JerryBaumchen

Hi Chris, As a licensed rigger, I expect to get paid for my professional opinions. Since I think I've actually lost money being a rigger all of these years, how about sending me a buck or two? Jerry PS) It was good to meet you back in Feb.

Hi Terry, A couple of thoughts: I think the Amigo has some type of repack/life limit in which it has to back to the factory for inspection. Not many of them around so not a lot is known about them. Glide Path is now Flight Concepts; Free Flight (maker of the Amigo) is owned by Gary Douris out in Lk. Elsinore. Jerry

Hi Steve1 & Peckerhead, Yup, Ted Mayfield owned the dz at Donald (Ralph never operated out of Donald or Aurora). And yes, Farmer McNasty would pull out his trusty rifle on you if landed on his property. He confiscated a number of canopies, etc that would land on his property. At one rather infamous boogie Lennie Aikens (or so 'rumors' have it) blew up the guy's barn on Sat nite with dynamite. You might ask his daughter Jessie Farrington just how true that 'rumor' is. Ah, the good ole days.

The signature is J. Scott Hamilton; the guy in the upper photo with the wrist mount camera. The other photos look to be Bob Bouquor; at least the middle one is. Also note the P..... C...... A...... is in not in caps.

Hi Amax, Flight attendents, huh? Well, you're thinking small. Back in the wild days of Sheridan, Dirty Susie would ride up in the Beech giving b/j's the guys on the way to altitude. Now that's First Class Flying. Absolutely true; you should have been there.

Hi Steve1 (again), Actually, Molalla was a drop zone (for a while) back in about '72-'73. Ralph Hatley operated a dz there for a couple of years before moving to Estacada. I made quite few jumps at Molalla when Heavy-Drop was operating it.

Hi Peckerhead, You do realize how much of an open-ended a question like that about Ted really is don't you? Well, last year he got married again and elected to the Sheridan City Council. That enough to get you laughing out loud?

Hi steve1, Elevator did not fly a Beech out of Molalla at 15; he was flying for Ted at Sheridan about that age. Today he owns an aircraft repair facility located on the McMinnville airport.

Hi Peckerhead, Nope, not me. However, there was a young go-getter at Sheridan who made his own rig with a h/d reserve. He made about 3 jumps on it to test it and then figured that he was good to go. As you may remember, one good thing about Sheridan for us up-jumpers was a 'no rules' attitude. We did what we wanted to do.

It is my understanding that when Jerry Rouilliard (sp?) ran a dz in Dallas, TX; that when you reached a 100 jumps he gave you a list of the nearest dz's as you were not jumping at his operation anymore.

Hi Praetorian, This first one I ever knew of was written up in a SKYDIVER magazine article sometime in '67. I think it was somewhere in the midwest (not important). It was a simple hop-n-pop water jump. The gear in question was conventional (for you non-senior citizens, that means a chest pack reserve). He exited, had a very slight malfunction on his ParaCommander (most onlookers felt that he could have easily road it into the water without incidence), he cutaway, fell away, pulled his pilot chute deployed round reserve which had a major malfunction; impact with the water killed him. I think that meets your criteria about where doing everything right results in a death. Getting out of bed is very dangerous, in my book.

I can, it is called: THEFT

Re: "It seems we are both right." Always nice when that can happen. Jerry

Re: Just trying to keep it real. Ted Strong once told me that Dan obtained a patent on the PopTop. I do not know of any arrangement between Dan and Ted. Jerry

Reminds me of an incident about 13 yrs ago. I was a single-parent with a 13 y/o boy & 19 y/o girl. One day I get a call from the school informing me that they would like to talk to me. So, off to the schoold I go. Seems as though they were serving hot dogs in cafeteria but no one was taking any. So the cooks began asking questions and one kid fessed-up; he said that Drew said that they were really serving donkey dick that day. Drew and I had a little talk that evening. Makes for a great laugh now when I tell his girlfriends that one.

Are you thinking of the Green River Killer in Seattle-area? I cannot think of his name at the moment. Most people think he may be the most prolific serial killer in US history.

There are probably some gaps here: Paperboy Car wash employee Delivery truck driver US Military GI (3 years 10 months & 24 days) Bill Collector Firefighter Rigger * Teamster -truck driver -fork lift operator -warehouseman -furniture mover Mechanical Engineer Consultant and finally) Retired, the best job I've ever had. Please keep paying your taxes as I've gotten used to the money being there every month. * I think I actually lost money being a rigger??????

I've always been under the thought that you are paying for an airplane ride, not a jump. If it's ?????, then don't go. Life is all about risks.

Hi Terry, My vote was 'I've never . . .' However, back in the '80's I decided to make myself a canopy. Got her all done, packed her up and had to use my reserve. OK, that didn't work; try something else. Well, after 'trying something else' for about 7-8 reserve rides, I finally got the packing procedure correct. Never had her fail on me again. Maybe some of those pro-packers know something I don't?????? Jerry

Mike, All the best to wheresoever life takes you. But remember, I have your address & phone #. Jerry

As I posted, Loos & Company has dies for the ball w/shank.

Contact Loos & Company in Naples, Florida (internet or 800 number). They make dies for the various balls and (when I visited them last March) they thought that they could make dies for the pin(s). They do make a hand swager; I understand that the one that Gary Douris owns is now being used by Sandy Reid in his operation. Jerry

Hi Terry, As I recall, Pioneer (when they finally released it in about '68 or so) called it the ParaTwin. They had made the very first Experimental ones in about '66 (these were made of cotton & had a rather large red EXPERIMENTAL on them). They had to do something to beat the patent that Security had on a reserve placed adjacent to to the main; Security patented the reserve on the top of the main, on the side(s) of the main & on the bottom of the main. Not too much later (about '68-'69), Security brought out their version of the same thing. They both used zippers to hold things on the back-pad. One problem of switching the reserve from the back to the front was that if you were going forward when using a back-mounted reserve, then you would be going in reverse when using a front-mounted reserve. So some folks put the reserve in the container sideway; you were always going sideways no matter where the reserve was mounted. After Dan Poynter returned from Europe with the '67 US Team, he and Strong began developing the StyleMaster (and to compete with the Mini-System). When these rigs came out (in '68, I think), people gave up on the idea of switching things around and just went with the high chest mounted reserves; both the Pioneer & Security versions had rather low chest mounted reserves. Just more trivia to fill up the memory cells.

Hmmm, 1978; so just what kind of 'grass' was that? Jerry

Hey Terry, Re: Those of us rigging then had to pay attention. So if you are rigging now, you do not have to pay attention anymore? We all need a laugh now and then. Jerry