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If you forgot to turn the unit off after opening, it'd cost you $4 for the reserve repack as an incentive. It was 1969, and I'd go home and tell everybody just how safe this sport was. Ignorance is bliss.

York Skydivers (York Pa) was $4.00 to 7200 for visiting jumpers. For club members, it was $3.50. $6 to 12,500, but we were told not to expect to do much RW since the air was so thin. You'd have to schedule a whole load, usually of people who needed some 60 second delays for their licenses. We may have run 6 loads to 12.5 all year. First jump course $35, and your static lines were $6, which killed me. I jump at Maytown DZ today. We run 2 182's, and a ride to 10K is $18. At our rate of $8 and $1 per thousand, 4K is only $12. A ride to 13K is $25.

Randy told all of us about his unexpected water jump back then. I gotta say though, that all except Tom, Cindy and Bill Simonsen (RIP) have read the NSCR story and thought it captured the moment perfectly. Most of us remember the 70's kinda foggy, but having written the story almost immediately after the jump, it was on the money. If you've forgotten Georgie's rotten farts on the way to altitude, you've lost some of the worst of the period. Demme, Martin, Barnes, Skip and I still jump and all agree this is about as accurate as can be. When my DZ (Maytown) has night jumps, I tell them there's not enough muscle or humiliation to get me back for another night jump.

Are you the Gary Thompson that spent time at the old York Skydivers DZ in Hanover Pa? A guy named Steve hung out with you then...If so, a bunch of us are still at it. Inquiring minds want to know.....

Sounds like it was a good night for flying way back then. I made 1 successful SCSA jump at Chambersburg in the early 80's, but during the daytime. Night is incredible. Exit at 14K, and used every inch of altitude to get it. A bunch of the people on the NSCR were on the SCSA, but we never sent off for it. Congrats on the NSCSA-1. Way cool.

That was my last night jump. Some people love em, but I've told people at the DZ when they ask me about going on one, there's not enough muscle around here to get me on the plane after dark. I've got some more stories, and I'll post one or so coming up. Like the rest of the old timers, we've accumulated so many funny stories, they're hard to remember.

It's always easier to ask forgiveness than permission as you know. Jane and her friends were pissed, but I didn't give a flying shit. I had just earned a NSCR and was walking on water. The fact that I'm still married to her (and my friend made a tandem after that) speaks volumes I guess. I was worth any whit I got. The shit went away...I still have the NSCR...glad you liked it.

I wrote this 2 weeks after we managed a 10 way NSCR load in 1976. The verbage is right out of 1976. I didn't 'clean it up', or change anything when I put it into MS Word years ago. I forgot I had it. My 'girlfriend' that I mention has been my wife for 35 yrs. My son has 350 jumps, so she's lived with jumping a long time. Of the jumpers I mention, me (Harv), Wild Bill Martin, Ted Barnes, Skip Eckert, and Dave Demme still jump. Bill Simonsen went in at the Herd Boogie in '77. You'd have liked him. What a great guy. I hope you enjoy the story. It was a hoot.... Harv Selway NSCR 978

I got started in skydiving when I was 18, in 1969. I jumped until 1991 when I stopped to raise 2 kids (one who now has 350 jumps). I came back in 2006. The sport was different for sure. Free flying, canopy swooping, you name it. Still, you got in a plane and got out at the halfway point, free fell and opened your canopy to land. Some of my friends also laid off and returned after 20 years to find the sport different for them too. One or two quit because it wasn't the same as when they left. Was this a bad thing for me? Naaa because I knew it was not the same as when I quit....BUT....the thrill was the same, the people, although much younger were as rabid about the sport as we were back in our 20's and 30's. Cost? Much more expensive gear and jumps. In 1970, a jump from 7200' was $4.50. Now, 13,000' is $25. But c'mon...when I started skiing in '69, I paid $50 for my skiis. My pair now is $750. Lift tickets were $9.00 a day. Now, you'll pay $75 in many places. I'm skiing in Utah now, and a full price ticket at The Canyons is $96. It's not fair to complain about being hosed by greedy manufacturers. I owned a 35' T-10 for $100 and a 28' chest mount for $75. All surplus that hammered me when I landed. My jumping stopped at about 15 MPH or I'd back up to the next county. Then my Papillion was $350, my Strato Star $500, my Cloud $750, my Dragonfly even more and it keeps going up. I just got new gear this year that set me back almost $7K. The difference is a reliable main canopy that lands me softly, a free bagged reserve that may save my life with a horseshoe, and an AAD that works! My old Sentinal AAD misfired twice, one time at 500' under a fully open main canopy. If you're looking for a sport to be static, this is the wrong sport. I'm a decent belly flyer, and suck at sit flying. My canopy is 188 sq', and I have no desire to swoop anything. My 62 yr old knees don't need the grief. To fly however is magical! To watch the young ones learn is like deja vu. We were there. We were them. They are us. I'm one of the older guys on a small DZ, and I have a boatload of knowledge that the young ones don't have, and won't have until they're at it for a lot of years. Complaining about the changes in the sport miss the larger point that the sport is ever evolving, and I love it. In the meantime, I'll dump at 3K, set up to land at 200' and fly it straight in to land, repack and do it again. You can too.... Blue skies...

My friends and I jumped with York Skydivers, but would come by whenever we had a chance. I was there when you brought in a skyvan for Wanda Cooper's 1,000. Also, a Piper Cherokee 6. In a post, I saw Paul Reed's name, and that brings back memories of him at boogies saying 'Selway, get your best 6 and come back for a 24 way with the other guys'. Great memories...my brother Tom, Ted Barnes, Skip Eckert, Bill Martin, Georgie and Carn Whittington. Way fun...

Tink, it's Harvey from Maytown. We both know DeWolf can pack anything. Dick G, my brother Tom, myself and B. Martin have hundreds of jumps on PC's or Papillion's. Other than 2 crushed ankles 1 time for Tom, we never had a problem:) Bring it out, one of us will 'sit in' for tension, and others will flake it, clear the stabilizers and sleeve it for you:) Besides, there's so many open farmers fields that spotting is nothing to worry about except manure on the fields this time of year. Lookin forward to seeing it.