steve1

Para-commanders do open quicker I guess. I don't recall seeing a lot of low opennings back then though. I know people tell stories of low opennings happening all the time, way back when, but to tell you the truth I didn't see a lot of it. Our club would ground you if you did go low, even then. I doubt if this grounding process helped much. The ground rush from 500 ft. was enough to put the fear of God into me. Reserve pack jobs back then were only five bucks so that wasn't really a factor. The point is you just don't have time to think of a reserve being a faster way to get canopy. In fact I've never heard of anyone pulling a reserve at a lower altitude to save their bacon instead of a main. Maybe someone somewhere did, but I've never heard of this. As someone already mentioned I'd go for my reserve if I had to exit lower, but who can think fast enough when they suddenly realize they are low after a long freefall, when there are no seconds to spare. I appreciate other thoughts on this. Maybe with the proper training this could be possible...Steve1

I have two daughters that I think the world of. When the oldest was 18 she made a tandem. She's always been kind of a thrill seeker and I think part of it was to please her old man. She seemed to love every second of it, though. My youngest daughter hasn't had much interest in making a tandem, so I haven't pushed it. I'd love to jump with her, but I want it to be her decision and not something she has to do to please me. And yes, it is a worry. I know the odds of something going wrong are slim, but there's still that chance. I've known five different guys personally who have died in this sport (four in the 70's and one a few years ago),and I'd never forgive myself if I got my daughters hooked on a sport that eventually took their life. So, I have some mixed feelings on this....Steve1

I know the smart thing to do would be to go for your reserve, but this almost never happens. I'm no expert, but I have gone really really low twice in my life. The first time was in the 70's when none of us were watching altimeters. I could see the ground coming up really fast but pulled my main instead of my belly reserve. I had canopy at 500 feet. Not smart, but I just wasn't thinking quick enough to do anything else. Muscle memory kicked in and I went for the wrong handle. Last summer I had a Cypress fire at Lost Prairie. A variety of things went wrong, but it was mostly because I had my head up my rear. And I threw out my main instead of going for my reserve handle. I was over a hill across from the DZ. Believe me the trees were getting really big when both canopies openned. They were both flying well, one behind the other, so I landed both. When the ground is coming up that fast, most people don't think smart....Steve1

Thanks for all the personal insight on this scenario. I guess everyone knows you need to check your canopy on openning. Many times I've forgot to do just that. I was too busy watching for other canopies etc. I guess those could have been wasted seconds in dealing with a malfunction.....Steve1

I bought a new jump suit, but it feels way different than my old one. My old one has a lot of extra material in the arm pit area and it just flies different. My old suit works great for getting me back up when I go low. The only problem is that it is about ragged out. I think if I had some knew booties sewn on I could get a couple more years out of it. What would be a good place to send it to, to get this done? Thanks for your help.....Steve1

When I first got my new Hornet 170 it was slamming me on a regular basis. After a couple trips to the chiropractor for a messed up neck, a strained groin, and one bent finger from another hard openning, I started psycho packing. If anything my opennings are a little too snively now. It's a cinch to get the air out of the material and it goes into the bag nice. Everyone at my DZ thought I was nuts packing this way, but I love it. Most openings are soft and on heading. It never opens hard now...Steve1

I used to have a belly-wart dashboard. Even had a stop watch for a while. Never looked at the stop watch, but it looked cool. I recall one really hard openning under my PC when I actually banged my face on my altimeter mount. Man that was a terrible openning. Some of the old timers even used a big altimeter taken out of an airplane. The dashboard for that altimeter was huge. I was glad I didn't jump one of those much. Lot's of times we'd use somebody elses reserve if ours was out of date, etc. I don't miss some of the old gear. I loved jumping the PC again though.....Steve1

I haven't jumped a Para-commander in about 30 years, and I've had a real hankering to jump one for a long time now. I finally got my chance last weekend at a small boogie in Stevensville. An old friend was going to jump one and he offered to let me jump after he did. Bob who is 65 years old landed just fine. I spent almost an hour trying to recall how to pack one. The harness and container was newer than the ones we used in the early 70's. Instead of pins and cones, and shot and a half capewells...this container had some type of velcro to hold the capewells shut and had nylon loops instead of cones. The reserve was also on the back pack, instead of the old belly reserve I was used to. This gear probably came out in the latter 70s. I quit jumping in the mid 70s, so this equipment was slightly different than I used in the old days. At any rate I dawned my old French jump boots, crawled into my new old rig, and boarded the Caravan with seven of my old pals. We built a nice eight way. At around six thousand they all backed off a little and watched me pull in place. I sat up a little to make sure the pilot chute would take off. The opening was brisk. The harness was comfortable and the quick ejector hardware worked just fine. The canopy ride was quiet and lot's of old memoried came rushing back. Luckily there was little wind because there sure isn't much forward speed to an old P.C. At the last minute I hooked it into the wind a little, then reached up and pulled down hard on the back risers. Everyone expects you to land like a ton of crap under a round, so I was determined to get a nice landing. My Frenchies absorbed most of the landing force and I stood it up. Can you believe that? Everyone at the boogie started yahooing and clapping. Not bad for an old fat guy! After that a group of us old timers got to talking about the old days so we decided to put together a load of old farts and try to build a 11 way speed star. Prior to that we added up all of our combined years of skydiving experience on this load, and came up with 235 years. Blaine Wright, who's been in a bunch of world record big ways, wanted to fall base. He told us that he was going to crawl out and give a count. On jump run he decided to trick all of us and went one, two, three, go, and dove out the door laughing.. Then he went spiraling away from us for a ways, so we all got a long swoop out of things. One old guy (who put me out on my first free-fall in 72) went low. He's not very current and needs a bigger jump suit. The rest of us got in. That was the last load of the boogie, and we all lived happily ever after. (What a great weekend!)...Steve1

Greg Nardi brought his King Air up last summer and we had the opportunity to jump a bigger aircraft for a change. Almost nobody here knows much about freeflying so nearly everyone goes up and does RW. At any rate, we were dirt diving a bigger way...(for us)... before boarding the King Air....when we started to notice most all of us were really old farts. So we went around the circle and gave our ages. Most of us were in their 50's, three were in there latter 60's, and the youngest was about 45. I thought it was great that all us old folks can still jump. Many of these guys I jumped with in the 70's and they are great pals, but it would be nice to have some younger jumpers to take our place when we get too old to land, or read an altimeter, or walk, or hold our bowels without losing it on jump run.....Steve1

I did this with my old Vector. Slid in some foam that is pretty rigid, about 3/4 inch thick. It is now much more comfortable now. I didn't tack it down and it still seems to stay in place.....Steve1

I'm sure the run-ways and hangars are still there, but now abandonned. There's still a lot of empty older homes at the base that people are buying up for bargain prices. Most are pulled off their foundations and moved to other locations. There are several houses here in Culbertson that were once part of the air-base in Glasgow. If I remember right Glasgow was also the home town of Steve Reeves.

When I was at lost Prairie I jumped with a guy who is a Halo jumpmaster. I'm terrible with names, and forgot it already. But he was truly an interesting individual. He's been in Special Forces for around 20 years and is trying to retire this year if they'll let him. He said that he has a 13 year old son who needs his Dad at home for a change. He said he's spent months and months in Iran and Iraq and he's tired of ending up in the hospital all shot up. He said you wouldn't believe some of the stuff he walked away from over there. I wondered why he had a beard if he's still in the military. I imagine it was to blend in with the locals in the Midddle East....Steve1

I live not too far from Glassgow. I haven't heard of any DZ ever being there, but there very well could have been. Glassgow is an old Air Force town with a lot of history. Many folks left when the base shut down. It's one cold spot in the winter and hot in the summer. And it's good hunting and fishing near there. If I run into any old timers from that area I'll ask them if they remember any skydiving going on.....Steve1

I had a friend (Bill Newmiester) who worked as some type of mercenary in Africa during the later 70's. He was an ex Special Forces medic. When he was finished with S.F. training he returned to our Guard Unit and decided that it was way too much of a joke for him. So he went regular Army. After three years he returned home to Missoula to Smoke Jump. Then he went to Africa. And then back to Smoke Jump in Alaska. I think he may still be Smoke Jumping, but then again he may be getting too old for that sort of thing. Interesting guy. I imagine he was HALO qualified.....Steve1

Thanks for the great reading. The equipment they had then was probably really low-tech to what they use now. I went through S.F. training in the early 70's so some of this sounds familiar. I never got HALO school so I don't really know much about their operations or training. The Halo building was next to where we chuted up for our static line jumps so we'd see some of the HALO people at times. It seemed like most were jumping para-commanders when I was at Brag, but I suppose they might also have jumped modified t-10's. My A-team jumped a C-130 (black bird) once when it was still fairly new. I even got chewed out for taking a picture of it, because some of it's electronic equipment was still classified back then. We were in isolation at camp McCall for a week or so and then flew down to Southern Texas to make a night jump out of it. This was into the desert on a training exercise. It had some type of a terrain following navigation system that could be used in the dark to fly below radar (or so we were told). The green light went on when we were over the D.Z. This was all new back then. We always static-lined out the side doors. I've never tail gated one like the halo people do. We didn't use weapons containers very often. We'd let the slings way out on our M-16's and carry them over our shoulders. Some people jumped M-14's that way also but these rifles were much longer and their was a chance of the static line wrapping around the muzzle. We used a jungle ruck to carry most of our gear below our reserves. A small piece of string was tied the ruck to your leg and your rifle to your main lift web. This kept them in place when you hit the prop blast. You were supposed to tie a slip knot so you could untie things quick to drop your equipment or get your weapon out. Part of the time it turned into a knot and you could do neither. A car-15 was a popular weapon back then. It was much shorter than the standard M-16. A friend of mine who served two tours in Vietnam as an advisor still has one in his home for home defense today. So that's about all I know about outdated military equipment and operations. I have to say that those who served in Vietnam during those years have my respect. It's easy to see why many of them came home suffering from post-tramatic-stress. I enjoy reading war stories, but I doubt if it was any fun being there....Steve1

Made my first one at 19, in 1970 as an airborne trooper courtesy of the army. Started sport jumping in about 1972. It was cheap, back then, to get into the sport. Quit in about 1975 for almost 25 years. It's great to be back... I think it's cool you are jumping with your son. This new gear enables a lot of us old farts to keep right on jumping. What a great sport!. I saw an old jumper jumping with his two sons at Lost Prairie a couple weeks ago. Another guy was jumping with his daughter. So it can be a family affair....Steve1

Thanks for the great story Skratch. I guess I kind of changed some of the facts. Hod is still busy keeping his drop zone going while working full time as a Postman. He made 19 tandems the other day. I wish I had that kind of endurance. I haven't seen B.J. since the seventies. I guess he doesn't have a pony tail anymore. If you ever get to Stevensville stop in. Maybe we could get Walt Mercer to fly us. He got his private license back a few weeks ago after the heart-murmor problem. He even flew a load of jumpers the other day for old times sake (with another commercial pilot on board). And come to Lost Prairie again. Maybe it will be cooler next year.....Steve1

Everything went according to plan. Beautiful weather and the grandstands were full and cheering. My wife and daughter were on the dropzone crew. We did a five way out of the 206 from about six grand. One of the guys that jumped with us is an ex-Bobcat football player who went swooping over the crowd hollering "yeigh" as he went in for a nice landing. Needless to say he is one of the crazier guys in our club. My only regret is that I only get one jump into the fair this year. I don't know what it paid. If there was much money involved it probably went to our club. It's really turning into a red-tape nightmare to make a demo these days, and there's talk that these might be the last fair jumps we'll be making. I wish Artwardo and Sparky could have been with us. It would have been good to have some experts show us yahoos how it should be done. I've definitely got to get a pro rating, when I grow up some day.....Steve1

In about another couple hours we take off to do a demo in Missoula. It's a fair and bull-a-rama. It's not all that tight, so I get to go. I don't have a pro-rating yet so I feel privelaged to be included. The winds are calm and it ought to be fun. Damn I love these kind of jumps. It just doesn't get any better than this. I'll let you know how it turns out.....Steve1

I made some jumps yesterday with Gary (Hod) Sanders. He knows Skratch well, and jumped with him back in the old days. He said that in 1975 he and B.J. Worth and Skratch travelled to Checkoslavakia to jump with the Russians for the first time. If I have my story straight 1975 was the first year America was doing a joint Space Venture with Russia by docking their space capsule with ours and doing some things in outer space. Hod said he only had about 700 jumps back then and it was really cool to be jumping with Russians who had thousands and thousands. On one of their first jumps he, B.J., and Skratch built a three way wedge that docked with a three way all Russian wedge. This represented the docking in outer space and the coming together of our two countries in improved relations. Hod said it was hard to communicate with these folks because of the difference in languages. He said later that night everyone was speaking quite well using the universal language of vodka-ese. Apparently Russian jumpers drink a lot of the stuff after a good day of jumping....Steve1

I was wondering about this?? Does this mean tracking down in the direction of flight for a while, and then coming back toward the formation. Couldn't this also result in a collision? I guess my stupidity on this subject is really starting to show. Twenty ways are a whole lot different than 40 or bigger. I'd love to attend a big way camp (maybe this winter). I also know a few people who went to Thailand last winter. Maybe I need to start picking their brains on this subject. I realize now that I have no buisness leaving late until I get my diving under control. Being last out on a twenty way is a lot different than trying it on a big way....Steve1

I haven't heard a thing. I heard he was nocked unconscious from a hard opening and then was hurt real bad on landing. Sure too bad.....Steve1

I'm having trouble tracking steep enough. I went on a couple 40 ways the other day where the base funnelled. I was one of the last out of the trail Otter. I know you are supposed to stay in your quadrant and not side slide, but to tell you the truth I was all over the sky trying to get down there in time. I've got a buddy who says he has better luck tucking his legs way back against his backback, dearching, and placing his hands on the bottom of his back pack. When he wants to go steeper he lowers his head more. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm not having much luck tracking steep with my legs out.....Steve1

Tell me more about Djan (Mustard). I heard she may be a regional director or something. Both she and Scratch seem like great people.....Steve1

I met both these great older jumpers at Lost Prairie this year. I know there is a lot of skydiving history that goes along with their names, and I was wondering if anyone could tell me more about their accomplishments or stories from the old days......Steve1