Bungee Wallace - Outta My Way I've got some skydivin to do

[skidyver 0]

Never, ever forgotten. Always loved. Tell Tommy, Patrick, Harry, Frank I said hey!
Love you.....
Jillie Bean

[StreetScooby 5]

I knew who he was when I was in Lodi (mid 80s). I was new in the sport. I'll never forget the Wednesday afternoon Mirror Image let me follow them out of the Beech. Completely blew me away. Gave me a goal that I'm stilling pursuing to this day - RW. Bungee always seemed low key, and a very nice guy. Hope he's in peace.

We are all engines of karma

[jackylx21x 0]

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I knew who he was when I was in Lodi (mid 80s). I was new in the sport. I'll never forget the Wednesday afternoon Mirror Image let me follow them out of the Beech. Completely blew me away. Gave me a goal that I'm stilling pursuing to this day - RW. Bungee always seemed low key, and a very nice guy. Hope he's in peace.

I had the same experience with him when I met him out at Lake Otay when Mirror Image was training out here. Very nice friendly person.

[skyrider 0]

One of the best, Always happy, always helpful...There will never be another...

[rdufokker 6]

Didn't Bungee start at Louisburg, NC? I think Tony Cockrell's dog was named after Bungee, this was, I think, before he left for CA. I never got to meet him but heard hours of stories about him, if it's the same guy.

BS

Irony: "the History and Trivia section hijacked by the D.B. Cooper thread"

[masterrigger1 2]

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Didn't Bungee start at Louisburg, NC?

Yes and Jim too IIRC!

MEL

Skyworks Parachute Service, LLC
www.Skyworksparachuteservice.com

[grimmie 186]

Some of us lined the Perris runway and mooned him when he took off that fateful day.

[masterrigger1 2]

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Some of us lined the Perris runway and mooned him when he took off that fateful day.

If I recall correctly it was a Sunday.....

MEL

Skyworks Parachute Service, LLC
www.Skyworksparachuteservice.com

[grimmie 186]

At the end of the Turkey Day Twentyways. We had so much fun that weekend.

[rmarshall234 13]

I had always heard he was involved in an aircraft mid-air collision, can anyone confirm or deny that? I was very new to the sport but remember seeing him and Mirror Image in the Pope Valley days.

[grimmie 186]

Yes. He was on his way back home and collided with another plane. Everyone was killed. Legend has it that Bungee tracked for the trees.

[BobMoore 0]

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Yes. He was on his way back home and collided with another plane. Everyone was killed. Legend has it that Bungee tracked for the trees.

I thought legend had it that he tracked for a pond.

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[rmarshall234 13]

Thanks for confirming that, Grimmie. I had heard the legend too. Which may explain: In my earliest days of learning to fly my greatest (irrational) fear was of suddenly finding myself in freefall and knowing that I've got two rigs sitting at home in the closet.

Blue skies to Bungee Wallace.

[pchapman 279]

What Nick DG recalled in a thread a few years back about Bungee tracking off to the end:

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3329538;search_string=Bungee%20Wallace;#3329538

The short NTSB report (LAX93FA055B) is silent on the issue. Bungee was alone in a C-180, with the C-210 having 4 occupants.

The long last track makes a great tale. But I found the following LA Times article too. While one can't trust newspapers, it seems clear that there was no initial mystery about the sole occupant of one plane, even just one day after the accident:

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5 Killed as Small Planes Collide Over Fields Near Sacramento
November 30, 1992| Associated Press

THORNTON, Calif. — Two small planes collided and crashed Sunday near this San Joaquin Valley farming community, killing as many as five people.

The planes hit the ground about a mile apart in fields near Interstate 5. No one on the ground was injured, officials said.

Three witnesses told officials they saw or heard the planes collide and crash, said Mike Esau, a spokesman for the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department. Investigators found one body in the wreckage of a Cessna 180.

Esau said authorities believe that four people were killed in the second plane, a Cessna 210. But because of fire destruction, investigators were not sure if there were more victims in the plane, he said.

The planes' destinations were not known. Thornton is 25 miles south of Sacramento.

I wanted to know more about what really happened but am sad that my bit of research found something that goes against the legend.

The end often isn't pretty anyway, so remember everything the man did in his life...

[skidyver 0]

As one of a few of us that went to visit the crash site, I can attest that Bungee was indeed alive when he impacted. He was facing to a very large tree in the corner of the field; speculation he was tracking to that spot. Knowing he wasn't going to get there, he put his chin up, full arch and his arms and hands spread out 90 to his sides. I found an antenna from his plane and kept it all these years. Just this past weekend I presented it to Bungee's oldest son, Drew, encased in a shadow box with a plaque N3313D. It's now in the right hands. I will always miss Bungee.

[Apu 0]

Was "Bungee" his real name, or was that a nickname? And if a nickname, what's the story behind how he got that?

[jumpwally 0]

I don't understand the comment he was alive and tracked into the trees,,,,but investigators found a body in the 180.....?

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[BillyVance 34]

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I don't understand the comment he was alive and tracked into the trees,,,,but investigators found a body in the 180.....?

I'm going out on a limb (sic) and guess he tried to steer the plane into the trees?

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Squeak 17]

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I don't understand the comment he was alive and tracked into the trees,,,,but investigators found a body in the 180.....?

I'm going out on a limb (sic) and guess he tried to steer the plane into the trees?

Yup and chin up and hands to the side means he was bracing himself for the crash.
Tracking is just a term for translating an object from one horizontal position to another. We use it a lot but it's not remotely exclusive to skydiving.

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[flailchick 0]

I remember getting the phone call. Bungee was on staff at SkyDance when I was an instructor there. We were told that his body was found away from the wreckage in accordance with the "legends". If you believe that what is reported in the newspaper is exactly what actually happened then you have never been involved in anything news worthy. My experience has been that even when you yourself tell the reporter the details, there are errors in the story.

[pchapman 279]

That's useful additional information, although the source of what you were told is also unclear, and where the original information came from is also unknown. As I said, newspapers do get things wrong. Did they mess up that badly despite obvious mystery/shock value? Did authorities just give out a sanitized version of the story to the media? Was the body and wreckage far enough apart to involve tracking rather than just normal ballistic separation? The NTSB info online is very brief. Someone would have to buy the microfiched NTSB docket to get more detail. One version of the tale was that he was "a couple miles away", yet the collision was at about 3100' MSL in an area with ground near sea level. Still, even if a tale was exaggerated, it doesn't mean there isn't some truth at the heart of it...

[TheSpecialEd 0]

Amazing...i've been out of the loop a long time. I still remember all this, and I remember friends at Skydance going to visit the site. I was packing a tandem rig when I heard the news. Somewhere around here I still have a tshirt with Bungee on it. I couldn't throw it away with all the other outdated (and too small)shirts.