jimp

One of my favourites: http://www.bearcraft-online.com/museum/museum.htm?mid=42 For a couple of others, scroll down to Mil Mi2 and Mil Mi8/Mi17

Age: 19 Date: 1 October 1966 D.Z.: RNZAF Wigram, Christchurch, N.Z.

I work for a mining company. A couple of kilometers underground.

Does anybody remember Jock Covey - USPA D3393, South Africa D126? http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=Jock+Covey&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

D.Iver Death? Yeah, he was a character.

To expand a bit on this - The aircraft is NC436W. A search of the FAA N-number database shows the following: Type: Curtiss Wright Sedan 15-D Mfg: 1931 Current owner is Albert Stix of St. Louis MO.

Mike Snoyman S.A. D102 - an old friend and team mate. I was sorry to hear about this a couple of years ago.

Have a look here: http://www.thepops.org/world/yourtoppop.php

Sounds as if you could use a little "refresher"

The four-way scrambles at POPS meets can result in some very interesting team-mates, as I found out at the World POPS at Chilliwack in 1999. I was drawn to team up with Harry Leicher and Lew Sanborn! Our fourth, Gord (can't recall the last name) was almost as awed and humbled as I was. If you're not 40 yet, you should get there as fast as you can - POPS meets are the best way I know to meet and jump with the living legends of our sport

Check this out. Dar Robinson and Carl Boenish filmed the aerial shots for "Iceman" here. I'm about 2 1/2 hours drive away, pick me up on your way. (Used to live in Stewart - did demos into Hyder's fourth of July many years in a row) http://www.stewartbchyderak.homestead.com/homepage.html

The military organizations of various countries have been very good to me over the past four decades, although I've never served in any of them. An instinctive ability to whine and snivel has helped out a lot too: Britain: Westland Scout ( Alan Skennerton, member of the Hard Ass Star Team was the pilot.) South Africa: C 47 Cessna 185 Alouette 3 Super Frelon Argentina: Max Holste Broussard Bolivia: UH1H Huey Cessna i85 USA: Ch 47 Chinook (at Mannheim, W. Germany) W. Germany: UH1H Huey Spain: Casa C 212 Indonesia: L 100-30 Hercules Casa C 212 Poland: Mil Mi 17 Mil Mi 6 Antonov An 26 USSR: Antonov An 2 Mil Mi 8 Mil Mi 8MT (Domestic version of Mi 17) Mil Mi 2 Dominican Republic: Casa C 212 UH1H Huey Jordan: Casa C 212 C 130 Hercules Switzerland: Pilatus Porter All aircraft had military markings and were flown by regular force or reserve pilots. Former military aircraft on civil registry round out the list, such as PBY Catalina, Il 76, An 12, Transal C 160, and the wonderful Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer. Notably absent are military aircraft from my own country. No amount of whining and sniveling has got me on a load, despite paying many many dollars in taxes as my share of keeping them airborne. However, it has been a very, very good run, and it ain't over yet!

I've always used the single-line entry log book, and make a column for aircraft number - you know, N9440C, N211WW, that kind of thing.

Ed O'Brien owned a 337 (N2617F) on St. Thomas (USVI) that he used for skydiving on a fairly regular basis. I have a couple of jumps from it - as my log notes on one of them - "4 star with Ed, Peter, Charlie. No suiter". Alt. 8500. Landed on Morningstar Beach, right in front of the bar.

Have a look at www.skydivevenice.com Hop on a vaporetto to Lido, and it's a short bus ride to the airport

Absolutely! Been doing it for decades. Next trip is to Epagny-Gruyeres. (oops - that one's for skydiving)

I live 2 1/2 hr. drive from Southern Alaska. Maybe I can help you out with info on how to get there. ie. ferry boat trip from Prince Rupert to Skagway - beautiful! - and then on to Anchorge. May make it to Kamloops this year, too.

Yeah, it's all coming back to me now! Thanks.

Yeah, me too. Just before Christmas, of course. The outfit went bankrupt. It was such a fuck-up that I had to call my supervisor to tell him he had no job. Severance pay? Forget it!

Can anyone remember the red lanyard that was used to "set" the pilot chutes? It was attached to one of the rear risers, and after opening you would haul on it a couple of times to set the pilot chutes, generally a pair of MA 1's, so that they wouldn't start reefing the canopy back in when the brakes were released. Like a lot of other things, I just can't remember how they were rigged at the top end. It was a great little canopy, and perfect for my light weight of 145, even though I was jumping between 4500 and 6000 ground elevation asl. One cutaway, when the reefing lines somehow tied themselves in a knot about 6 feet above the top of the canopy. The soft openings made it perfect for carrying a camera, I can remember the gentle rocking motion as each cell (except the ends) individually inflated. Zero wind landings were ok after a steep learning curve. I would come in on final in half brakes, and at 50 or 60 feet let her fly, and then with a properly timed flare, soft landings were the result. With an improperly timed flare - well, you can guess the result.

In the true spirit of the thread, I should elaborate. That's the view at the Mac, but from the PC, which is on the other side of the room. We live in a log house 17 km. north west of New Hazelton, British Columbia. www.bbcanada.com/7942.html Special rates for skydivers and astronauts. And if you're a skydiver and an astronaut (and I know that some are out there), well shucks, you can stay for free!

We have a Mac G3 here, but it's networked with my daughters PC. Does that count?

Were you hittin' on his old lady or something?

In the mid-1970's an oil company in a certain country in the Southern Hemisphere sponsored a parachute demonstration team which traveled around to small towns to do jumps into service station openings, agricultural fairs, and special events. The contract was given to a local drop-zone operator who ran a couple of turbo-charged Cessna 206's for normal jump operations and the "shows". Trips to towns 1000 km away were common. Some trips were 2 or 3 day affairs, while others were out and back the same day. Anywhere from 2 to 6 jumps were made on each outing. One particular pilot, I'll call him "B", did most of the flying. B loved flying, loved skydivers, and skydivers loved him in return. B had an effervescent personality, and I signed up to go on as many trips with him as I could. We always made our jumps. My log books note half a dozen in 25 to 30 mph winds, on PC's and always into the middle of town. We might not have been very smart in those days, but damn, we could spot! Low cloud was never a problem. I can't recall ever having to cancel because of low ceiling. That part of the world is truly blessed with a wonderful climate. B. loved to fly low, and his specialty was a low level "beat-up" after we had landed. His beat-ups were very low at some of the smaller towns where local authorities were not likely to worry much about Civil Aviation Regs. On the cross country flights that took us over farms and open grazing land, B. would fly at ground level. High tension power lines were not a problem: we would simply fly under them. It was not unusual to see the lower half of a pylon flash past the window. A show with B. was invariably an adventure, but one adventure stands out among the others, at a town about an hour and a half from home. There were 5 of us: B., his 10 yer old son, and 3 skydivers. It was in August 1974, on a brilliant sunny day with light winds and into a large fairground with lots of outs. In a word: perfect. The organizers picked us up at the airstrip and we went into town to check out the DZ. The fairgrounds were surrounded by tall gum trees with the grandstand at one end and a golf course around the perimeter. Opposite the grandstand was a gap between two huge gum trees. The gap was - well, at least as wide as the wingspan of a 206. The boughs of both trees met about 25 feet off the ground. We saw B. eying this up, but having our own stuff to attend to, didn't give it much thought. So, back to the airstrip we went to gear up and get into the air. This time B. didn't climb to WDI altidude as he normally did, but instead flew to the DZ at 500 feet on the gap-in-the-trees side. As the 206 did a wing over and dove toward the ground, I thought, "Oh no, here we go!". When the aircraft leveled out, it was like sitting in an automobile roaring along at 180 knots. A forest looming rapidly larger in the windshield. Wheels almost on the ground. As we went into the gap in the trees there was a flash of green and a deafening crash. The sound was terrifying. In an instant the aircraft rolled and yawed to the left. B. had rotated at the very moment that we went through, and his lightening quick reflexes got the wings level just as we cleared the grandstand and the trees behind it. I saw stars in front of my eyes - the cabin was full of plexiglass shards blowing around in the slipstream roaring through the now shattered left window. Lionel, sitting next to me and facing aft, shouted,"Holy shit, look!" I looked back and saw the vertical stabilizer with a huge gash in it, cut right back to the rudder about half way up. Trailing from the tailplane was all kinds of garbage - strands of antenna which had been ripped off as well as a length of the power line that we had now obviously flown through. Wire was dangling from the left strut, the fiberglass wing tip was gone, and there was a scrape mark up half the still intact windshield. First thought: "Lets get the hell out of this wreck!" Second thought: "Wait a minute, we're only at a hundred feet." The aircraft was controllable, B told us to sit tight, and he got us safely back to the strip. Well, what now? So far from home and two jumps still to do. While we were mulling this over and assessing the damage one of the organizers arrived at the strip bringing chunks of the wing tip. Together we cleared the debris from the aircraft and started to patch up some of the damage. The leading edge of the left wing had caught one of the wires dead centre and it had left a deep indentation along the leading edge out towards the tip. We rolled up a magazine and taped it into place with masking tape to try to restore the leading edge to its original shape. For the damaged tail, someone punched holes in the skin and used wire coat hangers to stitch it together. The broken window and the missing wing tip had to stay as they were. B. fired the engine up and took off for a test flight. It was flyable, although maybe not airworthy in the generally accepted meaning of the word. So, the show sent on, a little behind schedule, but without further incident. Everyone was very quiet on the trip home, which was flown at a more normal cruising altitude, with rigs close by and an eye kept on the tail. The story should end here, but it doesn't. Two years later I went back to the same little town, in the same aircraft and with the same pilot. While we were looking over the DZ, I couldn'thelp but notice B., this time very closely checking out the gap between the same trees. No overhead lines anymore, a replacement cable had been buried. B. smiled at me and said, "I'll let you guys out first this time." From the ground it really was a spectacular show, and he did it not once, but twice.

From a newspaper clipping about 1971 "Who put that plane there?" Wolverhampton, England Two men and a woman leaped from a plane at 10,000 feet yesterday, only to discover there was another plane immediately below them. The two men - Michael Bolton, 33, and Michael taylor, 30 - both hit the plane and had miraculous escapes. Bolton crashed through the fabric body of the de Haviland Rapide and landed on the floor of the passenger compartment. Both his wrists were broken. Taylor landed on the tail of the plane and parachuted to safety, landing with leg injuries. The woman, Sally Caine, 26, using a free-fall technique, managed to steer clear of the plane as hundreds of air show spectators watched the drama. End of article. As I remember, this was an early British large star attempt, 15 or so, and there were three aircraft in formation. These three lucky folks ( or unlucky, depending on your point of view) exited an Islander which had drifted out of formation on exit.