DC3 and floaters

[davidlayne 5]

Did the "three" ever fly jumpers with the cargo door off? If so I would be most grateful for a picture that shows floaters in place. Thanks, David.

I don't care how many skydives you've got,
until you stepped into complete darkness at
800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs
of parachute, son you are still a leg!

[lekstrom10k 0]

Just the front cargo door Then rear cargo off caused to much turbulance. Of course the real DC-3 Never had a cargo door. The one floating around from Summerfest was actually a C-47. The door shown on the pictures is the "Man door" removed from the cargo door with the round top. the darkened square outline is the real cargo door
The DC-3 door only had a rain drip rail over the door about 1/4 to 38 to grip on

[davidlayne 5]

Thanks, did you intend to include the pictures you were mentioning?

Thanks I should have clarified the difference between the C47 and DC3

I don't care how many skydives you've got,
until you stepped into complete darkness at
800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs
of parachute, son you are still a leg!

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

Quote

Did the "three" ever fly jumpers with the cargo door off? If so I would be most grateful for a picture that shows floaters in place. Thanks, David.

I thought I saw a movie once where Chuck Noris jumped from a DC3 with both cargo doors off after first having dispatched a cargo drop full of supplies for some para-military / secret mission behind enemy lines in Vietnam... of course, he probably karate kicked the doors off of the 3 in-flight first...

[Niki1 1]

Quote

Did the "three" ever fly jumpers with the cargo door off? If so I would be most grateful for a picture that shows floaters in place. Thanks, David.

There was a C-47 at the Hills for a while in the mid '70s that flew with both doors off, Only did it for a week or 2 because of the buffeting, wieght and balance and with the rear door off, people were comming really close to the horizontal stabilizer. But the palne empyed almost as fast as tailgate.
Even with the rear door on the space of the front door was very tall. A center floater holding the top of the door would be a foot or 2 inside the plane unless he was very, very tall.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

[sundevil777 102]

This isn't relevant to cargo doors, but it is related to floaters, and it's a very cool pic. From Coolidge I believe, well over 30 I think.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[davidlayne 5]

Thanks for the replies and the photo, more pictures would be appreciated.

I don't care how many skydives you've got,
until you stepped into complete darkness at
800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs
of parachute, son you are still a leg!

[davidlayne 5]

Quote

This isn't relevant to cargo doors, but it is related to floaters, and it's a very cool pic. From Coolidge I believe, well over 30 I think.

Nice picture but where are the ailerons?

I don't care how many skydives you've got,
until you stepped into complete darkness at
800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs
of parachute, son you are still a leg!

[sundevil777 102]

Quote

Quote

This isn't relevant to cargo doors, but it is related to floaters, and it's a very cool pic. From Coolidge I believe, well over 30 I think.

Nice picture but where are the ailerons?

They are there, they are a different color than the rest of the plane, and with the poor quality of the scan/pic it just makes it look the same as the desert

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[Dust-It 0]

I believe there is only 28 still on in that pic.A few fell off before everyone hand made it out side.
I'm one of the for legs you can see hanging under the plane.I had one arm inside the front of the door and someone standing on it so I didn't slide out,the other arm is holding on to a girl that has no grip on the airplane.
It was Larry Hills 3 in Coolidge.

BD Chuck

[sundevil777 102]

Quote

I believe there is only 28 still on in that pic.A few fell off before everyone hand made it out side.
I'm one of the for legs you can see hanging under the plane.I had one arm inside the front of the door and someone standing on it so I didn't slide out,the other arm is holding on to a girl that has no grip on the airplane.
It was Larry Hills 3 in Coolidge.

BD Chuck

What year was that? I so wish I had known they'd be doing something like that, I usually stayed up close to home and jumped at Charlie Merritt's DZ North of Phoenix (not much of a DZ, just desert where we met) How long was that jump run? Was there competition for who got to go where? Did you complete a speed star when you finally left?

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[davidlayne 5]

I would appreciate it if someone could come up with a clearer example of this picture.

I don't care how many skydives you've got,
until you stepped into complete darkness at
800' wearing 95 lbs of equipment and 42 lbs
of parachute, son you are still a leg!

[patmoore 14]

Unrelated but one of my favorite photos nonetheless. A passenger window was missing over the wing and the photographer leaned out to get this shot of me exiting the DC-3 at Zephyrhills sometime around 1973.

DZGone.com
B-4600, C-3615, D-1814, Gold Wings #326, Diamond Wings #152.

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room!

[RogerRamjet 0]

Quote

Unrelated but one of my favorite photos nonetheless. A passenger window was missing over the wing and the photographer leaned out to get this shot of me exiting the DC-3 at Zephyrhills sometime around 1973.

It was missing? I remember you could open (I think 2 of them) and I took photos similar to yours that way. I don't remember one ever being missing though.

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

[RogerRamjet 0]

Quote

Quote

Did the "three" ever fly jumpers with the cargo door off? If so I would be most grateful for a picture that shows floaters in place. Thanks, David.

There was a C-47 at the Hills for a while in the mid '70s that flew with both doors off, Only did it for a week or 2 because of the buffeting, wieght and balance and with the rear door off, people were comming really close to the horizontal stabilizer. But the palne empyed almost as fast as tailgate.
Even with the rear door on the space of the front door was very tall. A center floater holding the top of the door would be a foot or 2 inside the plane unless he was very, very tall.

Yes, sometime in 73 we took both sets of doors off for a few loads. I remember 8 across exits. However, the pilots felt that plane was just not stable enough and the buffeting was bad enough that they thought structural damage might occur over time, so we stopped doing it. I don't remember the horizontal stabilizer being an issue, but I was 20 then...

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

[jimjumper 25]

I jumped at a boogie at Coolidge just after that photo was taken. I think the number of 28 is correct. The jump would have been done late February or early March of '88 according to my logbook. There are also 2 types of the photo, 1 original (rare) with N-number showing and another with the number airbrushed out.