Juicer

Hey Skratch,

Didn't you have kind of a mobile rigger van? I remember you and Strange Dave Casehagen (sp?) doing a lot of the rigging during that time.

That was indeed a great time to be at the Gulch. The birth of the USFET, and some of the best people to be around.

I funnelled a 16-way (although I think it was Bunky's fault); if that wasn't bad enough, I bought two cases of Budweiser for my penitance. I was almost lynched for not buying Coors!

If Shafe is still alive, he's probably CEO of Enron or something. The guy had charisma!

I hear Bullet Bob is still around. He was a true Sky God...although he swore he'd never jump a square canopy.
Steve1, thanks for the encouragement. I'll check out the local DZs. Next time you see Hod, ask him if he ever kept track of Linda. (Don't ask him if his wife's around.)

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> everyone wanted to go to Casa Grande

In 1975 I was living in Los Angeles and driving
every weekend to Casa Grande because I thought
that was the best, most inspiring skydiving in the world.

It was the jumps, the people, the vibes.

It was also a 1,000 mile round trip, so the week got
really shortened, like down to about Wednesday,
because you had to start getting ready on Thursday
so you could drive over on Friday, and after the
first weekend I gave up trying to leave early on
Sunday, so I would pull in to LA at about 6:00 on
Monday morning, and it would take till Tuesday
to start recovering, and then you had to do your
whole week on Wednesday because tomorrow
is Thursday and it's time to start getting ready
for the weekend.

It was wonderful!

Skr

Yep, Hod was on that load. He was pretty shook afterward...he really liked Dave.

I was driving home from the Gulch when I heard the news on the radio. I immediately turned around and drove back. I tried to find Bob Iverson to tell him; he was in a van with Suzie Natoli (I think...a real cutie!) and wasn't happy that I interrupted him. Told him the news, and shortly afterward, Larson called to tell us. They jumped in about 45 minutes later...pretty shook up, and barely got a 4-way together.

The funny thing was Cartwright had pulled high (about 4 grand, if I heard right) because he wanted to fly the Paraplane around for show. The week before when he jumped it for the first time, he'd attached it backwards, and had to flare looking over his shoulder.

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No, Dave Cartwright was killed doing a demo for a health club opening in NW Phoenix.

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Hod Sanders told me a story of a load he was on, doing a demo into a Health Club in Arizona. When they got on the ground he found out one of his pals had gone in. So, I'll bet this was the same guy. The year was probably around 75. He and B.J. were jumping at the Gulch then....

Absolutely right, Zing. It was Tommy Willsey. A great family, with about four functioning brain cells between them.

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I think you mean the Willsey Brothers ... Tommy, Jerry and John Boy, aka The Whiskey Brothers.
I think it was Tommy who had a toe transplanted to replace a thumb. I remember seeing photos of the operation around Ghoulidge after the Gulch was shut down.
Somewhere, I've got a copy of the Enquirer photos of Cartwright going in. The last photo is a cloud of dust at impact, not far from the palm tree in the next to last shot.

I'm in the same boat, so I'm glad to hear the replies. As a former AF fighter pilot, we used to say that being a fighter pilot was a state of mind. There are fighter pilots who don't fly fighters, and people who fly fighters that aren't fighter pilots. I think it's the same here. We all know whuffos who happened to jump out of airplanes, and we know skydivers who only had 10 jumps at the time we got to know them.

My daughter is 19 now; I haven't jumped since 1985, but I'd like to be on the same load she is when she makes her first. I'm wondering how fast it'll come back. Is AFF still an option?

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I think the guy your talking about without the thumb was David Cartright. He went in on a demo at ASU or some college around their. The interesting part about that was it was filmed by a guy with a motorized camera and it made the center foid of the National Enquirer frame by frame.

I thought sport death was everywhere in 1972.

and wasn't Phillips one of the first guys to jump a Hog with Bird's All-Stars.

No, Dave Cartwright was killed doing a demo for a health club opening in NW Phoenix. He was jumping a borrowed Paraplane which he'd jumped one week before for first time. It streamered, he cut away, and his reserve's pilot chute caught on a smoke grendade duct taped to his foot. He got it loose, but it tied itself in a knot. The Phoenix paper had a three-picture series showing him going in, the last pic with a palm tree in the background. Gruesome.

And he had both his thumbs. I'm wondering if the thumbless dude was one of the Taylor brothers (Bob, Jeff and maybe Tommy?)

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Anyone remember Tom Phillips?
He bounced in 72-73.

He bounced in November of '74. The Univ of AZ Parachute Team was at Collegiate Nationals in Deland around then, and we heard the story from some of the AF Academy guys we were jumping with.

You da man, Mike!

This hug's for you!
Now, any idea on how I can get my A, B & C license numbers? (Midlife crisis time, trying to relive past glories.)

Does anyone know if there's a way I can retrieve my SCR, SCS, and NSCR numbers? I got them back in the early-mid '70s at Casa Grande, but in all the moves, I can't seem to find the cards with the numbers on them.

Thanks,
Jim Preston
Jimmy Juicer

Yep, Iverson was at Casa Grande in 1974-1975. He left to go to the Maharishi University in Iowa to become a Transcendental Meditation guru or something. He was a great instructor, and lots of fun to be around. I stayed in touch with him for awhile, but lost touch after about '77. Would be great to find him again, but I wonder if he's even going by that name anymore.
Jimmy Juicer

I know this is really late in the game, but I just discovered this site. (Love it!)

I started jumping at the Gulch in Nov 1974. It was an amazing place for a wet-behind-the-ears AFROTC student from the Univ of AZ who wanted to learn to skydive. Bob Iverson was my instructor; the place was run by Mike Larson and Bob Shafer. I was hooked early and got into RW with some of the premier folks of the era. BJ Worth showed up (and signed my ACE patch jump); Jerry Bird and the Wings of Orange were there during the winter months.

Yes, the legends of the "claw" are true. It was kept by Terry Cooper, who was a real character, as were most of the denizens of the DZ. Hod Sanders, Rich Feigle, Bob Taylor, Rande Deluca, Ded Dugan, Ron Luginbill and many more were some of the better-known folks around. Randy Kempf (or Randy Roach, as he was known) was the main pilot of the Twin Beech and the Lodestar (known as the LodeStall after stalling it on jumprun at 10,500, spewing jumpers during the stall recovery in about 1975.)

The place closed down in 1976 or so, after investigations from the city of Casa Grande and the FAA, from what I understand. There were at least 11 fatalities in the less than two years I jumped there. Most of us moved to Coolidge (run by Steve ?), and then Skydive Marana opened a couple of years later, with Tony Frost and Greg Behrens running the place. Mike Larson went on to fly for Northwest, I thnk, and I'd heard that Shafer was killed flying helicopters in South America. (Can't verify that, but I'll check the site and see if anyone else knows.)

The "Sport Death" thing was true, too. You always said it and raised your fist with the thumb tucked inside it, because one of the guys (can't remember his name but he ran a little greasy food shack occasionally) had lost his thumb, and couldn't do a "thumbs up" sign.

I jumped with Scotty Carbone once, and got into an low pull contest with him. He won, with me opening at around 500. He told me, "Don't ever try to beat me in a low pull contest. You'll never win." I didn't beat him, but I think I scared him. He was right...at best, you can only tie.

Jimmy Juicer