patworks

An accomplished person and a pioneer of sport parachuting. We met at Elsinore in '67, a time when he focused on style and accuracy. Some of his skydiving stunts were remarkable. For example, he exited one aircraft and flew to enter another aircraft diving with him. Pilot, Parachutist, Motion Picture executive kevin was one of our finest. Respect. Forever Blue skies ....

Quick and Certain Ways to Scare yourself Shitless 1. Pull below 500 ft. AGL. The world turns into a bowl and its horizon-edges loom ABOVE you. You feel like you are falling into a hole. Ground-Rush is mind-blowing . 2. Try and land a round parachute in winds over 25MPH....backing up so fast you get ground-rush as the earth leaps up over your shoulder and body-slams you like a bug on a windshield. 3. Land a flat-circular round 24' reserve canopy in high winds in a busy city, full parking lot, or cemetary crowded with tombstones. 4. Night landings in the rain into residential areas you haven't seen with no lights, no moon and zero visibility..... you'll have absolutely zero clue as to where the ground is or what obstacles lurk you. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Ft Hood Sport Parachute Club Nope, but I remember it from the 1960s. I was a Texas A&M Aggie & training officer for the A&M Parachute Club. At that time all-male A&M was a ROTC military university, "Old Army" Sgt. Gene Ritchie ran the Ft. Hood team. They supported the A&M Team giving us a lot of B4 rigs, 24' reserves and etc. We traded some to McElfish Parachute Service and got back sport rigs with sleeves and with modifications cut and taped. I had a 7-TU. They also kept us supplied with M60 Smoke Grenades, smoke pots, flares, and artillery simulators. Both teams competed at the regional style + accuracy meets across Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. We'd take the C-Rations the Ft. Hood guys gave us, wire them to the car exhaust manifold to heat our eats. Some of my Ft. Hood parachute friends included Sgt. Ritchie, Tom Boravicka, Hop Harbeson, Stan Troeller and several others I can't remember. Fun times…. We’d all jump for the Confederate AirForce demos when we could…. Back then, lack of $$ meant no jumps except for Demos and Parachute meets. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Night Jump Oh think of the night as the plane lifts-off her engines screaming high. Just you, your friends, and small dim lights in a great dark empty sky. Fly on black air; drift on the arms of the night and survey a city outlined in spots of light. But time is gone so in and pull then shout with joy for your soul is full Pat Works 1962 Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

A skydivers Toast Oh, look to the skies of clear-shot blue and lift your glasses tall and think of the world like a map unfurled beneath your screaming fall. Oh, here's to the sky for you and I with our silken banners pinned for here's a crew that burns the blue and rides on wings of wind. (anon. from the 1940s?) Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Hey Artwardo, you forgot to append the Chorus + Refrain Beautiful Streamer, please open for me. Blue skies above me and no canopy Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

With due respect, Chris-Ottawa is not qualified to make such statements. Outlandish!

[Reply]unstable deployments from first-freefall students are not exactly uncommon and they usually work out just fine. ..... For a student, like the person who started this thread, pull time is pull time, regardless of orientation. Well said. I strongly agree.

Pulling on your back, pulling in ANY position is better than a low or no pull. I have many, many jumps in odd positions. (I like to experiment.) For Me, Pulling on my back gives me a crisp (hard) opening. I've had the bag hit my legs. ... once, unstowing lines wacked my legs. So, I wouldn't do it today unless i was low. FYI: Pulling on your side HURTS!. A lot. Whatever, if you freefly, slow down. Pulling in a 'fast' position (for example, headdown) will likely break your parachute and cause pain. Expect to break lines and blow panels. But hey, You may see stars! Whatever, ALWAYS pull before landing. Listen to your experienced, wise, instructor(s). ... people who have earned respect from their peers. Complie what they say. Do it. Remember to enjoy the sky as you fly! Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

The wheel of life turns and takes as it gives. Many have come then gone within that great circle that lives. Some very few leave footprints on our heart but rainbows in our mind. Patrick was of that so rare kind. Some seldom times a person outshines the sun, sparkles like a star, and etch their memory on all skies. Their being enriched our collecctiive mind. Patrick, Thank you for being you. Hail! Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Jan Meyer told me,

UPI Feed --Published: April 1, 2011 at 1:25 PM)---- Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Sorry, No. I was there. Then was not now. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

OK, do you know: what is the weight of a B4-Paracommander with a belly reserve? ... Does anyone KNOW? ... I get mumbles of '... about 50 pounds...' ? Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Dearest crazy professor: Recognize that most mortals don't think to see ground-combat sports celebrated on the wall of their PhD Professor and School Chair.... methinks that knights of old did battle do and come today that is you. I love thee. Stay whole... . . . Parsed is but a fragment Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

500's because the first 'altimeter' was a stopwatch. We freefall parachutists could delay our opening by exiting high enough to allow an "X"-second delay before parachute deployment. You timed your freefall with the stopwatch. Altimeters did not replace stopwatches for a long time. During the transition period in the 1960s both a stopwatch and an altimeter were mounted in a mini-dashboard bungied to your chest reserve. Altimeters were scarce, expensive, and bulky. The only altimeters available. They sported two hands. A fat one displayed AGL in thousands of feet. The skinny one recorded feet and spins like a top in freefall. Size-weight = a can of beans. It seemed that all altimeters were purloined from airplane-dashboards from grounded airships. Having one was a status badge. My Jumpmasters allowed me to progress from 10 second delays directly to 30 second delays if I purchased an altimeter for $25.00 then-there. I did. We did. .............. Branded in my memory is that interesting jump. Anyhow, the '500 is an artifact of what we parachutist’ called 'delayed-falls' in an epoch when altitude was measured by time. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Thanks Greyeagle (Bill Davis, SCR 97, 12:00 in yellow). ... Brings a flood of memories.... Around the birth of time and stars, the coveted 16-man star patch was a big deal. California was big-star Mecca and gave birth to the *, 10, 12, 16, 20, and 23 way stars. Here, most participants have 2-digit SCRs. Fewer then, but as always, women were players. Here Linda Padgett and Diane Bird. Donna Wardean and Patty Wilson, for example. Having a 16-way plus a SCR patch was your entry ticket to better loads. As I recall, the patch was just the black number "16" within a red circle, but I was certainly Proud to earn mine at Z-Hills in '71(?). Organizing a successful world-record formation was never easy. Back then, Jerry Bird was a master organizer. Hot flying was also sought after but rare. A fast flier could dive from the door to wrists consistently faster than others. Single file exits were slow, meant that the base would be out of sight somewhere "down-there".... Bee-like, you'd follow the guys in front of you until you could see something building. The fastest flier during these formative times was our buddy Stanley Troller, SCR 53. When nearly every good skydiver made his dive-approach by diving down-then across like the letter "L", Stan tended to fly across-then-down*. Jerry Bird was fairly quick too. He always used the straight-in approach.... about a 45 degree angle from aircraft to wrists. Exits using "floaters" would not be seen for 3-more years until the first 10-way Nationals when Patty Wilson showed up with a leather-sleeve jumpsuit and exited first**. I dunno when linked exits started....EXITUS?? Thanks for sharing these formative early foundations that fertilized the growth of 'Fun Jumping RW' into the memories of excitement and love we share broadly with the world today. Cool beans. *Very fast albeit a bit dicey. (a huge vertical-speed component scares folks. I'll use it still. FYI, Nowadays, occasionally, when big-ways are VERY vertical from the git-go, a sit-fly approach is cool.) ** As I recall, feather-ass me too would be switched to be a floater in front of Pirate and Streak-of-Shit ...or was it in front of Jim Barron?.... brain rot is here Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Very nice. Good on you. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Skydivers cohabit a special realm where they and clouds kiss the sky enfolded upon her soft arms of wind. Our sky is lovely and bigger than forever. Embrace her. XOX. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Starting at 17, I made about 70 this year. Skydivers cohabit a special realm where they and clouds kiss the sky enfolded upon her soft arms of wind. Our sky is lovely and bigger than forever.Embrace her. XOX. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Hey. This month marks 50 years since I started jumping in 1961 in Houston with Ed Fitch. :-) Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

With high energy, Don wrote formations into our early skies. Here from history of beginning to today, His page has turned. He cast a tall shadow. What he is transcends what he was. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Days that outshine the norm are ‘good.’ Days that instill ‘knowing’ are likewise enhanced. Days that permit another tomorrow are splendid. An edge-walker knows those as blood brothers. We walkers of the knife blade edge realize that any day whilst skill or happenchance allow living continuously are a bonus and a treasure. These are called “Bonus Days.” Covet any bonus days you have earned. Revel in life. Wallow in living. Treat yourself with love and care. We may not pass this way again. -------- "Bonus Days." Safety is survival. You should practice safety nearly as reflexively as you automatically blink when a raindrop nears the eye. As a jumper, and interested observer of and participant in a few "Bonus Days", my more than 49 years of jumping suggests that you will likely become more safety conscious the longer you jump. In other words, you'll come to recognize the subtle distinction between a "might survive" and "comfortably survivable" situation. Safety consciousness in parachuting can be described thus: The easiest thing to "do" is nothing. Unfortunately, in parachuting doing nothing is deadly, Occasionally a parachutist, or pilot, or motorcyclist, or mountain climber or hang glider will do nothing - or the wrong thing - for too long............................... ---------------- There are some adventures that are hard to squeak past, There are some adventures that are fairly certainly terminal ones. So whenever anyone slips past a "real close one," a new calendar is started and ALL the days survived thereafter can be termed “BONUS DAYS.” These are those extra days you get after the near-crash. ------------------------- As Freak Brother No. 2 Roger Nelson (RIP) told it: “I reconfirmed my membership in the Bonus Days Club watching the ground 'stop coming' at about 100-150 ft. SPORT DEATH! “What had happened was a typical brain malfunction, yep, I packed a total! So I really shouldn't have been doing a 3-man after-star. 'Cause when I threw out my pilot chute, it went 8 feet and stopped fully inflated!!! So, immediately I pictured Waldo Jecker, FB No. 22, and Tony "Frit" Patterson, FB No. 181, (both deceased), as I looked at the ground. “Time was vital. I had a choice of two things, dump your reserve and chance an entanglement and streamer in, knowing I'm gonna bounce (the way Frit went in at Deland), or reel in my small 29" pilot chute and take it lower for a clean reserve opening. See, when I looked at the ground right after realizing my problem, I said “3 seconds” in which I had to play. So I decided to reel as I counted to 3. I hit 3 just as I grabbed the bottom. I dropped my head to get some air on my back as I dumped my reserve. “Well, at this point, seeing where I was, I kind of thought dropping my head might not of been too smart 'cause I was about to bounce head first on the side of the runway. When all of a sudden, “YEA, BONUS DAY CLUB!!!” (To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.) ‘I looked down, saw my shadow, screamed excitement and saw a jumper clapping my Z-Hills act." That was a Bonus Day. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

Nice lady. Good Friend. jeannie had an all-girl professional demo team that was hot. She had a good record in classic style + Accuracy and RW. Lots of life-energy; good to be around. Brasher has a better memory + more remaining brain cell(s) than I. I just remember she was a very experienced jumper who bounced from a no pull at Elsinore. Her death put a shock-wave through us all. Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,