skybill

Hi troop, "Ya' gotta' crawl before ya' walk, an' ya' gotta' fall before ya' fly!!" Got that? Like someone said a post or two ago, yer' first team will be you and yer' instructors. Ifn' yer' good enough, they'll boot you up the gulch to bigger and better things. Learn all you can, one step at a time. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Olaf, Welcome back!! The sport has gone thru lots of changes!! LOL!! Have fun and enjoy! Yer' right about,"Man Small, Why Fall, Skys Call, That's ALL!" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Nick, That photo ain't the only one!! There's also one of the back door of a 206 peeled back like the top of a sardine can back when I was going for my JM rating!! There are others of varying degrees! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

I made my first jump in Feb '64. The dzo ( who was really never around ) had a D-license, the next most experienced guy had just gotten his C-license ( ~75-80 jumps ), the 'chief' instructor had all of 35 jumps. The guy who put me out was an old-timer with ~45 jumps. It is the way it was, JerryBaumchen Hi Jerry, A most indubidable "YES!!" to,"It is the way it was!!" You made your first hop in FEB64, I made mine in MAY64 although the "experience level" had grown a bit around Hammond. The Inst./JM of Southland Skydivers at the time was Numan M. Gill (my inst./JM) who had at the time jumps at or over (not sure) the 3 digit mark and B-1929!! When I was still in High School and hanging out at the airport in the early 60's Louisiana Skydivers got started in Baton Rouge and would Jump at Hammond. "Nobody had any experience" so they found some guy from east Texas to come over and train some of them!! This one guy(LSU student) Phillip R. "Cappy" Connors tells the story of making two S/L jumps at Orange Mass and the Texas guy says,"You're the CSO(club safety officer) because you have the most experience!!" Remember boys and girls this is 1960-61!! Cappy said that he had 2 ea. 1st jump S/L students in the 172, jumpmastered them then climbed out and did his 3rd jump a DRCP!! I remember seeing guys packing cheapo's on the flight line reading the directions out of Bud Sellic's Book!!!! How 'ya like them apples!!??!! PS I think I posted this story in Steve1's "Scary stories" thread. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

You remember more intimate details about your first jump than you do about the first time you got laid. If you had a patch for every dead friend, your jumpsuit would never wear out. The value of your vehicle doubles (or even triples) when you put your rig in it. There isn't a wall in your house (trailer, tent) that doesn't have some sort of skydiving related thing on it. You have at least one box stuffed full of skydiving tshirts that you will never wear again but that you just can't bring yourself to throw away. At least one part of your body reminds you almost daily of that one fucked up skydive you did. You wake up one day and realize that you had so much potential and could have been so much more had you just been strong enough to resist the addiction. Hi Lisa, All of em' 'cept for the "jobs" one I was kind spoofin'....except for the last one,... that's for real. Even got a good responce from Sparky. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi poke, "Beer drinkin' woman" by Elvin Bishop "Whiskey drinkin' woman" by Billy Boy Arnold These should start the beer bottles flyn'!!!!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Nick, "Ain't it FUN!!!" Ya' everybody knows "Bill Deli" but who's this "Arpad William Deli" fellow!!?? 'Like the name on my Birth Cert, my various licenses and enough already!! Thanks to my mom I got dad's first name much to his chagrin and my late cousin's first name for my middle. So many times i wished my mom had reversed the sequence but after 64 years I'm stuck with it. Italy you say, my folks came from across the Adratic from you guys. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi emy, to continue........... when your family disowns you from the will because they think you skydive "too much!!", when the only major "job' you hold is skydiving/aerospace related, even though you make "good money' you never have any because you spend it all on skydiving, when you get old enough to retire and all you have to show for it is a rig, a rack of logbooks and "mememe"videos and photos, no money, a trail of ex whuffwives, empty beer bottles and broken down DZ trailers, and a pile of "OLD FRIENDS" you've known for at least 40 years since you started jumping with them and they still call you "FRIEND!!!!!!" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Chuck, "Ruint" is good! We usedta say"Rurant!" essentially meaning the same thing. Our HS English Teachers could have a fit with us!! Yup, getting "Rurant" is great stuff, all the way back to the "Cave Tangi!!" daze and beyond!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Jim, Funny thing you should mention that about the MEK and Toluene!! Worked at Douglas, Weber and ScurvyIrvy in the 70's-90's and along with those two you can add some stuff called "Vydex" which was liquified teflon in a freon solution!! 'Ya paint/spray it on cloth and you coat it with teflon to friction proof it!! Touch it or smell it and you could taste it and your lips went numb!! How we're still alive is amazing. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Drew, Some years ago, when I worked for ScurvyIrvin in SoCal, I got called for "Federal jury Duty" in LA!!! I walked in there downtown LA at the Fed Court House wearing my flipflops with the stow band for the big toe, raggy cutoffs, a pullup cord on a belt loop, my "BEST BLACK DEATH SKYDIVING T-SHIRT", my AIR TRASH hat with wings and pins and my coolest sunshades, carried a briefcase with some scareachutist and Skydiving rags to read to keep from getting bored and got bitched at for my atire!!! Said the guy,"The judges like for you to wear what you would wear to go to work!!" Like I'm some pencil pusher geek or office type not knowing that and I told him,"Like man, this "IS WHAT I WEAR WHEN I GO TO WORK!!!!!!" nuttin' but whuffo's for miles to see!!!! I didn't get picked for any jurys. (hint, hint) to the rest of you troops!!! Sure it's your and my civic duty but if they can't handle who I am then scewem'!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi jt, do a search for ""last hope rope" aka "Jesus cord" we were just talking about them in the hist & trivia forum and I think another equip forum. Old farts know well of them!! They work great "if" they are rigged right!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Jim, You and your mom are in our prayers. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi e nev, One thing about jumping from a plane like that is the "awkardness" of the exit! Getting in and out on the ground is one thing but in the air with a rig on?? Take note of things that can cause really big problems like door stops on the wing strut, the foot step, and I don't know about the PA-18 but does the aileron cable exit the lower fuselage and go up the strut or is it enclosed in the wing?? (when you exit if something on your rig snags that cable..then!!!!) Remember,"Safe Skydiving is no accident!!" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Guys, High winds? what else is new!! "Old Elsinore" about '78 or '79, have to dig thru the logs to confirm the date, just another RW load major winds from the lake got open out towards Rome hill with a slider hang up on my old Viking Superlite!! Got under my 26' NAVCON with my Waters 4-line release and the winds were blowing me past the DZ towards the High School!! Later I heard that people at the DZ were yelling about the winds and "the malfunction-reserve out up there!!" Leo Orlowski comes running out of manifest yelling who is it?? Joanie Williams says,"It's Bill Deli." They say Leo just shook his hands and said,"Ah he can handle it!" and went back inside!! MEANWHILE up in the sky I'm wondering if I'll need a radio to get into Palm Springs!! Well, I found a space in somebody's back yard and got down OK over by the Highschool and Gypsy Dave and "Tootch" showed up seconds later to give me a ride back!! No broken bones but that was the longest 26'NAVCON cross-country fron 2 grand I ever did!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Mike, Welcome back!!!!!!!!! and Thanks!!!!!!!!!! Now that yer back, Skydive, Drink Beer, Go to Hooters, Skydive, repeat as necessary!! and all the other good stuff that goes with being back!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Ryan, You came to the right place. Lots of good stuff to learn and drink beer and tell lies too!!!!!!!!!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Matt, Cool Beans, jez' B-scareful when turnin' short Base from Downwind headin' fer' the VOR ta' Final at March!! It scares he2xl outa' the troops at "Scare-us-Valley" when they can see the dirty side of the A/C "UP CLOSE!!" Also makes for interestin' RW when yer' gettin ready ta' turn the next point!!! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi SkyB, "Beer!!" It's not just for breakfast anymore! What ever floats yer' boat!! Just another Ta-Kee-La Sunrise pleze Whiskey, Rum, and....... SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi '66, Whell pall, 'hitz been a few years but back in th "Bad ole' daze" of Borderlands Airsports Center at Otay, CA, at the end of the jump day, Ole' Jim Mc Donald would send someone over to Pio Pico and haul back a whole bunch of "COLD BEER!!" "Free to 'all' on the DZ!!" If'n yer an old So. Cal Round Chute Jumper an' ya' stil got a couple of brain cells firin', ya' maght' still remember!!! As for Pizza, whell thatz' another story. SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi LMS, Cool Beans, then how come you ain't the President ?? SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

I hate I-HOP ! ~gave ME the discount a couple years ago, and the waiter made some comment about having lunch with my 'daughter', (who wasn't with us) the spousal unit loved it. Truth be told she's got me by a couple orbits around the star, but then again she doesn't drink, smoke, she works out every day and runs 3-4 marathons a year. Like I keep tellin' people...not the years, it's the MILES! (* & lack of maintenance) Hi Jim, Funny how that goes!! So the lady of the house smiled I'm sure!! Marathons?? Last I heard that was the name of one of the "Fla. Keys!!" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi n-k, We were having breakfast at the Bonanza Cassino just outside Reno on the way to the Air Races so I go to pay the tab and the guy asks if I'm "55??" Like what's that, the "Speed Limit??" He says, no, you get the "Senior Citizen Discount!!" Yeah, first time I really felt "OLD!!" SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi skb, After the sea drag, 'ya get a bucket of fresh water and rince em'. Usually find some space and hang em to dry. Without the fresh h2O rince they can get grim! SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out

Hi Nat, Eons ago or so it seems, when I was a kid, my Grandma had an old wash tub up on bricks behind the garage that she "washed" clothes in. She'd fill it about half full of water with the garden hose, throw in the clothes, build a fire under it and add some "Red Dog Lye" along with the octagon soap!! My dad carved her a ladel out of an old pine board to stir the clothes. The grain was all feathered from the lye eating away at it!! She washed mainly "heavy" things in it like overalls, work clothes and old bed sheets made out of grain sacks!! Polyester has no place here!! Fast forward a few years to when I was in boot camp in the Navy. A bucket of water, a capful of soap and a scrub brush on these concrete wash tables!! Then later out at sea, just tie all your clothes to a piece of line and drag them over the side in the ocean for a while!! Are we having fun yet?? SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out