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rickerby

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Booth getting back into skydiving after a long layoff. It was like seeing a kid just discovering the sport he was so enthusiastic. Thanks to tandems.

Pax? Could have been any one of thousands of the cute ones that Bill always had "dibs" on.

Gary Dupuis (Doopee) flying his 182.

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If I recall correctly this first tandem by Bill was a wake-up call for Ted Strong who ran hard with the idea and surged ahead of Bill in development of his system. He decided to use off the shelf equipment though and had a 26' Lopo as a reserve which he continued to use far longer than considered prudent. There was a lot of concern about the landing weight and Bill Morrisey had more than one such ride. Bill and Ted took differing views of the possibilities for tandem but both worked the idea intensely.

Bill Booth had taken a long lay-off from any kind of jumping. He only recently had made a return to jumping and with the advent of tandem he went ballistic taking passengers at every opportunity. Like I said though he got the pretty and small ones. Bill usually did hop and pops as these jumps were without a drogue and long freefalls could be unpleasant for both the pax and instructor. (I used to hide behind the pax head to avoid getting blasted.) Typical tendems were from 6000' with a short freefall. The high lifter canopy was robust and reliable and got a workout with longer freefalls but the pax would often be overwhelmed by it.

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the first jump on the tandem system for bill booth. it may even be the first tandem.
not counting bean pole etc.
it was shot by Norm Kent, so i dont think handycam.

Although I am not sure it was on this jump, Norm duct taped a 16mm movie camera to my right arm, at my request, so that I could get a good slow motion view of how the opening shock was spread between the two harnesses. So this very well could be a frame from the first Handi-Cam tandem. This footage ended up as part of a movie Norm made for me, to convince the USPA board (as well as the rest of the world)
that tandem wasn't insane after all.

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it was shot by Norm Kent, so i dont think handycam.

Although I am not sure it was on this jump, Norm duct taped a 16mm movie camera to my right arm, at my request, so that I could get a good slow motion view of how the opening shock was spread between the two harnesses. So this very well could be a frame from the first Handi-Cam tandem. This footage ended up as part of a movie Norm made for me, to convince the USPA board (as well as the rest of the world)
that tandem wasn't insane after all.

It's not that the idea wasn't isane. It's that enough crazy people said, "Cool, I want to do that.":)
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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Hi Bill how are you doing. i remember being in the loft at Deland packing with Billy, when you walked in with this weird new harness junction clip on thingy. and you were raving about changing the sport of skydiving. it was almost midnight and you were cracking us up you were so exited. still makes me laugh.

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I don't recall any crazy people in Deland.



Yeah, right, There weren't any crazy people there. They werw all like us.;)
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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