First Baton Pass

[sangiro 25]

Heya all,

Skratch Garrison has made a few posts and I hope we'll hear from him often in this particular forum.
Just looked at his web site and although Skratch basicaly is history I thought I'd post this link to the First Baton Pass from the NPJR Newsletter - 1956

Safe swoops
Sangiro

[narcimund 0]

This comment made about the 9-way exit:

Quote

as there is absolutely nothing to be gained materially
by such a stunt. I hope Ray and his friends will let well enough
alone and not attempt this type of jump in the future.

Is so funny in retrospect. Predictions-gone-awry always are. Who can help snickering? And who isn't awestruck by the vision of these men who invented RW?

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[ernokaikkonen 0]

>Who can help snickering? And who isn't awestruck
>by the vision of these men who invented RW?

It is amazing. Someone had an idea that "hey, maybe we could, like, move around while in freefall!" And the rest of the jumpers dissing the idea :"no, it'll never happen. Don't bother trying it, it'll just be really dangerous."

I've often thought it would be a lot of fun if you had a timemachine(HH, can I borrow yours?), and would go back, say, 20-30 years, and go to a dropzone to show off some moves... You could take your own gear too, but I doubt anyone would let you jump it since nobody would believe the container could hold one parachute, let alone two.

Concerning the baton pass:

>(...) but I will say that a person should not attempt a jump
>of this kind until he is a jumper of the highest calibre.

Yes, definitely. I haven't tried it yet. But there' is an idea: An old school baton pass... I'm going to have to try that sometime
Erno

[quatorze 1]

Quote

It is amazing. Someone had an idea that "hey, maybe we could, like, move around while in freefall!" And the rest of the jumpers dissing the idea :"no, it'll never happen. Don't bother trying it, it'll just be really dangerous."

would you be referring to the days when RW was actually seeing someone else while in freefall?

I'm not afriad of dying, I'm afraid of never really living- Erin Engle

[flyhi 24]

Quote

(...) but I will say that a person should not attempt a jump of this kind until he is a jumper of the highest calibre.

Back in the late 70's, one of the requirements for the USPA C license was to close third or later in a formation. To the best of my recollection, no was chunking pieces out of planes then. Oh how times have changed.

Shit happens. And it usually happens because of physics.

[wmw999 2,444]

Well, people would fly base-pin docked sometimes, but it was much more manly to free-fly it. There had been work with docked exits until they made the speed star competitions too hard to judge (I was a student at the time, so it was pretty irrelevant to me).
Skills were such that it was common for a free-flown exit to have a higher likelihood of success than a hooked-up one anyway. But they weren't that basic -- 20-40-ways were not uncommon.
Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[skr 1]

> Just looked at his web site

Uh oh, I better get busy and get some more
content up there ..

I was just upgrading my system. Sometimes
that's easy. Sometimes it's like stepping
into a black hole.

Being in over my head as root is as scary
as jumping out of an airplane.

I'll be back.

Skr

[skypuppy 1]

Just thought I'd mention that one of the first Canadians to pass a baton in freefall is still an active jumper - Floyd Martineau did the feat in BC with Darryl Henry in the late 50's. Floyd hit Daryl's canopy on opening and woke up in the hospital, but that was the first time it was done in Canada... Floyd was also the first Canadian to compete for Canada in a world meet - I was at a demo at Buttonville Airport with him this fall, looking at big Russian biplane... I said it would be neat to jump out of such a plane, and he said he had at the world meet... in 1958...

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[1234hutch 0]

Way to go sky puuppy

I could not remember the names.

Hutch

[Ron 10]

I was always told the first batton pass was 1957 at Ft.Bragg, NC.
I think it was Snyder and Stewart.

And I have also heard that it was done first in France...But no one knew about it until the Ft.Bragg jump.

Anyone?

Ron

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[kallend 2,026]

Quote

Well, people would fly base-pin docked sometimes, but it was much more manly to free-fly it.

Still is Docked exits are for sissies.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kallend 2,026]

Quote

I was always told the first batton pass was 1957 at Ft.Bragg, NC.
I think it was Snyder and Stewart.

And I have also heard that it was done first in France...But no one knew about it until the Ft.Bragg jump.

Anyone?

Ron

Snyder and Charlie Hilliard (who went on the be a world champion aerobatic pilot) did the first in the USA.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Ron 10]

Yes Hillard.....I forgot.
He died in an Airplane crash at Sun N Fun in Lakeland,FL. what 4 years ago?


Ron

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[murrays 0]

I think that Snyder and Hilliard did the first baton pass in Abbotsford, BC. in 1958. The 300-way.com website shows "First Baton Pass 1958 Vancouver, BC". Can't remember my source but I think it is in the CSPA Parachutist Information Manual somewhere...or at least used to be. Perhaps Hutch or Skypuppy has a copy handy.

http://www.300-way.com/history/wrhistory.html

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[quatorze 1]

http://www.300-way.com/history/wrhistory.html

I'm not afriad of dying, I'm afraid of never really living- Erin Engle

[skypuppy 1]

Poynter's 'Parachuting - the Skydivers Handbook' says the first baton pass in North America was in Vancouver BC by Lyle Hoffman and James Pearson of the Seattle Skydivers; Snyder and Hilliard made the first one in the US at Fort Bragg a month later.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[airtwardo 7]

The first batton pass was between Steve Snyder and Charlie Hillard. Both engineering students in college.
Hillard went on to become a top airshow pilot and an executive director for EAA. He was killed in his warbird, a Hurricane, at a show in Florida in 1996
...now the cool part- I was fortunate enough to do a 1st batton pass re-enactment with Steve Snyder at the EAA OshKosh airshow in 1997. 40 years to the day of the actual 1st pass. Upon landing we presented Hillards widow with the special 'hard maple' batton, a brass engraved plaque attached to it commemorated the event. An endearing and emotional moment to say the least. On the 'Glory Ride' down the flight line following the jump & presentation, I thanked Steve (whom I'd never met prior) for the opportunity to participate, I'll never forget that look in his eyes when he said, "No... thank you, I have just made the last skydive of my life...and can't think of a better place or way to make it."
...Steve Snyder was killed last year while flying his personal jet, an F-86.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[skr 1]

> The first batton pass was between Steve Snyder and Charlie Hillard.

That was the first one in the United States.

I believe the first one was by Jean Louis Potron and
Jackues Chalom on September 16 at Sens Air Force Base
in France.

Skr

[IronMike 0]

Quote

Hillard went on to become a top airshow pilot and an executive director for EAA. He was killed in his warbird, a Hurricane, at a show in Florida in 1996

Actually, It was a Hawker Sea Fury. I was there that year. I have never seen a more bizzare accident. I was taking off with 2 other T6's and we saw it and just thought he was going to be pissed. We dint find out the tragedy until we got back to Memphis.

He is probably most famous for the Red Devils/Eagles team with Gene Soucy and Tom Poberezny. Anyone remember when they chained the Eagles together, took off, flew a routine, and landed with them still chained? He owned quite a few auto dealerships in Ft Worth too that his widow now runs.

[riggerrob 643]

Minor correction: Charlie Hillard was flying a Hawker Sea Fury when he died.
The airplane flipped over on landing. He was not going very fast, so structural damage was limited. Charlie was trapped in the over-turned Korean-War vintage fighter plane anddied of positional asphixia.

[airtwardo 7]

I stand corrected...I knew it was a Hawker...
His wife Doreen is still a powerful presence in the EAA organization each year at OshKosh.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

The first batton pass was between Steve Snyder and Charlie Hillard. Both engineering students in college.
Hillard went on to become a top airshow pilot and an executive director for EAA. He was killed in his warbird, a Hurricane, at a show in Florida in 1996
...now the cool part- I was fortunate enough to do a 1st batton pass re-enactment with Steve Snyder at the EAA OshKosh airshow in 1997. 40 years to the day of the actual 1st pass. Upon landing we presented Hillards widow with the special 'hard maple' batton, a brass engraved plaque attached to it commemorated the event. An endearing and emotional moment to say the least. On the 'Glory Ride' down the flight line following the jump & presentation, I thanked Steve (whom I'd never met prior) for the opportunity to participate, I'll never forget that look in his eyes when he said, "No... thank you, I have just made the last skydive of my life...and can't think of a better place or way to make it."
...Steve Snyder was killed last year while flying his personal jet, an F-86.

photo of Steve that day...

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[skypuppy 1]

Just thought I'd mention that one of the first Canadians to pass a baton in freefall is still an active jumper - Floyd Martineau did the feat in BC with Darryl Henry in the late 50's.

------------------------------------------------------------

Floyd just contacted me to let me know that the actual jump took place in Welland, Ontario, not British Columbia as I originally stated...

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[mjosparky 4]

Quote

On the 'Glory Ride' down the flight line following the jump & presentation, I thanked Steve (whom I'd never met prior) for the opportunity to participate, I'll never forget that look in his eyes when he said, "No... thank you, I have just made the last skydive of my life...and can't think of a better place or way to make it."

Jim,
That had to be one of the most emotional jumps ever. Thanks for sharing with us. Steve Snyder contributed a tremendous amount to skydiving.

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

Quote

On the 'Glory Ride' down the flight line following the jump & presentation, I thanked Steve (whom I'd never met prior) for the opportunity to participate, I'll never forget that look in his eyes when he said, "No... thank you, I have just made the last skydive of my life...and can't think of a better place or way to make it."

Jim,
That had to be one of the most emotional jumps ever. Thanks for sharing with us. Steve Snyder contributed a tremendous amount to skydiving.

***
Steve was sharp guy!

...And observant too.
I remember we went Omoro, Bill's DZ close to
Oshkosh to do a practice jump.
Steve handed me his rig and ask me to pack it.

(A questionable move...you've seen me pack)

He told a friend of his that rode up with him,
"Twardo's bigger than me,
and with that zipper in his back...
I know he packs for soft openings!"

I guess he had seen the surgery scar on my
lower back the day before and figured
I was his man for packing!!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

• Quote