dudeman17

You only need 3 like-minded people. Maybe find people who are thinking of taking an AFF instructor course. It's good practice for them.

Ramble, Forrest, ramble!

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This wasn't hugely common due to the logistics, but happened primarily for a few years at the annual World Freefall Convention, earlier known as the Freak Brothers Convention. This was an annual event thrown by Roger Nelson, an early skydiving pioneer and marijuana smuggler. Roger was an interesting, colorful, and ballsy character. Those interested in Cooper-type adventures may want to read the book 'Sugar Alpha: The Life and Times of Señor Huevos Grandes', written from Roger's notes by his daughter Melissa Nelson. It covers his smuggling days and is a great read.

Hi Craig, thanks for looking in. I was hoping you'd remember more, but that's ok. If Craig Fronk was an aeronautical engineer and spent significant time at Perris, do you think that you'd have been acquainted with him? The first video of the Elsinore 50-way was Carl's, and the sequence was in 'Skydive!'. The second, Mirror Image video was BJ Worth's, with help from Rande DeLuca and others.

I have a couple questions... Pardon me if I have this wrong, but about Tina - Until the recent RS interview, and the movie thing(?), she was somewhat media shy, right? I know she appeared on at least one TV special, but after the event, she didn't like being associated with it? Didn't she at one point abscond herself to a nunnery? If that's right, does someone know exactly when that was, month and year? Olemiss, in the beginning of that stream thing you did recently with Nicky, you said you had a list of like 400(?) possible suspects? Where do those come from? FBI files, conjecture from yourself and others, some combination? Is there a way I could see that list?

Yes. I believe Craig spent the bulk of his prime competitive career with Mirror Image. For several years Visions and Mirror Image were cross-state rivals, both striving to unseat the formidable US Army Golden Knights, who's full time job was to win skydiving competitions. (Who was the guy that ran that team, Andy somethingorother?) I think it was after MI disbanded that Craig and Hod jumped with Visions, along with Al, for one season, perhaps Visions' last. I don't think he actually lived here for any time, or I would be more familiar with him. I've lived in and jumped So Cal all my life.

Huh?? Did you look at the video I linked to? The 2nd comment, someone names the team members including Craig, and he can be seen several times in the video. Jerry Swovelin could clear this up, but I don't think he comes in here anymore except when he has news to post. I'm not on Facebook, but if you are (or someone else who's reading), maybe someone in the Old School Skydivers' page can confirm one way or the other.

Again, it's been a long time and maybe I've forgotten some things... But the way I remember it, Visions ran for a number of years. I think the Coors sponsorship only lasted two seasons, then they went back to being Visions. I know Craig (and Hod Sanders) jumped with them for a bit, but I think that was only one season towards the end. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but your term 'move out' sort of sounds like 'hostile takeover'. I can't imagine any of those people having anything but the utmost respect for each other. Maybe Al sort of retired from it at the end, but I don't remember that. I don't remember a Visions that wasn't led by Al, and I was a regular at Perris through that era. I was kind of hoping Kleggo would chime in, because he was too. I'm certainly aware of Craig Fronk, but I'm not as familiar with him. But you might be forgetting and conflating the years he spent with Mirror Image in Pope Valley (where he might have took over for Jerry Bird?) between his times in WA and SoCal. (thanks, Wendy!)

Well it's been a long time, but I thought Al was running the team the whole time, even when Craig was there. If Craig was who got them the sponsorship that may well be, but the way I remember it... But it has been a long time and I could be wrong myself... Kleggo, you reading this? Do you remember? ----------------- On a side note, did you do anything to make that link a clicky? I don't know how that works, all I know is to copy and paste the url. Sometimes it embeds, sometimes it clickies, sometimes it does neither, and I don't do anything different?

Not sure if you just worded that wrong, but that was not a demo. It was two highly experienced jumpers doing a tandem at the Perris dz. I believe it's number 5 on the first page of pchapman's list above. Dave Wilds was the TM, Terry Dean was the passenger. (I won't name the camera flyer out of respect for his privacy. It was not KC.) Dave and Terry were part of a world-class top-competitor 8-way team captained by Al Krueger. The team ran for a number of years and was normally known as Visions, but for a couple years they were sponsored by Coors. I believe it's Dave Wilds that can be seen at 0:46 to 1:07 in the video linked below, in the white jumpsuit and helmet, blue rig, doing the ultra-cool hands-behind-the-back swoop. Yes, that's what 'swooping' referred to back then. Horrifically sad day. Just thought I'd remember that... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpaIZLdnZVc

BASE #2

Why are you so convinced he died?

Uh oh, now I'm exposed as a bit of a hypocrite, haha. I make some slightly smart-ass remarks myself, but it's always done tongue-in-cheek and with a smile, hoping for a dry chuckle. That I failed to see that in your post leaves me with a bit of egg on my grinning face. Good indeed. I'm not sure about that. That's a fairly distinct identifier, if true. If somebody out there had suspicions about somebody, something like that might bring out a new suspect to be looked into. I've sometimes thought that somebody out there know who Cooper is, but nobody believes them. For example, that MMA guy, Sonnen, thinks it was a friend of his dad. I'm not saying I believe that, but for the sake of argument, what if he's right? He didn't come up with that through thorough research, he just happens to know the guy. So if he has some case details wrong, so what? If he hasn't discussed it in detail with the guy, what would he know about the case other that what he has casually heard? (I think I've said that before, too, hehe.)