Jim_Hooper

Crusty-- I can but bow to the words of a true purist. After all, what's a parachute for but to get us safely on the ground so we can go up and do more RW? All else is vanity. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Looking for minimum weight and pack volume but with a bit of performance, I added permanent centerlines to pull down the apex of a 26' Navy, installed crown lines, replaced a few gores with those from a 28' flat circular to achieve a cupped/Lemoigne effect. This was packed into a POD built for the NB-6 container that I turned upsidedown on a harness built by Bill Case (the bottom of an NB-6 is slightly narrower than the top), with a blast handle. The ensemble was completed with a poptop reserve. Made about 150 jumps on it, to include a few demos into Tampa and St Pete. At 135 lbs, most of my landings were standups, but the openings alternated between soft and a little longer than was sometimes comfortable to an immediate ... WHAM! Hoop SCR242 SCS90 NSCR26

Paul Mitcheltree - THERE's a name I'd forgotten. Good guy. Always worth checking the ol' copyright thing. Think I'll go back and look at it again. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

As far as I can remember, Leo Dickinson was the only Brit shooting quality 16mm at Z'hills back then. I hate to be a spoilsport, but if it's his work, you might want to check with him regarding permission to post that on Youtube. I've just gone through a serious hassle with a couple of people who lifted photos from my website for use on their own. Photographers can be very touchy about copyrighted material. Best, Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Sheer, unadulterated nostalgia. Recognized lots of faces and jumpsuit/rig combinations. Many thanks for posting that aerial swoop down memory lane. The landings - even under the Paradactyl - rather belie all the horror stories about how hard they used to be. Hoop SCR242 SCS90 NSCR26 www.jimhooper.co.uk

Rog--nice to see someone who was there setting the record straight. Give 'em hell. Hoop SCR242, SCS90, NSCR26

Didn't anyone warn you that it could be addictive? Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Joe's jump might have been a military operation, but it was also the world's highest, fastest, and longest skydive in history, and one helluva balls-out jump! Joe's skydiving records have stood for 50 years. You wanna hold that guy out of the Hall of Fame?? Concur. He has been a freefall legend since before I made my first jump in 1965. Hoop SCR242 D4019

Haven't seen him in years, but Claude Gillard was always one of my favorite people. But what a naughty boy! He certainly livened up the CIP meetings - and was always kept busy on damage limitation operations in the wake of the latest outrage committed by the Aussie team. Their theft of the Red Chinese delgation's flag at the '78 World Cup in France came very close to causing a major international incident. Blue and Digger Dave put on their innocent look and denied all knowledge. I think Claude finally found a seamstress in town to make a replacement, which mollified the Chinese only slightly. Man, were they grumpy. As was the French Federation. Wonder where that flag is now... Hoop

Cool ladies who did hot relative work. Hoop

Thanks for confirming that the memory banks are functioning. Perhaps the reason Gary was confident in taking off over-grossed was that N111ST had 1830-94s (same as Mr Douglas), which were rated at 1350hp, rather than the 1200hp of the standard 1830-92s. And he might still have made it if he hadn't been forced to turn into the dead engine because of the rising terrain ahead and to the right. But the extra 4,000lbs he allowed on board played a major part in killing everyone.

You may be thinking of another crash. I well remember hearing the news that Sky Train crashed in the Aleutians, Gary Hannah was flying, his girlfriend Debbie and Greg Wirth were on board. Might ask Mark Borghorst, who was a close friend of Hannah. Hoop

I believe they had just taken off in N111ST, over-grossed with a load of fish, when they lost an engine. Rising terrain forced a turn that led to a stall. Greg Wirth was the third person on board. They and the C-47 had spent the previous year or two at Z'hills. Hoop

Gimme a break, Bill, I wasn't a Hinckley jumper, but I did give The Family/James Gang credit in my seven-part series in Parachutist last year, which is also on Bill Newell's site http://starcrestawards.com/history/fate.html Though the Family did the first 8-man outside California, the main reason Hinckley didn't become a major RW center was because it was in the far frozen north. Back then - before the skills developed and spread - you needed year round good weather and at least a Twin Beech. Which is why those Yankees headed for Florida or SoCal in the winter. But I'll tell ya what, those Hinckley boys and girls could keep up with, and often exceed, the most hard core party people. They were awesome. Hoop

How the hell did Tuna know that? Whatever, let me add my voice and say best for another year and thanks for your many contributions to skydiving. Hoop SCR242

Well done, Patrick! Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Joannie--regarding the the guy in the red sweat shirt, here's what Ron Schott, who's also in that photo, wrote in an earlier post on this thread: "The gentleman in the red sweatshirt is Ron Smith. He was an USAF CAPT stationed at MacDill." Hoop

Don't think it was Birdsong. Sod Farm, maybe?

Hey, Bill--I haven't heard anything about him for years. I remember him as a really nice guy. There must be someone here who knows. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Yep, Warren Kauffman, D-263, was still club president and ASO when I arrived at Z'hills. I got my Instructor rating through him. Good man whose contribution to the sport was never sufficiently acknowledged. The transition from style and accuracy to RW didn't sit well with him, however, and Tampa Skydivers moved to another DZ in 1969 or '70. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

The famous wet t-shirt contest took place not behind the old Rangers' building but at the center in the middle of the airport in, I think, 1977, after Searles was gone. At the end of the fifth 20-hour day in a row, I'd told my staff they were in charge and went home, never expecting that an old-fashioned wet T-shirt contest, a feature of the last few Turkey Meets, would spin out of control. There was indeed a lay Baptist preacher amongst the spectators, there to check on the morals of the skydivers. By rare good fortune Carl Nelson had taken some photos that night, one of which showed the pious preacher in the front row, leering at the wet T-shirts. His subsequent self-righteous hellfire-and-brimstone comments about depraved skydivers ended abruptly when I mentioned that I might be forced into attaching a copy to every lamp pole on his street. No one was arrested, but it damn near got the drop zone shut down. As I remember the briefing the next morning, no one got a blow job, but Carbone went down on the three finalists. And yes, that was one of the many occasions I threw Scotty off the DZ. The local press was still referring to that night seven years later when I sold up and went off to get shot at - a far less complicated profession than being the owner of Z'hills Parachute Center. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Though the 1st Big Z 10-man meet almost got weathered out, we did manage four rounds, at the end of which The Family and the Taft Team were tied at 28 points. The Family won with the largest star, a 9-man. The story of that can be found on Bill Newell's website - http://starcrestawards.com/history/fate.html Attached is the Taft Team. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Larry's correct. That was the Ranger's club, which was operating when I first showed up in October '68. It was run by a couple of people from MacDill AFB. The only name I remember was Woody Malugani. The east half of the building had, if memory serves, three indoor packing tables. When the 'new' center was completed in the middle of the airport, the packing tables were torn out and the room turned into a maintenance and storage facility, with the west end serving as bunkrooms and an office. Attached photo was taken in front of the building in December '69. Standing: Pilot Bill 'Tuna' Case, Ron Brissey, Jeff Searles, Laban 'Step' Lively. Front row: Hooper, Lou Aug, Phil Smith, Ron Schott, Bill 'Moriarity' Burr. Can't remember the name of the guy in the sweatshirt. Hoop www.jimhooper.co.uk

Brian Williams put me out on my first freefall at Arvin, signing my logbook "Brian Jumpmaster." Hoop SCR242 SCS90

I guess if he wrote it, it must be true. Hoop