Spooky52

When you do go again, if it has been over ten years since your last one, be sure to join the Skydiver Resurrection Award group. No fees, no dues, just nice people who had a break.

Jim Chandler
D4501

I did a demo in Tijuana, Mexico once from a Bellanca Viking with a Mexican pilot who had no concept of "cut". As I started to climb out the lanyard on the smoke went tight and I heard the "pop". Knowing what was next I told my partner in the back seat that I had to leave and to get out as soon as he could. I just rolled off the back of the wing and started a hard track to get back to the airport. The answer to the question is "Yes, it can be safe if all goes well". My partner wasn't so lucky. He landed on the side of a quarry and suffered bumps and bruises. This was in the days before squares.

No, I mostly worked in III Corps in the area of Bien Hoa and Saigon and whatever little crap villages were out there. Spooky was the tactical call sign for our aircraft. We were a C-47 with GUNS. :-) I know the feeling about times changing. A few years back my girlfriend bought a new dining set and it was made in Vietnam. I told her it was funny, 40 years ago I was over there trying to kill the little bastards, now we're buying furniture from them.

I'm an SIU grad myself, but mine was done at the George AFB campus in 1988/88.

I'll see what I can do, Jerry, after I get to Arizona this week. It is just the harness and container right now, no canopies therein. I had thought about seeing about converting it to three-ring as a fun project when I'm not flying and it is packed in the motorhome right now.

I'[m also inviting everyone who wants to to come over to Cotton wood, AZ and make a couple with us. It is a very small operation, catering largely to the tourists who want to make a tandem, but a nicer bunch of folks you won't find.

That does NOT look like a Top Secret to me, Jerry. I still have mine and it looks nothing like that. A wider photo would definitely be helpful.

No, I don't recognize the painting. Then again, it HAS been 36 years since I'd been there. I can hardly recognize myself these days. :-)

I have a photo of that incident in my files somewhere. As I recall the only injury was the pilot had a cut above his eye. It took the Beech out for good, unfortunately.

Norton was somewhat short and stocky and as far as I knew he never had a girlfriend, or at least never brought one to the DZ while I was there through '79.

Next time you talk to your uncle, ask him if his group was ever saved by Puff, the Magic Dragon, aka "Spooky". If he says "yes" tell him I said, "You're welcome". :-)

I do believe Perry has a Facebook page. I wasn't aware that the eye thing was before he moved. I didn't notice it at the 2012 reunion but did this time at the 2014 gathering so naturally I assumed that it had happened recently. Yes, you are correct, Perry was honored for his contributions, especially the reserve static line. He is one of the good ones.

Like I said I was at Antioch from about 76 or so until 1979 when I went back in the Air Force. I was one of those crazy guys with a black and gold Steven's bell bottom jumpsuit and a black and gold StratoStar and I did air-to-air photography. I had been jumping at Yolo with the Travis AFB Club but when George started to get pissy with us because we wouldn't let him run the club after his retirement, we moved to Antioch. Ralph Jones, Norton, Jim and Sherry, John Romey, Jerry Johnson, etc. were the guys who were there when I was. It's too bad you lost your Dad's logs and stuff.

D-51, Perry Stevens, now lives in either Green Valley or Grass Valley in northern California. I just saw him at the Northern California Skydivers Reunion back in October. He looks pretty good, except for the eye he lost in an accident with a lawnmower.

I don't think I remember Carl Beck, though the name does sound familiar. I was at Antioch from about '76-'79. I do know that Sherry and Jim Barnhill got married but later divorced. I suspect that she stopped jumping. Jim Chandler

RiggerLee: You mentioned in your post a guy that sold a kit to make a 9 cell out of a 7 cell. Did that actually happen? I was away from the sport for several years (32) and never heard of it. I had thought about that for my StratoStar several times after gaining a little extra ballast. Just curious. Thanks.

Jim D-4501

May have been a regional. Anyway, they had enough pull to request and get a C-130 and crew specifically for them from Dyess. Anyway it was more or less a fuck off day for them. Half of them weren't wearing jumpsuits. I suspect that some of them weren't even members of the team. I do know that the Lieutenant in charge of them stole my roll of film that I shot on the second jump I made with them. Rotten bastard. I should have slipped him a blank roll and hidden the good one. :-)

Her's one that is in the neighborhood of that time, Randy.

Hi Randy:

At that time, up until I broke my right foot in seven places doing a demo at Oakland Army Terminal for John Romey's outfit, I was jumping with anybody I could get on a load with. I did a lot of Jumpmaster rins with the Travis AFB club. WE were jumping at Antioch because we had a falling out with George Morar at Yolo. After the foot healed I went back in the Air Force in Nov. 79 and went to Dyess AFB. Didn't jump again until 1982 when I made a couple of jumps from a C-130 with the Navy Chuting Stars team at Suffolk County Airport, VA.

I jumped at Antioch up until 1979 when I went back into the Air Force and got sent to Abilene, TX. You look very familiar. What is your real name? Mine is Jim Chandler.

I remember Barnhill. I also remember him as the "meat missile" that nailed me while I was photographing and joining a three way. Unphased, I simply rolled over on my back and continued shooting. He married Sheri Kolander but I understand that it didn't last. I wonder what happened to them.

Thanks, I might just do that.

Jim

Where did you find them, Jerry? I was wondering if they made such an animal, now I know. I'd like to find a pair of them myself.

Jim

I would like to thank you for steering me to Skydiver Resurrection. I got to meet Mary yesterday and picked up some very nice, more or less modern, gear and donated an apparently new, or VERY little used, Unit 200 to the cause. Now with very little work (and a bunch of bucks for an AAD), I'll be back in the sky with my own gear.

I've got one of those. Came from Harbor Freight. Good machine but I have trouble keeping up with the speed. Damn that thing eats material. The biggest problem I have with it is the thread breaking. Drives me crazy. Of course, THAT is a short trip. :-)

I made one Level 6 jump at Elsinore and, personally, I didn't really think I needed that. I haven't forgotten how to fly and I showed that with a perfect jump. I did fumble the handle once and the instructor pulled it before I had a chance to redeem myself. I would have had it on the second try and it wasn't like we were getting low or anything (still over 5k). I just may take you up on that. Where is your DZ?