skypuppy

1. You lose altitude awareness, look down and see massive ground-rush (sub 1000 feet AGL)? How about wave at the cameras in the spectator area, then dump my main??? 4. You are on a 4-way RW dive and realize that the 4-way is 500 feet below the planned break-off altitude. Do you track for the same amount of altitude and pull 500 feet low?, or track less and pull on time? Is there a minimum break-off altitude when you got a hot four-way going??? 9. In a Cessna 182 on jump run, you will be the person spotting and just before you open the door you see the jumper in the back of the airplane push their reserve pin out of the loop, firing their reserve pilot chute into the back of the airplane? How about having him lie on his stomach, pulling out your pullup cord (or cords) and closing it back up for him?? Not easy with a full load, but if you've dropped a couple of singles off already, there's room. Just some ideas from the '80's... Skypuppy 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

I remember my first jump back after breaking my leg one winter - as we screwed around waiting for the load to go up it got windier and windier - still not normally a problem... When we finally jumped I was a little nervous about landing but it was easy, it was so windy... However when I turned to run around behind my Strato-star to collapse it, the wind gusted and I was pulled off my feet and slammed face first into the frozen furrows of the field... I broke my glasses, cut my face up and dislocated my shoulder and was simply lying dazed face down in the dirt, as the wind popped up every few seconds and dragged a few feet further down the field... No one could hear me as I croaked 'Help!' into the dirt.... Bob finally got over to me and said 'You don't look too good.' 'Thanks' I croaked... It was an hours' drive to the hospital and we got pulled over right outside the dz by a cop... When he found out we were jumpers he asked'Hey were you the guys I just saw? That must be fun?' and wanted to talk for like half an hour... Finally I just said 'Hey man I got a dislocated shoulder here - do you think we can leave and get to the hospital or what?' He refused to give us a high speed escort with the siren and lights, but we did get to leave... 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

Ironic - I just got a Ripcord book at an antique store for $5. It's very exciting!!! I especially liked the chapter where Ted looked up into the sky and saw the Piper Cub flying around at 8000' and knew there was trouble!!! They jumped in their Cessna and caught up by jump altitude and Ted was able to snap onto the girl's harness as she was falling through the sky with her one and only chute streamering behind her! Or how about when they jumped into the reservoir and blew the dam with dynamite in order to flood the valley and put out the forest fire!?!? I'd love to get some of the episodes - I never saw one on tv - I was too young, I guess - altho I did see Lloyd Bridges in that Scuba show... 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

I've had a few students refuse to jump - it's not really a big deal - I'm here to serve... However, I did have an 'experienced' freefall jumper with about 35 jumps refuse to go out once... His dad was a hard-core military jumper from wayback, so I thought maybe he wasn't jumping for the right reasons... I wasn't really happy about the way I handled his refusal - he seemed freaked out by the sparse clouds around, and it was his first jump on a rig without an AAD. We were about 3500'. I talked to him calmly and took the plane around twice on jumprun again - each time he seemed to start moving to the door of the 182, then balked again... After the second time I sort of lost it - I started talking to him really forcefully - I actually said, like, "J---- Ch----, ********, are you a man or a mouse?!" This time he actually started to climbout the door, but he was almost crying and I started to think maybe he shouldn't jump without the AAD, so I pulled him back in, told him to sit in the back and ride down, to wait until he felt better.... Then I jumped... I was sort of pissed off so I did some a style set and dumped a bit low (not real low, just below 2000'). The funny thing was that the people looking for him on the ground, until they saw my open canopy, thought I was him and that he was falling out of control and wasn't going to dump... In my defense, he wasn't a student so I didn;t technically have to ride down with him... He did go on to jump again - even got over a hundred, but I don't know if he was ever comfortable with it... 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

My best find lately was when I walked into a used bookstore in Rangeley, Maine this summer and found a copy of "What happened to DB Cooper?" for $2US... A good read, too, even if it is only conjecture.... I read somewhere there were something like 144 attempted skyjackings between '67 and 73.... Many people believe that D.B. Cooper was Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr. who was caught a couple of days after another skyjacking in April, '72... McCoy escaped a year later and was killed in a shootout with the FBI before a definite identification of him as Cooper could be made, but there were many similarities, and many people were convinced they were one and the same... 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

Steve - go back and read through the 'Old Boenish videos' thread in History and Trivia - you'll see that I posted a pic of the 2-way going through a canopy and Skratch actually chimed in with some of his memories of the actual jump and the dropzone... 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

Not really a jump plane, but there's been an old PBY (Canso?) sitting in the hangar at Gan as long as I can remember... The owner used to come out and run the engines on the taxiway once a year, but that was it... The Cdn Warplane Heritage was trying to talk the owner into donating it, but he wouldn't... At that time they figured it would take a couple of years to get it into shape to fly it to their base... 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

See the earlier thread in Skydiving History and Trivia on Boenish videos.... After all these years they are still great movies!!!! 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

Back in the old days I remember one of the jumper's was having a party at their place close to the dz... Being recently returned from Bridge Day another guy and myself decided it would be alright if the pilot could just fly us over the party at Bridge height (ie. 876')... It really looked like the ground was close and going by fast! But we figured we weren't used to spotting at 900' so it was bound to look low... We exited - I had a pc hesitation but got open and turned around toward the party before landing... Turned out it looked low for a reason!!! We hadn't realized the house was about 400' higher than the airport - we'd actually gotten out around 500'!!! After the jump, figuring costs of $1.00 per thousand feet, we both went up to the DZO and gave him 50 cents... Skypuppy 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

It is two-way - there are some stills from the film in Bud Sellick's 'The Wild Wonderful World of Parachutes and Parachuting', p 137. Ken Vos and Willie Manbo snapped 13 suspension lines. Manbo suffered a fractured shoulder, while Vos needed plastic surgery for facial lacerations as well as a broken jaw and cracked ribs... Weatherford (the open jumper) landed safely under his reserve... 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

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

The problem with this 'do what I say, not what I do' thing is you might be comparing apples to oranges... If the guy has 1000 skydives and his girlfriend has 58, then it;s a valid argument... I hate to seem like I'm harping, but when I started BASE jumping in the '80's people had generally a lot of experience skydiving before they even considered BASE jumping (I had over 1000 and a rigger/inst rating, most of the guys in my group had at minimum 400/inst ratings - I say this because you did learn some rigging knowledge in the instructor courses). Nowadays, because of media exposure, many people are getting into BASE with absolutely minimal experience skydiving... Now considering if the guy only has 100 - 400 jumps, he's probably dating a girl with less experience then him... I would personally say in many cases a guy with less than 400 jumps shouldn't be BASE jumping (I could be wrong) but then add to that that his girlfriend with even fewer jumps wants him to train her - this can be a recipe for disaster... There has to be a minimum experience level established and people really have to stick to it and work hard at the skills they will need before they try to advance... Even some of the First Base Jump courses out there make it too easy (in my opinion) for low-timers to get into the sport... That's not to say that because someone has 2000 skydives he's not going to screw up and kill himself, but why in God's name stack the odds??? Does that make any sense... Skypuppy 'a skydiving and base jump anachronism' - ie - I may be so old that I'm missing the point entirely... 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

You may think it's because safety is not important, but remember, this was a long time ago, and I usually encountered it down south where you;d have a lot of jumpers coming down in the winter who may not have jumped in months, weren't used to big planes or big formations, and didn't know a lot of people... So you have more accidents where there were more jumps being made... And remember, this was generally before or just after AFF came out, and before CYPRES was available - sometimes you might have a Sentinel AAD, but sometimes you wouldn't... And parachutes were possibly more likely to malfunction, then, tooo. Mind you, if you only have 10 jumps as your profile says, you likely wouldn't be taken on the tour, unless maybe you were with a bunch of people from your home dz with more experience... This usually went on sort of behind the drop zone operators' backs - they knew it was happening, and didn't condone it, but they didn't stop it either... Sort of like if you were smoking up in your van after the beer lite came on... One of the best examples of the Black Death attitude was when Pirus was organizing a Skull and Crossbones 40 (I think) way at Z-hills... The skull was supposed to wink and the teeth would chatter when some of the jumpers changed grips in the middle. Hooper heard about it and came out to the loading area to tell Pirus not to do it... Pirus did it anyway, got kicked off the staff, and then went over to start up Deland... BLACK DEATH! Like my pal Hawkeye said, 'I may not have been L***a's first, but I know for dam sure I was her last!' Blue skies, Red eyes, Skypuppy 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

I didn't know about the '78 articles... Mitch Decoteau wasn't mentioned by name, but he was supposed to be the model for 'Macho Mitch' in the Li'l Annie Fannie cartoon you mentioned, which was, I believe, several pages long... I remember he did have a faint physical resemblance... Pity about the copyright issue... It was a great cartoon... Skypuppy 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

If you burn in in a forest, and there's nobody around to hear it, can I have your rig? If you burn in in a forest, and there's nobody around to hear it, I ain't gonna bother asking... 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

In Florida in '79 - '82 we used to have crater parties... Anyone even know what one is now? 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

Good suggestion... I understand Kittinger is also the one responsible for many legends of UFO activity and the myth, real or imagined, of a UFO crash near Roswell, NM, including allegations of clandestine night time military action and retrievals, coverups, and sightings of actual alien bodies in the area.... Skypuppy 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

When I asked the question I was tending towards which 'experienced' skydiver, so I'd be more likely to accept Bob Sinclair as the instructor who was shown with Johnny Carson, then Carson himself... Sinclair was also on the 'Ripcord' tv series, so would have been pretty well known... and of course, the world population was smaller back then, so a smaller absolute number of fans could translate into a larger percentage of the earth;s population that would recognize him... As for BJ Worth or Felix Baumgartner (as Tom A suggested), I might go with DAR ROBINSON... He was at one point the highest paid stuntman in film when he jumped the CN Tower (one of two or three times he jumped it)... And he was also one of the first to fly back and climb into an airplane after jumping out it... What do you think? Skypuppy 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

A long time ago I was told "How do you make a small fortune in parachuting??? Start with a big one..." Skypuppy 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

And I seem to recall an interesting shot of someone going through an open canopy a few feet in front of the cameraman right at the end of the movie.... Also the original El Cap jumps made a neat movie.... 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

Try spring, 1980... Give or take a year... 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

Ok, who's the most famous skydiver ever??? Not to us skydivers, but to the general public... My vote might have to go to Mitch Decoteau... In the late 70's, early 1980, Playboy magazine sent an observer to z-hills for a feature... Load organizers at the time may have included Eric Bradley, Rob Paley, Bob Harmon, Jerry Bird, Shooby, Scotty Carbone (I don't think he was grounded at the time) and a young Mitch Decoteau... Rumor has it that Mitch was the inspiration for 'Macho Mitch' in an issue of the famous Playboy 'Li'l Annie Fanny' cartoon in which annie learns to skydive... I think Macho Mitch followed Annie down after a bad spot and ended up having to console her... Anyways, I thought with Playboy's circulation at the time that might make Mitch the most famous skydiver ever as far as the general population is concerned... Any other nominations??? Skypuppy PS - I thought I had an old dog-eared copy of that issue around in the bottom of a drawer or the back of a closet, but I seem to have lost it... It might be neat for someone to try putting it on the site if they have it... 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

I sort of associated Jan Meyer with Geronimo, but I always assumed he was a guy... Me an ass!!! Skypuppy 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

I think Mitch Decoteau only had 3 or 400 jumps when he started load organizing at Z-hills... Someone with access to twin otters every weekend (or every day) will get a lot more freefall time then someone who jumps a cessna, exept for say two or three weeks a year... And it will show... I have over 2000 jumps but less than 20 hours freefall - where someone from Southern US can have over 30 hours at that point... 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

This one reminds me of something that happened back in - it must have been '81. We were using round Sierra canopies in Innovator tandem containers (that's two canopy containers, not 2 person systems) for our students on static lines... The risers were set up with an RSL to ensure that the student didn't just cut away the main without pulling the reserve, and they had sentinel AAD's, I believe... This one student had a lineover malfunction of his round main parachute and opened up spinning, not real fast, but he couldn't control it... As he got lower the spin increased - somewhere around 1500' he seemed to wake up and decide he should do something, so he pulled the cutaway handle. From his perspective, nothing happened. Watching from the ground though, things got real interesting... The RSL was routed between the two risers of the main, and under the reserve housing... When buddy cutaway, the RSL caught under the back of his hockey helmet, forcing it down over his eyes and putting all his weight on the chin strap... Not being in the exact centre of the RSL, the canopy was further distorted and began spiralling harder. The reserve pilot chute came out, but still being attached to the main there was not enuf airspeed to pull out the reserve, and it flapped around behind him with the locking bight still holding the reserve flaps closed... He was coming down just on the other side of the driveway, maybe 250 feet from the clubhouse... At below 200' he decided this wasn't right, grabbed the RSL and pulled it from under the back of his helmet, then letting go and dropping free.... I thought I was going to see a bounce - the only thing that saved him was that the reserve pilot chute somehow had wrapped around the RSL on the descent, and as he fell away from the main, the malfunctioned Sierra acted as a large pilot chute to pull out the reserve before releasing... He was open under the reserve at the height of the telephone posts along the driveway, landing about 10 or 20 feet into the field... When we got to him he was lying on his back in the field, saying over and over again, "F**k, I'm alive... F**k, I'm alive." His buddy, who got out on the pass after him, had a more successful jump, other than the fact that ground control forgot about him as the malfunction unfolded, and he ended up landing on the roof of Farmer Love's barn, and sliding down into a pile of manure... I don't think they ever came back... Skypuppy 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