SCS422

On 10/13/2022 at 10:33 AM, SCS422 said:

I was on Wilds' Bunch and then on Poultry Products for a short time.

Also the Clear eye express from Washington

Years ago......Steve Fielding was organizing the night record attempts and we were trying to get a 16 man, it finally got together and I looked across at Bud Kruger and he waved his arms up and down which was the signal; to track away and dump, I turned around and tracked for a bit and looked down and thought "shit we're over the Ortegas"  but it was ground rush, I had one hard pull, I was using a borrowed rig, and grabbed the Rip Cord with both hands and had a normal opening.  I had maybe 5/10 seconds before landing and there were 3 or 4 others just a bit higher.  Allen told me "Larry, don't you tell anyone how low we were"

I remember that place well, I went there after the nationals one year.  Leon would take off and have to jump[ over a small creek 3/4 of the way down the runway, I think his other job was manufacturing fish tanks.

I was on Wilds' Bunch and then on Poultry Products for a short time.

On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 9:35 AM, andrewhilton said:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vintageparachutegear/sets/72157622741872232

I had one of these things and would jump it every now and then depending on how brave I felt.  Mine had a line on the rear panel that was used as a brake, I never knew if it worked or not.  I remember Jerry Swovlen yelling at me "cut away" when I had packed it backwards one time at Perris.

If any of the guys that were on the nite 16 man that Steve Fielding organized and we  made at Elsinore and have the pic that was taken by M. Anderson Jenkins send me an email.  I loaned mine to Don Henderson and never got it back from him b4 he passed away.  You can send me the pic and I will have a copy made and send it back to you.

M. Anderson Jenkins...…..

Good friend, heck of a photographer

I jumped at both of them starting when a 7tu was a radical canopy.  Both good but what I liked about Elsinore was the SCR Scrambles every year, that was a REALLY fun time.

Me, Sam Marshall, Dale Thurber and Mike Lee went to his drop zone after the nationals I think in '73.  I remember he was flying us up to altitude and his runway had a creek running thru it and he had to get going fast enough to bounce over it on take off and not only that the runway was short and he would barely clear the trees at the end.  I had a reserve opening there and was more worried about the alligators than anything else.

I never jumped one but my team member Sam Marshall jumped one quite a bit when we were on Wilds Bunch until he had 3 reserve deployments in a row with one.  He packed it in a bag, folded it kind of like a Delta 2

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2014 at 12:29 PM, SCR216 said:

Larry, you can still get your NSCR if you send the paper work to Newell's daughter.

Yes  know but the number would be so high  would be embarrassed to show it considering when I got it.

On ‎6‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 1:24 PM, BobBurnham said:

Well, this isn't really a scary story, but it's from the old days. We jumped at Issaquah WA in the late 60's I think. One of the guys had some older relative that gave him a WWI (I think) flare parachute, and he wanted to find something fun to do with it. He secured a rock to it somehow, possibly in a little bucket, for weight. Some of us were going up for a jump and he wanted us to throw it out and he would be on the ground to go get it.
So, during climb out, at about 500 feet we opened the door and pitched this thing out, aiming to have it land in a dusty open field on the other side of Hwy 10. Somehow the chute gobbed up and went whistling down and thumped in prettly dramatically. There were cars stopping and people getting out and running out to where it came down. My buddy was there and was picking it up when several whuffos came running up and yelling "is he ok?" He made motions like dusting himself off and just said "yeah, I'll be ok" Everybodies jaw hit the floor, and when they recovered they all walked slowly back to their cars shaking their heads in amazement.
I don't remember any news stories in the paper, but I bet that somebody reported it.

I remember jumping with the "Clear Eye Express" from there    great bunch of guys

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Back years ago when Steve Fielding was organizing the night record attempts we had one going for the night 16 man record.  I can't remember everybody that was on the load but Bud Kruger was Base, I think Allen Kruger was 3rd or 4th, Jim Wallace, Sam Marshall was on the load Allen Babick I think, naturally Steve was last,  I lost my log book with all the record  attempts I was on and a lot of the big day jumps anyway, we had two beeches (that was really the scary part) over Elsinore one dark winter evening and Bud was spotting, it went together fairly well, a little up and down but settled in nicely and we were waiting for the last guy to come in and I look at Bud and he shook his hands, turned and split.  Everybody turned and tracked away.  I had borrowed Dale Thurber's Piggyback and had a heck of a time getting the ripcord handle out, I look down and thought "Damn we are over the Ortegas"  but it was actually the ground.  When we got opened I was either low man or 2nd to low and I was only about 300ft high, Allen was next, there were about 4 of us REAL low, the rest were about a 1000ft.  Allen Kruger walked up to me and said "Larry, don't you ever tell anyone how low we were.

 

Bummer to say the least, I liked warren and always tried to get him on my loads, a wonderful jumper and A+ guy

When Hank started bujilding canopies he gave Mike Lee and I canopies free of charge and maintained them also because they were blowing out panels now and then. I don't remember which model they were but initially they had an OSI and then he did away with that. I remember one jump using the OSI when I woke up under canopy at about 1K feet wondering where I was. I used one for some time because they packed up so small.

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California Parachutist ID card #237

California parachutist ID card #57.
Sparky

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp55/mjosparky/Skydiving/CPIC0010.jpg

Cy Perkins Parachute Club #100.

You kept yours too.. I ran across mine and wondered if anybody else kept theirs.

Larry

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Would this happen to be the dive you are talking about?

Sparky

Nope, that was the original 16 man record. My brain got fogged up and instead of 16 man record I should have posted 20 man record attempt. We did do another 16 man but that happened on 12/8/73. The time everyone went low we were holding so everybody could get in and got carried away with it. On one of those night record attempts I was jumping a Piglett and when it opened ( always a HARD opening) I could hear a lot of fluttering but couldn't see anything. I knew the darn thing had a hole in it but I couldn't see it and really couldn't tell how fast I was descending. I listened to it until I got to 12/1500 and cut away to my reserve. when we got down Mike Jenkings found the canopy and it looked like someone had shot it five or six times
with a shotgun, it was full of holes everywhere. Hank gave me a new canopy.


http://www.parachutehistory.com/skydive/records/night/16night.html

"Hmmm, I was in the first 16 man diamond and the first 20 man papallion in 1974. You sure things weren't already changing when 1977/78 came around?

I was also in a 21 man night round in 1975, I had no idea the largest night round was/is only 22. "

I forgot about the Diamonds. Yes, they were already changing but not to the degree after the 77/78 period, it really started to change about then.

Yep, as far as I know the 22 man was/is the largest but as Steve used to say "no picture, no glory".

"The only grippers you had, back then, was a handful of material....Sitting up put a lot of tension on grips. "

Yep the bigger they were the harder to fly. I remember when we took lengths of garden hose and sewed them into the arm sleeves to help with the grips, boy did that work well!

I remember when we did a 20 man for Jerry Kinleys wedding at Elsinore. We had it together by 10K and it was the best flying 20 man I have ever been in! Perfectly round all the way down, not a bobble. I will remember that jump (among others) till I pass away. I'm sure there are some guys here that were on that load and remember it.

O.K. well, I have my Nomex flame suit on for this one. There were no other than round formations to speak of when I started jumping other than the ocassional Snowflake. About 1977/78 things started to change. Steve Fielding was the large load organizer back in those days and about the only other formation was a snowflake either on the legs or between the legs which led to other stuff and Steve started doing less and less of the Round Stars and more of the formations. I told Steve one Day that the formations were a lot easier to fly but that the skill level was going down on the ocassional 20 man that we were putting together people didn't know how to fly the rounds. He said that was true but we were getting a lot bigger formations. At that time the largest round star was the 32 man that was put together over Corona/Ontario for the Jerry Lewis telethon and that puppy was flying on five or six different levels and moving back and forth and was tough to keep together. The Night star over Perris in '75 was flying on about 3/4 different levels and was moving in and out really bad until we got it setteled down. It took a LOT of flyhing skill to fly those large round stars.

When Capt Hook got back from China They were doing a bunch of RW at Perris one weekend and I was home. I got a call from Dale Thurber on Sat eve. and he said "Larry, you got to get down here" I said "whats going on" He said "Capt hook is going base for anybody who wants to make a 20 man, I made three 20 mans today." I immediately headed down there for some serious RW. I made 4 round 20 mans that Sunday and I think we were only getting 10,500, How many do you think could be made like that today? Lets face it, it's true and I am not trying to belittle RW work but the air flows around the formations a lot better than it does the rounds.

I have my large fire extinguisher handy. Please send pics of me being hung in efigy.

Please forgive me for saying man" instead of "way" they were all "mans" wether there were men or women in them in the old days, i'm a creature of habit.

Does anybody know if there has been a larger ROUND night star made other than the 22man that Mike Jenkins photographed in '75 and if so where, when and who took the photos?

Yes, Al had two brothers that jumped and the three of them would put together a pretty quick 3 man so they were the base for the early stuff we did for Steve.

Bob Buquor memorial, I guess BBM would have been better.

Bummer, Bill was our alternate on the "Wild's Bunch" 10 man speed star team when we went to the Nationals one year. Great guy to jump with and be around.

I'm ;looking at my BQM Star crest sheet for the night 16 man we made at Elsinore 12/8/73 and am wonder where they are all at.

Base Bruce Kruger
pin Bud Kruger
3rd Al Kruger
4th Ralph Johnson
5th Bob Nelson (RIP) A REAL good friend
6th Jim Wallace
7th Don Henderson (RIP)
8th Larry Ravlin
9th Jerry Kinley (RIP)
10th Steve Fielding (RIP) The Steve Fielding incentive plan "get in or go in)
11th Bill Stage (RIP)
12th Warren Frazier
13th Dave Wilds (RIP)
14TH Dennis Trepanier
15th Sam Marshall (I see him all the time)
16th Rick Taylor

Pics by M. Anderson Jenkins (RIP) A good buddy of mine

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Hi Strato,

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GQ security, if I remember right,

Time to realize that as we get older, the memory goes.

Guardian was started by a guy ( who's name I no longer remember ) in Southern California. He had some success but eventually sold everything to FXC.

Then somewhat later, FXC hired Dan Abbott away from Security to come down to run the Guardian operation.

Anyone out there remember the name of the guy who started Guardian? I seem to remember he started it when he just got out of the Navy.

He ran an ad once that had the banner: IF YOU DON'T READ THIS AD YOUR RIPCORD WILL CATCH ON FIRE

I've never forgotten that ad.

JerryBaumchen

That was Gordon Foster and he was in the Navy. His stuff was well built and he was an excellent rigger. He made a couple of rigs for me and I did a modeling page with the
godflicker taking the pics for Sky Diver mag. This rig doesn't look like one of his though. Could be one of Hank the Cranks rigs. Gordons business went downhill after a guy went in at Elsinore wearing one of his rigs.