C348

I started jumping at Seagoville in 1968 with Bob C, Jerry S, John Burke, Lupie, and many others. What a great group of people who loved the sport. I can't confirm it but I think Bob was on the first streak jump with John and 2 others in 1969. I was only jumping an old double L with a couple of blow holes that Lupie had put in for extra "drive" but once I had had been cleared for RW I was always treated as an equal when making the manifest. The DPA jump course was $70 for the first seven jumps to hop and pop. No refunds. Very few students ever quit. A testament to the quality of the training. The club gear was safe but the jumps suits stunk of pee. A side effect of the first time a student climbed out on the step of the 182. They were never washed. Incentive for students to get their own gear and stay jumping with the club. After at clear for FF a jump was $2.50 It was always a wish to get back to Dallas and jump with the DPA again but life got in the way and my jumping days ended in 1972. Sadly before the arrival of the squares but I did have a great PC and packed it in a Crossbow just like Bob and Jerry jumped back in the day.

I started jumping at Seagoville in 1968 with Bob, Jerry, John Burke, Lupie, and many others. What a great group of people who loved the sport. I can't confirm it but I think Bob was on the first streak jump with John and 2 others in 1969. I was only jumping an old double L with a couple of blow holes that Lupie had put in for extra "drive" but I was always treated as an equal when making the manifest. It was always a wish to get back to Dallas and jump with the DPA again but life got in the way and my jumping days ended in 1972. Sadly before the arrival of the squares but I did have a great PC and packed it in a Crossbow just like Bob jumped back in the day.

Recently I found some old photos on the Singapore National Archives website of a demo jump I made with the Singapore Joint Services Parachute Team for the 1971 Singapore Grand Prix. http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/d8b2bdce-1161-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad The club was affiliated with the British and Singapore military but also had civilian members. Because of the restricted air space over Singapore normally we had to go up to Malaysia to jump. The only time we were allowed to jump over Singapore was for demo jumps but in 1970 at the request of the Ministry of Defense we had started the initial training of candidates for the newly formed Singapore Commando Brigade and we were provided air space over the Seletar air base. Our involvement in the training was to quickly weed out the non-hackers. No use spending time and effort training someone as a commando who wasn’t willing to jump. In those days the Grand Prix track was a road course located on sections of Upper Thompson Road and Old Upper Thompson Road and the DZ was a small strip of grass on a hairpin corner of the race circuit in front of the VIP stand. It wasn’t much bigger than a tennis court and an incredibly small landing area for a Para Commander. The C.O. of the Red Devils parachute team from the British Parachute Regiment was visiting Singapore that week and prior to the jump he tried to have the jumps stopped because he considered the landing site too hazardous. His complaint was a lack of alternate landing sites in the event of missing the DZ. We only had one alternate landing area but below 300 ft. we either hit the DZ or ended up in the trees or on someone’s roof. There had been a previous jump into the same location for the 1969 Grand Prix and we informed the organizers that if the weather wasn’t perfect there wouldn’t be a jump. Besides the Devils CO was out ranked by one of the members our team. We made one jump on the opening day of the Grand Prix and another on the following day. On opening day the VIP’s included the President of Singapore and the Prime Minister. The intent was to land in front of the VIP stand and then be presented to the President who would sign our log books. Good incentive to keep out of the trees. Jumping from a helicopter was a big help in getting a good exit point from 7000 ft. All five of us made it into the DZ and we had our 15 minutes of fame. That was the last time a jump was made for the GP. The 1972 jump was weathered out. Because of race fatalities on the dangerous track, there were no more Grand Prix events in Singapore until the recent advent of the F1 races. I'm the one with the "Sun Burst" PC Mark II on a Crossbow piggy back container with "one-shots".

Correct the canopy packed just like a PC It did not fly like a PC. Scary

The DPA Lewisville DZ was a private farm with an air strip. The land owners around the place didn't like the aircraft noise on the week-ends and the DZ was small (1967). I don't know the exact location but that's where I started jumping. The club moved to Seagoville which was a much better location and more jumper friendly. I miss those days with Jerry & Sherry / John Burke / Lope / Double Ls / PC / Crossbow hogbacks and the old 180 tail dragger.

In 1969 I was at a jump meet in Canada that was weathered out. A buddy who was a Captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force & I had two weeks off & we abandoned the jump meet and drove 24 hours to Elsinore. It was the best 10 days of my life. During the trip south we were taking turns driving my ’69 Dodge Cornet 500. Somewhere in Utah we switched drivers after a fuel stop. Buddy drove 2 hours the wrong way before I woke up (Dumb & Dumber). We didn't have much money and our gear was crap but the jump masters at Elsinore took care of us and we stayed in a basement they had rented sleeping on the floor. Can’t remember their names but one was a Marine D.I. – my kind of jump master. During that week Bob Sinclar was filming a TV commercial with Scratch Garrison, Scratch’s wife and another jumper who I never heard of before. The premise of the commercial was the new type of bottle twist-tops that could even be opened while in free-fall. Bob was doing the filming with Scratch’s wife and the other guy as the two free-fallers. Bob only jumped old double L canopies because of the heavy camera gear he was carrying and the low opening shock. Scratch packed all his chutes. There were a couple of times when Bob & the group opened a little low because they kept working on the filming sequences. When you’re standing on the ground and you can not only see someone in free fall, but also hear them – you know they are low! Anyway Bob had us help with a canopy shot filmed by pulling a double L behind a convertible. He bought us 2 X 7000ft lifts for our help. I was thrilled just to meet the guy after watching Ripcord on TV as a youngster growing up in Canada, let alone get to work with him filming a TV commercial. Guess where my dream on jumping out of airplanes came from!? Now I’d living it with my hero! That same week some guys from Ford’s missile division showed up at the drop zone and wanted a drop test on a missal cone – you can’t make this stiff up! So the D.I. wangled a free lift for us to “help” him drop the thing while some guy from Ford filmed it with a high speed camera on the ground. We did a hop and pop at landed next to the cone & they paid us for another 2 X 7000 ft lift to help them dig it out of the dirt. How much better can it get? Well .... How about Carl Boenish showing up and we end up on a lift with him while he does some camera work! This happened and I have the signed log book to prove it! The last day we had the Howard and the King Air up trying to get us our 8 man patch. No luck, it was fright trained at 6. But afterwards we all went to the Rumble Seat & make I made Cardinal. For those who were never there the Rumble Seat was a bar neat to the DZ. They hung the pilot chutes from those who had “thundered in” over the pool table. Blood and all. There was some kind of drinking thing called Cardinal Puff Puff. The walls were covered with skydiving photos. The guy that ran the place was a woffo who wore French jump boots but nobody cared. When I die I want to spend eternity living those 10 days over and over. BTW we blew the motor out of the 500 on the way back to Canada.