lufkincy

Stevie had a pair of master parachute wings made for Gus that had three diamonds rather than stars for his combat jumps. I'm not sure which ones he made.

I didn't think Gus was with George when he took Ed's body and dumped it into Galveston Bay. I do know Ed's wife approved of it. Cy Stapleton D404

It certainly was not Ticer. I stayed as far away from that thug as possible. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

I jumped with several of them and I'm still waking up on top of the dirt. In the early 1960s I was as old or older than many of them, so I suspect some of them still are. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Very interesting thread. I started in the late 1950s but never experienced what you fellows experienced in the early years. Had we attempted to jump that gear the ASO would have grounded us. Almost all of you have far more jumps than I, but even those who started much earlier than I have higher "D" numbers. I delayed applying for my D for six to nine months and mine should have been several hundred lower than it is. In the early 1960s we had a few that had a lot of jumps - Gus Anagnostis, Clyde Jacks, Carlos Wallace, etc. but most of us only had a few hundred at most. We were more than just impressed when those like Dick Fortenberry and Stan Janeka visited our DZ. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Does anyone remember the Miss Skydiver beauty pageant and meet in Houston. The general manager of the Sheraton Lincoln hotel was named Don Cork. I'm not sure how Don got interested in skydiving, but he did and he entertained jumpers royally. Don asked that I put together a meet and a Miss Skydiver beauty pageant. We had an amazing number of Houston beauties enter the beauty contest, but not a one was a jumper. The gal who won was the previous year's Miss Houston. Don't recall her name. Don provided the trophies for both the beauty contest and the meet, and were they ever trophies. They were huge in size and in number. Don preferred men to women and his live-in at that time was Bill Nicholson, a jumper who a short time later creamed in after a cutaway and failure to deploy reserve. Bill gave Don ideas for every type of trophy imaginable - even things like best rigger, longest distance to target, and one for me that was engraved "World's best meet director." I've still got that one in the attic with a few others that other jumpers lost. I didn't do anything but put the meet together and then jump. I may have picked the judges but don't remember that. The meet was well attended with participants from many other clubs. After the meet all were invited back to the Sheraton Lincoln for a gourmet dinner and free drinks for the evening. A lot of folks showed up for that event. I don't recall anything special about the event other than it was fun - not much different from a normal weekend at Waller, Midway, or where ever it was held. One good thing to come out of it was that the beauty pageant winner got a free trip to Neuva Laredo on one of my singles party bus trips and she asked if I would be her date. Nicholson, by the way, was not gay. He told us the reason he took Don up on his offer was because of free room and board, all the drinks he could handle, more cash than he made an installer at Chuck Warwick's (another jumper) Houston Auto Glass, and the opportunity to meet and socialize with all of the entertainers and other dignitaries who came to Houston. I think Don replaced Bill before Bill creamed in. Don was killed a year or so later in a motel room somewhere outside of Houston. As far as I know that murder was never solved. Those of you who knew Don know that if he considered you a friend, you were treated like a king, whether you were one of his concubines or not. He was on the corporate board of directors and had an ownership in the company. He had bottomless pockets and loved to spend it on friends. There were many other meets back then but this is the only one which I can recall most of the details Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Pat...Thanks for the heads up. Either my memory is fading or I never knew the facts. I thought the bar owner killed Carlos. I probably could guess the name of the accomplice, but can't come up with his name. Tall jumper from the Dallas area? If that's the person, he was the worst scumbag I've ever met. I'm a civil man and a Christian, but I made an offer to our club that if he ever creamed in the steaks were on me. He always carried a .45 cal automatic and never hesitated to pull it on anyone for almost anything. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Great story, but I feel it must be urban legend. I spent a lot of time with both Carlos and Skippy and this one never came up. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

My first few years I jumped club rigs at the military bases where I was stationed. In the late 1950s I moved to Houston and started jumping with the Houston and Galveston clubs, using their equipment. Gus Anagnostis loaned me a rig which I used for awhile until I decided it was time to buy my own. Gus suggested I talk to Carlos Wallace and I did. Carlos suggested we meet at Houston’s The Levie, a banjo bar, and we did. We started talking price and Carlos said he would trade me a rig for the Timex Mickey Mouse watch I was wearing. I told him that would not be a fair trade because it only cost about $12.00. He said he knew that, but it was worth a lot more now. I figured if he thought it was a good deal then I knew it was a good deal for me so I made the trade. I got a C-9 seven-panel TU tri-color with Carlos’ FBI modification that he had died a dark purple, a Navy 26’ conical reserve with instrument panel including stopwatch and altimeter. I then returned to J.C. Penny and bought another $12.95 Mickey Mouse Timex watch. I used that rig for a couple of years until I bought a new ParaCommander and wrist instruments. I loaned the old C-9 to Anagnostis’ club until a visiting jumper borrowed it, had a Mae West, improperly deployed the reserve, reserved wrapped around the main, and became Galveston Skydiver’s first fatality. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

The stupidest jump I ever made was in Bandera, Texas. Ed Fitch and I had been invited to a dude ranch to make demonstration jumps. We flew up in Ed's plane but they furnished their plane and pilot for us. Saturday went fine and we each made a half dozen or so jumps. Sunday I decided to do something different. I had it planned before we left but didn't tell Ed. He didn't ask why I had brought so many reserves. I was jumping a Security piggyback and had modified a harness adding extra D-rings. That was before the 3-rings so I had capewells. Sunday morning I got dressed up in my Security and 4 26' conical reserves with one snap hooked to each of 4 D-rings. I had a 5th with the lines chainlinke and everything stuffed into a box. Don't recall for sure but think it might have been a Bell helmet box. Ed said I looked like a wierd robot. I had the pilot go to about 15,000 and I exited, immediately tossing out the box and as soon as it opened I cut away. I then deployed the 2nd, cut away from it and did the same for #3, 4, and 5. Containers were flapping everywhere and I pulled my Security main for the final deployment and safely landed, with my piggyback reserve not used. A few years ago a friend told me that I landed on reserve #5 rather than the Security main, but I'm almost certain I deployed the Security. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

[/:}The way I heard it, Dr. Ed was weighted down with some cylinders from an airplane engine he was rebuilding. [/:} That's certainlly possible. But Ed's wife told me George used lead. cy Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

We did not have SCR in my days. It was a challange to achieve a 3-man star or a baton pass between 3 jumpers. As far as licenses, some of us were in no hurry to apply. In my case it was around a year after I got my C. I would have not applied then had George Gividen not harrassed me so much for not getting it. When I finally did I got #604?? (I think!). I qualified shortly after Carlos Wallace got his, so my number would have been quite a bit lower had I had the interest in applying. I preferred using my money to pay for jumps. Most of Carlos' jumps were free. cy cy Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Apparently I do not understand the question. It would appear to me all you have to do is pop the capewells. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

I've got a couple of pix I found. One is one I took of Carlos exiting over the Houston Parachute Club's DZ. That DZ now lies under what is the Bush International Airport north of Houston. Our strip can be seen to the right and below Carlos' left arm. The second pix is one of me with a couple of other HPC jumpers. I'm in the center. Don't recall the names of the other two. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Martha did jump there but I don't recall if that was her home DZ. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

I made a number of jumps with Gus and then visited Sams. Carlos was killed by a restaurant owner after he tried to rob the restaurant. Fitch died of hepititus. His burial was rather unique. George Sage picked up Ed's body, put it in Ed's aerobatic plane after weighting it down with lead, then dumped the body in Galveston Bay. Ed's wife approved. I made a lot of jumps with Carlos. We made a record when we were the first to make a baton pass when the jumpers were in different aircraft. He also got cut up on one jump when I opened below him and he came through my canopy. I had waved him away because I was going to pull at 2,000. Carlos preferred to pull between 500 and 1,000. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Ed's wife told me that George carried Ed out on his shoulder, took him to the airport, loaded him into Ed's stunt plane after wraping weights around his waist, flew out into the Gulf, flipped the plane and let Ed fall out. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

I helped pack for Gus that day. In fact, he used a couple of mine. It wasn't long before we started chain linking the lines and stuffing the canopy in the container. No problems other than my purple 7TU's canopy got a few line burns. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Rod Pack certainly should be considered as one of the boldest. Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

I remember Skippy well. There were few that were as fun to bend an elbow with than was Skippy. The one thing I remember most about Skippy was his incredibly foul mouth when coming in for a landing. You could hear him yelling when he was still about 1,000 feet in the air. His vocabulary and command of the profain was awesome. Those of us on the ground were laughing so loud that we would drown him out. RIP old friend. cy Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

Many of the older Texas jumpers will remember Carlos Wallace. While Carlos had a few good qualities, his bad ones far outweighed the good. He almost got me, Ed Fitch and a couple of others in big-time trouble when we were flying to a meet in Las Vegas. We stopped for fuel somewhere along the way and there were a number of military aircraft parked along the flightline. Carlos stole a few chutes out of the planes and put them in the cargo hold of Ed's plane. We did not find out about it until we landed at Thunderbird Field in Vegas. On another occasion he went to Ft. Polk, LA to talk to the officer in charge of the parachute loft there. While there he filled his car with backpacks and reserves. I was at his home in Pasadena to pick up a modified harness and he was busy cutting the serial numbers out of the orange and white canopys and dyeing them. As I was leaving we heard over the radio that Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. Finally things caught up with him. He was fleeing on his motorcycle after attempting to rob a restaurant and the owner shot him in the back and killed him. His funeral was attended by jumpers from as far away as California. Attached is an excellent photo I took of Carlos. I don't recall the name of the DZ but Bush Intercontinental Airport is on top of that DZ now. As I recall it was a 5-second delay and I was in the door with the camera. Russ Gunby wanted to use it in a later edition of his book, "Sport Parachuting", but for some reason it was not used. I believe he did use it in a copy of PCA's "Parachutist Magazine." Cy Stapleton Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com

I certainly remember Clyde. He jumpmastered me on some of my early jumps. I had intended to go to Crosby the weekend he got killed but went fishing at Galveston with my neighbor instead. I've got a question about his D-42 license number. I know Clyde beat Carlos Wallace to the gold wings (1,000 jumps) and I thought he got his D before Carlos. My records show that Carlos' D was D-21. Have I screwed up? BTW, is Pat Works by any chance Pat Cupps? I've attached a photo I'm trying to identify. I'm in the middle. Can you identify the other two jumpers? Thanks Cy Cy Stapleton Cy Stapleton [email protected] www.hotlinecy.com