Jim_Hooper

Beginning with the 1975 or ’76 Turkey Meet/Easter Boogie, we began handing out change in $2 bills and silver dollars, emphasizing that they should be spent in town. Thus, when the Z’hills merchants tallied up at the end of each day, it was pretty obvious that skydivers were making an important contribution to their businesses. The chamber of commerce soon became one of our major supporters, which was particularly crucial in the wake of the infamous wet T-shirt contest, when a coucilman who doubled as a Baptist lay preacher was in the audience, checking on the mores of skydivers. It almost got us shut down. (The reports I got the next morning of the criteria used to select the winner left me with head in hands. There are times it just doesn't pay to pass responsibility to staff and go home for a few hours sleep.) I have a vague recollection of the canopy stamp going on them during the 1st World Cup of CRW in 1978 (Jack Gregory or Cliff Dobson might have better memories of that). As far as counterfeit bills, I doubt it. The difficulty of engraving a $2 bill is the same as engraving $20s, $50s or $100s, and there isn't much change to be had from one. And given the importance of anonymity, their rarity would mean anyone passing them would be more easily remembered. Seems the pizza place made a unilateral decision without checking with anyone. If they were counterfeit, the Feds would have been all over you like a fat lady. Hoop

They were South Africans but it happened at a meet or boogie in Windhoek, Namibia, on a night jump. Story I heard was that the field elevation of their home DZ in SA was a few thousand feet higher and they failed to reset their altimeters before boarding the aircraft. Details are a little hazy after almost 30 years, but I recall being told that they impacted within 50 feet of each other, one having just pulled. There must be some South African jumpers here who can add to what happened. Hoop

Skratch - is your memory failing so badly that you've completely forgotten about the splinters you could pick up doing a fast pack job with a pine-framed cheapo?! I always thought the thin, laminated ash models with low-porosity vellum were better, but who could afford one of those on a college student's budget? Hoop

Jerry - With over 800 jumps on it, I took six FEET off my PC suspension lines, then removed the stabilzer panels, all in aid of a smaller pack volume. I immediately learned why they were called stabilizers. Didn't keep it long enough to learn how to dampen the oscillations. Gave it away and bought a T-Bow. Then a Starlight, followed by a 'Dactyl. Logged 21 cutaways on the PC, but then, I was a trash packer: flake it to one side and sleeve it. Kept me current on my emergency procedures. Hoop

Hmmm - Jack is correct in saying Fugit is wearing a military-issue HALO helmet. It was leather with, I think, spring-steel stiffeners, snaps for attaching an oxygen mask, came in black or white, and was known as a 'bunny' helmet. Pretty much had to know someone on the HALO Committee at Bragg to get one. Hoop

If you manage to come up with Peanuts' email, please let me know as I would love to say hi! If anyone can track down Marvin 'Peanuts' Wacaser I'll add a big hello as well. Hoop

Tuna Case - have wondered from time to time where that fine pilot, rigger and PADI instructor ended up. As young Master Howard noted above, there are a few of the old rough-hewn popping up on this site occasionally. Am I safe in thinking my little story triggered a few memories? One wonders how we managed to survive. Hoop

A variation of the story I heard from Jack Bergman was that the State of Texas wanted to try them for body-snatching, the Texas Morturary Association went after them for an illegal burial at sea, while the Environmental Protection Agency was determined to file charges for polluting the Gulf of Mexico with a body bearing a contagious disease. Nobody admitted nuthin' and the evidence had disappeared, leaving the complainants no case to prosecute. Hoop

Kevin - Twister came to Z'hills, did a lot of hot skydiving and, as an A&P, worked for me from time to time, twisting wrenches on 40T. Someone told me a couple of years ago that he moved back to Texas and got married, but I have no confirmation on that. Hoop

I don't guess. I either know or I shut up. HW That told me, I guess. (He said, blushing.) Hoop

No more tired than I am, but I'm being polite (however difficult it's proving to be.) Wasn't the first photo of the system designed by Bill Buchman, and subsequently purchased by Ted Strong, along with Bill's outstanding Eagle harness and container? The mass production of the latter never equaled Bill's work. Hoop

I'll take a stab and say it's Jim Arender, US style and accuracy champion in the early '60s and poster boy for a Camel cigarettes ad campaign. Hoop

Hey, a round will get you down, but a square will get you there. Blue skies, Winsor Never heard that. I like it. Hoop

TO: Bill, Jim and Jon From: Hoop Subject: Oops Sorry, guys, I was just trying to be trivial and historical; unlike in another - ahem - unnamed thread, I didn't mean to cause dissension in our Old-fart ranks. Besides, weren't they ALL fun to jump - after the freefall relative work? Maybe I should have just stuck with ROUND IS SOUND! See what a force for cohesion I can be? (Don't look so surprised.) Hoop

Dick Morgan came into my office at the old-old Z'hills dropzone, fixed me with an exasperated stare, and demanded, 'Why aren't you jumping one of our squares?' I pointed at my Buchman Eagle with it's Starlite and said, "Because none of them will fit in that." 'What if we sent you something that will fit in it?' 'Well, then I just might jump it.' And a couple of weeks later I got one of the prototype Stratoflyers to test. Must have put 600 to 700 jumps on it, before Jim Mowry upgraded me with an Osprey. Sort of missed shouting 'ROUND IS SOUND!' Hoop SCR242

Ever been to a party crashed by people you wouldn’t entertain in your garden shed? You know the type. They walk through your house like they owned it, help themselves to what’s in the fridge, change the music to what they like, spill red wine and put out cigarettes on your carpets, treat your books and skydiving trophies like pieces of junk, leave wet rings on your lovingly-restored antique oak table, and miss the toilet bowl when they piss. And then, incredibly, are offended when you get irritated. Among that milieu is the sub-type who can talk for hours in a monotone about the many shades of metallic-flake paint, not noticing your eyes glazing over. When you move to a group of friends, he follows and butts in with the same topic, one so soporific that everyone mumbles politely and wanders off. When you survey the damage the next morning, you wish you hadn’t been quite so polite. Better to have grabbed ‘em by the scuff of the neck and run ‘em out of your house and off your property. (There are some who may already have a sneaking suspicion where I’m heading with this.) Dropzone.com is a clever idea, an enticing venue for skydivers to air all sorts of topics. But when non-skydivers arrogantly treat it as their own, not least because those it was designed for are too polite to tell ‘em to hit the road, then a problem is generated, one that becomes increasingly divisive. Especially so when it’s clear that their ‘contributions’ (inevitably larded with poor grammar, worse syntax, and flabby thinking) are sad efforts to draw attention to themselves in the company of people who, unlike themselves, actually understand the mechanics of aviation, parachute equipment, freefall, and meteorology. It’s those who do grasp those subjects, through the expenditure of time, passion, money and effort, that have earned (yes, earned is the right word) the right to contribute. Going back to the beginning, you might reasonably ask if I socialize with non-skydivers? You bet I do. But they are articulate, engaging and fascinating people who have taken risks and pushed the envelope in their own fields of endeavor, certainly not wannabes who live dull troglodyte lives surrounded by fantasies they haven’t the moral, philosophical or physical courage to ever realize. Like our much-burdened moderator, I wish the good ones fair winds in their quest. And with that, I think I’ve said enough on the subject. Hoop

A poster who says pages have been torn from a notebook, I cannot speak to that. That's one person in here out of at least 10 regular posters. As a group, we have done something special,.. QuoteYeah, like overburdening a skydiving site with non-skydiving fantasists.Quote ...and that is not to be laughed or scoffed at. QuoteOf yes it is. In fact, it's downright hilarious. Ah well, another few days and I'll be back in the Middle East, regaling colleagues with tales from the silly persuasion. Thanks for all the joke material. They'll love it.

Will someone with more than two brain cells please read the previous post and tell me Skyjack71 has a full complement of marbles? Or any of the other whuffo DB Cooper fundamentalists, for that matter? I'm beginning to understand why Victorians used to slip a farthing or two to the staff at Bedlam for a look inside. This really is cheap entertainment. Cruel perhaps, but very reasonably priced. Haven't had so much fun since the pigs tried to eat my little brother.(For those who don't know what Bedlam was, a quick google will reveal all.)

Are you sure DB Cooper wasn't a Bigfoot in disguise? Or maybe the Tooth Fairy? Unless, of course, he was the one on the grassy knoll. Probably all the above, if the truth ever came out. But - shhhh - don't tell anyone. Inasmuch as I've not come across a more suitable thread for the intellectually challenged, I'd say this is the perfect spot for you boys and girls. Pathetic.

No, no, no, Vlad - I mean YMHW. (Even the omniscient need guidance from time to time.) The one of the three in the door - from the same article. Yr humble servant.

If we're even luckier, they'll all do it together and the next National Enquirer headline will be: RE-ENACTORS DISAPPEAR - THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY DB COOPER DISGUISED AS BIGFOOT What more could kooks, conjecturors, conspiracy theorists and those-needing-to-get-life hope for?

It's my only claim to fame, even if I was violently opposed to it. But young Master Howard has the answer and will reveal all when he's good and ready. You might ask him to post the photo of the exit practice as another clue before making the revelation. Hoop

Am I mistaken, or are the vast majority of the posts on this thread written by the same 3 or 4 kooks with little or no skydiving/parachuting experience? What an excrutiatingly boring subject. For those obsessives here, allow me to make a suggestion: get some jumps under your belt, then reenact the jump - NB6, similar aircraft, at night, over the same area. With any luck, you won't be able to find your way back.

niki - you started well, then headed off in the wrong direction. Hoop

Tom Phillips spent a few months at Z'hills jumping with the Ten High Bunch prior to heading for the Gulch. I remember him as an excellent skydiver and all-round good guy. Like you, I was saddened when I heard he'd gone in. And yes, the same story about downers playing a role and impacting on a highway also reached us in Florida. What particularly disturbed me was hearing that the more macabre faction there had collected his teeth and displayed them alongside the famous arm. Hoop