aj4218

Those 'hot' canopies! A shot I took in June 1980 of Frank with his Comet and rig he used at El Cap. Picture later used on cover of 'Sport Parachutist'. Yours truly with my Spirit. 11th July 1982. Like the Comet, the Spirit came with a 40" collapsible PC which had come in very handy a few days earlier ...

It was a Stratostar. Jumper was a Spanish friend known as Scoobie - tragically killed in a head-on with a truck a few weeks later.

Skydiver shot in Spain 1979; sunset shot in Scotland in 1980; composite done 1981; published here in Time magazine, Olympic Issue summer 1984, having placed it in a photo-library. Paid for a complete brand new rig!

Sorry Nigel - of course it's you - which maybe makes it even spookier! And I had to go back to the site next day and up on the roof to collect all the shit, tape and static lines we'd left behind! I've got a picture of all of it.

The one and only. He hadn't plannned to jump at all, but saw the rest of us and just had to go for it. Borrowed Frank's rig, packed it on the roof. He'd already packed my rig for me in the beer garden of the pub we were in earlier in the evening!

All this vintage BASE stuff posted recently has got Nigel and me talking again and the good news is we’re collaborating on publishing again. We worked together to put the first BASE Magazine out, although I have to say Nigel did the important stuff – I just did the layouts and artwork really. BASE Magazine started with Issue #3 and it was Nigel’s intention to leave the first 2 Issues for the future. Well, the future’s arrived and we’re going to put together Issue #1 on the web which will tell the story of the very first UK BASE load which had BASEs 12, 14, 24 & 28 on it. Nigel’s writing it up from his perspective and I’m doing it from mine. All the pictures we can find will be there to see. We reckon it’ll be ready within a month and obviously we’ll post a link here. In the meantime, here’s a taste of some of images I have. 01 is hours before that first jump with Frank. Here we are with Larry Yohn at the ghetto and boy, could Larry hook turn that Dactyl! 02 is really spooky. I took this exit shot of Frank just before I jumped next (see avatar). I somehow accidentally double-exposed it with some streetlights. Weird. 03 There he is with the cigarette which stayed there before, during and after the jump. That’s Frank and me as well.

I was one of a few groundcrew on the first night civilian demo in the UK in the early 80s. It was at the Reading Rock Festival and due to take place just before the band UFO played, with the jumpers landing at the back of the open air arena. The cloud was fairly low (c. 3,500') and we were having real trouble spotting the Cessna. A mate of mine crewing suddenly shouts 'I've got it! There it is!'. A few seconds pass only for him to hear 'Er, no Steve, that's Concorde'.

Nick I had no idea about this situation but I hope when those pictures I sent you arrive, they'll help lift your spirits. Best wishes ....

Having read that the chills down my spine have only just disappeared. It reminded me a bit (but only a bit) of a certain SW who static-lined a 245' UK bridge back in the early 80s and the break tie cord was too light and broke before it had extracted almost anything of the canopy out of the tray. He only got the canopy out fully by hitting the sides of the container with his elbows and got inflation just in time. That was about as unfunny too.

Got any idea how good it makes me feel that Frank has kicked this stuff off on the Forum?

Someone's bound to know his name but I'm pretty sure there was a French accuracy jumper who put over 10,000 jumps on the same Stratocloud without a mal. I remember seeing a picture of him quite a few years ago and he jumped into his 70s I think.

... don't forget Nick - I have a boxful of transparencies waiting to be posted that tell, in pictures, the story of the very first modern UK BASE jumps. Address please!! PM me.

He had a Comet 228' in a rig made by Chuck Embury but I can't remember the name of it. Throwaway in leg-pouch; round reserve. Before he jumped he took the top stone from the cairn and replaced it with another. When he got back to the UK he split it in 2 and gave me half. I still have it on the mantlepiece. His story about the walk up and camping overnight with the other jumpers on the load was always funny to listen to - especially the sleepless night and all of them waking up every 5 minutes at the slightest sound and taking it turns to say 'What the f..k was that?'

Here's Frank's El Cap launch. Beautiful. Al PS I've requested site names to be edited from my original post. Apologies for my poor Forum etiquette.

NickDG suggested I post some Frank Donnellan (BASE 12) stories after a thread I started in the General section. So here goes, all in one go! I first met Frank at Devil’s Dyke, a popular hang gliding site in south England in the spring of 1980. He was acting as a UK sales rep for a new reserve for pilots and we got chatting and hit it off immediately. I’d recently returned from 2 years in Spain flying and had spent some time with some skydivers who’d turned to hang gliding and managed to do some observer and photo loads and really got into the idea of jumping but had no interest in static lining and there wasn’t any AFF so I just had a gut feeling that Frank could help in some way. We became good friends and he took me to Netheravon DZ very regularly throughout the summer. I basically had a bullshit story that I’d done about 40 jumps while I was in Spain but it was all ‘unofficial’. In retrospect, I don’t think he believed it for a minute, but as I found out a lot later, Frank had managed somehow to get into skydiving with no formal training so I reckon he just saw an opportunity to do for someone else what someone had done for him. Having spent about 6 months learning how to pack, understanding freefall principles, watching endless videos, reading countless magazines and doing a lot of talking, October came and off we went to Perris. Frank had been to Perris at least 4 times that year already and was well known and liked. His ex-girlfriend, Sheila Baigent, was there permanently now and living in the ghetto. We put 38 fake jumps in a logbook and I only had a BPA membership number. We managed to scam the manifest and get me a ticket. I borrowed Sheila’s rig and up we went. On the way up I’ll never forget Wayne Stevens who leant over and said ‘Don’t forget, every time you go through the door of an aircraft, your dead – until YOU do something about it’. I think Frank may have let the cat out of the bag! Anyway, out we went at 14 grand and he immediately let go of my chest strap. It was fine; he pinned me, geeked like an idiot and let go and head dived about 200 feet below and then gestured to me to come on down. I got nearish and he pinned me again and fruit-looped me! Dumped OK and landed in the pit. Fantastic! Later in the day he comes over with 2 girls, Robin and Lesley, gives me another ticket and says ‘we need to dirt dive’. We dirt dived a 2-way exit, girls to make a 4-way, a wedge, a unipod, Danish-T and a diamond. After we’d dirt dived I pulled Frank and basically said ‘you must be f…..ing joking’. But as usual he just said go for it, relax and use my imagination. We did the 5 points from 14 grand.Amazing. In 1981 Frank started to show a lot of interest in BASE jumping as El Cap had been opened up for legal jumps. His problem was he didn’t have 200 jumps, so no D-Licence and couldn’t qualify. He jumped his arse off and finally got there and Bob Harman signed him up. He became El Cap #250 (I still have his postcard and a bit of the cairn) and there was a fantastic exit shot of him published in the BPA Magazine (I’ll post it if anyone asks). He was totally hooked. I can’t remember if it was the same trip, but I don’t think so; anyway he’d made contact with Carl and was mad keen for a BASE number. He met up with Carl and they went and jumped a building in LA. Carl said he was a natural. They also did some experiments with low altitude jumps in mind by jumping off a sixty foot bridge over water, static lined. Hysterical, but they got bottom surface before Frank got wet. So, 2 down 2 to go. He was back in the UK and by this time there was a group of probably no more than 20 interested jumpers (I guess a lot of this history is already known via the various forums). An expedition was organised to jump a tower – a thousand footer in southern England. There was Frank, Nigel Slee and Mike McCarthy and myself as ground crew. Andy G was supposed to meet us but was late! I helped get them on the tower and then waited near the car. It was about 1am. Nigel didn’t tell me he’d taken a camera, so when I saw flashes I thought they were getting fried! At the top they gave me the signal and off went Mike, very head down. No other problems. Then Nigel goes (the picture I took of him he uses as his avatar on the forum) and then Frank. Everyone’s safe. We’re just packing everything in the boot of the car when a policeman turns up by car! He can see bits of canopy sticking out of the boot but we convinced him we were on our way home for a party. He disappears. About half an hour after they’d started climbing, I saw another figure climbing the tower about 400 feet lower – Andy G had arrived! We couldn’t hang around so we went into town for breakfast. It turned out that workers in a nearby milk factory had seen everything and the police turned up again later when Andy was near the top. He was jumping free-packed round reserve with the canopy in the main tray and the lines in the reserve tray. The wind had picked up and a police woman was loud hailing him to come down – so he did – he jumped. The wind took him some distance away so when he landed he just hid and the police gave up. The rest of us came back and out jumps Andy with his eyes on stalks. Fantastic. Not long after this Frank static-lined a bridge and that was it – BASE 12. He jumped another building successfully in late 1981 with Mike McCarthy, who was dressed as father Christmas, for a newspaper. By the spring of 1982 I’d suffered the usual problems of British weather and only clocked up 91 jumps in total. Frank thought I’d be ready for a Base jump. So on the eve of my birthday, Ian M., a well known and extremely experienced CRW jumper, packs my rig in a pub beer garden. Off we go to a 228 foot block of flats in SE London. There were initially 4 on the load, with Ian M not jumping. I jumped (see my avatar) at the stroke of midnight with Frank singing ‘Happy Birthday to you…’ behind me. Having seen all this, Ian M decides he wants to do his first Base jump so repacks a rig, goes back to the top and jumps with a cigarette hanging out his mouth. He lands in front of us, still with cigarette and announces ‘I declare this drop zone open!’. Frank wanted us to go back and do the 1000 footer together and I was up for it. We did standard skydiving pack jobs and got there at about midnight. When we got to the top I didn’t want to hang around so we checked everything and I launched and took a 3 second delay. Off went the pilot chute and it seemed to take a bit longer than usual, but the canopy opened OK. Immediate big problems – loads of twists above and below the slider. Canopy starts a slowish spin. I know I can’t cutaway (24’ round reserve) so I’ve got to do a canopy transfer. I let a bit of speed build up in the spin to help the reserve clear the main and open quicker and pulled. It deployed fine. I was just trying to get my legs up over the main risers to stop the main getting involved with the reserve when I landed! Seconds later Frank lands, walks up and says ‘F..k man, I thought you were dead!’ Both Franks wife and my then girlfriend, slept through the whole thing. Later in the year tragedy followed as we all know. Frank got married just 3 weeks before that jump and his wife was pregnant with their child. She asked me and Mike to be his God-parents and I’m pleased to say that I managed to contact Rob last year. The phone call from his wife was devastating. She asked me to go straight to the police station to see the rig. Waiting for me were 2 senior member of the BPA and I’m sure you can imaging the fairly frosty reception I got. When I saw the rig and the pull-up cord still in the loop I was nearly sick. There was a beautiful ashes dive done at Netheravon one summer evening that was on and apparently from the ground it looked amazing. We had a pit party immediately afterwards and as there was almost no wind, Frank started raining on us a few minutes later! He always had to have the last word! All in all he was an extraordinary person to know and I have a lot to thank him for. I’m sure there’s a lot of other people out there who’d say the same. edit for site names by request of original poster ~TA

Nick - fantastic to hear from you and I'll post some stuff about Frank on the BASE forum.

I agree with you up to a point. Freefall skills certainly aren't natural. Nevertheless, if you've spent 6-700 hours flying hang gliders and are therefore very comfortable in the air, have hung around skydivers for over 2 years (Spain and UK), been on observer loads, been in possession of a 16mm copy of the Visions (?) 8-way film, read hundreds of copies of Parachutist (especially the incident reports) and have enough imagination and confidence, it can be done. With that background, Frank's most basic piece of advice was that as long as I was stable and face to earth at dump time, it'd be cool - and it was. I had 12,000 feet to learn how to get stable but didn't need 11,950 feet of them apart from just after he fruit-looped me at about 6 grand. As far as the second jump is concerned I owe an apolgy to the forum; I dragged the log book out an hour ago and it was a 5 pointer not 7 and almost all the flying was obviously done by the other 3. The jump was signed off by Mike Kemp. The only intention with this original post had nothing to do with anything other than an interest in finding out if there's peole who've had similar experiences and how it happened. I feel priveleged to have been able to do it and have to thank Frank Donnellan (who, by the way, got into the sport in a similar fashion, but I didn't find out til years later) for the following 15 years skydiving.

Look, I'm too old to be bothered with posting BS and ego-massaging. Maybe some old Perris ghettos members could identify the girls? Robin was a local jumper and Lesley was a visiting Kiwi. Sheila Baigent, Frank's ex-girlfriend who was living at the ghetto, was there and could confirm it if she's still around. A real disappointment that other people's post make me feel I have to prove anything at all.

I was incredibly lucky to have met and made a great friend of the late Frank Donnellan (BASE 12) who, to cut a much longer story short, got me to Perris in October 1980. I'd had 4 years flying hang gliders, there was no AFF, I'd spent 6 months hanging around DZs with Frank, learned how to pack and 'convinced' a few people that I had about 40 unrecorded jumps while I was living in Spain flying. Had absolutely no interest in static-lining at all. We got to Perris, forged about 45 jumps in a logbook and I only had a BPA membership number. We borrowed a rig from a friend of Franks (Comet 228 inside), somehow scammed our way through manifest, went to 14 grand, took a 2-way out the door of a DC3, flew around, tracked, dumped and landed in the pit. Second jump managed a 7 pt random 4-way RW with Frank and 2 girls from the ghetto, Robin and Lesley. What I'm fascinated to know is how many people do we think have managed to get into the sport full time by 'the back door'. I know it's not everyone's chosen training method, but it worked well for me and saved me a shed load of money!!

The late Frank Donnellan ( BASE 12) did some experimental jumps with Carl Boenish in about 1982 when he first met him and jumped the Crocker Tower in LA. They direct bagged from a bridge only 60 feet above a river and just got bottom canopy surface before Frank hit the water. The pictures were hysterical.

Here's the pictures. Canyon 1 is looking over the edge of the 'mirador' Canyon 2 is from the other side of the canyon looking over towards the exit point. The little white dot in the very middle is the mirador from Canyon 1! Canyon 3 shows the mirador more clearly Canyon 4 gives an idea of where to fly out of the canyon Canyon 5 is anothe rview from the other side. The guys that visited in the early 80s reckoned there were several possible exit points

I've sent all you guys (at your dz.com address) a map which should help ID where it is. Hopefully some picture posts next week.

Just curious to know if anyone knows if a site in NE Spain has ever been jumped. As we can't identify BASE sites on the forum, the best way to identify it for anyone who's aware of it is that the exit point is a metal overhanging 'mirador' or viewing platform on the edge of a 2,200' ridge and there's at least 800' sheer directly underneath it. It was this ridge where I used to fly hang gliders in the late 70s when I lived nearby in Vitoria. I've got photos of the site on transparencies but can get them scanned if anyone's interested enough to see them. The site was visited by Mike McCarthy, Lyn George and a couple of others on my suggestion in the early 80s but they were weathered out. Email me at the dropzone.com address if you want to know more. I'll be fascinated to know if it's been jumped.

This reminds me of a long thread I started back in June 1997. Take a look - http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.skydiving/browse_thread/thread/427af9521d5d769f/74c8b87141549219?q=terminal+water+entry&rnum=1#74c8b87141549219

Slightly off subject, but you may like to view an old thread from Nov 1997: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.skydiving/browse_thread/thread/ed29ca811e435f2a/6e0ccd69620a4fef?q=alan+james&rnum=4#6e0ccd69620a4fef