demo faux pas

[skypuppy 1]

Anyone got any good stories about doing something wrong on a demo we haven't heard yet. Ones that have gone past the date of expiry, of course.

I know of a demo into a professional football game where a couple of jumpers actually had beer-logos on their canopies (out of 10 or so jumpers). One of them actually landed at centre field, and then kited his canopy all the way down to the end-field.

Trouble was, it was the wrong beer!

Sponsor wasn't very happy. Not sure if the organizer lost the demo after that or not.

But really, in that case, I blame the individual jumpers more than the organizer. If you've been around enuf to get a sponsor for your canopy, you should know the rules by then....

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[ripcordbk 0]

Around the mid 60's I was on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Skydiving Club. Someone from a small town called me to request 3 skydivers exit over their Labor Day event. On that Labor Day, I sent one of our members to that town to lay out an "X" so we could identify the landing area. That part worked well. From the air we could easily see the "X." The major problem was we couldn't see any people on the ground waiting for us to jump.

Well, what the heck, we knew where we were, and we were in an airplane with no way to contact anyone (cell phones had not been invented yet), so we jumped into the empty field.

It turned out the town celebrated their Labor Day event on Sunday, so everyone in town could spend the actual holiday at home with their families.

We couldn't decide if we were a day late or 364 days early for next year's event (which never came to happened). I do remember a lot of finger pointing on both sides. That part was too bad.

[obelixtim 100]

Spent a great evening at the local bikers club one time that got extended into the wee small hours...in fact it was daylight when I left....

Later that morning I exited over a friends place dressed as Santa, it was a Xmas party for 20 or 30 little kids. Landed on the front lawn as planned, and went inside for a moment to collect the sack of goodies to hand out with a few ho ho ho's to a group of very excited kids.....

Called up the first kid to get his present and handed it to him with a hearty "Happy Birthday".....

D'Ohhhhh!!!!!.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[Guru312 0]

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Anyone got any good stories about doing something wrong on a demo we haven't heard yet

We'll have to wait until Airtwardo sees this thread to read about the many things that go wrong on a demo...I'm sure he has dozens of stories.

I have one that I told long ago in a thread far away.

Back in the mid-1970s, I was flying jumpers in my Cessna 182, N69BS, at Pelicanland in Ridgely, MD. [Although I do love flaunting the number, it actually has a connection to the story.]

One of the Pelican jumpers had a gig where he billed himself as "Parachute Man". His name is Pat Mulhern. Pat was approached by the Philadelphia Phillies to jump into Veteran's stadium in Philadelphia with the ball for the season opener. At the time, very few legal demo jumps into sports stadiums had been done and none had ever been done within the Philadelphia GADO jurisdiction.

Pat filed all the proper paperwork and got all the approvals he needed for two separate jumps into the stadium. Since I was pilot in command I made sure everything was in order.

The FAA GADO and the Phillies business and legal department wanted to be sure the jump could be done safely...prior to the stadium being full of 45000 Phillies Fanatics. The practice jump, a week or so before the actual one, went smoothly and Pat did a stand-up landing two feet from second base. Everyone was pleased.

On the day of the jump I was flying jumpers in Maryland about 75 miles south of Philadelphia. During my flight into Philadelphia International I contacted ATC and was cleared into the airport. During my conversations with ATC I told them that I was flying the jump plane which was going to drop a jumper into the stadium.

The whole operation was quite tight and actually needed considerable coordination because the stadium was less than two miles from the airport and close enough to the approach/departure paths that all traffic was prevented from landing or taking off during the jump.

I departed from the Philly airport and circled above both the airport and the stadium as I climbed to altitude. Airliners were landing and taking off during my climb out.

Obviously, I was in continual contact with both the tower and ATC during my climb. I told them when I was at jump altitude of 8000 and waited for clearance while making rather tight turns over the spot. When I got clearance Pat stuck his foot out the door, popped his M-18 smoke and waved goodbye.

I watched him fall while in a tight descending turn as I contacted the tower with "jumper away". As I circled above the stadium and got low enough to see the flags around the upper perimeter I realized that Pat wasn't going to make it in. He finally turned away and did a terrible landing in the parking lot with his canopy falling over a line of cars.

There was a considerable wind which created really strange winds over the stadium. All the flags seemed to be pointing in different directions. He couldn't get a handle on how to land inside the stadium safely. He opted for the safe and sane way out.

He had to carry the ball into the stadium riding on a golf cart instead of hot-dogging it onto second base.

Two weeks later I got a certified letter in the mail from the Chief of the Philadelphia GADO General Aviation District Office which is now called FSDO, Flight Standards District Office. It was just my luck that a upper echelon FAA official was in the stadium and filed a complaint against me for allowing a jump "...over an open air assembly of persons."

It took me over a month of letter writing, phone calls and personal visits to convince the FAA that the entire jump was approved and sanctioned from the top down to the Control Tower.

In fact, during the investigation of the whole debacle it was comments from ATC, the control tower and ground control personnel that kept me from losing my commercial ticket. All of the guys I spoke with and joked about my N-number remembered me and the whole jump... because of the number.

Maybe it was my last acknowledgement to the tower, "Roger, 69BS" that helped them remember the jump and the plane.

Guru312

I am not DB Cooper

[jackwallace 3]

I was announcing for a demo at a race track. Unknown to me the minister started the pre race prayer and I couldn't hear him. As he said "Lord look down on us" The flag jumper got out, I key the mike: "Look up over turn one, there he is spiraling down to earth!"

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

[Hammitt 0]

I remember doing a demo jump into half time at a professional soccer game in Sacramento in the late 70's. I believe they were called the Sacramento Gold. They were playing at American River College that year.
It was an evening jump during the summer. There was no wind that night and it was very warm. I had a red smoke tucked in my jump suit so I could dangle it after I opened. Well I opened a little low that night and didn't get the smoke out as soon as I would have liked. I opend it with about 30 seconds or so of canopy time left and I guess it must have been a one minute smoke canister. Well, the smoke was still going strong when I landed in the middle of the field and kept going at least 30 or more seconds after I landed.
I managed to fill the whole stadium up with red smoke and the second half of the game was delayed at least ten minutes.

[kd5xb 1]

In 1980 there was a big airshow at Misawa Air Base, in Japan. The call went out for EVERY jumper in Japan to participate. I had about 60 jumps then!

When we were on jump run at about 16,500 for the actual airshow jump, this Major was spotting. We were supposed to get out over the C-5 at the north end of the field, but he put us out over the SOUTH end of the field. Passing about 13,000 I noticed it, and I tracked for the C-5 -- HARD! As fast as I could track -- which was pretty good, what with the big jumpsuits we used back then.

I made it to the correct spot, opened, and landed at the proper, briefed area, in front of maybe 100,000 people! The cheering was deafening!

Then I looked for the others, and saw them landing about a mile and a half away! And the Major had the nerve to chew ME out!

I'm a jumper. Even though I don't always have money for jumps, and may not ever own a rig again, I'll always be a jumper.

[airtwardo 6]

A bit of a rigging error an ole buddy made...ONCE!

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

[JohnRich 4]

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A bit of a rigging error an ole buddy made...ONCE!
Attachments: aw shit.jpg (133 KB)

Oh my, that's embarassing.

I can't believe you didn't reel it back in in mid-air and flip it around right side up!

[airtwardo 6]

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A bit of a rigging error an ole buddy made...ONCE!
Attachments: aw shit.jpg (133 KB)

Oh my, that's embarrassing.

I can't believe you didn't reel it back in in mid-air and flip it around right side up!

Wasn't me...One of our Texas boyz that's no longer with us. You probably know who I'm talking about.

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

[airdvr 197]

Lost my situational awareness one time while we were packing after the jump. Felt like the DZ as I dropped several F bombs infront of a group of parents and their kids.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[obelixtim 100]

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A bit of a rigging error an ole buddy made...ONCE!

D'ohhhhhh!!!!!.

Thats a distress signal....were you met by the emergency services?.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[councilman24 36]

The first one wasn't me but was like the beer. The team had gotten sponsored 7-up and burger king canopies. One guy was so cheap he didn't have his own main. Didn't jump much and just used the burger king canopy all the time.

Yearly demo into the local university football stadium. Tight stadium with roads, hills and buildings all around it. But they got in fine.(I wasn't on this one. ) With the burger king canopy. Into the game Sponsored by Wendy's! With "Wendy" on the field. We never did the demo again, to this day, 20 plus years later.

I was on a demo into the Battle Creek International Balloon Championship at the airport. It's an Air Guard base with something like a 10,000 foot runway. This was a big local event with carnival, airshow, etc. Flight line was probably 1/3 mile long, starting 500' from the road. Eight way was to spread out along flight line for landing. We let the wrong guy spot. And we all knew he couldn't figure out which side of the airport he was on. But he spotted anyway. We all missed the entire airport. Landed across the road in a residential neighborhood.

We ALMOST jumped into the wrong high school one night. Night jump, scouted from the ground but no ground to air communication. 100 miles from DZ/home and pre GPS. We took off, flew over there and looked down. TWO high school football games were being played about a mile and half apart! We did NOT know which was ours. Luckily we were early, landed nearby and called the school for clarification.

Another, Winter demo in MI in 1987. Packed up my main and seemed a little tight. Took off from DZ 6 miles from local ski resort. Ceiling scraping 2000' agl. Got there looked at altimeters, looked at each other and called for jump run. I was last out of 4 in the 182. Pilot gave a good cut so figure we were losing some altitude and the other idiot, uh team members took their time. I stumbled hurrying to get out of the door so took a couple of seconds to make sure I was stable and thew out. PC in tow. Pulled my reserve (my chosen procedure). Main came out but I was too busy watching the trees to see what was happening. Went into the trees faster than with an open canopy but slower than freefall. Just like we tell all first jump students NOT to do I was looking down. Managed to stick my leg out and hit a crotch in the tree. Ended up suspended from both my main and reserve in the tree, 40' up, half way up the ski hill with a shattered ankle.

Local fire didn't have a clue how to get me down. But being an instructor at a cessna DZ surrounded by trees using T-10 mains I was well versed at getting down. So ran the rescue using the main canopy has high point. Since it was the winter festival a newspaper reporter and photographer were on the scene. Was front page of the local paper two days in a row and it went out on the AP wire service, "Tree snagged unopened parachute and saves skydiver". A few weeks later I was most of Page 3 int he Weekly World News.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[airtwardo 6]

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A bit of a rigging error an ole buddy made...ONCE!

D'ohhhhhh!!!!!.

That's a distress signal....were you met by the emergency services?.

Again, it wasn't me...and the guy that did it, took the ribbing he got a whole lot better than I would have!

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

[dpreguy 14]

In a galaxy far away- Omaha Nebraska. Into a baseball stadium named Rosenblatt Stadium. Budweiser had rented the stadium for a Tug of War event. Some minor TV coverage, etc. Budweiser signs and stuff everywhere. Shorty Janousek had a habit of yelling, on the last jump of the day, "It's Miller time"

Well, you can figure out what happened. We all landed OK on the baseball infield, including Shorty. Of course, about 15 feet off the ground he yelled "It's Miller time" just before landing. I don't think we got paid for that one.

[airtwardo 6]

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In a galaxy far away- Omaha Nebraska. Into a baseball stadium named Rosenblatt Stadium. Budweiser had rented the stadium for a Tug of War event. Some minor TV coverage, etc. Budweiser signs and stuff everywhere. Shorty Janousek had a habit of yelling, on the last jump of the day, "It's Miller time"

Well, you can figure out what happened. We all landed OK on the baseball infield, including Shorty. Of course, about 15 feet off the ground he yelled "It's Miller time" just before landing. I don't think we got paid for that one.

...following a jump into Busch Stadium we're invited to a private box upstairs to watch the game, one of the team members swaggers up to the bar and orders a Coors Lite ~

The bartender gives him a hard look and asks, "Just where in the Hell do you THINK you are?"

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

[lucky508 0]

It was the mid 90’s and I was in Panama as a civvie trying to get a job flying twatters to build time. I was jumping with the Panamainian club and with something like 150 skydives I thought it was a big deal when I got invited to do the demo jump. Then I saw all the static line students get on the plane and they put them out first on a low pass! We were in a Panamanian air force Casa and climbed to 15.5K which I thought was great again until we were in free fall. It was the biggest combat RW session I had ever seen! I was last out stayed above the mess. After a while I start looking for the fair. I see it waaaaayyyy off in the distance. So I dump high and start looking for a landing area in a sea of green below me. Then I see a small red dirt rectangle. It’s the soccer field in the middle of a little village! By this time I’m looking for the roads to get to the fair after I land and I notice that there is no one around. Hmmm they must all be at the fair. I manage to do a nice landing in the soccer field under my sweet Excalibur 190. Just then about 25 kids come running and screaming onto the field from the village. They are freaking out like only kids can and touching my jump suit and canopy like they are blessed. “hey amigos, como estas? Donde esta la Faria?” The all start jumping around and pointing in direction of the fair.” Vamanos!” I say and we all start walking. They are pleased as punch with their find. A little boy was holding my hand and after a while he looked up at me with wide eyes and said “Senior, es Usted un Astronauto? It took me a second to realize this kid thought I was an astronaut. I nearly said “Si!” but I just couldn’t do it. I puffed out my chest and said “no soy Paricaidista!” and he was pretty happy with that but that was my one and only time I could have been and astronaut. They walked me into the fair like their king and deposited me at the Atlas Beer station. Atlas was sponsoring the jump and I had a beer in each hand for the rest of the day. It was an oops that turned into a great jump.

[chuteless 1]

For those who think jumping as Santa Claus is a fun thing, there have been many deaths due to something going wrong on a Santa jump. I always refused to do them.

On one occassion, one of the guys on my team George Drainville) contracted to do a Santa Jump into a small strip plaza. On landing he hooked a turn and broke his leg like it was a matchstick. One of the other guys put the Santa costume on while George was taken to the hospital, and the first kid to climb up on this new Santa's knee, pissed himself, and soaked Santa to the skin.
The original jumper ( George Drainville) said he needed some cash in a hurry and thought he would take the chance.

On another jump ( in the USA) a jumper has his beard wired around the back of his neck. On opening, the risors caught the beard that was blown around his neck, and the wire tore through the jumper's throat.

It is a jinxed jump , and years ago I had a list of Santa fatalities.

Bill Cole

[mjosparky 3]

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On another jump ( in the USA) a jumper has his beard wired around the back of his neck. On opening, the risors caught the beard that was blown around his neck, and the wire tore through the jumper's throat.

Not.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[chuteless 1]

That did happen. If you are aware of this jump, and have any more details, post them.

It didnt kill the jumper, but it was quite a bit more than your regular cut while shaving in the morning.