardized fall rate (SFR) was introduced.

Can't remember who the designer/builder was for the Flite Suit though.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[piper17 1]

Flite Suit designer...Gary Carter (AKA "Crater") was it not? Out of CA up somewhere near Pope Valley?

"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling

[Gene03 0]

Bingo, thanks.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[howardwhite 5]

Here's a Flite Suit ad.

HW

[Zing 2]

I think I might have been about the only one in the southwest with a Shoobi Suit. Two guys showed up at Ghoulidge one weekend with a whole trunk full of gear, including two Shoobi Suits. It was the height of the wing-wars.
It looked like a fun suit to play with, but neither one really fit me, so I looked on the suit's label, found a phone number and called to order one.
I don't remember who I talked to, but after I described the two suits and a couple of the rigs those guys had at Ghoulidge, it was obvious the gear was stolen.
Cops were called, and all the gear was taken into police custody for return to the owners (don't know how long that took), but Sheriff Dave couldn't arrest the guys because their was no evidence they had stolen the gear and Illinois would not extradite a prisoner for the crime of possession of stolen property.
Amazingly, after the cops left, those two came back to the dropzone, insisting that they didn't know the gear was stolen when they bought it just before coming to Arizona. They hung around for about 10 days, seemed friendly enough, even helped out with a few dropzone chores, but the first time everybody else was gone from the dropzone, tents were ransacked, the gear room, manifest and my place were all broken into and a lot of stuff disappeared. No rigs or jumpsuits, they'd learned their lesson on that, but altimeters were scarce for a few weeks in the desert. Never heard or saw of either of those guys again.
I did get a custom-colored and fitted Shoobi Suit for $125, and it was a fun suit. I could go as fast as anyone and out float anything and anybody. The worst thing about it was it was heavy, multi-layered cotton duck, with foam paddles in the lower legs and arms and velcro closed cuffs top and bottom. In summertime in Arizona it was a sauna,
It would also track real good and mine later suffered a bunch of hare-brained psuedo-wing suit mods that lead to a couple really fun tracking dives and a couple others that were seriously scary ... probably would of killed a normal man.

Zing Lurks

[airtwardo 6]

... probably would of killed a normal man.

Quote

Ever run into any at Ghoulidge ?

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

[Gene03 0]

Thanks Zing, good story.
Was the person you talked to a woman?
It probably was Barb Crites.
I'm starting to remember that the suit didn't have booties, it was just secured with velcroed wrist and ankle cuffs.
What do you remember?
Christ, I'm surprised I remember anything from those days.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[Gene03 0]

Heh, heh, heh.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[riggerrob 558]

Are you talking about the same Shoobi Knutsen who designed the Phantom and Warp III for National in the early 1980s?
The same Shoobi who re-surfaced in the 1990s to design the Eclipse series of harness/containers?

[Zing 2]

Yep, no booties. Lots of velcro on the cuffs and wide rubberized footstrap.
I seem to recall the stolen suits were a blue and yellow one and the other may have been red and blue.
There was a tan Racer with a Unit main and maybe a Wonderhog and some other gear. Did that stuff ever get home to right people?

Zing Lurks

[Gene03 0]

Nope, same nickname, but a different person.
Mike Melvin was the "Shoobi" I knew.
I meet a guy in a bar in East Troy one night who claimed to be "Shoobie" Knutsons' uncle and he did have all the pertinent info so I think he was the real thing. Small world heh?

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[Gene03 0]

I haven't a clue on this.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[Faicon9493 114]

Hi, Gene!
How is everybody at Sky Knights?

[dragon2 0]

How old is that rig? I was asked once to do a gearcheck on a rig that sure looked like the one in the pic, on a Thai jumper. I declined since I didn't exactly know what I was looking at It had 2 reserve pins that I remember.

ciel bleu,
Saskia