Hammitt

Did it still have the sea anchors? Mine did. I think I paid a $100 for mine. In fact I still have it out in my shed. Since the sea anchors are sewn on after the fact, you could take them off if you were very cautious with a seam ripper. It took me about a week doing a couple of hours each night to take it off. I had three rides on mine. One at Yolo and two at Pope Valley.

I have one of those in my shed with a Unit as a main and a 26 foot Security LoPo with a four line release for a reserve.

The canopy pattern is definitely familiar. The name Mary Olny come to mind, but that is just a WAG.

Nick was a very good friend of mine. I made a lot of jumps with him. I also made a few jumps at Lincoln. The Cessna 182 was named Catfish. Sandy George ran the place back then. My favorite Nick story was at Pope Valley. We parked our vans next to each other and on Sunday morning Nick woke up and got out of his van. He reached into his pocket and pulled out about 15 dimes. He looks at me and says "Deane, why do I have so many dimes in my pocket?" I said "Nick, you were drinking 90 cent drinks last night." I sure do miss that guy. He was one of the nicest guys i ever met.

I remember that meet at Pope. It was the only time I got a chance to jump a Loadstar. That was one mean climbing machine.

I remember doing a demo jump into half time at a professional soccer game in Sacramento in the late 70's. I believe they were called the Sacramento Gold. They were playing at American River College that year. It was an evening jump during the summer. There was no wind that night and it was very warm. I had a red smoke tucked in my jump suit so I could dangle it after I opened. Well I opened a little low that night and didn't get the smoke out as soon as I would have liked. I opend it with about 30 seconds or so of canopy time left and I guess it must have been a one minute smoke canister. Well, the smoke was still going strong when I landed in the middle of the field and kept going at least 30 or more seconds after I landed. I managed to fill the whole stadium up with red smoke and the second half of the game was delayed at least ten minutes.

I had three reserve rides on a 26' navy conical and one test jump on a 26' Security LoPo. All four had a four line release. The Navy Coni and Security LoPo handled and landed about the same. I did a Plf on one landing and stand ups on the other three. I still have a Security LoPo packed away in an old Classiflier in my shed.

Hey Pete, remember the time you had to refund Steinmetz his money?

I haven't heard the name Lyn Beckhorn in ions. He was the jump pilot on my first jump. It was at Yolo in August of 73. Thanx for bringing back a fond memory.

That's Mike Dodson in the Black and White jumpsuit and Red Rig int the first and second picture. He lives just a few blocks away from me. I see him a few times a year. I started jumping in 73, but I never made it to Antioch.

All three of my reserve rides were on a 26' Navy Coni with a four line release. Very steerable and great forward speed and soft landing. I did do one test jump for Security on thier 26' Coni when they were developing thier Sierra gear. I remember one of the toggles hung up, but not enough to chop it. What we jumpers won't do for a free jump. At the end of the day, I much preferred the 4 line release.

I started jumping in 1973 and by then XBO's and TBO's were a rarity. I remember seeing a TBO at Pope Valley probably in October 1973. That was my first visit to Pope Valley. The only person I remember jumping a XBO at that time was Leon Delisle. If I recall correctly, Leon bought it from Mike Truffer. He didn't jump it much as it seemed to have a mind of it's own. Seems like they were very hard to keep in trim. This was a problem that PC's didn't have. I remember Leon going to a Black and White PC soon there after.

I started in 73 and as you said had about 50 jumps on cheapo's before I purchased a used PC. It was in a style rig with a 26' navy coni with a four line release. Pretty much a hot shit rig at that time. I bought a pair of Para boots, but didn't really need them. I had Andy Werbeck short line it for me after I had about 50 jumps on it and started wearing nike's instead of the para boots. I weighed about 170 and usually did nice tippy toe stand ups as long as the wind wasn't too high. I did have a few back up landings when the winds came up, which was normal for Yolo in the afternoon, and as was said in one of the other responses, that's why we wore hard hats back then. It's funny how jumping rounds made a pretty good spotter out of you.

Two of my three cut aways were at Pope Valley. The first one at Pope(my second overall) was from the Yolo Beach. We flew over to Pope and jumped in to have lunch. That was a pretty cool thing to do. Anyway, after I pulled and realized I had a wad of junk over my head, I cut away. When I looked for my blast handle I couldn't find it. I knew it was there somewhere, but I sure couldn't see it. I reached down and found the cable housing. I knew that the blast handle was at the end of it and sure a shootin it was. I pulled away and there was my beautiful Navy Coni fully opened up over my head. The four line release worked as advertised. I realized later that my harness was loose and that's why it shifted when I cut away causing my blast handle to be lower than I expected. My second cut away at Pope was a Saturday night at the O out of the DC 3. I spotted the load and the spot was just about on top of Pott's Peak. I remember when I decided I had to cut away I was hoping that I had the spot right and that I was not over Pott's Peak at opening. Pott's Peak was about a half a mile or so south of the runway and the peak was about 1500 feet in altitude above the runway. For some reason I remember jeanne mcCombs being on that jump. As it turned out my spot was good and I was over the runway and not over Pott's Peak at opening. Did give me a few seconds distress though.

I found mine. They also have the Expert, Jumpmaster and a 250 bar. Never did get any number bars after that. I never did put in for my Gold Wings. I do kinda regret that now.

Which plane. The Beech 18 for the exterior shots or the DC 3 for the interior shots?

My first PigRig in 1975 was a Top Secret. I had a 26' Navy Conical that I had to take the sea anchors off of so it would fit. Boy was that a tedious job. Even with the anchors off, it was a very tight fit. It had a four line release. I used that reserve three different times. The four line release worked great. I had a PC in it at that time. When I got my Strator Star later that year I also got a Security LoPo with a four line release also. I never got a chance to ride that canopy. I think it's still out in the shed somewhere.

That was hilarious.

I could be wrong about the date, but I will still lay you odds that is was a Catalina and not an Albatros.

Yes indeed it was a four engine Catalina, not an Albatros. It's probably the same plane that 377 refers to in his link. I remember someone saying at the time that it was the only four engine Catalina in the world. I wasn't there the day it did it's gear up landing, but they hauled it out of there sometime shortly thereafter. This would have been in the late 70's I believe. At that time I was jumping mainly at Pope Valley. Since I was coming from Sacramento, I would sometimes stop at Yolo on the way and make a couple of jumps.

There was an out of stater that went in that year. The spot was further south than it should have been. He was over Potts Peak and probably had about 500 feet less to work with than his atimeter said. He cut away too low for his reserve to open.

Regarding the original Beech 18 photo, wasn't that the Beech that was at a meet in Pope Valley in 1975? I believe it was one of the Idaho Jumpers that went in at Pope that year.

Looks like Ray (Funnel)Farrell sitting with the sun glasses.

Anybody remember mystery dives. I was going through some old stuff and found my instructions for a mystery dive. In case you're not familiar, here's how it went. You were given a set of written instructions for the dive and that is all you knew. I found the instructions to a Mystery Dive that Sparky Gregory did. I was given a piece of paper with this written on it. "You will exit behind Mack(Mack McVey). You are pin-you will be 5th to exit. You will take the left hand of Mack with you left hand. When Sparky closes, you will take his right hand with your right hand. Shortly thereafter, be prepaired for someone to hook up you left leg." That was all I knew when I exited. It turned out to be a 10 way wedge, I think. They were a lot of work to put together because you had to write up instructions for each person. A hell of a lot of fun though.

This thread made me think of a unique jump I once had at YOLO out of a Beech 18. I was going second to last with Bob Bonitz (The Bionic Carrot) right behind me. As I was exciting, I tripped on my jump suit and Bob fell right on top of me. We fell out of the door together with Bob on my back. He stayed there as we dove down to the formation. Just as we were about to enter he slid off my back grabbed my right hand and we broke into the formation together. I don't think we could have done that again even if we practiced. This would have been around 1979 or 1980. It was during the short time that Pope was closed before Bill Dause took it over for a couple of years. I think my shins were a little worse for the wear that day.