JerryBaumchen

Ms BD, Do you know how to contact Bob? I met him at the 1st Pops World Meet in '90 in Australia and about a year or so later at his place in Hemet. I'd like to get in touch with him again.

"The thought of a high speed opening on a diaperless 24 ft round . . . " For me, its the memory of such a 'feat.' I am absolutely positive it left boot prints on the back of my helmet. The body bend point is the horizontal backstrap of the B4 harness. Be thankful that we have progressed.

It was always bound along the long side.

First, you do need to know just how the canopies were built. Both had lines at the top (due to the pulled-down apex you could not hook a tension strap to the apex [think of a typical round canopy here], and I forget what we called them [whoops, just came to me, they were called Crown Lines]. Anyway, on the Pioneer sleeve these lines were left all stretched out above the canopy in the sleeve, just laying thre in the upper part of the sleeve. On the X-Bo they stowed these lines (just like you stow your suspension lines today) in rubber bands. I think that this stowing of the crown lines is what slowed the openings just enough to make the openings nice and soft. So for today's quiz; what is a sleeve?

That was great. You really took me back in time. For the '64 US Team, Brydon modified his harness to a split-saddle because he wanted one. In the photos taken back then you can see it, a sage green split-saddle that I am very sure he did himself at Ft. Bragg. I bought a ParaCommander in the fall of '64 and the openings were damned hard. About six months later I put a X-Bo sleeve on it and the pain went away. You guys really changed the skydiving world back then. I believe that the piggyback was the most significant change to sport gear in the history of the sport. And it was a dramatic change.

Ahha, I believe that the mystery is beginning to unravel.

Not to rain on your parade but it is spelled Canarozzo. I knew him 'back in the day' when he jumped up in Spokane. About 6-7 yrs ago I was in Vegas for a convention and had an afternoon to kill. I knew Tom was there somewhere, there were two Dz's in the yellow pages. So I headed out to the closet one, walked into the office area and asked if anyone had ever heard of him. The young girl said he's in the next room. It was his last day of ownership of the DZ. He was trying to figure out which of the tandem rigs he should keep (apparently the sale left him with one of them). He asked me which one and I gave him my $0.02 worth. I think he also was involved in putting on rock concerts. I think that he also was one of the original Flying Elvii. One of the true wild & crazies.

The way I heard it (many a year ago) was that she was in the toilet in the rear of the aircraft. This section stayed intact right through impact. Others may have different versions of this tale.

Hey, Stratostar, I tried to reply to your email but I got something about a spam-blocker and then the link didn't get me anywhere. Call me on my cell 503-481-4714 and not before 10:00 AM West Coast Time. I can give you more info on the 'Eddie Brown Rig.'

Yes, in a way. Perry worked for Security in those days ('63-'64). He, Dan Abbott and Ludlow Clements created the Crossbow piggyback that came out in the Spring of '64. The RSL attached to the ripcord housing near the ripcord end and the other end was attached to the container with four snaps, as someone has mentioned. When you activated the One-shots the lanyard pulled the ripcord end away which pulls the pin. Everything departed with the main canopy. The elevated it in their facility in San Leandro and tested the system 100 times straight with only a reserve canopy in it to see how it would work. It worked as designed all 100 times. They then felt that it was ready for release.

Let's try that again; 'It never went anywhere,' Sorry for not proof-reading before submitting.

Some time in the early '70's (as I recall) Pioneer came out with a 'Jerry Bird' rig. It had a chest pack that closed ONLY with velcro. I always wondered how it would hold up over the years with usage. I never went anywhere, so the question never got answered.

I met him at Elsinore at '67 also. I expect that there will many similar posts as the years go by.

I'm working from memory here but I believe that the first baton pass in North America occured in '58 at Abbotsford. Later in '58, Steve Snyder & Charlie Hilliard made the first pass in the USA. I do not know who the guys were who did it at Abotsford in '58. Is your post for the first Canadian baton pass by Canadians?

TSO'd round canopies are still made by Free Flight (Gary Douris in Elsinore) and his Pre 5 uses a bag; I think that it is a free bag but am not sure. I've jumped 6 round reserves (3 because I had to and 3 because I wanted to) and I've jumped 5 or 6 square reserves (all because I had to). Some rounds got me back to the DZ, some didn't; some squares got me back to the DZ, some didn't (you're usually low when the reserve opens). One square was as a demo on the beach (Oregon coast), I was VERY glad to have had a square that day. Today, its a square because I can afford it, it's the latest technology and some DZ's require them. I have two of them.

I joined PCA in mid'64 and they only had Gold Wings at that time; no one (in USA) had made 2,000 jumps yet. They had a blue 'triangular' shaped patch that said 'PCA' on it. For information on real OLD stuff try contacting Jim Bates with Conneticut Parachutes Inc (????). Try sending and email to Kim Knor at [email protected] as she has a lot of info on the Pioneers of Parachuting.

There is a 3rd method of 'swaging' the pin to the cable that may be coming on the market soon. Paratec from Germany had a sample at the Symposium that had two dimples pressed into the pin. They said that with only one dimple there testing resulted in the cable braking before the pin slipped. This should be very interesting, seeing just how this develops.

This was the center photo in a 3-photo sequence of the deployment that appeared in Skydiver Magazine in the summer of '64; not sure exactly which month. The first photo is of Ken Rounds in freefall with nothing out and reaching for the reserve ripcord; the second photo is the one shown here; and the third photo is Ken at line stretch and with a substantial grimace on his face. Like I say, for trivia night down at the tavern.

Regarding reserve throw-out PC's: I seem to remember an Australian mfr who built a rig that had this set-up. I can't remember the name and the packing manual is in storage; I'm too lazy to dig it out.. Also a local guy (here in Oregon) back in the 80's built a home-built rig with a throw-out PC. He was a DZ-rat so he jumped it a lot. I never did know of him having to use it in an emergency. I talked with him once about it and he said he had made 3-4 jumps during the development and he was satisfied with it. Trivia for some evening over a beer.

Wow, I haven't seen that photo in years. As I remember, it is Ken Rounds and the photo by Ralph White over Lancaster, CA; yes???? Actually, the next photo in the sequence is even better with that look on his face.

I attended Dan Preston's seminar at the Symposium and the most interesting thing I thought was that the canopy body weighed less than the suspension lines.

Bought a used tandem rig at a Sheriff's auction for $30, sent it back to the factory for some repairs (cost $150) and sold it for $4,000. All in all, a pretty good deal.

In reality, this has been done. A jumper by the name of Cary 'Something' in the late '70's (I think it was, maybe early '80's) up at Issaquah built his own H/C and got the local FAA guys to give it the OK. Now what he had to go through, I do not know but it did NOT have a TSO. I've gotten a number of things OK'd by the locals that some folks would cringe at. It's all about schmoozing and realizing that anything can be done.

I sat in on one of John Sherman's seminars at the Symposium and he said ( I hope that I am remembering this correctly ) that he had some info that said a round canopy could load up to 60% on one side & 40% on the other side. He also had some info ( that came from Para-Flite, I think ) that said a square could load as much as 80% on one side and 20% on the other side. Since he ( John ) felt that the earlier versions of this rig were not built to withstand those types of loads ( 80% on one side ), they were restricting these rigs to round canopies only. HTH

And a guy by the name of Rich Johnston (a world record holder) of the Seattle Skydivers, back in the mid-60's, put two pilot chutes in his X-Bo reserve container. Yes, it had a Navy 26 ft conical, also.