howardwhite

Yup. (That one is flipped). A PI catalog and Pioneer mag ad for Pioneer jumpsuits. Me (on my knees as usual) checking reserve of Peter Jackson, the ASO who signed my C license. Yellow jumpsuit is Ted Strong; black is Judd Raymond, and red is Mike Todd, who worked for Pioneer at the time. HW

Stop, already. I said it doesn't have any double line attachments. It's a Pioneer 28-foot lopo with a Hustler modification. Only someone with a old Pioneer catalog or ads is gonna figger this one out. HW

There really aren't any "double lines" or other strange construction things. There is a conventional vent (with a vent cap.). As there was no wind today , we couldn't inflate it so had to drape it on the Otter mockup and other assorted things. The uniqueness is more of a sales/marketing thing than a design/construction thing. HW

To clarify....ignore the patches, the ugliness. When new, it was the only one like it, although essentially a stock canopy. It still is. Why? HW

This is a garden-variety Pioneer lo-po, DOM July 64. It is, however, unique in one respect. Care to explain why? HW

Which still doesn't answer my question -- what is slow? Rendering, or other stuff? HW

Out of curiosity (and because I have it), in what respect is Parallels not fast enough -- rendering, or other stuff? HW

Not only Mass. Aero but the board of selectmen and the airport commission. It was a regional meet and I, the RD, was "in charge." I thought for sure they were gonna shut the thing down. HW

Hey, Scotty I did not know the name of the canopy, but the other details are exactly as earlier described here -- it's Tom Adamski at Lakewood. He remembers you jumping it that same summer. The info is written on the back of the print. He wonders whether the photographer is still around; he'd love to get some of the other pictures from that summer. You need to drag your butt back up to New England some time. HW

I jumped out of this one many years ago at Moosehead Lake, ME. Four jumpers outside on each float. The other one is Bud Sellick, who wrote a couple of books about skydiving in the early 60s. HW

For what it's worth, several other reliable sources (including the Poynter manual), put the date of Irvin's jump as April 28, 1919. HW

Yes. The first Sailwing jumps were in 1965 -- Lee Guilfoyle made a modest sensation and got a fawning story in Sky Diver, with his jump at the 1965 Nationals. This one was taken ~10 years later. It had (according to the guy in the picture) a partial lower surface -- hence my response to the earlier guess about a Volplane, which also did. The Volplane was early 70s, though I have movies of a proto-Volplane being jumped in 1968 or early 69. I don't know when this version of the Sailwing came out. HW

No, you are not correct. Scotty may have jumped it elsewhere in NJ, but the details of the picture are exactly as ryoder posted. I scanned the picture at the DZ Sunday and got all the details from the subject. HW

Mike is one of the 188 people on the list of those attending the old farts reunion in Raeford in a few weeks -- and a number of people I know are planning to attend are not on that list. Should be an astounding event. HW

Yup. I already posted that story here. HW

No clue.These pix were from the old Spotter magazine and were, IIRC, taken in Wisconsin. HW

That one was the Variliner. Other pix of it here. HW

Hmm, pretty good "guess." Here's another, this time with the canopy open. Tom said he jumped it about eight times and landed it once. Scotty Carbone also put a bunch of jumps on it, and later jumped it also at Z-Hills. I had never heard of Brad Gaston, but Tom said he was a regular photographer at Lakewood that summer. Do you know whether he is still around/jumping? HW

Not a Volplane, although I guess one design feature of the Volplane came from this one. HW

I'm not sure why anything in this picture would suggest it's a Delta II or Rogallo or Dactyl (as some have guessed.) It's clearly malfunctioning and just happens to look a little triangular at the moment the picture was taken. But there are other distinctive -- probably unique -- features. HW

How much is the rent? HW

And for extra credit, what (now extinct) dropzone? HW

It's with great sadness that I learned yesterday of the death of Samuel H. Beer, distinguished academic, Rhodes Scholar, expert on British politics, speechwriter to presidents -- and skydiver. Sam Beer died April 7 in Washington, DC. He was 97. He was about 50 when in July, 1961, he made his first jump at the Orange Sport Parachute Center. Nate Pond, D-69, wrote in his log book "Good but kicked." He was at the time and for many years before and after that a professor of government at Harvard, and had been department chair from 1954-58. He had been a speech writer for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a long-time supporter and adviser for many people in political life. Shortly after his first jump, in a long letter to Jacques-André Istel, he wrote "Jumping -- in particular that delirious moment of exit-- concentrates consciousness in a blindingly bright, diamond-hard point. Mind has triumphed; this is the moment of pure reason. "All of the other concerns of daily life -- your job, your sweetheart, your bank account, your social standing --fall away and are 'put in their place.' I can guarantee this: if you have any troubles -- and I mean any troubles -- you will totally forget them, at least for four seconds." He went on to log a total of 199 jumps. On his second to last jump, he wrote in his logbook "Malfunction. Reserve deployed o.k. Broke r ankle." He made one more jump nine months later -- in the winter -- and logged "Blue sky. Snow. With sun!" I last saw Sam Beer in July, 2006. I went to his home in Cambridge, MA and did a video interview with him about the late Pat Gorham, who had instructed both of us in our student days. He recalled then with special pleasure his performance in the 1964 Governor's Cup meet in Orange, where he came 20th (just ahead of Andy Keech) in an impressive field of contestants. After that meet, Istel wrote: "If we may be allowed to look into our crystal ball, we predict that the man to watch next year will be Sam Beer, who defeated 70 per cent of the contestants in the meet with his 32 foot Hustler." Sam also recalled with special pleasure parties at Pat Gorham's home in Nahant, MA, where skydivers jammed into the tiny house to eat fresh-caught lobster and drink beer. He retired from Harvard in 1982 but continued teaching at Boston College. He was a specialist in British politics. He once wrote about skydiving: "But at times, and especially as the day for jumping approaches, you look up into the sky. It is no longer just flat and blue. "You find yourself up there." HW

The first post of the picture didn't do it justice; here's a Photoshopped version. Yup, Johnny Higgins was at Ottley's memorial, as well as at Lowell Bachman's. And he's been to the last couple of PIA meetings as well, in Barcelona in 2008 and Reno this past February. HW

The Chute Shop was a major dealer and gear store which for many years published a big catalog (see attached) like Para-Gear or Square One do now. It was a division of North American Aerodynamics, which made rigs and other stuff, but the Chute Shop also sold gear from other manufacturers. I've seen Johnny Higgins, one of the owners, a couple of times in the past few years; he lives in NC now. HW (The cover shot, by Carl Boenish, shows Ted Webster, Max Kelly and Ron Bluff jumping over a glacier in Switzerland.)