africapete

Somebody dropped off a Handbury ultralight parachute at the airfield I fly out of - the packing slip has only one entry stating that it was packed on 7/28/1983 by Jim Handbury. It says Make UC 28 HPC serial # 7/83. It has a carabiner attached to a steel cable and we were wondering if that would be attached to the airframe and how it would be deployed - presumably by feeding the material into the airstream ? In pristine condition - I seem to recall that Handbury made a sport rig too ?

Great story - got more than a little misty there myself ! My grandfather was one of the oldest Chevy dealers in South Africa back in the day, so I am a little biased to the brand too.

Can't believe it is already four years since Martin's untimely passing - miss you, my friend !

My first rig in 1980 was a Strato Star with a 26' reserve in a PA [ Parachutes Australia] container. Put 28 jumps on the Strat, landings were okay here and there but I guess better than the old surplus C -9 's and T-10's ! Switched to a GQ Security Unit with far better results. I seem to recall that the Strato had hard toggles, big old things that looked like they were made out of perspex. Anybody remember those ? My Dad gave me money for college and I used most of it to buy the Strat - boy, was he mad at me ...

Just finished watching the first season of " Ice Pilots ", the story of Buffalo Airways operating in the Canadian North. They operate DC 3's, DC 4's , C46 's , Electras and CL 125's. Fantastic footage of these planes in action and the pilots and mechanics who keep them flying. Highly recommended, check out www.buffaloairways.com.

Welcome back ! Bloemfontein was my home DZ for many years , very fond memories of the place. Say " Hi " to Chris de Jager and Johan Laubscher for me .Take care !

A friend from South Africa ordered a camera helmet, Go-Pro and some other stuff from ChutingStar - I did all the enquiries etc. from my side and peppered Mike with all kinds of questions. Each question was responded to almost within the half hour, the order completed and shipped as promised and he did a great job with assembling the camera and video mounts. All we had to do was mount the sight and the helmet was perfect when my friend arrived here after Oshkosh. This was the second time I did business with Mike, and I can highly recommend his services.

Thanks - appreciate the advice !

A good friend of mine is coming to the States for Oshkosh and Summerfest at Skydive Chicago and he wants to purchase a Bonehead Optic illusion helmet. He wants to mount a CX 115 video camera and a GoPro camera and Hypeye D pro. Could anybody please advise exactly what kind of mounts / box etc. would be required and would work best for the equipment mentioned? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Peter .

" You have to seduce it into starting " - pure poetry right there ! I remember my first jump from a Turbine DC-3 - nice, but just not the same as the old radial ones....

I remember Mike very well from PASA meetings in South Africa - a colourful man indeed ! May he rest in peace ...

Excellent book, worth every cent - VERY brave men and their flying machines ...

I remember a container called the "Springhog" manufactured by PISA in South Africa that looked very similar to the Wonderhog - does anybody know if that was a copy of the latter ? I also jumped a Coe-D 210 for a long time which was a PD 210 made under license by PISA , named after the designer I believe .

Two years went by in a flash ... still think of you every single day, my friend ! Pete .

" We just want to live , dream, love and fly " .... Beautiful lyrics , great song !

Thanks, Jim - it makes a lot more sense to me now ! Pete .

Spent an interesting morning with a friend who did Airborne training in 1969 [ 504 Devils ] - he has an old T-10 with harness and we decided to open it up and repack it just for the heck of it. Brought back some good old memories, I forgot how much hard work it was to flake and pack a round ! I was not familiar with the type of deployment bag that had a bunch of numbers on it that might make sense to one of the experts in this forum : 07878-56D6272 1670-590-9909 cont. no. DA J01-69-C-0586 [ 1J] serial # 12045 , manufactured Sept. 1969. The line stows are sewn on to the bag, and I was wondering if they used some kind of tool to pull the lines through these bands as the bands have almost no elasticity and it is virtually imposiible to do it by hand. The harness was manufactured in Oct. 1963 by M. Steinthal and Co. Inc. under license from the Switlik Parachute Co. Part number is 59C6174 and it has a release [ similar to the release for a racing car harness ] on the front where the legstraps are attached to as well. I put it on, not very comfortable to say the least - can't imagine jumping it with full kit. My final question would be how the container was closed - each of the 4 flaps have a loop attached, so something must have been used to keep the flaps closed with the assistance of the static line. Would be interesting to hear from anybody with more info. Thank you, Peter Haley .

QuoteI saw some newsgroup reports that the South African Air Force was unhappy with their Basler DC 3 turbine conversions and are selling them off. Any known reasons for their dissatisfaction? --------------------------------------------- I had the privilege of jumping from the South African Air Force Turbine DC 3's on numerous occasions and the weirdest thing to me always was this plane that approached the airport that LOOKED like a DC 3 but did not sound like one at all ! As far as I know the SAAF did the conversions themselves and there were quite a few C of G problems , and the Turbines were grounded from skydiving operations for a while. Don't know what their current status is, but a very nice jump ship - maybe because I have a soft spot for the old Daks [ Dakotas ].

Maybe their vehicles are out of blinker fluid ....

I wrote this about 15 years ago when I was CI at Bloemfontein Skydiving Center in South Africa and recently found a copy while going through some old documents - maybe somebody will enjoy it ! THE SKYFLY SAGA Skydiving flies seen at Bloemfontein Skydiving Center - believe it, or not ! It is a well-known fact that fleas can be trained to perform circus tricks with miniature equipment, but would you believe that flies can skydive ? Well, neither did I until recently ... There I was in the clubhouse last Saturday waiting for my load . A few of the younger jumpers were watching the training video "Skydive 101 " , and as I glanced at the TV I noticed, quite by chance, four flies sitting on the screen. At first I thought nothing of it, but after a while I noticed the flies were still in the same position. The crazy idea entered my head that they might in fact be watching the video, but that thought seemed too far out for even a skydiver to imagine. At that stage my load was ready and I left the clubhouse. When I returned later the video was over and the flies were gone. I sat down to browse through the new Safety Regulations and suddenly something caught my eye - four flies sitting on the side of the broom closet in the kitchen area. It appeared to be the same group mentioned earlier as one fly was slightly larger than the rest. Can you imagine my surprise when all four of them suddenly touched front feet to form a star, then a donut , a cat and some sidebodies ? It slowly dawned on me that these guys were doing walkies , in other words, they were planning a SKYDIVE ! I watched in amazement as these four mothers walked back to the top of the closet , and the next second they launched a perfect fly 4-way from the top and they started turning the formations practised earlier, almost faster than the eye could see and without flapping their wings. Just before hitting the floor they seperated, tracked and started flapping their wings to return to the top of the closet. I could not believe my good fortune in observing this amazing feat and immediately decided to get to the bottom of the story. I strolled over to the closet trying to act as nonchalant as possible, and motioned to the bigger fly to follow me outside , on which he did a perfect stand-up landing on my left shoulder. I walked over to my car in the parking lot for some privacy , and once we were inside the car I introduced myself and commented on what I had witnessed. The little guy introduced himself as SkyFly, and I listened in awe as his life story unfolded. This is more or less how the conversation went : Me : Where on earh did you learn to skydive ? SkyFly : I was born on a farm near Rustenburg. Farm life was pretty boring, and after hearing tales about food orgies at the nearby Sun City Gambling resort I decided to hop on a local minivan and to go check out the place. On the way there I was unfortunately blown out of the van when I became drowsy, lost my grip on the side window and the slipstream zapped me . To cut a long story short - I was stranded in a place called Pilansberg without food or shelter. Fortunately I noticed a farmhouse in the distance , and when I arrived there I discovered that the place was actually a skydiving club. My grandfather once lived in the same house as a well-known skydiver by the name of Peter Lawson and I often listened to the tales he had to tell. I have always been a bit of a daredevil and immediately decided to learn more about skydiving. Me : Did you receive any formal training ? SkyFly : No, I mostly learned by watching students being trained and then practising in the quiet of the kitchen. The arch position as taught to humans work perfectly for us as well. At first it was extremely difficult to let go of the ceiling, arch and freefall without using my wings, but I eventually overcame my fear of NOT flying. At one stage I had some stability problems and went inverted time and time again , but this problem was cured when I saw one of the instructors teaching one of the showgirls from Sun City the gentle art of falling stable on your back. Witnessing this one-on-one instruction cured my stability problem, and I then proceeded to master all the other basic free- fall skills. To learn to track was easy - I simply had to turn 180 degrees and fly away. Me : How did you advance further ? SkyFly : At first it was pretty difficult as I had to convince the local houseflies and barflies that flydiving was indeed a safe sport. Some of the older flies were convinced that I was a maniac bent on self-destruction who only wanted to kill their sons and seduce their daughters. Fortunately, through good instruction, PR work and frequent demo's at local fly-ins and charity events I was able to change the daredevil perception. We soon established a four way team and started practising for the National Flydiving Championships. Due to unforseen circumstances however I ended up here at your clubhouse. Me : How did that happen ? SkyFly : Well, one of your jumpers attended an instructors course at Pilansberg . I flew past his car on the way to the clubhouse when I noticed this cute little flylady wearing a short black number sitting on the steering wheel . Being a gentlefly by nature I introduced myself and soon was involved in jumpstories of a different kind. When I came to my senses your jumper was on his way back home and I had no choice but to follow my new lady to her home turf. It followed quite naturally that I introduced the locals to flydiving, which is how you came to notice us. That, then, is brieFLY the amazing story of SkyFly. I was touched by his commitment to the sport, and would like to request the following : Show some respect to the flies at your DZ - they might be actively involved in flydiving, and believe me, it means as much to them as skydiving to us ; Give clubflies the opportunity to learn. Don't chase them away if they sit on your shoulder while you are packing or dirt-diving . Rumour has it that riggerflies at PD and other companies are developing mini-systems to enable flydiving to progress to CRW and swooping. Be careful what you say in front of DZ flies, especially barflies - you know how fast rumours can spread , and have you ever considered that flies may contribute to this ? Believe me, SkyFly has a few red-hot stories to tell about local skygods ! In conclusion - we all share the same sky and love the thrill of free-fall. As SkyFly puts it - minimise the risk of skydiving by good training and thorough preparation and you will grow old in the best sport in the world. Blue Skies, Peter .

One year today since Martin's untimely passing, and not one day goes by without me thinking of him and remembering his wonderful friendship - nobody could walk away from a conversation with him without a big smile . I miss you, my friend ..... Peter Haley .

Thanks for the info [ and jokes, of course !] - appreciate it . Peter.

I recently filed Form I-485 [ Application to register Permanent Residence ] with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. This application is based on marriage and I have an interview in Chicago on September 22. I was wondering if anyone went through the interview process recently - any help as to what to expect [questions, etc.] will be greatly appreciated . PM me please ! Thank you, Peter .

I have done a number of demo's from a "6", Seneca III and a Turbo Saratoga - follow Airtwardo's advice and you'll be fine. Just dive down low, no big "arch" on exit. Spotting is not so easy with the low wing, so you might want to make sure that the pilot understands the importance of flying directly over the spot on the windline - that will make corrections easier. Good luck ! Peter .

That hit home for sure - I KNOW I'm waaaay past my TBO ... Thanks, Pete.