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40 years in The sport

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August 1969 Darbydale Ohio, The Columbus Skydivers Club. Did three static line jumps the first day.

Darbydale Ohio was truly a 1960's era DZ, they thought "The Gypsy Moths" was state of the art. By the end of 1970 I was with Greene County Xenia Ohio. "What a long strange trip it's been."

Think I'll put this on Facebook too.
I Jumped with the guys who invented Skydiving.

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August 1969 Darbydale Ohio, The Columbus Skydivers Club. Did three static line jumps the first day.

Darbydale Ohio was truly a 1960's era DZ, they thought "The Gypsy Moths" was state of the art. By the end of 1970 I was with Greene County Xenia Ohio. "What a long strange trip it's been."

Think I'll put this on Facebook too.



HIM!.......HIM!.........

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Congratulations Steve!

In three years I'll hit the 50th anniversary of my first jump but I hung it up years ago.

You're an inspiration!
DZGone.com
B-4600, C-3615, D-1814, Gold Wings #326, Diamond Wings #152.

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room!

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August 13, 1969. Cleveland Sport Parachuting in Parkman OH. Dale Gates was flying and Roy Johnnson, World Champion Style jumper was on the load. I had been hanging out there for six (long) months waiting to turn 18.
Dale took us to 6600 first so Roy could leave first. He called for the "Cut", stepped out on the step, stuck his head back in and yelled back at me...

"You'd better jump you SOB, I've got Twenty Bucks on you". Then he "vanished".

You Better Believe I jumped! Best day of my life!

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10/4/68 Elsinore out of a Howard. Al Catlett C2781 was instructor. Jim Fee D1536 put me out. Memory's still as vivid as the first day. But I gotta say, the last 4000 went by faster than a head down.
Ted
D6691 SCR 3975 SCS 2242 NSCR 698
On the road to wrack and ruin…………
but making damn good time.

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This is something weird I've always wondered about. It's how us older folks remember so much about our first jumps. We seem to know who else was on the plane, who was flying, all the little details.

On the other hand I run into more than few people who started jumping more recently and when you ask they can't even come up with the name of their first jump instructor . . .

NickD :)

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August 1969 Darbydale Ohio, The Columbus Skydivers Club. Did three static line jumps the first day.

Darbydale Ohio was truly a 1960's era DZ, they thought "The Gypsy Moths" was state of the art. By the end of 1970 I was with Greene County Xenia Ohio. "What a long strange trip it's been."

Think I'll put this on Facebook too.



Welcome to the over 40 club Steve. It will be 45 for me 11/7. Rising Sun IN.
GUNFIRE, The sound of Freedom!

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I remember going to Rising Sun and making two jumps 12/26/66.

A bunch of us Greene County guys went there after a Christmas party in Cincinatti.

My log book states I was jumping a 7 TU and jumped with Jean (Moose), Steve Daley, Danny Ebert and Steve Sobel.

R.D. Boswell Jr. C 3113 signed my log book, the same WGore who has posted in this thread.
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!

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I remember going to Rising Sun and making two jumps 12/26/66.

A bunch of us Greene County guys went there after a Christmas party in Cincinatti.

My log book states I was jumping a 7 TU and jumped with Jean (Moose), Steve Daley, Danny Ebert and Steve Sobel.

R.D. Boswell Jr. C 3113 signed my log book, the same WGore who has posted in this thread.



Jumped at Xenia the day before (Christmas Day) with Kenn Heismann from 16,500 from the 650 Howard. -31 degrees and no door. Note to self, don't do that any more, and I haven't. There were 8 cases of frostbite or beginning cases. I was just over 6 months in the Army at that point and hadn't jumped in what seemed like forever and needed a fix.
I remember that party and West carrying Lee out over his shoulder. I think it was at Moose's house IIRC. Those were some good times for sure.
The airplane from there was torn up right after the first of the year when the engine puked on takeoff. After that the Rising Sun bunch became part of the Greene County Bunch.
GUNFIRE, The sound of Freedom!

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WGore wrote in reference to the 650 Howard at Xenia........

"The airplane from there was torn up right after the first of the year when the engine puked on takeoff."

Actually Bob, Al Gordy lost the aircraft on landing after dropping a load. The attached pictures show Al and the aircraft.
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!

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Several years ago the Baldwin Beaver ended up on it's nose. There was a picture of it somewhere, but I don't know by who or where it is now. Funniest looking thing to see a plane standing tail-up on its prop.
" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

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WGore wrote in reference to the 650 Howard at Xenia........

"The airplane from there was torn up right after the first of the year when the engine puked on takeoff."

Actually Bob, Al Gordy lost the aircraft on landing after dropping a load. The attached pictures show Al and the aircraft.



I probably should have clarified that the Rising Sun 182 was the one torn up, not the Howard. The Howard was torn up after a Demo IIRC. The Cincinnati Skydivers lost 2 182s in less than a year the first went down in the Caribbean While one of the owners, Bob Pierson, was on vacation with it. Neil Ficke was flying both of them when they were lost. They lucked out and had a cargo ship pick them up out of the ocean and no one was hurt in the second one either.
Howard, the Howard in the pictures had an R1340 on it so it was even heavier than the normal DGA-15s with the R-985 on them. Of course the rest of the airplane was tubing and fabric and with no one in the back would tend to be very nose heavy.
GUNFIRE, The sound of Freedom!

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Maybe I should have read your post more carefully, I presumed you were talking about the Howard.

N9887H was repaired afrter the landing prang, repainted in Greene County's green and white and as you state crashed again after a demo. I cannot recall when or where but it must have been around Easter 1967.

In picture #1 you can see Jimmy Schearer (I think) about to load.

Picture #2 shows her languishing in a bean field.

Picture #3 shows George Loudakis helping to load her onto a trailer. (George post on here but I don't recall his nickname.)
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!

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First jump Sept 28, 1968, California Parachute Club, Livermore CA. S/L out of the "RAT", Perry Stevens' ratty old Aeronca Sedan.

I had been longing to jump ever since I saw my first skydivers at the Calistoga CA DZ when I was 12 years old. They encouraged me, but told me I couldn't jump until I was 18. I literally counted the days for another six years. Finally, at age 18, I was about to realize my dream.

Winds were high, they kept putting off the student jumps until nearly sundown. When we were on jump run, the cars on the streets below all had their headlights on. I think my first jump was actually a night jump. I was so stoked that all I could think about was getting cleared for unsupervised freefall. I mastered flat spins before I mastered stable freefall, but I got there eventually. AFF was not available. Your first freefall was solo back in the day.

Jumped last weekend at the Byron CA DZ Boogie. Never been injured. 2 cutaways, one in the early 70s from surplus gear (C9 main, Capewells and a 26 foot Navy conical reserve) and one in 2005 at WFFC with a PD 193R.

I'll never be invited to join any big ways, but I bet I have as much fun as anyone in the sport. For me, jumping is less scary but just as thrilling as it was 41 years ago.

What an astounding bargain to be able to go to 13,500 feet for $17 at Byron on non boogie days, even less at Lodi if you buy bulk and 18,000 feet at Monterey for $28. Talk about cheap thrills, nobody gets it better than skydivers.

I'll be 60 in a few weeks. When I made my first jump at 18, 60 was ANCIENT. There are few extreme sports that welcome old timers as graciously as skydiving does. I am not in denial about aging. I don't drive a fast car, my girlfriend is my own age and I am not planning on getting any tatoos or body piercings.

I just love to jump, it's that simple. I love it today just as much as I did when I made my first one on Sept 28, 1968.

Blue skies,
Mark
2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

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Maybe I should have read your post more carefully, I presumed you were talking about the Howard.

N9887H was repaired afrter the landing prang, repainted in Greene County's green and white and as you state crashed again after a demo. I cannot recall when or where but it must have been around Easter 1967.

In picture #1 you can see Jimmy Schearer (I think) about to load.

Picture #2 shows her languishing in a bean field.

Picture #3 shows George Loudakis helping to load her onto a trailer. (George post on here but I don't recall his nickname.)



I didn't realize it had been wrecked twice. The second time was the one that I remembered hearing about. D R Ellis relayed the story and as you can imagine it was a good one.
Georges handle is Air Cav.
GUNFIRE, The sound of Freedom!

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