Made my first jump at Coolidge in 1976. About winter 1977 we had some jumpers come down from Flagstaff to jump. Jumpmasters girlfriend was working on 5sec delays. We watch her go out do her 5 seconds. And wait, and wait for the main. Seems she could not get the pins out of the cones. About the time we were going Ahh Shitt! we see the reserve come out and inflate, start to jellyfish and hang up on the fire retardant storage tank tiop. Good thing it had a conical top, as when she came to stop, her toes were not more than three inches from the concrete. Her friends get on the ground a couple minutes later and get her over to their cars. She had that deer in the headlight look. After about an hour or so they get her gear off the tank and head back to Flagstaff. I heard that was her last jump. That is about as close to seeing a bounce as I ever want to get. I was TDY to Dougway Proving Grounds in Utah one Red Flag as a weather observer. Took my rig with me just in case. Went out with a local group in a D-18. Made the mistake of letting what I thought was an experienced local guy do the spot. Did not know that he thought you were supposed to spot from outside the plane. Signals got mixed and the load went out way early. I saw how far out we were and said screw the RW. I was far higher than the 8way. As I was getting ready to pull this jerk tracks under me and pulls without clearing above. Something about watching a deployment direcly above it gets your attention. I do a radical diving right turn and thunder past him by one hell a narrow margin. I dump and head for the DZ, land and have the DZO ask me just what the hell I was doing opening low. The other guy had headed away from the DZ to land. Took him a while to get back, get in his car and leave. Most likely had to dump his shorts somewhere. Damn near as much fun as standing in the middle of the bomb dump with the pin in one hand and Mr. WP Smoke in the other. One of those slowly bite the pin straight and re-insert very, very carefully moments (far, far more luck than brains deals).
