thora47

Awesome, thanks... You brightened it up, too. Looks good

So, I still haven't gone sky-diving. Are any of Debbie's old friends up for going to some DZ with, like, a proper commercial-quality tandem jump-offer-thing for beginners? I'll meet you wherever whenever. It's on the bucket list, and no one knows how deep the bucket, right?

Gary, thank you. I read your post to my mother (Debbie's sister) and it brought tears to her eyes. My mother sends her most sincere gratitude. Debbie was unforgettable to my mother, but of course she was biased. Your words meant a great deal. We had a good laugh, imagining the New Year's celebration of 1976. And my mom and I were able to imagine it while enjoying some cold-ones together in 2012. :)

Thank you all for your responses. I was a bit overwhelmed - sorry it's taken me so long to acknowledge them. So, thank you all again for humoring me in my quest for information about Debbie. Your words have been greatly appreciated.

For future reference, three beers is my limit for intelligent internet activity. Here's photo 5 - a formation. Cheers!

Wow. I thought this would be a good project to start with a beer after work. Three Four beers later and I'm resizing photos of photos ad infinitum. I had to take photos of the photos as the scanned copies were absolute crap (can I say that here?). If anyone wants to see the full-size photos (particularly of the group shot), please let me know - I'm happy to send them to you via email. The quality is far superior at their original 4 MB size. Photo 1: Debbie and Gary Hannah and unknown. Photo 2: Unknown DZ... Someone help me with this one, please! I don't suppose it still sits there, with that message on the roof? Photo 3: Debbie must have been behind the camera here? My Grandmother Shirley, and Aunt Patty are on the left in the back row. Photo 4: "Little Debbie" That's a cockpit, right? Photo 5: A formation photo. I have a few of these - but to me the subjects are completely indiscernible from one another. Let me know if you'd like more of the photos - I'll email them all to you. My sister and I are going to plan a trip out to make a tandem jump... I'm thinking we'll have to visit Granny's Closet in Flagstaff.... If Debbie were alive today, where would she have her beer(s) at night?? You guys have been wonderful. Thank you for your time and stories. Debbie truly is lost but not forgotten. My mom logged on to my computer and read the threads thus far and was excited to see memories of her dear sister. Blue Skies. -Thora

Wow, Bill!! Thanks for the story. I think it's pretty incredible the way you guys remember details. It sounds like I will likely not be able to get my hands on Debbie's logbook - but the photos will be here and posted by the end of the month.

Steve, Thanks for the kind words about Debbie. My mom, Nancy (Debbie's sister), and I spoke briefly yesterday and I let her know that I had reached out on this forum; she was very excited to hear about the responses thus far. She said that Debbie's friends were good people and she remembers several. My mom is visiting me in a couple of weeks and will bring me the photos of Debbie, which I will post. I'm excited to see what we come up with. Evidently Debbie survived a bounce (at which point my mom said she honestly thought this woman might live forever) which was written up in a magazine. Does anyone happen to have further details of that? Maybe approx. when it happened and if it was "Skydiving" magazine? Skyjumpenfool, I canNOT WAIT to see you in June!!!

Yeah - I had been told the plane was over with fish... I didn't say that initially as I wasn't sure the etiquette nor the certainty with which that was relayed to me. Thank you for the details.

Thanks for the response! We are actually planning on going out to Skydive Twin Cities. We're looking at June 5th right now. I would be happy to give more background, but I have no idea what is relevant. At the suggestion of someone here who did jump with her from time to time, I've asked my mom to find out exactly what she has left of Debbie's, namely to see if there is a logbook. I'm also going to see if I can get my hands on some of the photos of Debbie and will post them up here if I can. Here's a link to her obituary in the Anchorage Daily News: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1828&dat=19810704&id=uiAuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YacEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2512,1015473 Gary Hannah was on the plane with her - I'm not sure about anyone else. Again, thank you!

Someone recommended that I post my request here... so, here goes: I'm looking for anyone who knew and/or jumped with my aunt Debbie (Debra) Scadding. She died in a plane crash in July of 1981 (a plane she had no intention of jumping out of, sadly). I know her to have spent a lot of time in Arizona and Alaska and I have heard from someone here that Coolige may have been her home DZ and she jumped in So Cal too. I never knew her, but she left a legacy in her family and I grew up admiring photos of her in formations and on the ground... maybe with some of you? I've always wanted to sky dive and plan to finally do a tandem jump this summer here in Minneapolis (which is where I live). Anything you can share with me about my aunt will make my experience infinitely more special for me. Debbie would have brought me on my first jump herself had she not passed. Blue Skies...

I can't seem to edit my post - but at the suggestion of another, I will add: My name is Thora. I live in Minneapolis, MN and was planning on making my jump here - but maybe some of you in AZ wouldn't mind Debbie's niece crashing your DZ and jumping with you. Blue Skies...

I'm new here, forgive me if this is posted in the wrong place. This may be a long shot, but I'm wondering if anyone knew my aunt, Debbie Scadding. I don't know how many jumps she had under her belt, but I have a ton of photos of her in formations and I know skydiving was her life. She died in July of 1981. I believe she was living in Alaska at the time but she also spent a lot of time in Arizona. Her death was not a skydiving related incident, the plane she was in to come home from Alaska crashed - as I understand it. Anyhow. I never had the pleasure of knowing her, as I was an infant when she passed, but I've always been fond of her memory. She is why I want to skydive. I'm finally going on a tandem jump this June and if somehow someone out there knew her and jumped with her, it would be so special to me to hear anything and everything. Thank you!