patmoore

Just added a few more shots to the album including the one of Richard Bach's biplane.

Gotcha. Change made. Thanks for the quick response.

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I remember richard bach, at the time, i had the only riggers endorsment to pack seat packs in that neck of the woods and he used to show up in his aircraft when his was due, and wait while I packed it for him...
He was usually a pretty self absorbed and generally non conversive while waiting, I knew about his book but never mentioned that or anything else regarding the book and just treated him like any other customer, that is with contempt, ridicule and a holier than thou attitude...worked for me...lol....
tuna

I liked Richard. He did the awards ceremony when Connie did her Gold Wings jump and I did my Diamond. I jumped his DeHavilland Rapide biplane at an airshow in Florida once. I have a great photo of my little daughter in diapers sitting on the wing (She's now 34 and a mother herself!)

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Only thing is we would perfer not to have animated Avatar's.

That's a shame. I've used that same avatar on several other sites. Any chance you can change your policy? If not, I'll dig out another photo and change it.

Found it. I was missing the Upload Profile Picture. Thanks.

I'm very new here. When I filled out my Profile I couldn't find anywhere to upload an avatar. Figuring it might be a compatibility issue with FireFox I switched to IE7 and the feature was absent there as well.

Has this option been discontinued for new registrants? Or am I just missing something?

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

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Hi Jav,
Wow!! Sorry to hear about Mac Mcgraw!! I was a student at Parachute Riggers "A" School at Lakehurst in the spring/summer of '67 and a member of the Navy Lakehurst Parachute Team (Club) Mac was with the club and Chuck Seymour too. Here's to Mac, Good times and good jumps remembered!!

Mac was a tremendous pilot and I was privileged to know him. His death was a tragic accident.

Hi Pop,

I added a few more photos including one of Skeet White. I recall one Nationals qualifying meet at Indiantown where we were experiencing one of those morning inversions - high winds aloft and calm on the surface. No one wanted to do the accuracy competition until the winds had sorted themselves out. Skeet proclaimed loudly, "You bunch of pansies! I'll go!" and he hopped in the plane. He and everyone else on that load backed over the target and landed out. Skeet dragged his canopy all the way back screaming a blue streak and blaming his performance on everything except his own ineptitude. As he walked past us, Pete McGarry deadpanned, "Well, Skeet. I guess that lets you out for the Sportsmanship Award".

If you never met Skeet you've certainly met someone like him in your life. I recall him in a macho contest with Clayton Slaymaker (who died in a mid air collision over Kissimmee). These two guys would hold their arms against each other and rest a lit cigarette between their arms. First to pull away was the loser.

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Thanks, that was great . . .

NickD

Just realized that at least 8 of the folks pictured are no longer with us. Sad.

I have a shot of Ray Duffy playing his guitar that I hope to post tonight. Also, I found a shot of Skeet White. Anyone remember him? I think he was a relative of Georgia Governor Lester Maddux.

That's exactly what it was. I have very large hands so I would take suspension line and wrap my ripcords in a macrame'-like pattern to produce a larger grip surface.

Glad you liked the photos. As I find and scan more, I'll add them to the album.

I met Ottley at Manassas, VA where the Pelicans were jumping in the summer of 1966. I was a pretty active barefoot water skier and my dad had an A-Frame cabin on the Shenandoah River in Front Royal, VA. Ottley and a friend of mine headed for the river where I tried to teach Bill how to barefoot. I had no luck teaching him but he did master it years later.

When I moved to the DC area in 1976 I hooked up with him again and skied behind his boat on the Anacostia River.

When I was a dirt-poor USAF airman, Bill would pay me $2 to pack his rig.

With the limitations this site puts on posting photos I thought it would be easier just to create a Picasa Album and submit a [url http://picasaweb.google.com/gymnast46/SkyDivingTheEarlyYears]link to it[/URL]. Once there, just click on the Slideshow button. These pictures were taken at Manassas, Zephyrhills, Marana, Talequah, Riverview, and Indiantown. Odds are you'll recognize one or two of the subjects. All these were scanned from shots folks gave me over the years. Back then I shot exclusively slides and unfortunately haven't had the time to scan them. Hence, no shots of Hooper, Tuna, Ron Schott, Ron Brissey, Phil Smith, Mike Patterson, Roger Ramjet, Larry Gossler, Steve Noonan, and so many more. I need to retire so I can bring to life shots of so many great times a few decades ago.

Pop!

I'm tickled you remember me. The high point of my season every year was my annual trip to your meet at Indiantown. Glad to see you're still active.

You're an inspiration to us all!

p.s. I finally retired from the back flips. The photo attachment is an animated graphic of my last ever one on my 50th birthday (12 years ago).

Larry!


Geez - everyone is coming out of the woodwork!

What are you doing these days, young man?

Hi Steve!

Yep, I picked out Larry Gossler and Mike Patterson. I was guessing the young one was Bobby Gilbert but I can't be sure.

I have a photo album at home of shots taken in the sixties and early seventies. Since this forum won't let us post photos within the posts themselves (does anyone know why????) I'll create a Picasa album and post a link. It may take me a while to get to it because I'll need to scan photos that are glued into an album - might be tricky. It might actually be easier to take pictures of the pictures.

In any event I'm sure you'll recognize some folks in there.

I'm pretty sure I can identify two of them besides you Tuna!

I used to prop Jeff Searle's 182 when the battery was weak. I never did it to the 196 but I recall a time when Hoop did. I don't recall if you were flying or Neil Perks. Anyhow, if my memory serves me right, the prop caught earlier than Hoop expected and took his watch right off his wrist! I never propped a plane again after that.

You were flying the 196 one day during a style competition and while climbing to altitude I asked you which direction the winds aloft were running. You stuck your finger in your mouth to wet it, stuck it outside the door and said "we're flying directly into the wind"...... Wiseass!

Hello Tuna! Great to "see" you. You were a terrific jump pilot. The only "flying" I do these days is in Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

As I recall you got into glass blowing at one point and had a real talent for it.

I finally gave up the standing back flips 12 years ago. Click on the attachment and you'll see an animated GIF of my last-ever standing back flip taken on my 50th birthday.

My summers are now spent playing golf and biking and unicycling. Winters are more active and I managed to make a little Alpine History at Steamboat this past March. The article is from Ski Racing Magazine.

Hello Tuna, Roger, and Hoop!

Can't believe it's been 32 years since I last saw you folks. For those of you in this forum who don't know me, I was the polar opposite of Hoop - I was primarily a style and accuracy devotee while Hoop was certainly the instigator that put Zephyrhills RW on the map. Ironically we wound up working together at Channel 8 (NBC-TV) in Tampa in the early seventies - Hoop had a gift for writing documentaries and I was the morning (and later evening) weatherman. We worked with yet another skydiving newsman who had a penchant for exaggeration. Jim taught countless first time jumpers and I handled some of the jumpmastering duties. We made a pretty good team.

I'll be in London next month and I'm really looking forward to hoisting a brew or two with one of the class acts in this sport and a guy I feel privileged to have met so many years ago.

Oops. Photo never uploaded. File size was too big. It's now been modified. Wish we could just insert photos with IMG tags. Anyhow, that's Holler, Ottley, me, and Bryant.

I remember John Coppe very well. The stories about him are true.

I guess I'm really out of the loop. I hadn't heard that Lowell Bachman died. I had a nice chat with him and John Higgins at Ottley's Memorial Service. While attending weather observer school at Chanute AFB in 1966 I took a train to Chicago and visited ParaGear. I was like a kid in a candy store.

Speaking of Bob Holler and Pops, I'm attaching nother shot of him. Bob is on the left with Bill Ottley, me, and Tom Bryant. We had just won the team event at Indiantown and I believe the year was 1969

The following year we encountered strange wind conditions that were common at Indiantown in the winter. It would be cold and calm on the surface and a few hundred feet up a temperaturte inversion would have warm strong winds. Those on the ground would huddle just beyond the sawdust (never pea gravel!) target to catch the warm air from the collapsing canopies. Once the inversion was disrupted, the winds on the surface could be very strong. I made my downwind approach and ripped out my ACL reaching laterally for the disk. Laying there in agony I watched Ottley turn and hold landing out. I asked him why he did that and he replied "I want to be able to ski in Switzerland this winter". Three knee surgeries later, I finally got to ski in Switzerland too.

Hello Woody!

I remember that issue of DZ-USA and probably still have it in the garage.

It's been a long time since I did the trek from Tampa to Barnwell. I think we did the qualifier for the Nationals there one year.

Good to "see" you again.

Pat Moore

You must have a great memory! Mine is certainly deficient these days.

Two quick questions:

For the life of me, I can't find anywhere to upload an Avatar. I tried two different browsers but that feature isn't available in the "Edit Profile" page.

Also, why not allow IMG tags? It would be nice to have photos appear right within the posts. I'm guessing this question has probably been raised a lot and the decision was made to stick with attachments.

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It was used at the 1964 nationals in Alta,Ut.It was hot and the DZ was 5000'above SL(I was busting my ass landing with my 28'7/TU LoPo) but fell in love with that GIANT CUB.It was a super jump ship for the day.Jack beat me out for 1st in style and is a super sportsman and competitor.

POP

Pop! Just stumbled on this site a few days ago. I don't know if you remember me but I made the annual trek to your Christmas/New Year's meet in Indiantown every year from 67 until I moved to DC. Even met my first wife there. I was so dirt poor that you let me stay in the cab of Lou Bell's tractor trailer. I watched your 5000th jump and I thought you'd never pull. Someone who followed you way down (500 feet?) confided in me that he had never been so scared in his life. I think it might have been Frank Rodriguez. It's great to run into you again after more than 30 years!

Pat Moore

Thanks for the warm welcomes!

I was predominantly a style and accuracy competitor in Florida for 67-76. I was the morning meteorologist at Channel 8 in Tampa from 73-76.

My ex's claim to fame was being the first female in the world to jump a square parachute. It was at Poppenhager's DZ in Indiantown, FL and I believe it was Dec 69.

I competed at the Collegiate Nationals at Deland a couple of times. Would have been 71-72 or 72 73. I'd have to dig out my old logbooks to be sure.

Tom Schapanski and I went head to head at a lot of Style and Accuracy Florida Parachute Council events in the early 70s. My ex and his ex competed against each other on a regular basis as well. If anyone knows where Tom is, tell him Pat Moore says hi.