lodestar

Found this while cleaning out a closet. Not sure who made them, may have been me ?

Met Eddie on a trip up to Niagara, his workshop was humming with activity and Eddie was hopping around like a grasshopper doing this and that. He was, at the time, one of the few if not the only one producing gear for the Canadians....my being a rigger and having almost non stop reserve packing while I toured Canada, I appreciated the fact that he was a forerunner in Canadian equipment and obviously an innovator of gear and techniques....nice man...

a few of us out there still remember that.....however, I should tell you the rest of the story....seems like what you heard was true, but only part of it....the other part....3-5 cases of cold beer at the end of day for those supporters of the legend....you might check and see what the guys at your dz prefer for brand....or if they have any alternate requests instead of beer.....

Give me a call....i'll fly it!

Nice bit of film.....gotta smile at the un modified rounds they were jumping and some slightly modded ones as well One jumper was pulling on the ( I think) back risers for some reason.... Thanks Jerry....what fun !

I flew that 182 for Bill, small strip near Baldwin Fl. 0ne runway and you were required to contact a tower at an AFB to get permission and then tell them when the jumpers were on the ground Pia but we were making jumps

A sad day for sure, we'll miss you Bill..........Rest in Peace.....blue skies forever... Tuna

Channel 276, direct tv, docu on Cooper....airing now....no doubt there will be more showings...

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Hm8DW7CF7dQ Some very interesting stuff on openings, the NASA video featured is a 100 foot chute used with two others for the shuttle boosters....

Hey Amazon, just wanted to let you know.....it's so nice to hear those canopies mentioned now and again...having been around when they were the only thing available to jumpers and being a rigger I've worked on many of those rigs, mains and reserves...even had one of the first Pappillions in Zhills, got it for my GF back in the day....but it just brings back a bunch of memories of good times... Thanks... tuna

Here's a few from the old Zhills crew. Grimsley Rumpson Lurch Foggy Tuna Moriarity Partner Peanuts Goose Joe Dog Eagle I Need some help my mind just fogged up......

Great Shot Howard....I can remember back in the day at Zhills we ran the 182, 196, lodestar and a 3 in formation to get the numbers....where were those Twin Otters when we needed them....?

Good take on it Krip, it seems like the same thing is happening to the motorcycle industry and scuba diving as well.... I agree with your opinion, those of us who are still around from those years are fortunate to have been where we were and when. It's just not the same. Now it's more of a financial issue with gear now costing in the thousands instead of hundreds.....

I can relate one second hand to ya.... Jim Bohr, an old buddy, and a friend were driving along a back road in Illinois headed to an airport to jump, Somewhere along the way, they spot this seven/eight foot tall budding pot plant growing next to a fence line and not too far from a farmhouse. According to Jim, they screeched to a halt, jumped out, grabbed the plant and stuffed it in the back seat and took off. After half an hour or so they see flashing red lights in the rear view and a cop eventually overtakes them, stops them and arrests them. Seems the local Sheriff had planted the damn thing next to his house to entice such an act and catch the perps who got it. Seems like his wife called her hubby and gave em a description of the car and they ended up arrested, fined, spent a night in jail and were released the next day. Don't know if he ever went back for the trial....

Any idea if it will be shown again? Meantime I'll look further on the MC and see if they are airing it again.....

I'd guess it's probably a trial for either snow/ice or grass strips but more likely snow/ice. Ski's would have been way too large for retracting although I can't imagine tucking those tracks away. Also there are no provisions for the front wheel quite likely indicating that it was a test or prototype for the tracks before proceeding any further with development. Just a guess.... Floats would have been interesting....

Tom and Pat Shapanski were friends of mine up in the Chicago area, at the time they were buying houses, remodeling them and selling them then buying another...Toms plan was to work up until they could afford a place in the islands somewhere. Haven't seen or heard from them in ages...nice couple for sure...

Jon, Right you are Jon, exactly what the book came across like, no doubt they thought they were invincible and yes, that got them what that gets them.... Just the outfit that Drew had on when he went in could speak volumes about what that man was up to. Brad was a little less freaky but both of them but definitely had a laissez-faire attitude along with an autonomous attitude which in the end did them in. What would have happened had they lived would make an interesting read but we'll never know that one.....

Just finished reading the "Bluegrass Conspiracy". Interesting book and if what is written was true I gotta say that most of those characters were fucking nuts ! Never seen an operation like that run so sloppily and reckless as those guys were running it. I mean a guy knocks on a farmers door and offers $50K to the guy to look the other way and expects he's gonna keep quiet??? Aircraft used once and burned up or ditched, indiscriminate mouth running to everyone with three times the people needed to pull off an operation all aware of most of the details, screwing with the Cartel....flaunting the smuggling to authorities and more and more and more.... Anyway it was an interesting read but I gotta say they deserved all the shit that came down on em....a great way NOT to run a smuggling ring.

Back at the time I was at the Hills and during one of the meets we had a group of guys, and I'm thinking it may have been the Casa Grande crowd, put up a pole with a mummified hand and wrist clutching a ripcord as a marker for their area. Can anyone pin down who that was exactly? I can remember Searles and a few of the judges going over to their area and politely asking that the totem be removed as it was in bad taste, I believe it may have been a Turkey meet and sometime in the mid seventies.

Anyone have a list of jumpers who were in the aircraft? I believe an old friend of mine, Bill Burr (Moriarity)was in a crash in Hawaii and believe you may be discussing that crash. I'd love to know the details if anyone could share them.

No problem with the change Roger.....wasn't thinking Globally when I made that statement....lol...In my time there we had a few jumpers from other countries and mostly Canadians sprinkled with a few souls trying to escape the northern winters. On a recent visit to the DZ I heard so many different languages being spoken it became apparent the fame had spread far and (World) wide.....

Glad to hear I signed your log book.....lol....there was such a small water heater you could only get a couple showers till it ran cold....when you were there I was living in one of the two rooms partitioned off from the other bunks in the West end of the building, that room became a dorm of sorts and yes, you could get sheets and an army blanket and pillow for $1 I got in the habit of showering later into the evening when everyone else was drinking beer, only way you could get a warm shower.

Jeff Searles, who had the insight to establish Z-Hills and encourage many many jumpers to take up the sport by providing a facility for them to do so. Jeff was a down to earth square shooter who brought the Hills from a little operation to one of the best known jump DZ's in the Southeast. I started flying for Jeff up in Rainbow airport around '67 and eventually followed him to Florida in '69, some of the best times of my life and some of the finest skydivers I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Only problem I ever had was that none of em would land in the aircraft....they all jumped out........ Another significant man, a military pilot named Jim Haerer who taught the pilots at the Hills how to successfully preform multiple aircraft mass jumps by showing us how to do fly in formation on final runs, not only that, he even taught us how to maintain a cohesive formation in order to maintain position and contact with each other in getting to altitude as a unit instead of scattered all over the area and looking for each other as we madly scrambled to make final together, I learned more from him about formation flying than anyone else I ever came into contact with.

Nah, just look for other grey haired fat old farts.....lmao....I'm sure gonna try and make this one....looking forward to seeing you again... Tuna