NickDG

Looks like they "folded up." NickD

There's another way if you are willing to think outside the box . . . There are probably a few experienced jumpers in your area in the same fix so just get a few of them together and hire an AFF Instructor to come to you for a weekend. Then rent a local Cessna & pilot (like demo jumpers sometimes do) and find a willing farmer with a field (hey, free personal air show)! As long as it's not over a congested area or in controlled airspace you can jump without a demo waiver from the FAA. Your pilot can phone in a Notam which lets other pilots know there's jumping going on where you are. And if anyone says you can't do this tell them you live in the United States, not Bosnia . . . Eliminating the "greedy" DZO and the student assembly line (found at many DZs) can make the whole experience much more enjoyable. And who knows? You might find you have a flair for organizing things like this and become a greedy DZO yourself . . . There's a large, and very old "skydiving club" here in So Cal who when their offspring are ready to start jumping bypass the whole DZ thing. They just hire all the above and go out into the desert and do what they gotta do . . . I think we are going to see more of this type of homegrown jumping as tandem mills replace traditional up-jumper DZs here in the States. It's already happened in New Zealand where they once had a thriving skydiving community, that anyone could assume would last forever, but it's all gone now. . . NickD

Gee, talk about serving your corporate masters . . . I can't recommend anything having to do with "Red Bullshit" but if you do go then root for Mike Mangold. Mike's a very accomplished skydiver (and all around good guy) and comes to these "races" from the world of legitimate airplane aerobatics. For years he flew his practice routines over Perris and it was a joy to watch. Red Bullshit pretends to promote, but only "uses" people (skydivers, B.A.S.E. jumpers, etc.) to sell their slop to teenagers . . . And now they are revisiting the old trick of lowering the altitude (making it artificially more dangerous than it needs to be) so the rubes have to buy a ticket in order to see better. That gag was invented by parachute barnstormers of the 1920s who'd open so low someone off the airport couldn’t see anything . . . And watch, I'll bet as soon as the crowds start to thin over time, they'll widen the gates a bit and put two aircraft on the course at the same time. I just hope Mike is out of it by then. NickD

I first met Jim Perry when he'd dropped in out of the blue at Borderland in San Diego in the late 80s. Turbine aircraft were the hot thing to have and Jim's Stallion wasn't only that - it was a brute of an airplane that made Twin Otters look like the mailman's truck. After we hooked up he brought it up a shop I was working at on Oceanside airport and we did some maintenance on it, but in addition I installed a killer stereo system for the cabin. This was the pre-Ipod days and some DZ's were touting rock and roll to altitude. That New Year's Eve, the Stallion had been at the DZ for a few weeks. And at that time the Perris DZ had two things most other So Cal DZ's didn't have. A pool and a grass landing area. So Don Muma, the San Diego DZO at the time, knew he couldn’t put anything up besides a pathetic plastic pool so he seeded and watered long enough that he raised a decent side patch of grass that, at least, we could pack on. (Landing on it would get you grounded). So anyway that New Year's Eve we decided to pull the Stallion up onto the grass and jam the stereo. And Don blew a fuse because it was sitting on the grass. We all told him to go F-himself and there was a big-to-do. The next morning Jim left and I went with him. We'd heard that Lake Elsinore was re-opening after the latest flood and we headed there. So we took off, but we needed fuel, so we stopped first at Montgomery Field. We had the stereo cranking Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" and the tower asked us to "get the Led out," as they couldn’t hear anything but that on the radio . . . That airplane really drew a crowd. The Stallion was basically sold to the CIA in the 60s to be used in getting in and out of small jungle strips in Vietnam. Sometimes it was to drop in special teams, but usually it was to bring money and weapons, and whatever else, to friendly villagers. So we landed at Lake Elsinore and it was only a few days since Deborah Blackman, and her husband Brick, had re-opened the DZ. After introductions she said looking at Jim, "Okay, you’re my new chief pilot," and looking at me, "and you're my new chief Instructor. It was pretty cruisey for the next few years . . . And how Jim Lowe died in that same Stallion was the way we all heard it at the time. This is the first I've heard something different. NickD

Yes, it might have been better to keep tandems to static line (gee, you could do 50 of those a day) or at least short delays. At least for me. I was probably the first one to throw a tandem drogue over the tail of a twin beech and get towed . . . Don’t ask, it's a long story, and I come out looking bad in the end . . . NickD

We also had a 411 at Cal City for a while. Hated it . . . The overall accident rate is higher than comfortable and doing two JM AFF out of it is difficult. NickD

Yes, the Courier is fully controllable down to about 35 knots or so and those leading edge slats bang in and out . . . Tell Jim that Nick DiGiovanni said hello . . . NickD

I blew it too. I should have looked at the gear legs more closely, yes, the first one is a Porter . . . NickD

Those are both Helio Stallions. The second one looks exactly like the one Jim Perry owned. We used it at Borderland in San Diego, and then for a while in Lake Elsinore. That same Stallion later crashed with a runaway electric trim switch at Perris killing the pilot. As the airplane tucked under, he blew the door and got out but the prop got him. I worked as an A&P for a guy who restored Helios on the west coast. And I worked on that airplane (but not the trim switch) . . . The below photo is a Helio Courier. NickD

When I was in NZ in the early 1990s sport jumping was going full blast but there were also tandem mills popping up all over. They had Japanese tandem tourists lined up for miles . . . Take note America - New Zealand's present may be our future . . . NickD BASE 194

>>Do you have a pilot turning on a green light and other jumpers yelling "go, go, go" on your BASE exit points

Yes, I remember you being a Conference Director around that time. And yes, USPA was busy rolling out AFF, pushing for deregulation of sport parachuting (thank goodness that didn't happen), square reserves from several manufacturers began hitting the market, and there were a few bad jump plane crashes that year. But USPA wasn't that broke in 1981. I know in the late 70s they were really in trouble when they barely had enough money for their next general membership meeting. But that started to turn around when Bill Ottley became Executive Director in 1978. And how about now? (Not directed at you, Jim, just a general comment.) How much money was spent on the move to Fredericksburg? I turned down a job at Headquarters in 1984 partly because the wage was so low anyone not living in their parent's basement could afford to take it. Factoring in Alexandria's cost of living and I was doing better teaching first jump courses in the California desert. We (and I mean us members) are now paying $100,000 annually to USPA's Executive Director. (I know that doesn't sound like much to younger USPA members, but it boggles the minds of us old timers). And this will probably go up when the next ED takes office. I say let's recoup some of that since USPA now has enough land in Fredericksburg. Lower the USPA wages and move in a bunch of old single wide trailers to form a USPA Ghetto behind the new Headquarters. Make them available to USPA's appointed staff and maybe when they see how the true backbone of the sport lives - the instructors - we'll get back to some fiscal responsibility. On the El Cap deal, what would it cost for USPA to come out again for legal jumps? I'm not saying mount a full blown legal campaign, (although I'd like to see that) just a few letters, on USPA letterheads directed at the right people would help. If USPA is willing to take the advert dollars the BASE industry provides they should get off the damn fence altogether . . . This is not 1981 anymore. The world is chock full of legal places to B.A.S.E. jump. And a large amount of those B.A.S.E. jumps are being made by USPA members! NickD

That's the best definition of a B.A.S.E. jump I ever heard . . . NickD

I was hanging in the East Village in New York City in 1969 and Iron Butterfly & Led Zeppelin were both playing the Fillmore East. The year before I'd gotten in to see Janis Joplin, but it was sold out for this show. I stayed outside though and could hear pretty well. There was some controversy about who'd play first as Iron Butterfly knew they were going to get blown away by Led Zeppelin. I was all of about 16 yrs old then, and it's hard to describe the culture in Greenwich Village in those days, but man, it was a happening! In the small world department, 25 years later, I was B.A.S.E jumping with the son of Iron Butterfly's drummer. I really can't believe we went from those heady times of enlightenment to today's saggy baggies and gang signs. History truly has no memory . . . NickD

>>Or is it a Ckret. Clever name.

>>Not the same in the Cooper case.

>>The physical description I provided is a reported fact.

This may not work for you now, but maybe later. Whenever someone lost a log book, or in some cases all of them, in a time when everybody still logged, we'd have a Logbook Signing Party! You just throw a party for a lot of jumpers who know you, and know your experience level, and then just throw down several blank logbooks on the coffee table. Nobody walks by without signing off a few jumps, and before the night is out, you're back up to date . . . NickD

He, like Jim Wallace whose also getting the gold medal, deserves it. The stuff Norm shot of his late wife Diana is just too good for words. Although lately I see him in the picture too much. I mean what's he doing? Hiring another guy to shoot him while he's shooting someone else who hired him? There's another famous "Norman" who painted a picture like that once, but he used a mirror . . . There's a great photo of Norman Kent (maybe someone has it and can post) when he was on his 12th jump or so down in Mexico. He's already got a Kodak Instamatic camera duct taped to his Protect helmet! NickD

>>In the end you'd have to stick the landing in the middle of a forest at about 30 mph with a 14 knot wind.

Many did them intentionally during the 80s. There was even a lot of backwards CRW. I haven't done one since the Stilettos came out . . . NickD

At least he doesn't have a, "wide stance." NickD BASE 194

>>Perris seems bigger than ever.

>>Coincidently, I was serving as the NE conference director on the board of USPA when USPA bascially said that since no airplanes were used, BASE was not a USPA activity...a decision that I agreed with then and still do today.

Nevermind, they just ran it again and said "skytyper" as in a skywriting aircraft. I intially heard "skydiver" instead. Sorry . . . NickD BASE 194