stablesteve

Hey Tom, You're right it was Norton and I. I believe that we did the first one, although we called it a "Sleeping Bag" It happened one afternoon when I front risered onto the top of Nortons canopy and found myself laying down stretched out on top of Nortons canopy. when I looked back, I noticed that the upper skin of Nortons Strato Star looked like there was no one on top of it. Then I leaned over the leading edge and looked down and decided that there was enough room inside his center cell so I climbed into it. We did this quite a few times with me on top and I would reach through the baffles to help hold me inside his cell. In this way, I was able to remain completely invisible and Norton would quietly tell me left or right and I would steer us into the peas. At the last second, Norton would call flare, and I would flare my canopy. It was great fun. Norton, aka Robert E. Thomas, received the nickname because he liked Nortons first and Indians second. Thanks, Steve Haley CCR #1

I don't even like Hall & Oates, but heard a song called falling by them, and it IS about learning to skydive. It's on "bigger than the both of us"

Yes, motorcycling has been a valid sport much longer than skydiving, largely through advances made by trial and error. Advances in our sport have come from people being willing to push the limits hard enough to find where the boundaries are, as with all sports. Waivers for low altitude aerobatics were not given until it was proven that the people applying were able to successfully able to perform the routines safely. They couldn't do that until they found their limits, usually by pushing the envelope doing something everyone else thought was crazy. Everyone I know that is successful in a given sport pushed the boundaries to get there. That brings me to Hells Angels. The first Hells Angel I met was on June 12, 1977 at the Livermore DZ in California. I was in the process of being grounded again for searching for the elusive limit, (didn't find it!) when I met Norton Thomas. He jumped at Antioch but was trying other DZ's in the search for his limit. He was the first person to ever say, "I want to jump with you." We drove to Antioch and on our first jump together (a two way) we found ourselves head on after opening. I expected Norton to wait till the last minute and turn right, so I waited and turned left. I hit Norton's center cell and we had a two stack in under ten seconds after opening, then landed it in the peas. We decided right then we had to prove that the only limit was in our imaginations. As we talked more and more people into trying crw, it was usually Norton that came between me and being grounded, as crw wasn't accepted too well back then. We made the first 8 stack on October 23 1977, in large part due to the efforts of Norton Thomas, CCR#8. CCS#1. I have no problem with Hells Angels. Steve Haley, CCR# 1

Don't forget the LOW pull scene in the Great Waldo Pepper with Robert Redford.

Hey Rondo You can quit searching for Norton's Strato Star, cause I have it. Blue Skies. Steve Haley. CCR# 1 stablesteve@dropzone.com