North Island sport parachute club

[jclalor 12]

When I made my first skydive in 1982, I was stationed on the USS Constellation out of North Island California. I saw a little poster in the base chow hall advertising a FJC for $40, so three friends and I signed up.

We jumped out of an Arizona national guard Huey, I think I remember hearing that the jump club had made a deal to give the pilot(s) a FJC in exchange for flying the Huey for the day.

Does that sound right about using the Huey? Was it common to use military AC for recreational jumping back in the day?

[Usetawuz 1]

Yes, it was common!

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The older I get, the better I was!

[jimjumper 25]

They were still using military aircraft for jumping then. The West Point sport club was given a Huey once a month for fun jumps at least until 1984. Sometimes, if a sport club is MWR sponsored, the military will allow their aircraft to be used if there isn't any civilian aircraft around. Okinawa and Korea sport clubs both used military aircraft as recently as 1998. Nothing like free jumps from a CH-53 or a CH-46.

[flyhi 24]

Jumped Huey's once a month at Fort Devens, MA with the Trojan Sport Parachute club.

Flew Huey's for the 25th Inf Div skydivers in Hawaii. I think they got them about the same frequency.

Heard Fort Bragg was the place to be to get helo support.

Shit happens. And it usually happens because of physics.

[piisfish 135]

I wish we had that kind of access to military planes in my country

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[dzswoop717 5]

1984 to 1987 we had Huey and Black Hawk support at the 82nd Parachute club. We made hundreds of jumps from these birds for 1 dollar a day plus some very low monthly club fee. My best day was 11 jumps and my most profitable day was 7 AFF jumps at 20 bucks per jump. We would leave Ft Bragg when the helicopter time ran out and go to Raeford for a few more jumps. Life was good and 300 to 400 jumps a year was cheap.

[zoobrothertom 5]

dzswoop717

1984 to 1987 we had Huey and Black Hawk support at the 82nd Parachute club. We made hundreds of jumps from these birds for 1 dollar a day plus some very low monthly club fee. My best day was 11 jumps and my most profitable day was 7 AFF jumps at 20 bucks per jump. We would leave Ft Bragg when the helicopter time ran out and go to Raeford for a few more jumps. Life was good and 300 to 400 jumps a year was cheap.

Hey, Cliff. Not bad! You beat my 82nd club best of 10 in one day. But did you beat my 2 day best of 18 from a Huey? . It was too cold that February to head off to Raeford afterwards and add more.

Nice thing about the winter at the 82nd club was the pussies would stay home because it was too cold.. On those days, it was have as many rigs ready as you could and make back to back to back loads. Warm up, repack(s) and do it again! Fun times when you're 21 or so!

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I'm back in the USA!!

[dzswoop717 5]

The day I made 11 jumps I only had my rig, a wonderhog with a Unit 2, and a 26' Joe Smith reserve. I was jumping with Titto. We would be the first out on the first pass at 10k, pull at 2k snivel to 1k, and spiral to land, Drop our rig where we landed, flat pack, roll the canopy like a sleeping bag to put it in the D bag, stow the first 2 locking stows and coil the rest of the lines into the container, close the container and run to manifest with the pilot chute in my hand and sign up for the next load. (club rule, you had to have your pin in and container closed to manifest) Pack the pilotchute, gear up and meet the chopper when it landed. We only had the chopper for 4 hrs or so that day. We were on every load. Good times, couldn't dream of doing that today.