Thom

Well, before 1962 at least. 2 of the 1962 World Team, Murriel Simbro and someone else, were Taft jumpers. Both the Simbros jumped as did their daughter at Taft. Taft and Lancaster were very early California DZ's and in competition. I prefered Lancatser because it was closer but it lost out to Taft. THOM

I jumped there between 27 SEPT 69 and 12 April 70. I was a poor student At Brooks in Santa Barbara and was looking for a closer place that the "NYLON TRIANGLE" (Hemit-Perris-Elsinore)after Santa Ynez closed down. I made my first motion picture camera jump there and my 100th jump there with Joan Emmeck (D-1811) and I landed on a cactus. Taft was also my last jump in California (moved to Colorado. I remember Bill Smith (A Canadian), Art Wooly, Bill Freeman and Debby Reeves mostly. Thom

Taft has an unsong past that should b explored. It was home to many of the greats from the 60's including Bill and Mirriel Simbro (spelling??) I made my 100th jump there when the DZ was in that bowl used by the oil tanks. I landed on a cactus!! THOM

I also had the Pioneer 3-pin container on a Mini-system harness. Fit my Thunder-Bow quite well and I used it for years till I got the T-Bow pig with Wolf Custom harness. THOM

My current rig is a Guardian FOX (which is a civian Mach 12000 military rig) with a Laser-9 (9cell 292') main and Laser-250R. The main issue is that you have to buy a whole new rig to make any upgrades. In the Golden Days you could mix the most comfortable harness (my choice in the 70's for instance was the Cark Wolf Custom harness) and a container system. For conventional I had a pioneer 3-pin back and a Wolf Rip Off reserve and then I went to a Wolf Harness with a Thunder-Bow pig system (Thunderbows and 26' Security LoPo in both set ups). I personally prefer harnesses that have an adjustable main lift web but that's because I started with them in the 60's and I can adjust the thing to suit my shifting weight (a problem when you get in your 50's)plus I'm 6'2" tall and few rigs today are made for someone that tall. The question now remains is how does "The Market" assure that the best gear is available because right now I don't believe its working to give people the best options. If I bought a second rig or replaced this one I would have to get another FOX or the Strong Military Tandum rig, neither of which is common, inexpensive or easily available in fact the Fox may not be available at all. I do have the option of the Australian SAS rig which is made in new Zealand but I'm not even sure if civilians can get it. Cheers Thom

I found an ad for the PP dated 1970 today. Price was $550 with EPOD (Extra painful opening device)

My 292' Laser-9 9-cell has developed a very slow right turn. It doesn't appear to be the lines and I noticed the top material on the side of the direction of the turn looks a bit "funny" compared to the other side. Any suggestions to correct it? THOM

If they were strange to jump, they were even stranger to put a static line student out of. The student had to hold on to the strut and climb two a two-step "ladder" before letting go. HW _____________________ Another weird one was the Stinson MULE they had at Perris in early 70. They actually had the seats still installed and you had to "get up" to get in the door. Last jump I made at Perris was 22 Feb 70 (from the MULE) and also the last jump I ever made on my yellow C-8 with the Hustler cut in it. It had patches all over from Viet Nam and I retired it in favor of my brand new(ish) white C-8 Hustler that Lyle Cameron sold me for $20 new surplus. Getting out of the Mule was a bear (a 4-way ended up as a 4 man individual sequential) but the landing was quite soft for the old yellow girl. THOM

"Just to show you how much jumping has grown... For well over 10 years, from the early 60's till ram airs took over, everyone, and I mean everyone, jumped only one canopy... the Paracommander. I once asked Jacques Istel, who sold them all, exactly how many PC's were ever made, and he told me just over 10,000...that's it (and I owned 3 of them myself). Compare that to the nearly 100,000 ram airs PD alone has made, and you can see how many more of us there are nowadays. " Hi Bill Part of the issue here is that people had other and cheaper options then, something you don't have now. In that respect the free market has been a total failure. You had your surplus military stuff, dirt cheap of course, PC's, PAPS, Starlites, UT's, Thunderbows, Crossbows, Piglettes, single surface tri-angles like the Dactyles, Hawks, Eagles and Delta II's and Sierras. Since the PC was pretty dead by the mid-80's and you didn't have that many jumpers between 1964 and 1980 its amazing Jacques sold that many. Thom

"Thom, Those sound like wild and crazy times in "Nam". I was never there but I did make a lot of static line jumps out of H-34's, here in the states, during the 70's. They kind of reminded you of a big grasshopper. I think the marines were about the last soldiers to use them. The Marine Corps always seemed to get the short end of the stick. Steve1" REPLY: Lets say the experience was UNIQUE! The DZ was also had as rock so you either did an excellent PLF or stood it up whichwasn't often in that heat and humidty. AP DONG was also the DZ for the Vietnamese 2nd Airborne Division and there was a small triangular fort on the DZ. The chopper could land right next to the packing area but we discourage that for obvious reasons. Every time we jumped we were plagued by people trying to sell us everything from cokeacola to their daughters and these boys were all over who would field pack for you for a couple of cigarettes. Carry your gear back for another one. The club had mostly Army in it, and a couple of Navy and Air Force but also some Aussies and American Civilians. The first CrossBow in Viet Nam didn't get jumped more than a few times. An American civilian brought it in and did a hook turn into a tree trunk and the H-34 had to fly him to the 3rd field hospital which left us without a jump ship for several hours. By the way, the H-34 was Viet in VNAF colors and we paid the pilots a (5th) bottle of Johnny Walker each to fly for us, the chopper was free. I didn't drink so it was usually my ration for 5th's that got used up. After TET in 1968 the club couldn't get the chopper anymore and the club folded I'm told. Love to hear more from anyone who jumped in Nam. THOM Still suffering from Post Traumatic Opening Shock!!

Re; The Greens Vote Green tomorrow and we'll promise to take the Stamp Duty (that's a tax for you folks up north) off of gravity!!!

Your quite correct about that. First time I was there in 68 the Lake had risen to the end of the runway and the pea pit was under water. But they were still jumping there. They had a couple of Howards which is a strange plane to jump. Considering the unique situation to that DZ I don't think you could fault them for moving down the road a bit.

I talked to a couple of jumpers from back then and he told me that they actually were jumping two seat Piper Super Cubs!! THOM

I had to go back into my records to check on this. Skylark Aviation took over the jump operations in 1959 but there had been jumping there since 1957. I would love to know more about this operation for my website. Parachutes incorporated Operated The Goodhill DZ in 1958 and signed a lease with the cxity of Orange in FEB 1959 and opened the DZ on May 2, 1959. Elsinore to the best of my knowledge has never ceased operations since 1959 (could be wrong) but the history of it between 57 and 59 is very cloudy. THOM

If the Liberal Party wins the election on Saturday you may be required to wear ties again!!! :-) By the way, we in the Green Party are trying to stop that freeway that's going to wipe Pakenham DZ out! Thom candidate for Narre Warren South/GREENS

Orange DZ (now Jumptown) was in fact started by the first company, Parachutes Incorporated but they had an earlier DZ at Batch Pond's Good Hill Farm in CT. I believe thought that SKYLARK AVIATION at Lake Elsinore started jumping in 1957. THOM

Hi Could you please throw a flower on "Shorty" Jennesecks grave for me. Such a great old jumper and pioneer and a heart attack victim. THOM Australia

There were several versions. Pre-Mk1: Sold only in red/white and blue and noted for its 1.1 HiPo ripstop crown while the rest was taffita Mk-1: Probably the most common and was taffita thru out. Paragear or Midwest Parachute company were the first to talk Pioneer into custom colors. Mk-2: had a closed rear section Mk-3: commonly called the DROP-COMP because unlike the others it had a nasty stall and was designed for accuracy jumpers who wanted to just tall onto the disk. JUMBO-PC: was simply a scaled up version for heavier jumpers or mountain jumpers RW-PC: The worst and biggest failure. The first PC came out to counter Security's Cross-Bow (a bigger canopy, 28 vs 24 foot and more accurate plus it had reverse flight) and the RW-PC was sold to counter the zero porosity Security SIERRA (and pig system) which wasd seriously eating into PC sales. Before the Sierra the main competition was the Sneider made French PAPPILLION or PAP which was the most accurate of the lot. There was also the Pigglettes and Ted Strong's Starlite. In 71 Security introduced the superior ThunderBow but rather than moving up to it many started the gradual change to the Strat-Star and Parafoils. THOM

Two from Viet Nam I was in a group of crazies in 1966-67 called the Saigon Sport Parachute Club jumping at Ap Dong. We used H-34's which is strange cause when you spot you can yell "5 BACK!". The first incident was a 10,000 footer and at about 4000' I noticed that the DZ was being shelled!!! I seriously wondered if it was worth it to open at all or just get it over with but I wasn't that young or that stupid. Next was a few weeks later when the crew chief ordered everyone out for some reason. We were down wind over a jungle canopy to the east of the DZ and no way could we get back. I spotted a small clearing maybe 25' in diameter and started towards it with my 28' cheapo. I had to work the target and put my M-45 Swedish 9mm submachine gun together at the same time. I land in the clearing but the canopy was in the trees and I was dangling a foot or so off the ground. I heard people running towards me and I almost shot three kids who came after me to carry gear or whatever formoney or cigarettes. They got my gear out of the tree and when I went to put some ripstop tape on some small tears from the tree, I found two small caliger bullet holes! Don't know when I got them THOM

I suggest that you take a look at http://projectpi.skydiveworld.com We have been trying like hell to put together a great site on all aspects of the first skydiving company, Parachutes Incorporated. Anyone who has jumped at any of their 5 DZ's (Orange/Mass, Lakewood/NJ, Crawfordsville/IND, Hemet/CA and Elsinore/CA when they were PI DZ's are welcomed to contribute with their profiles and photos. Cheers Thom Melbourne, Australia

The T-Bow was a wonderful canopy and I went thru two of them in the 70's and early 80's. It could keep up with the squares (I'm quite tall) if the other jumper was average weight or less and actually had a 2.32-1 glide ration which was actually better than the early squares. On bad days in Colorado myself and the Strato-Stars would be the only ones to make it to the DZ while the PC, PAPS etc were blown all over the country. Its the best non-square ever designed and the best of the triangles.