RogerRamjet

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You guys got it all pretty close!

That's a great shot! And as can be seen, 500lbs of landing gear is 6 feet aft of where it would be if lowered. The best lodestar pilot I ever flew with, Bill Buchmann, told me that it is imperative to have the gear down on jump run for this reason.

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Thanks for the news about Mac. That's too bad, he was a good guy. I jumped there off and on about when you did. I'm Gary Thompson, D-4616. I jumped a Church Window PC and was a skinny tall guy with sandy colored hair. I remember when Richard Bach made his jumps there, I didn't happen to be here when he was. I met Ski and Donna Chimiel (can't remember how to spell it.) Also, Warren Kauffman was a good of mine who jumped there. I also did a lot of jumping at a SOD Farm a few miles north of Riverview as a member of the USF Sport Parachute Club. Are you still jumping? I had to quit recently - I got COPD and have lost about 50% of my lung capacity. Blue Skies my friend and thanks for the news about Mac, sad though it is.

Gary

Ever get one of Warren's cards? I too jumped at the Sod Farm quite a bit.

Ski and Donna's last name is spelled: Chmielewski

Pat, great album so far! Keep em coming...

For more info on Jim's work, see his website at:http://www.jimhooper.co.uk/

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I ran a rural DZ in Georgia. We figured about 5% would make it to freefall and 1% would stick around for more than 50 jumps. Sad but true.

One thing we did was to close the DZ one weekend each month to go to a Boogie in Deland, Palatka, Fernandina, Z-hills, Barnwell, etc. Tried to show our students that there was more to skydiving than landing in a peanut field.

jon

I'd say the retention rate at Z-Hills was similar. I believe Hooper told me when I started training static line students that only 1 in a 100 would complete the 5 jump SL course and do a freefall. Of those, only 1 in a 100 would complete 100 or more jumps. I expect the same math worked for 1000 or more jumps...

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Roger: Bill has already taken care of it. Thanks: R.

Super!

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"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".

I agree with you. The formations like the diamond and papillon were rare at the time compared to large round attempts. Rounds are probably harder to build (or at least hold together) than other types of formations.

I do have a photo of the night 21. If you have access to facebook, here is the link http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1448622141917&set=a.1448620141867.2063633.1424116782&type=3&theater

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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....

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.

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I wonder what happened to SCR#: 14365? It used to be in the data base, now it's gone. 14364 & 14366 is documented. I reckon 14365 got deleted?

Does it mean something to you (IE: Is it you or someone you know)? I do the database admin stuff for Bill and if something is missing or messed up, I'm sure I can get it straight for you.

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Just discovered this site. Wonder if there's anyone out there who jumped at Woodbine, MD in the '70's. I was the instructor there from '74-'77. Drop me a line.

I was on vacation (up from Z-Hills) in 1974 jumping at Downsville MD. I went down to Woodbine on 6/9/1974 and participated in the first 8 man ever made there. Great people and great party that night. Maybe you checked me out when I arrived? I had a black pop-top reserve with a XX (twenty man) patch on the pilot-chute cap. When whoever it was turned the reserve over after checking the packing card, they saw the patch and after some conversation asked me if I'd organize the 8 man attempt. I looked at the plan and said, looks well organized already, but I'd love to go on the jump and went 8th which I believe was last out of a 206 (a 182 had the base 4). Anyway, I used that jump to apply for my SCS and considered the day the highlight of my trip
Edited to add: Here are some other names on the jump:

Award Last_Name First_Name MI City State Date Time
3572 Rogers Roger K Woodbine Maryland 6-9-1974 NA
3573 Reed Paul E Woodbine Maryland 6-9-1974 NA
3574 Miller Michael P Woodbine Maryland 6-9-1974 NA
3575 Thewitt Larry Woodbine Maryland 6-9-1974 NA

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Whos ever the hand belonged to must have been single. I didn't see any wedding ring!

Pete

The ring would have been on his other hand (not shown)

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That is some accident report ! I never heard or thought about passengers falling into the cockpit during a dive, does not help the pilots, that's for sure. I could not tell if the gear was down, from the report. I would try hard to get gear down, and power reduced.

From the report: The landing gear struts and actuating linkages had separated from the wing.
One 1acdir.g
gear actuator was found with the actuating rod in the extended position and
bent at the housing.

This indicates that the gear was in the extended position at impact. Doesn't mean it was extended on jump run, but earlier in the report, another of the DZ pilots had reported gear down and flaps at approach settings to be normal for jump run. One of the best Lodestar pilots I've ever known (Bill Buchmann) told me not having the gear down on jump run for this airplane was foolish at best since it places 500lbs of landing gear approx 6 feet further aft than if extended.

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No problem with the change Roger.....wasn't thinking Globally when I made that statement....lol...In my time there we had a few jumpers from other countries and mostly Canadians sprinkled with a few souls trying to escape the northern winters.
On a recent visit to the DZ I heard so many different languages being spoken it became apparent the fame had spread far and (World) wide.....

I was young (20) and not Worldly by any definition when I started working for Jeff Searles as the DZ rigger in 73. When the Turkey meet rolled around I had my education "enhanced" a bit by the European visitors. I was walking out to our van to get something when I saw a very pretty German girl strip completely naked to change into another set of clothes right next to her car. I knew right then that I had to visit Europe at some point

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Jeff Searles, who had the insight to establish Z-Hills and encourage many many jumpers to take up the sport by providing a facility for them to do so.

Jeff was a down to earth square shooter who brought the Hills from a little operation to one of the best known jump DZ's in the Southeast World.

I started flying for Jeff up in Rainbow airport around '67 and eventually followed him to Florida in '69, some of the best times of my life and some of the finest skydivers I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Only problem I ever had was that none of em would land in the aircraft....they all jumped out........
Another significant man, a military pilot named Jim Haerer who taught the pilots at the Hills how to successfully preform multiple aircraft mass jumps by showing us how to do fly in formation on final runs, not only that, he even taught us how to maintain a cohesive formation in order to maintain position and contact with each other in getting to altitude as a unit instead of scattered all over the area and looking for each other as we madly scrambled to make final together, I learned more from him about formation flying than anyone else I ever came into contact with.

Had to fix that one sentence above. By 73/74, Z-Hills was known around the world. We had skydivers coming there from all over the world; some for weeks at a time just to jump at our famous DZ.

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Paul Juel and his wife Anne are old Florida jumpers. They live and farm near Scobey, Montana. Paul sometimes posts on here.

I was wondering how Jerry Bird is doing. He's still one of my heroes from the past. I hope he's doing well....

I saw both Paul and Jerry Friday at Z-Hills. Both seem to be doing great (though Jerry's Studebaker seems to be ailing a bit). Saw many other skydivers from 3 decades back as well

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I was there---it was GREAT !

+1

I went up for Friday and saw a number of skydivers I haven't seen in 3 decades.

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Bill Sweeney - PA - still alive - we first jumped together in FL Then IL. I'm a kayaker now. That is a great list. I remember everyone of those guys. thanks for that memory bump Roger!

Where are you located?

Just dropped in on the 50th Turkey Meet Z-Hills reunion Friday. Saw a number of skydivers I hadn't seen in 3 decades!

Great to hear from you!

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Hey Roger,
Thanks for the heads up, I'm thinking best bet would be the last of the week 24-27 th , is that when you're talking about?
Looking forward to it....

Yes, the last 3 or 4 days of the event. I wonder if we need T-Shirts with our names and the years we jumped there so we can find each other...?

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Just checking in to see if anyone can confirm the Zhills "Old timers reunion" or the 50 year reunion supposedly happening on November 20.
If anyone has info on the reality of that happening and/or correct dates please post that info.

Yes. I plan to be there, probably Fri - Sun. Hope to see you there!

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Not one article but an entire book of 'articles'

Best for the newbies to read to get an idea of the middle old times.


http://users.cis.fiu.edu/~esj/uwf/uwf.html

The complete United We Fall by Pat Works.

Hey, I'm in that book! See chapter 5 heading:Pre-Stars? "Hey Man, You're Late..."

Made a lot of jumps with my friend Roger Nelson. Never knew we were making history at the same time...

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Thanks for posting the film! And thanks to all of you who jumped that crap so that we don't have to today. I enjoy coming in for a nice tip-toe landing. Some of the impacts in the film made me cringe. And you guys did this every jump!

I land my Strato-Star on one foot (Yellow and Black with Yellow jump suite at 5:40 in the film). People pounding in hard are way more common today IMO... I was at both Z-Hills and Deland this year and saw many landings that made the worst ones in this film look soft.

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Someday I'll be on that list...

I've been on it too long! FB1371 1983 convention

Doesn't seem too long to me...

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................You heard someone yell "Eat Fuck Skydive" ??

Arvel

Had the T-Shirt; letters all kind of jumbled together and hard to make out the words. Most people were trying to make out the words so hard, they totally missed that the words were in the shape of a penis

Did it look something like this?

Sparky


http://flic.kr/p/apLkap

Nope; but I like that one too!

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................You heard someone yell "Eat Fuck Skydive" ??

Arvel

Had the T-Shirt; letters all kind of jumbled together and hard to make out the words. Most people were trying to make out the words so hard, they totally missed that the words were in the shape of a penis

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For a proper altimeter/stopwatch setup, see attached photos...

Hi RR

Thats what I;m talking about!!!! Nice Rack

The profile of the altimeter is priceless

R.I.P.

Did you notice the knife?

For a proper altimeter/stopwatch setup, see attached photos...