Where is this DZ in Florida ?

[3331 137]

See attached.

I Jumped with the guys who invented Skydiving.

[lgossler 0]

Z-Hills

This is the old "Rangers" Building. Across from Porter's hanger/office.
A few years before Jeff took over.

[3331 137]

Thank you Larry.
You mean there was Skydiving at Z-Hills before I got there ?!

I had been told of a DZ building before the one Jeff built in the middle of the airport. In Deland a few days ago Jack Wallace told me about it again.

I Jumped with the guys who invented Skydiving.

[muff528 3]

Interesting........ 12 cars visible and 4 are VWs

[Jim_Hooper 4]

Larry's correct. That was the Ranger's club, which was operating when I first showed up in October '68. It was run by a couple of people from MacDill AFB. The only name I remember was Woody Malugani.

The east half of the building had, if memory serves, three indoor packing tables. When the 'new' center was completed in the middle of the airport, the packing tables were torn out and the room turned into a maintenance and storage facility, with the west end serving as bunkrooms and an office.

Attached photo was taken in front of the building in December '69.
Standing: Pilot Bill 'Tuna' Case, Ron Brissey, Jeff Searles, Laban 'Step' Lively.
Front row: Hooper, Lou Aug, Phil Smith, Ron Schott, Bill 'Moriarity' Burr. Can't remember the name of the guy in the sweatshirt.

Hoop
www.jimhooper.co.uk

[AggieDave 6]

Including a nice looking Type-III variant.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[lodestar 0]

The building was also a packing area, a small "dorm" with bunk beds and two little "apartments" or walled off rooms in the West end where I lived for the longest time.
Can't remember when Jeff built the other building or even why we moved from this one. Can anyone fill in the blanks?

[SCR216 2]

Z-Hills was the DZ where the first large scale national 10-Way meet was held in November 1969. Before that California was the place to go to get into the action.

A team from Chicago came in 1st, just a few seconds faster than the team from California. A few of the jumpers on the California team were from the Arvin / Taft / Elsinore area.

[Jim_Hooper 4]

Though the 1st Big Z 10-man meet almost got weathered out, we did manage four rounds, at the end of which The Family and the Taft Team were tied at 28 points. The Family won with the largest star, a 9-man. The story of that can be found on Bill Newell's website -

http://starcrestawards.com/history/fate.html

Attached is the Taft Team.

Hoop
www.jimhooper.co.uk

[RogerRamjet 0]

Quote

Z-Hills

This is the old "Rangers" Building. Across from Porter's hanger/office.
A few years before Jeff took over.

Just hung out with Bob and Richard Porter at Z-Hills Saturday. Talk about a trip in the way back machine!

Also present were Mike Branch, Rob and Cheryl Brown, Steve Fugleberg, Peanuts (Marvin) and Carol Wacaser, Phil Smith, and Ski and Donna Chmielewski. With Mike, Rob, Steve, Peanuts and me, that's 5 members of Hooper's 1975 Ten High Bunch speed star team. We would have had 6, but Mike Woods had a prior commitment.

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

[lgossler 0]

Wish I could have been there.
Larry

[3331 137]

John Sherman says the Guy in the red sweatshirt is Sky Huminsky. He would come to Z-Hills with Lou Aug D-920.

Lou Aug started the DZ in Hinkley IL. Sky was a Master Rigger for Para Gear and an ARMY CWO.

I Jumped with the guys who invented Skydiving.

[RogerRamjet 0]

Quote

Wish I could have been there.
Larry

I would love to see you again as well. I know Mike Branch spoke with you later about it. Maybe next time we set one of these up you can attend.

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

[lekstrom10k 0]

I stayed in that building in 1968or69. There was a shower that had a sign on the door that said "If you are a jumper this water is not cold ". It had tendency to make me believe otherwise.After Jeff took over a wet t-shirt contest was held out back. Scotty Bill booth and a few others got arrested. Seems a local preacher was enjoying the view until a few parishoners caught him. Now he has to make a statement about the lewdness and vulgarity going on . That might have been the first time out of a few hundred Scotty was permnantly thrown off the DZ. The second place girl was absolutely beautiful. Number one gave a few BJ's and won

[Jim_Hooper 4]

The famous wet t-shirt contest took place not behind the old Rangers' building but at the center in the middle of the airport in, I think, 1977, after Searles was gone. At the end of the fifth 20-hour day in a row, I'd told my staff they were in charge and went home, never expecting that an old-fashioned wet T-shirt contest, a feature of the last few Turkey Meets, would spin out of control. There was indeed a lay Baptist preacher amongst the spectators, there to check on the morals of the skydivers. By rare good fortune Carl Nelson had taken some photos that night, one of which showed the pious preacher in the front row, leering at the wet T-shirts. His subsequent self-righteous hellfire-and-brimstone comments about depraved skydivers ended abruptly when I mentioned that I might be forced into attaching a copy to every lamp pole on his street. No one was arrested, but it damn near got the drop zone shut down. As I remember the briefing the next morning, no one got a blow job, but Carbone went down on the three finalists. And yes, that was one of the many occasions I threw Scotty off the DZ. The local press was still referring to that night seven years later when I sold up and went off to get shot at - a far less complicated profession than being the owner of Z'hills Parachute Center.
Hoop
www.jimhooper.co.uk

[muff528 3]

Quote

The famous wet t-shirt contest took place not behind the old Rangers' building but at the center in the middle of the airport in, I think, 1977, after Searles was gone. At the end of the fifth 20-hour day in a row, I'd told my staff they were in charge and went home, never expecting that an old-fashioned wet T-shirt contest, a feature of the last few Turkey Meets, would spin out of control. There was indeed a lay Baptist preacher amongst the spectators, there to check on the morals of the skydivers. By rare good fortune Carl Nelson had taken some photos that night, one of which showed the pious preacher in the front row, leering at the wet T-shirts. His subsequent self-righteous hellfire-and-brimstone comments about depraved skydivers ended abruptly when I mentioned that I might be forced into attaching a copy to every lamp pole on his street. No one was arrested, but it damn near got the drop zone shut down. As I remember the briefing the next morning, no one got a blow job, but Carbone went down on the three finalists. And yes, that was one of the many occasions I threw Scotty off the DZ. The local press was still referring to that night seven years later when I sold up and went off to get shot at - a far less complicated profession than being the owner of Z'hills Parachute Center.
Hoop
www.jimhooper.co.uk

Gawd, I love this sport!

[lodestar 0]

Zhills was a tough place in the early days, I mean the City of Zhills, I can remember going to town council meetings with Jeff and fielding all sorts of complaints from citizens who "didn't like that noisy airplane flying all the time" and "those parachutes are so noisy when they open" and other ridiculous accusations about "all these hippie people in town".
Jeff and I even joined the local Kiwanis chapter to show them we were human and not animals. And, Oh the Horror!, I actually shaved my beard off and got a haircut...ahem....
Needless to say the city was rather stand offish about the whole thing but could not legally stop us but seemed to delight in throwing all manner of short stops towards the center.
And with Hoop's experiences I see it didn't go away.

[RonD1120 62]

Quote

Larry's correct. That was the Ranger's club, which was operating when I first showed up in October '68. It was run by a couple of people from MacDill AFB. The only name I remember was Woody Malugani.

The east half of the building had, if memory serves, three indoor packing tables. When the 'new' center was completed in the middle of the airport, the packing tables were torn out and the room turned into a maintenance and storage facility, with the west end serving as bunkrooms and an office.

Attached photo was taken in front of the building in December '69.
Standing: Pilot Bill 'Tuna' Case, Ron Brissey, Jeff Searles, Laban 'Step' Lively.
Front row: Hooper, Lou Aug, Phil Smith, Ron Schott, Bill 'Moriarity' Burr. Can't remember the name of the guy in the sweatshirt.

Hoop
www.jimhooper.co.uk

Gene Ritchie was the fellow from MacDill AFB that started the Rangers Parachute Center.

The gentleman in the red sweatshirt is Ron Smith. He was an USAF CAPT stationed at MacDill.

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[RogerRamjet 0]

Shots at Skydive City from Saturday including some of the "old farts" talked about in this thread:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16626901@N00/sets/72157623605573411/

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

[SCR216 2]

You got it Jim,

As I remember it Skratch Garison and Bill Newell were judges and did the spotting and exit command from the ground. To this day I still give Stratch and Bill a lot of shit for putting us so far out from the DZ. Bill will be attending our runion at Taft on May 29th. Also, there shoud be 4 of us from the Z-Hills Taft team attending. Two of us, Stanley Troeller and I still jump together a few times a year.

Regards,
Dennis

[poppenhager 1]

The Tampa Skydivers (club) first occupied that building in 1962.They were the first Skydivers to jump at Zhills.Warren Coffman was President.
POP

[Jim_Hooper 4]

Quote

The Tampa Skydivers (club) first occupied that building in 1962.They were the first Skydivers to jump at Zhills.Warren Coffman was President.
POP

Yep, Warren Kauffman, D-263, was still club president and ASO when I arrived at Z'hills. I got my Instructor rating through him. Good man whose contribution to the sport was never sufficiently acknowledged. The transition from style and accuracy to RW didn't sit well with him, however, and Tampa Skydivers moved to another DZ in 1969 or '70.
Hoop
www.jimhooper.co.uk

[Wenger 0]

Jim, what ever happened to Lou Aug. He hepled me alot when I started jumping in Hinkley back in 71. The James Gang was a real eye opener to a young jumper

[Jim_Hooper 4]

Hey, Bill--I haven't heard anything about him for years. I remember him as a really nice guy. There must be someone here who knows.

Hoop
www.jimhooper.co.uk

[lodestar 0]

Kaufmann was there when I came down to work for Jeff...I seem to remember the Tampa Skydivers went to a little strip, maybe Birdsong? when they moved. Does that sound correct Hoop?