33zulu

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Posts posted by 33zulu

  • Quote

    Hi 33z and zing and all,
    'Remember after takeoff, Chris "Merlin" Balsey would do his Magic Show at the back of the plane on our way to altitude!! 'Can't forget the 30 way "Skull and Bones" Tommy organized at one of the Haloween Boogies outa the "4"!! The eye winked and the teeth chatered!!     reply]


    Those were great shows Merlin would put on! I remember at one boogie he got the ol' gal May (?) with his magic "bra" trick.

    And yes, that Skull & Bones jump was a cool one. Piras got me on it and it was loads of fun.

    Who rode the unicycle in the back while climbing to altitude?

  • Quote

    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.




    Strange Dave had the Bookmobile, a converted former mobile library in which he'd do his rigging. Strange is still rigging, now working at Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM. Pic attached of him back in the mid-80's. Still looks the same.

    A pic, too, of the Gulch jumper pick-up truck stenciling on the door.

  • Quote

    White died Feb. 4 from complications of an aortic aneurysm at Glendale Adventist Medical Center




    Good follow up story on Ralph in today's L.A. Times and the global travels of his ashes.

    http://tiny.cc/srTeM

  • Quote

    <<< Even in the late '60s, only a few years after the initial jumps, there was only one floating around PI/Orange, and I only saw it get chopped, never landed. >>>




    Speaking of Barish Sailwings..... back at the Z-Hills Turkey Meet of '77 or '78, Scotty Carbone pulled out his and jumped it around 10 times. Cutaway 6 or 7 of them. But..... he flew and landed a bi-plane at sunset on the last day. I got what may be the only Barish wing bi-plane pixes.

  • Ahhh, Zing and his multi-colored 'Dactyl! That was quite a sight at Ghoulidge.

    Had two of them myself. A black one, then a white one. Split the nose slider, too. Used a double stow. During my early "testing the openings" phase, I kept increasing the stows until I reached 6 stows and the canopy streamered. Duh.

    My first one, which I got new from Handbury for $190 in June of '77 left me with the main slider at various points of descent. Rarely would it slide all the way down to the links. Most of the time it would stop halfway. I tried splitting it. One half would stop at mid-point of the lines and the other half lower. So I cut the slider in four. Yup.... each part would stop at various points. Made for stressful descents. Finally I took the whole slider off and freepacked the canopy.....no slider, no bag, no line stows. Worked great for the first 24 openings. On the 25th it opened "yesterday," snapped my neck and gave me a "red out."

    Soon after got the white Dactyl which had larger grommets on the slider. End of that problem. Super fast, smooth, and for me (lightweight), easy openings. Great canopy.

    Photos attached..... Slider at midpoint, no slider, and the white canopy.

  • Tom Jordan was everyone's favorite. Nary a bad word. Always the great smile. Appreciator of life and beauty.

    Here's another photo of him I took in Oklahoma one summer (or was it Fla?) just after he landed. It's how I'll always remember him.

    His final jump, btw..... Nov. 3, 1988. Bummer.

  • Ok...think I got the picture posting thingy down. Let me try a few more.

    BTW, my last jump there was in April of 1977 before I moved out west. I was coming straight down on Schultz's wind sock and pole under my cheapo. Couldn't move away for the life of me. Thought I was gonna die impaled on the pole. Bam! Hit it and snapped off the wind sock hoop... slid down the 10' pole with my back against it and the canopy drifted over the pole. No way to discreetly recover my canopy. Had to get a ladder. Mike wasn't too happy! "Gee, Mike, hate to bust your wind sock and leave town....."

    Loved that guy. And Mac, my first instructor.

  • Another Pelicanland photo..... From left to right, Joyce Evie (sp?), Pat Tansey, John Bordley, Nancy ?. Perhaps in '78 or '79.

    My first jump there 4/73. Layoff, then back every weekend and often on Wednesdays from July of '75 to April '77.

    Glad I found this thread. Nostalgia for Pelicanland runs deep.