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danchapman

"Malfunction Junction"

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An old timers quiz: What was it and where was it?:)



Probably not the one you're thinking of, but...

In 1975, Roger Nelson organized a meet in South Bend Indiana. We took the Loadstar down there from Aurora where we had it up for the summer working at Hinkley. I saw more malfunctions that weekend than ever before or after. I packed 13 reserves myself and other riggers were busy as well. I also saw the lowest survived opening in my career when a guy cutaway at about 1000 feet, took his time pulling his belly wart which happened to contain a 28' reserve. When the canopy opened, his feet swung through the wheat and he landed prone receiving only a bloody nose. The farmer who was on his tractor cutting the wheat had to be attended to by the ambulance that was sent out for the jumper. I never heard screams of anger like the ones coming from his wife when she realized he was alive...

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

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Well there was sort of one in the Wisconsin Dells. The guys that jumped at the Tommy Bartlett water show decided to see if they could get thrown out of every bar in town one summer. A real feat, if you know how many bars are in any town in Wisconsin. The guy that owned the Function Junction bar, couldn't be convince to throw them out so one night they repainted the sign. I can't remember if that got them kicked out or not.
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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Roger "Ramjet" Clark made me think of this low opening photo. I think Red Kostaba (Hinckley, James Gang) shot it in the late '60s



I was jumping with him (and Bohr and others) that very same summer though he didn't attend the South Bend event as I recall.

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

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Roger "Ramjet" Clark made me think of this low opening photo. I think Red Kostaba (Hinckley, James Gang) shot it in the late '60s



That looks like one canopy inflating within another, is that right?
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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RR-
Malfunction Junction was the nickname for a small bar in rural central New Jersey, circa 1962-63. The actual name was HillBilly Hall, I believe. It was not far from Adam's Airpark, home of Tri-State Skydivers, one of the largest operations in the country at the time. Malfunction Junction was the preferred watering hole for the instructors and riggers from Tri-State. I can tell you from experience, that there was no card check there. If you could see over the bar you were served- even if you were sitting on a bar stool. Tri-State also had a bunkhouse for the guys to sleep in. If any jumpers were left at closing time, who could not find there way, they were transported to the bunkhouse to sleep it off. :)

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RR-
Malfunction Junction was the nickname for a small bar in rural central New Jersey, circa 1962-63. The actual name was HillBilly Hall, I believe. It was not far from Adam's Airpark, home of Tri-State Skydivers, one of the largest operations in the country at the time. Malfunction Junction was the preferred watering hole for the instructors and riggers from Tri-State. I can tell you from experience, that there was no card check there. If you could see over the bar you were served- even if you were sitting on a bar stool. Tri-State also had a bunkhouse for the guys to sleep in. If any jumpers were left at closing time, who could not find there way, they were transported to the bunkhouse to sleep it off. :)



Very cool!

Totally different experience at South Bend. After jumping Saturday, we all went into town to a bar and grill where I ordered food and a coke. The waitress asked me for ID to which I replied I was only getting food and a coke, no alcohol. She said Indiana required two forms of ID to drink or eat there. I had my Florida driver’s license and luckily had my FAA riggers card with me or I would have been down the street at McDonalds or something. Between the malfunctions, heat, and rules, I came away somewhat under whelmed with Indiana...

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

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Did I get it right? You had to show ID just to order food because they serve beer, too?



Had to do that at a concert in Nashville a month ago just to buy a bottle of water. I guess just because they sold beer at the same stand its required.
The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

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Did I get it right? You had to show ID just to order food because they serve beer, too?



Yup. I kept telling her I didn't even drink and just wanted food and a coke. She kept telling me it didn't matter, she still needed two IDs that matched. My first impressions of Indiana weren't so hot...

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

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Roger, I lived in Indiana for a time, the quirky part of that law is that if you have a drink at the bar, and want to move to the table to eat, the waitress or the bartender must move your drink for you, you cannot carry it yourself....
Indiana is anal retentive and has the most archaic laws around drinking I've ever experienced....

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There's a place in the sky called "too late"
of which many stories are told
by the wiser of the divers
the young, the bold, the old
No one knows the exact location
it's somewhere below a grand
Down in ground rush valley
where one may read the rising land
Should you be riding the ground rush express
when maly comes to call
don't pass the junction at "too late"
or you will eat it all
No need to go to your velcro
no time to be in doubt
There's a chance with the "white angel"
Quick! Punch! Get it Out

- scribbled on a tarp, Sugarloaf key weekend, 1991

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