howardwhite

Beech 18s used to be quite popular. As suggested, you could find "small door" and "cargo door" Beeches. There were some disadvantages which have mostly put them out of the skydiving market. 1. They're taildraggers, which added to the excitement of finding competent pilots. 2. They're piston radial engine powered, which seem to be more complicated (and expensive to repair) than turbines. 3. There is a spar running between each wing and under the fusilage. It has to be tested (magnafluxed) every x thousand hours (expensive enuf) and if it needs replacement, forget it. There were as suggested some modifications dealing with these issues, including tricycle gear and turbines. Still pretty expensive for what you got. But fun. See Skies Call by Andy Keech and early Carl Boenish movies for people crawling all over the outside. (Discussed recently on the History and Trivia forum.) HW HW

DeHavilland Tiger Moth, with the same reservations. Stand on the front seat holding onto the upper wing at 2,500. Pilot goes into loop. At the top of the loop, 3,500, pilot pops stick and you extract like a champagne cork. The rest of the time, Otters. HW

I like your list. Can I add The Third Man? HW

Yabbut, each of maybe 40 9x 12 envelopes was individually addressed from names gathered from the web site. And each envelope contained an individually named letter ..."Dear John," "Dear Mary." Had to have cost a bundle, and I saw a lot get thrown away. Just wonder if they've targeted a bunch of DZs and how they can afford this stuff for selling T-shirts. HW

There's an outfit called Type T which seems to be blanketing DZs with mailings and decals promoting something -- I guess it's apparel. At one DZ this weekend I saw envelopes individually addressed to everyone listed on the DZ web site as staff. Type T is defined roughly as people into "extreme" sports and from their web site, it appears skydiving is something of a late comer to their world. http://www.typet.com/default.html Does anyone have a clue about who these people are and what they are about? HW

Understand. Misread. HW

Even though it said earlier 0 fatalities, why did this indicate crew and passenger "Fat"? Or am I misreading? HW

I'm pretty sure it was two people, in a two-way. HW

Lake Wales, no?

If they were strange to jump, they were even stranger to put a static line student out of. The student had to hold on to the strut and climb two a two-step "ladder" before letting go. HW

tp://www.skydivingvideos.de/index1.htm claims to have them in PAL format, so US viewers would have to convert to NTSC (not too hard to get done.) Carl shot only film (AFAIK) so any video would presumably be converted and lose quality. I have access to several of them, but as with Chuck's they 're in pretty bad shape. I showed them at the DZ a couple of months ago and the newbies were amazed by the gear, the size of the jumpsuits, and the people crawling all over the Beech. HW

Don't Patrick Swazey and Tom Cruise count? I was talking to someone yesterday who said Tom Cruise called their house and wanted her hubby, the rigger, to pack his reserve. He said he was too busy. She was furious. HW

"Elsinore to the best of my knowledge has never ceased operations since 1959 (could be wrong) " Well, there were times when the lake flooded the DZ and the operation moved elsewhere. I was there once and jumped down the road a piece. Do floods interrupt "continuous operation." HW

Pepperell (MA) Momentum Jen Agosti Sally Burgess Beth Lahr Paula Philbrook

"He called stranger " Stranger is a she. "Chute" is the resident tandem greeter at Jumptown Orange MA. HW

I jumped as Sheridan once -- drove down from Portland where I was on a business trip. Did a post-sunset four-way from his Cessna from 10 grand with some relative newbies. Cost me $10, and that wasn't so long ago. Teddy was a character and we had lots of good beer stories. HW

"By e-mail. Technology is a wonderful thing." Yup, but lots of us get lots of spam. Why should you feel owed a response from someone for whom you can't even vote? HW

"I gave her a 2 for the same reason I (incorrectly) gave Tony Thacker a 2. She's ignored me every time " She's in the Northeast; you're in the Northwest. How did you "ask her a question?" HW

1. Tony Thacker has not been on the BOD, so how could your assessment of BOD activity affect your judgement of him? 2. You assessed Marylou Laughlin of the Northeast Conference as a 2. What do you know about her? In the light of the "fun jumper" theme here, she's the ultimate --S&A, CRW, para-ski as well as bellyflying with everyone, She's not afffiliated with a DZ and shows up everywhere. HW

"Vegetable" Ronald Reagan said the same thing. It did not go over well. From one of the surprisingly many ketchup web sites... "A classic Washington media event took place when the Reagan Administration tried to declare catsup a vegetable in the public school lunch program. The sight of members of Congress sitting at a table with a glob of catsup as a side dish still ranks as one of the best news pictures ever taken. Catsup did not become a vegetable." HW

I recall some real newspaper headlines about passengers extracted by depressurization. One was: "Passenger Sucked to Death Over Atlantic." HW

I didn't answer the phone, but I was there when manifest got a call asking whether the DZ did "therapeutic skydiving." I wish she'd asked what the caller meant, but she probably would have been laughing too hard. HW

How 'bout "Cowboy's Caravan." Do a web search. HW

But at least the jump run is consistent. It's either short of the Polo Club (rarely) or long of the Polo Club. HW

http://www.rontech.com/skydive/ That's the good news. The bad news is that it is tandem-only and experienced jumpers can't jump there. This is slightly second-hand but I know it from a couple who are working there now, relayed by the people who are minding their dog while they are there. HW