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tuffjump

Parasled jumps?

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How many of you old dudes and dudettes jumped the Parasled? I was jumping at Delray where it was being developed by Dom. Jalpert and got to jump the first production 00001 owned by Dean Mccloughen the owner of the dz. Was a ugly purple thang dubbed the grape. I bought my sled after following a guy down with the pilot chute wrapped around the steeriong lines, he landed and broke his hip.....I bought it on the spot...lol. Had 14 cutaways on the thing before the slider came around, those reefing systems just didn't do the job. By the way the serial number on it was 00013.shoulda known. Just found this pic of my Sled.

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Watched Grant Hoffmeister's opening one in NZ whilst in freefall.
It came off his back, streamed, rotated 360 degrees three times then opened. Thank god I had a (Reefed) Stratostar.



:D

Cotty had one as well, if you remember Richard, it used to mal about every second jump, and he did all sorts to try and sort it out. I think he used it as a bedspread in the end.

I watched him chop it several times....

The stratostat immediately made it redundant...

Did you ever see Don Johnson under his Volplane?.

Square, but with the performance of a cheapo....
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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When I was just starting out there was a club member that tried to sell me his old sled.
150 bucks out the door, 25 more if I wanted him to put a slider on it..."ya don't really need it though" :ph34r:

Another club member talked me out of it saying the reason it was in such good shape is because ~it's been jumped 100 times and only landed twice! :D:$

I got a new HW 252 instead.











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

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Two Sled jumps in 1973.

Jump 1 at Yolo. The date on the back of the snap shot is 21 Jan '73. Just who owned it and how I talked him into letting me jump it is a long lost memory. Log book notes, "very impressed - stand-up in the peas" Signed off by Lyn Beckhorn, the 182 pilot.

Jump 2 at the old Grindale dropzone in Yorkshire, 12 Aug '73. This one belonged to John Halley.

The coated nylon felt and looked like wax paper.

A few of our collectors and "museum curators" (beatnik) have much more recent experience.

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Another club member talked me out of it saying the reason it was in such good shape is because ~it's been jumped 100 times and only landed twice! LaughBlush

:D

Hence is name from Roman times.....Mallus Sledus...
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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Did you ever see Don Johnson under his Volplane?.
Square, but with the performance of a cheapo...


Cruel. Maybe the performance of a PC.
I still have mine in the garage. I did a lot of jumps on it, initially with a hydraulic reefing system and later with one of the first sliders ever made.

HW

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Hi tj,
'Early 70's down at Otay, Moki Martin had one. Wild rde!! 'Sounded like 50 flags in a 50 mph breeze and had a built in right turn that he had to correct every 5 seconds!! Came in for a landing seemed like a greyhound bus with no brakes!! 'Pulled the toggles down but flare?? What flare?, it just kept going till his heels created enough resistances in the trenches he dug to stop him!! Moki didn't jump it much. 'Think Dirty Ed aka "Sled" over at Old Elsinore had one, didn't know much about that one.

"Think Stratostar!!"
SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

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In defense of my "lead sled" I won quite a few accuracy contest with it and had my best ever demo jump with it. July 4 1976 bicentenial into Ft Lauderdale beach. Coming in high I did a 180 out over the ocean bring out a roar from the crowd landing dead center of the TINY roped of area. The red white and blue canopy was very fitting for the time. It also was a better canopy then my Baby Plane that jarred my teeth every opening.....lost the Plane after cutting it away over Indiantown.

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Watched Grant Hoffmeister's opening one in NZ whilst in freefall.
It came off his back, streamed, rotated 360 degrees three times then opened. Thank god I had a (Reefed) Stratostar.



:D

Cotty had one as well, if you remember Richard, it used to mal about every second jump, and he did all sorts to try and sort it out. I think he used it as a bedspread in the end.

I watched him chop it several times....

The stratostat immediately made it redundant...

Did you ever see Don Johnson under his Volplane?.

Square, but with the performance of a cheapo....


Cotty used to jump it in a security piggyback with oneshot capewells, Koch fittings on the reserve (So he could chop the reserve) and a frontmount reserve as well. He tried everything. Measured the line length on my strat and relined the sled with those line lengths, multiple different sizes of slider and ,eventually, gave up and indeed converted it to a bedspread. That sled was also responsible for one jumper (Ollie) giving up the sport.

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Made 1 jump on a friends sometime in the mid 70's. Spun me so hard I got dizzy while it opened.

I though they had a split tail which was the culprit and heard that some jumpers had it sewn together to eliminate many of its problems.
You live more in the few minutes of skydiving than many people live in their lifetime

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How many of you old dudes and dudettes jumped the Parasled?



Every year I try to organise a "Vintage Weekend" at my home DZ Teuge in The Netherlands. We've about 20 canopies and rigs from non steerable rounds (1959 French Silk EFA canopy) till the first generation squares. Most canopies are hooked up to 3-ring risers to fit regular big rigs.

For this an old friend (Charles von Sury from Switzerland) donated me his Parasled. He relined the canopy and patched all (former reefing) holes. I've jumped this canopy a few times. Not a lot of performace compared to what we're used to now :).

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Made 1 jump on a friends sometime in the mid 70's. Spun me so hard I got dizzy while it opened.

I though they had a split tail which was the culprit and heard that some jumpers had it sewn together to eliminate many of its problems.



Was it at Z-Hills? I jumped one there, but can't remember who's it was. I didn't have the spinning opening though I saw plenty of sleds spin on opening. The one I jumped had the split tail and seemed to fly very nice; easy stand up landing. I jumped all the squares I could find at Z-Hills in '73, a Sled, a Foil, Para Plane, Cloud and never had a mal though everyone said I probably would. Eventually the Strato Star came out and then the slider and square mals pretty much went away (thankfully).

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

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