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HISTORYPIN12

P.i at lakewood airport history

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Cool! I made a few jumps there when I was stationed at Fort Monmoth (sp?).

Don't forget to find the "Impossiball" commercial that featured Dick Spates. It was on national television during the Christmas season of '83-'84 and was hilarious to watch.

Another story is the guy who went in under a streamering PC and hit the side of a sand dune and lived. I met and talked with him about it. It happened around '82 or so.

Cheers!
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I'm back in the USA!!

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His name was Lubo Bednar (sp!). Happened in late '83 while I was a student there. I watched him streamer in while packing my PC for the first time unsupervised. Bob Young (DZO partners with Charlie Cantalupe and Joey D'Afflisio) was first to him and expected to find him dead but he survived with, I think, some back and hip injuries plus a broken leg.

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I started jumping there in '83. They had bellied in a Beech 18 at the golf course nearby the year before. They still had the wreckage under a tarp by the training mock-up. In the 2 years i jumped there they had 2 different 182's, that were the workhorse planes, a Cherokee 6 that was a real dog, and a Lodestar till it blew a jug and ended up parked at Monmouth Airport. There may have been a jump or 2 from the ultralights next door too but I don't recall any in specific.

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HISTORYPIN12

Hello do you remember the name of the guy that hit the sand dune [email protected]



Nope. But Joey D. or Bob Young will remember. Joey was the one who introduced me to the guy. Joey posts on here and was the one who related the story to me. He and Bob ran Lakewood in the early 80's.
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I'm back in the USA!!

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Hey JimJumper. I didn't read your post before replying. I never could remember the guy's name.

I was jumping there in fall of '83 and and spent every Friday & Saturday night sleeping in the loft or the tiny apartment around back. Do you remember Joe Alter the ex-army ranger who rejoined and went special forces? He and I used to jump together at Ft. Bragg alot.

Cheers
____________________________________
I'm back in the USA!!

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This picture was taken early '84, I think. I am on the right with the R-3's and hockey helmet. I don't remember the name of the guy far left, the guy in the blue and white is Dick Pooley, and Ranger Rod is next to him. The Cessna behind us was one of the jump planes there. God, was I having fun!

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Don't have too much on the Lodestar. It was only at the DZ for a month or 2 and I was still on student status when it was around and didn't get to jump it. They were lucky if it flew 2-3 loads on a weekend day. It usually took every jumper on the DZ to get enough people to get a load up and with the experienced guys busy with students it didn't fly much. The day it blew a jug was interesting. A woman was touring around the country trying to get sponsorship to re-create Amelia Earharts last flight and her and a news crew showed up to take photo's and video with the Lodestar as a backdrop. I guess a Lodestar looks a lot like an Electra :P. After a while of this, the news crew wanted to film some jumpers going out but didn't want to wear bailout rigs because of all their camera gear. Hey, what could go wrong on 1 load, right? At about 11 grand, the left engine blows a jug, the jumpers leave, and the Lodestar lands over at Monmouth Airport which had a much longer runway with a pretty shaky news crew! The Lodestar was sitting there when about a month later the Lodestar up in Washington State stalled and crashed killing 9 jumpers and the 2 pilots. Nobody wanted to jump them after that and it sat at Monmouth till I left to go to the Phillipines for another tour. The Lakewood veterans all had small oil spots on their rigs and jumpsuits from the exit with the left engine blowing oil.

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