dzswoop717

York Skydivers Reunion , 26-28 May 2018. Circle W Airport, East Berlin PA. Jumping starts daily at 10am. Reunion party on Saturday the 26th starting at 4pm. Please rsvp by private message if you are attending and also if you will be jumping. The Weaver family looks forward to seeing you all.

The Caravan started production in 84 and first deliveries were in 85. One of the very early ones off the assembly line was purchased by Dave"Cowboy" Williams specifically for jumping and other lucrative eighties kind of business. I'm sure there is a wealthy jumper out there that can afford one of these new twins.

I was at a West Point VA Holloween boogie in the mid eighties. It was the first time I had met John Bruffy. We had planned a big way formation load for early the next day after the big costume partythat evening. I was young and could party with the best of em, but I couldn't keep up with bruffy. The party was over at the whee hours of the morning and bruffy was the last man standing,I use the word standing very loosly. He was trashed. The next morning I get to the dirt dive, completely hung over and I end up in the right seat of Bruffy's Beech 18. We are the right trail plane to one of Fayard's 18's in a 3 or 4 plane formation.. Bruffy couldn't have had more than 2 hours sleep and his eyes were as red as the tomato juice. When he turned to talk to me he, he smelled like a brewery, along with everyone else on the load including myself. Bruffy puts the left wing of his beech 18 five feet from the trailing edge of the lead 18 and keeps it there for the entire climb to altitude. I was petrified. If he felt half as hung over as I did this could end in a very ugly way. He flew with a steady hand and kept us soooo close that when I exited last I was only 30 feet or so away from the guy who was last out of the lead plane. It was one of the scariest, on the edge of my seat, rides to altitude I have ever experienced.

Joe Smith Parachute Sales and Service OSI on the Delta II Cross Bow piggy back Top Secret Unit Unit II UnitIII If I had the time I could come up with dozens of useless facts about the old days. I'm 54 and have been around the sport for 50 years. What a waste of brain cells remembering all this stuff. I might have made something of myself if I wasn't such an AIR head.

I'll bet that less than 10% of the people on here know what a Double L is.

I have a P ponk 1957 182 in my shop for a paint job. I will ask the owner to give his 2 cents next time I talk to him. He posts on here once in a while.

Saw him jump from less than 1000' out of the spotting door of a Caribou back in the 80's or early 90's at the Herd Boogie. BSBD Brother

You can Google it and get all your answers about the engines. When I worked for a multi turbine dz owner, 9 King Airs, 6 Twin Otters and 4 Casa's,(he leased planes to many drop zones) I asked him about buying a Soloy 206 for week day tandems. We were flying loads of 8 or less on a King air on a regular basis on week days and occasionally flying the 182. I actually did a tandem out of a Casa as the only 2 people on the plane because it was the only plane available and he never wanted a tandem to leave his dz with out jumping unless it was weather related or a broken airplane issue. At the time he could buy 3 King Airs for the price of 1 Soloy 206 and he went into a long disortation about the Allison engine and it's pitfalls compared to the PT-6. I never brought up the Soloy idea again but shortly after that he hung an IO-550 on a wide body 182 that did a great job on those slow winter week days.

What isn't perfect about the Soloy conversion is the price tag and TBO of the Allison engine. If Van's conversion can be accomplished at a reasonable price, there isn't an airplane out there that is a more perfect first turbine for a Cessna DZ.

I don't have any proof or any source to back this up but, I think the whole 3rd class medical issue is enforced to keep TI's with a dui from doing tandems. It would be a huge liability for a dzo or manufacturer to have TI's with dui's doing tandems. Except for that I agree with you that a third class medical is useless. I just got one and it is a joke. I have been getting them since I was 16 years old. A drivers license should be enough, like a sport pilots license and the new rules that have just been passed to eliminate the need for a third class medical. Besides, you need a second class medical to carry paying passengers when flying an airplane except for the instances you have already listed.

I don't understand your remark. I was on a dz from the age of 4 when my father and 4 friends went in together to buy a new 1966 cessna 185 to fly skydivers. While other kids were at ball games, sleep overs, and other normal kid stuff on weekends, I was chasing wind drift indicators, building toy parachutes, and learning everything there was to know about the sport. I watched the sport grow and the technoligy advance, I built exact scale models of the Paracomander at age 11 and a Strato Star at age 13. My entire life from age four was focussed on becoming a skydiver and getting in the business. When I retired from the skydiving business in 2002, I completely turned off the business side of my brain and became a fun jumper. I pretty much don't know anything about rule changes or training procedures for any training method since 2002. For the last 2 years I have only been to a dz 2 times to jump, I jump at my place from my plane, with my friends and have no exposure to student operations at all .

I asked because I wanted to do it right, I have just learned, as so many others have, that you must have a USPA rating. I was hoping that if i was doing it privately there might be an exemption, sort of like having a private pilots license versus having a commercial license. I can take any body I want for a ride in my airplanes as a private as long as I'm not charging them. I thought there might be a similar situation for tandems. That is why I asked asshole.

I've been around the sport for 50 years, started jumpimg at age 16 in 1978. I'm a troll ?

There isn't really anyone around here who owns their own rig that doesn't have it leased to a dz. I could buy a rig and just pay instructors but I really miss doing tandems. In a non rushed fun setting I would enjoy it as much as the passenger. I have a few friends who are examiners, I'll talk to them.

I was in the dz business for 20 years and was raised on a dz, my father owned and flew jump planes from 1966 to 1996. I got my AFF rating in 1985 and did 1200 aff jumps and my tandem rating in the 90's and did a little less than 500 tandem jumps. I co-owned and operated a dz at the age of 25, I am now 54. I understand liability. As far as the cost goes, if I decide to go through with it, it will just be another expense that goes along with doing the aviation things I like to do. I am not rich but still have enough connections in the business to get a fair deal on a rig and an examiner who will come to my place to get me checked out again. As far as currency goes, I would probably do 30 to 50 tandems a year, with people I know, that I care enough about to give them an intorduction to the sport and to share my love of it. I would be doing the tandems at my pace and without a boss wanting me to jump in bad conditions with less than desirerable students. If what MEL said is true, If I got a Vector rig and went through recurrency training with an examiner I should be good to go. I really miss sharing the sport with first timers but don't have the time or the stomach to be on a staff at a dz taking people off the street for jumps.