Anyone remember nationals in Oklahoma

[LeapingGnome 0]

Does anyone remember the dude that would swoop thru the camping area and the cars with the Saber when they first came out? Everyone was still jumping the Pegasus and Clouds. What was his name?

Falcon 74, Eagle 110, NFS 407, GW-2945, DW-1641, DDW-1151, "Inga... elevate me"

[kimemerson 7]

Just a guess, would it be Rickster Powell?

[LeapingGnome 0]

YEAH!!!! your the winner! Thanks! We have been watching the wind blow and tellin stories and that was one we racked our brains over.

Falcon 74, Eagle 110, NFS 407, GW-2945, DW-1641, DDW-1151, "Inga... elevate me"

[kimemerson 7]

Well, my old friend 'Ster was one of the first to jump a Sabre. I remember at Quincy, maybe 1990 or '91, I was walking through the vendor's area and I heard the new sound of micro lines whistling damn near my head and I prayed it was Rickster because no one else I knew belonged where that sound was coming from and only Rickster was going to not hit me. He landed, turned around and laughed. That man is a gift.

[tgoaffi 0]

I got married over davis field in 86 in the bird machine dc3 Jean Leblanc caught the culvert, between the restarant, toward the big tent, towards if I remember right Fat Jack's saloon(Jack Bergman) jumping sabre I believe. It was a nice biff. year maybe 1or2 off 1986. Man I miss the boogie in Muskogee

[kimemerson 7]

John wasn't jumping a Sabre in '86. No one was. They didn't come out with the Sabre till '91. The Excalibur was the PD high performance canopy before the Sabre and it was made of F-111 though a couple were coated with a prototype zero P-3 material, rather than impregnated with the zero P as is the norm now. Rickster was one of PDs test jumpers and so he had test Sabres well before they were released to the public. In '86 I can't even say John was jumping an Excalibur. I think they didn't come out till maybe '88, didn't last long due to a few troubles, and taken over eventually by the zero P3 Sabre.

[LeapingGnome 0]

Rickster was at some point jumping the Saber in Muskogee, dont remember what year. But I do remember the first zero P canopy I saw was there and it was a South African canopy all pink and i believe it was called the Reflex. I made 2 jumps on a demo and was going from a 220 pegasus to a 135 zero P eliptical, talk about downsizing. Of course this was way before we were educated in the art of downsizing and I really considered cutting it away...it was going way too fast to possibly land this thing. Ha Ha

Falcon 74, Eagle 110, NFS 407, GW-2945, DW-1641, DDW-1151, "Inga... elevate me"

[tgoaffi 0]

I will alude to that. The dates don,t match to the Sabre, but it was still a nice biff on an early hook turn swoop. I have had a beer and slept twice since then.......

[LeapingGnome 0]

That very same culvert was the villian to a friend of mine, a guy named Bobby Hutchingson femured there on a hook turn.

Falcon 74, Eagle 110, NFS 407, GW-2945, DW-1641, DDW-1151, "Inga... elevate me"

[kimemerson 7]

It is entirely likely that that Reflex was Willie Boetchers's. They came out as a response to the Sabre and were not as silky. More crinkly. I bought Willie's as my first Zero P and came to rue that decision. It was a 143, I believe. I once packed it like I would a Sabre (no nose roll & tuck) and the opening slammed me so hard it broke both center 'A' lines. I considered chopping it but I had a round (Phantom 22') and was over a lot of trees. I was young and no one had mentioned anything like "square, stable'. steerable & slider down (4 S's). It seemed to be flying ok but what I didn't notice was that it was sinking more than it was flying and it had no flare. Rather, it had a collapse. So I thudded in and possibly broke my ass on that one.

Reflex was made by PISA I believe.

Rickster was indeed jumping his Sabre at the Nationals in Muskogee. We called it the sherbet because of the colors. I remember the sweet sound of 550 micro lines whistling above. It was a new sound and at first no one knew what it was when first hearing it. The year was 1990, the last year the Nationals were at Muskogee. It was also the second year of the WFFC at Quincy and I remember Rickster landing among the vendors there too.

[Rdutch 0]

Rickster also was the only one to own a zp excalibur. It was pink. They only made one because it was so hard to make.

Ray
Small and fast what every girl dreams of!

[LeapingGnome 0]

Was the Evolution like the Excalibur?

Falcon 74, Eagle 110, NFS 407, GW-2945, DW-1641, DDW-1151, "Inga... elevate me"

[pchapman 279]

Quote

Was the Evolution like the Excalibur?

To deal with that aside:

The ParaFlite Evolution was not much like the cross braced PD Excalibur. The Evolution was a partial ZP and later full ZP canopy with a lot of unusual design quirks, from the early days of ZP canopy design. I have a post or two about them on dz.com.