Jim_Hooper

Is that Roger Ponce in sunglasses opposite the guy in the pink jumpsuit? Hoop

Thanks, Howard. And Jim, thanks for the photos. They do bring back lots of memories. Are you positive that's Connie Simpson? Hoop

Jim - JS may well be correct about dust and rust clogging the synapses, but I think those shots would have been taken the year before, when I'd already given both 40T and 95N new paint jobs. And as far as your Fun Between Loads, that looks alarmingly like Sara Hild on Sheila Whitten's shoulders. Anyone know what became of her? Hoop SCS90

You probably mistook rust for dust. (Squeeeek.) Betcha that's Bobby Wilson, whose irrepressible grin and good nature brightened up the DZ everytime he visited Z'hills. Hoop NSCR26

Thats probably from the same weekend in Georgia as the previous Chalfant snap. Clockwise from Billy Revis (in black at roughly 12 o'clock) is Larry Gossler in his trademark red and white, unknown, Dan Steiger in yellow and orange, Tony Patterson in white jumpsuit and blue pigrig, Dennis Glaves in blue and white Ten High Bunch jumpsuit, and then possibly Phil Smith in second blue and white, and...after that, I think Steve Noonan needs to jump in here and identify the others. Hoop

Don't recognize the jumper, but I'll take a stab at the where and when: Expo '72.

I'm pretty sure he was a Deland jumper who might - and that's just a 'maybe' might - have been with Slots a couple of years after the photo was taken. Hoop SCR242

Steve and Roger are absolutely correct and I'm blushing (deservedly so) for initially recognizing only two amongst those they named, all skydivers I made hundreds of jumps with. Hoop SCR242 SCS90 NSCR26

Standing at far left is Dan Steiger, a naval aviator based in Jacksonville at the time, and Steve Noonan kneeling second from left. A couple of other faces are familiar but I can't put names to them. Hoop

Jack, Jack, Jack – For such a knowledgeable aviation historian, you disappoint me with your flippant attitude regarding the ‘Sky Toboggan’. As I’m sure you know, the XST-1 was originally designed as a Pursuit ship for the Army Air Corps in the mid-1930s. Flight tests revealed severe longitudinal problems, along with other inherent design flaws. The program was cancelled and the prototype XST-1 sold for scrap. Fortunately, it was acquired by Elmo ‘Spot’ Rathbone, a name undoubtedly familiar to you as one of the more colorful barnstorming pilots and parachutists of the era. Although well known amongst the aviation fraternity of the time, it wasn’t until the 1936 Iowa State Fair that Spot achieved international, albeit short-lived, fame. With the XST-1 flown by his partner Ozzie Grizarde (the first to actually dub it the ‘Sky Toboggan,’ rather than, as often written, Rathbone’s on-again-off-again former stripper girlfriend, Rose ‘Peaches and Petals’ Holcutt), Spot did his trademark show-opening 100-foot pull off, only to have the apex of his canopy snag on the empennage. As a horrified crowd looked on, Ozzie made dozens of low passes as Fair officials tried again and again to pull the hapless parachutist into motorcars, passing him bottles of white lightning between rescue attempts. While the ever-loyal Ozzie concentrated grimly on saving the life of his old friend, Spot’s nips of moonshine saw him becoming increasingly animated by the attention of the many photographers. The race against time was lost as the fuel ran out and the engines died. The aircraft stayed aloft just long enough to miss the beauty pageant, before it hit and skidded across the fair grounds into the 4F judges’ tent. The XST-1 was destroyed. Though Ozzie survived except for an enduring stutter, his role in the extraordinary saga was ignored, while Spot was featured on the cover of Life magazine, along with six inside pages devoted to his miraculous escape. As you know, there is some debate about the provenance of Rathbone’s nickname. The brutal fact is that at the end of a somewhat insalubrious evening a year or so after the Iowa State Fair episode, he had the names of all the girls he had ‘known’ tattooed in concentric rings between his eyebrows and hairline. On sobering up, he realized that not only would the evidence lend itself to the successful prosecution of the many paternity suits then pending, but the loading of shotguns by various outraged fathers. This being the days before laser removal of embarrassing body art, he had no choice but to return to the tattoo parlor and have the names hidden under a permanent, solid black circle. A naturally vain man, Rathbone tried hiding it by cultivating bangs down to the bridge of his nose. This produced a somewhat startling effect. It also dashed his hopes of making it in Hollywood. In a cruel twist of fate, Ozzie, still smoldering over not sharing equal billing in Life, let slip to a Los Angeles Times reporter what other barnstormers had taken to calling his former partner. It was too much for Spot, who thereafter took to wearing a leather flying helmet wherever he went, removing it only in the privacy of his bath. He became increasingly eccentric and, soon forgotten by the public, disappeared. Much speculation and rumor surrounded his disappearance, until an unconfirmed sighting of him in the early-50s. A French yachtsman and his glamorous aviatrix wife, who claimed to have recognized him from the Life magazine cover photo, had put into Penang. And there in a harbor cafe, they spotted a decrepit figure wearing a moldy leather flying helmet and equally moldy seatpack, one hand demonstrating aerobatic maneuvers, the other waving a rusty ripcord as he expounded drunkenly about the XST-1 Sky Toboggan and silk parachutes to a table of bemused Malay stevedores. Was it really the legendary Elmo ‘Spot’ Rathbone? We may never know. So Jack – and Howard, if you’re listening – may I suggest that in the future you’re a little less hasty in sniggering about an aircraft and personality of such profound historical significance. Both Spot and the XST-1 deserve better. I trust you both feel suitably chastened. Hoop

I drove across the Sarajevo airport a couple of times in 1992-3 while covering the war for Jane's, but I'm damned if I remember seeing a C-47. Could be due to being so shit-scared running the gauntlet of Serb and Muslim snipers in a soft-skinned Suzuki 4x4 that plane-spotting was not at the top of my agenda. Had my helmet jammed so tight and my neck pulled so far down into my body armor that about the only thing exposed was my nose. After that came Sniper Alley. It was...exhilarating. Hoop PS I suppose what makes it rare is that that the paperwork shows it flew in the two biggest airborne assaults in history.

That's right! And each of the competitive teams kept their beady eyes on the manifest and protest-pencil-fingers twitching in the event others in the running missed being given a round out of it. Hoop

If memory serves, we (Ten High Bunch) jumped a right-hand door DC-3 at one of the Turkey Meets or Nationals. After hundreds of exits from L/H doors, it felt decidedly awkward. I seem to recall being told that it and others were produced on special order by Douglas for one of the major carriers (American Airlines?) of the early-'40s. Anyone out there who remembers - or knows - of this oddity? Hoop

In 1976 a low-experienced German skydiver inadvertantly reversed his risers and on opening found himself flying backwards. At about 100-150 feet he made a radical turn to avoid landing on runway, but hit it anyway. As Jon Stark recently reminded me, Danny Cuocco was one of the first to get to him, followed within a couple of minutes by the Z'hills para-medics. When I arrived, Danny was pretty much in charge, but despite the best efforts of him and the medical crew, who were on the radio to a doctor in the Dade City hospital, the jumper died of a separated aorta. Hoop

Between mid-1966 and late 1968, when the lure of freebies out of Beavers, Otters, H-34s, and Hueys over-rode the travails of the longer trip down to Bad Kreuznach (rather than the mere 12-hour slog to the Berlin club's DZ in the Harz Mountains), I would, when time off coincided with a weekend (once every six weeks) wend my way to the 7th Army Team. The signatures I have in my logbook include: John Womack C-3092 Gene 'Indian' DelPaggetto D-580 Cal Callahan D-1217 Bob Donahue D243 Gus Gutshall D-217 Bud O'Conner D-646 Cliff Harris D-1149 Mike Mohundro C-2519 Billy Lockward D-322 (who sold me his PC, on which I made almost 1,000 jumps before retiring it) Could the photo, likely to have been taken at Hoppstadten, Illesheim or Schweinfurt US Army airfield, be any of those? Hoop

Nice likeness, Jim. That would certainly put you in the running for "most famous"... Well, Kevin, that raises the question of most famous "what"? There might be a range of opinions. For another article in a high profile publication, I direct your attention to the attachment. After Don Sider, a Time magazine staff writer, passed through Z'hills, I wrote to him to suggest an article on the upcoming Turkey Meet, evoking a D-Day-like image of eight or more DC-3s/C-47s/Lodestars wreathed in blue-gray smoke as they fired up in the morning, followed by a sky filled with canopies until the sun slipped below the horizon. This was enough for Don to corner Time's editor and convince him it had the potential of a punchy piece. The reference to the aprés-jump lighting up of exotic herbs didn't go down particularly well with the city council but, all in all, it was a positive take on the sport by a talented correspondent and enthusiastic skydiver. Hoop

Rob - I'm honoured...I think. Hoop

Let's put things in perspective. Which would you rather be razzed for - being depicted as Sly Stallone getting L'il Annie Fannie, or as Hoofer? I mean, really.

Nice likeness, Jim. That would certainly put you in the running for "most famous"... Took me years to live it down, and Truffer called me Hoofer forever after. Hoop

Cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, one of the founders of Mad Magazine, rang me to say he wanted to do a Little Annie Fanny story around skydiving, and could he get a flavor of the sport at Z'hills? Well, sure, I said. Thus, though there's little physical resemblence, the character 'Macho Mitch' is indeed based on Mitch Decoteau, one of my senior RW instructors then, while I'm the bespectacled 'Hoofer' in the first two frames of the second page. The framed and autographed galleys of the piece sent to me by Kurtzman went up in smoke after I sold the 'Hills in 1984. (I'd sent someone around to pick up all the mementoes hanging on the walls of my office, but Mr Kabeller told him they were his now and to get off his drop zone. Nice.) Jim Hooper

Sorry about that, Jay. Today I'd call using available resources good lateral thinking. You sure the staff member wasn't Frenchy being grumpy because he was waiting to fire up his camp stove and you were parked in his kitchen? Hoop

I was standing in the general vicinity of the photographer, when I heard someone say, "Oh, shit," and looked up just before they hit. Like others who have commented, I well remember the sound of them hitting the roof. Like hitting a huge, flat-toned kettle drum. And no, the dented corrugated panels were never replaced. Not only was there no leak when it rained, but the dent served to remind folks to be aware of other canopies in the air. Hoop

The Herd's arrival twice a year in Z'hills was initially cause for concern, then the greatest anticipation. I can think of no group of skydivers who enjoyed themselves - or were enjoyed by others - as much as those guys. Does anyone have a photo from the '73 Nationals of the Whale stretched belly-down on a polar bear skin rug, stark naked save for a frilly bonnet and a baby bottle? Hoop

Don't know why they opened so hard, but I made a jump on one in 1970 and still remember eating my boots about half a second after pulling. There were stories of folks separating ribs from sternums on those things. Hoop

Kimbo - I'm quite sure the spirit of innovation still resides in the hearts of many younger-generation jumpers. In fairness, the equipment 35-odd years ago was extremely basic and actually lent itself to home-made modifications. One would need technical expertise on an order of magnitude over what we had then before tinkering with modern canopies today. Kevin - as far as having the fruits of my rather crude cut-and-paste job ripped off, could be Fate was looking out for me. Regarding 4-line release, Phil 'Crusty' McLean used used one at Z'hills, as did (I think) Roger 'Ramjet' Clark for a while. Hoop