sfullerman

You folks can see from my profile info that I'm mainly a lurker on the forums here. I'm in and out several times a day, and have done that for the better part of the last two years. I find myself getting caught up in the drama, laughing at the trolls etc...and even though I rarely offer any comments, keeping up with this crazy (crazy in a good way) bunch has become part of my life. Now... to the point of my post.. J asked me and my brother to come down to Skyfest and play some of the skydive songs we've written over the years...We're supposed to play Fri and Sat nights after the festivities. We're on the schedule as the "FBI" (Fuller Brothers Inc) I remembered that Twardo lived in that area , and e-mailed him yesterday to see if I could meet him. I'd like to shake his hand and thank him for all the entertainment over the past couple of years. We've fired a few e-mails back and forth, and I will indeed have the chance to meet that rascal this weekend. I haven't jumped in 20 years, [http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1714626#1714626] but reading all of your exploits and adventures has helped keep my dream alive to one day return to the sky. Here's where the part about "humoring an ole guy" comes in. It would tickle me to no end to be able to meet as many of you folks as possible..Aggie Dave, Walt, Turtlespeed...on an on....So if you've got a minute between loads, or in the evening after the beer light comes on, and you see a heavy set, ummm big boned, no... ahhh huskey..(aww crap.. "fat") ole dude in tye dye, with a guitar and a ponytail walking around..please introduce yourself! Gimmie a chance to put a face with the online persona. That would be really cool! I'm not sure if there will be a stage, or just a spot by a fire...but after the giant SCR ceremony, (and whatever else) swing by and let me an my brother hit'cha with a few skydive tunes.

Rickerby.......was that the same fella that would paint his designs on folks containers? Had a friend who had a scene painted on his Vector of a dragon chasing a guy off a cliff...awesome art work, thought I remembered the artists name being Dave.

ummm,never mind, couldn't get the friggin pics to load.

Thats so cool hearing the details of that legendary load. I mentioned it almost a year ago in a post in this forum.....had never heard an eyewitness account though. Mark...you may remember my brother Don Fuller..... he was at Tech when you were, & roomed with Ralph for awhile. The last time we saw Ralph, ('86) he showed up at our little cow pasture dz in NW La. ...borrowed a rig, made a leap, paid with a bad check, and rode off into the sunset.... vintage Ralph stuff

Jay...just t/w my brother....he said you were the bro who used to fix him up with a "six -n- six" Six blue crab and a sixpack!

I've heard the story about that demo...Bubba is a trip The last time I saw him was probably 15 years ago, stopped by his house on the way to Jazz Fest. Stood in his kitchen eating anchovies outta the can....(we had had a few, go figure) He had his arm around me & my brother, thanking us..."y'all are the ONLY ones who'll eat anchovies wit me"...aparently (at least that night) that was a good thing. Haven't seen Jim since one of his "purple koolaide" parties....early to mid '80's Mardi Gras at Covington.....armadilla gumbo, Mr Douglas loads with the sound sys blaring.....it would get so dark there some nights, if you closed your eyes real tight, then opened them real fast, you would see purple microdots floating around in front of'ya

You fellas ever jump with Bubba Traxlor (Imperor of the Universe) or Jim Jones while in Covington? 1982 Mardi Gras Boogie, my brother and I jumped the only two rounds (mains) on the dz....figured we'd catch a lot of crap about it.... but people looked at the belly warts, smiled, and started inviting us on loads. Well, you know...some 4 maybe 5 ways........which with my 25 jumps at the time, anything over a two way seemed like a "mega blot"

Ahhh...his famous "pink mincer" outfit. As lovely as it is, it takes a second place to his borrowed K-Monster bikkini pics Get well Faber-miester!!

Looking at the pic, before having read the rest of the thread, I thought it looked like Muskogee. Laughed when you mentioned "catching up on your sleep" on the way to altitude. My brother and I drove from NW Louisiana to Muskogee for the Nationals in 1982. Left Thursday night sometime, got lost for awhile...and finally showed up as they were manifesting the first load. We figured as early as it was, it would take them awhile to fill it, so we manifested and headed over to set up our tent. Soon as we dumped it on the ground they gave the "15 min call"......Crap....no sleep dive. Had around 50 jumps at the time, so I wasn't cool enough to get any sleep on the way up(skeered) Had mucho fun in freefall,smooth opening... reached up to unstow the brakes...and as I pulled down, the right toggle and about 5 feet of brand new steering line came off in my hand Had just got the kite back from McElfish (sp?)...wrapped the other line around my hand and landed with a riser and a toggle...walked straight into the manuf tent with all my stuff still on, and right up to the McElfish table...The fella remembered the kite, and frowned when I showed him the broken line. He said "dont worry , I'm gonna fix it for free" I said "thats cool, but I've only been here an hour and I got four days of jumpin left" He smiled and said "I'm gonna fix that too!".....handed me a brand new kite to use for the rest of the boogie. Dang Rainbo...I'm not even drinking and'ya got me thinking bout the ole days

At any rate this has me wondering about training procedures back then. I quit in about 75. Could that method of covering your cape wells have been developed after about 75. Or maybe our club was just behind the times. Did my first jump in 1980, and covering the cape wells wasn't taught....at least not by the LA Tech college boys. Had a line over on a PC on my 29th jump. After waiting a few seconds to see if I could hear any instruction from the ground.....(no, we didn't have radios. I was ummmmm ..waiting to see if someone was, you know, gonna yell up some kind'a encouraging words) Instead of putting my legs out in front of me, I pulled them up behind me and popped the cape wells. As I fell face to earth it occured to me that I was in a boogered up position for dumping that belly wart reserve. Turned on my side , pulled the handle, and saw a white explosion as the 24ft flat came out. While still on my side looking down, I can still distinctly remember seeing the kick plate falling away like a silver frisbee. Like yours steve1, the thing was oscillating like a "puke" ride at the state fair. You hit a rock pile..I hit like a pile of rocks. I'm laying there on the ground reveling in the fact that I crash landed very near the packing area and wouldn't have far to crawl to my gear.....when a little hippie guy walked over, looked down and said "pretty serious landing dewd" and then just turned away....as he walked off I said "yeah, but how bout that spot?!"

"That's the only time I ever a Twin Beech started by hand proping.........." There was a period of time when his 182 also had to be hand propped....we were packed in it one afternoon, when one of our good friends went to prop it off, the engine coughed or something...anyhow, the prop did about half of a sped up rotation and hit him in the leg very close to ..ummmm his "stuff" Put a pretty deep gouge in his leg, and they said "we're gonna have to take Tom to the hospital"...to which we replied....."this mean we dont get to go up?" Like I said, he was a good friend..he understood

Kevin, Did you know Benton Brown, Ralph Hanley or Bruce Deville from your Tech days? Not sure when Bruce brought his plane to Tech, but at that time, he already had several hundred jumps , and along with Benton and Raph was among the skygods of that day. I was at Tech during the years you were jumping there, just too skeered to jump yet

Is that where you developed your turd photo skills?

Hmmm, McGee, MS, 1983, Cessna. That Cessna wouldn't have been John Mitchell's blue and white 64G by any chance would it? Well now that you mention it...it certainly was!

Hey Folks! Here's another one of those "I managed to live in spite of myself" stories. 1983, Magee Ms...did a 4 way with my brother and two other brothers. I closed 4th and was feeling rather "sky god-ish" (cause most of the time when I showed up last to the formation, it was to bomb it) The round was all we got. Couple of reasons....top of the (non-boogie) world at that time in a Cesna was 7500ft....plus everyone was so shocked that I got there, and didn't take out the formation, that they all just sat there geek'n. We track off to open....I had one of those pull out PC's with the pud thang on it, toss it out, and immediately feel as if my freefall speed increased. I know that wasn't the case...it just seemed fast cause I should'a been slowing down during the opening process. Only took a couple seconds to realize the opening sequence was not taking place. Fired the reserve, felt it come off my back, but I'm still moving waaay too fast. I look up to see my main pilotchute tangled amongst the reserve canopy lines. The (round) reserve looked like a hotdog. It had some air in it, but was being restricted by the bridle on my main. (main is still in the pack) As I said the reserve looked like a hotdog, thankfully it started acting like a ballpark frank, and plumped while we cooked on down. The pressure of the reserve wanting to open forced the PC and bridle down the lines in about 4-5 stages, and at around 800ft it finally did indeed fully open. Once it opened I was able to get a hold of the bridle & PC and pull them out of the lines. So then I wadded them up and stuffed them inside my jumpsuit right? OH HELL NO! I told'ya I lived IN SPITE of my own dumbass...I had my hands full trying to release the line mods on the reserve and steer it away from the road, so of course, I just let go of the whole mess. Umm I know, you all dont have to say it ......WTF DA??? As soon as I let go of it, the PC inflated and pulled the main (in the bag) outta my pack. I looked down and watched the last couple stows coming out of the rubber bands, and the kite about to spill out. It felt kind'a weird cutting away my main while already under reserve, but I finally managed to pull my head out and do just that. After which the rest of the 2-300 ft ride down was uneventful..ohh, except for landing on the cow poo when I finally did re-contact mother earth. Almost died, then landed in cow poo...hey,just another day in the life of a 75 jump wonder. Paid $7 for the jump, and had $10 worth of fun

Well....I've always been one of those... "If one works good....TWO ought'a be just right!"

I apologize in advance for the stupid question...... how far into the video does the jumping actually start? Could'a sworn I watched 6-8 minutes of some kick ass graphics...but never saw any jumping. Obviously I gave up too soon?

Dont know the date of the accident... the 182 belonged to Skydive Louisiana.

It happened in NW Louisiana... A jump pilot took a family memeber up for a ride (not during jump operations) Reportedly carb ice made an off airport landing necessary. While setting the aircraft down in a cotton/bean (?) field it nosed over, causing enough damage to total the airplane. Both seats were in , and pilot and passenger were both wearing their seatbealts...so they sustained no injuries.

Ron Shock telling this story about Bill.... "Pat Robertson said that God, thats G-a-w-d , Gawd, had appeared unto him and told him to run for president. My best friend Bill Hicks said that, God had also appeared unto him, and told him specifically not to vote for that fuck" "If you're sitting at a four way stop intersection, wondering whos turn it is....aint yers"

Yeah, I think you're right on with that assessment. I enjoyed him immensely because of the edge and originality of his humor. In those days I had to listen to so many "hacks" come thru telling jokes about naming their dicks....he was a breath of fresh air (well, except for the cigarette smoke)

I worked in a little comedy club in NW La. back in the late 80's. The last time "B.H." (not mentioning his name) came thru....he finished his set by using his microphone to smash the glass in the frames of the pics of other comedians that had played the club, all the while saying "i'm funnier than HIM"...smash,,"funnier than HIM"...smash.... and you know what? He WAS!

Jaap,while I agree that "a" pancake would be funny on the rabbits head...that pic appears to show "TWO" pancakes on his head.....and that......well, thats just rabbit abuse. (and obviously not proper headgear for a rabbit to be jumpin with)

1983, Covington ,La. Sugar Alfa (DC-3) was brought in for a weekend. The weather was bunk, 200 ft ceiling, DZO gets on the phone to McGee Ms and asks hows the weather......"blue skies dudes!" He asks if they mind if he and a few friends come over to jump...they tell him to bring it on. He says "be watching for us, we're in a little red plane" If you're not familiar with Sugar Alfa, the underside was painted red. The DZ at McGee is watching for a Cesna to come over and drop 4 jumpers.....they spot the little red plane (at around 14 grand) then they see 40 folks come piling out. Those of you who grew up on a Cesna DZ know that anything over 4 canopies in the air looks like a military invasion. I land, and one of the ole vets (Leon-RIP) walks up smiling and shaking his head. He said "I've seen stranger things in my life, I just cant remember when !" We all pack up and grab the four or five jumpers from McGee that were out that day, and take off for another load. Around 3000 ft the sky is solid over cast. We ride up to just over 13,000...and the story we heard from the pilots was "we called the tower in Jackson Ms and asked if they had us on radar. And if they did, were we anywhere near McGee? They said a 90 degree left turn and about 2 minutes would put'em right over the airport" Like I said, thats what we were told...they just as well could have been operating on the "whole world is a dropzone" program, I dont know. What I DO know is, after dumping out just over the overcast, and cruising in the soup for a couple minutes....just like an old WWII movie where the bomb target finally comes into view thru patches of clouds, I look down and see that I'm over a 4 lane HWY. I've been to McGee enough times to know that the highway is 6-7 miles from the dz. To top it off, I can see the rest of the load landing a mile or two closer to the dz, as I have spent the entire time in the clouds going the wrong way. I'm the only dufus coming down in that part of the country side. Land by the gate in a big field, and not 30 seconds after I reach the road, I hear a vehicle coming up behind me. I dont turn and look, I just start limping and keep heading down the road. It was a pickup truck, and he passed right by....crap!...But wait...he goes around a curve, and I hear him stop, and then I can hear him backing up! He's coming back for me..(the limp and the puppy dog look on my face that he saw in his rearview mirror worked!!) As I pile into the back I notice its a brand new truck...shiny, spotless...I tell you that so you can appreciate the next part. About a mile from the dz I see a vehicle in front of us kind'a pluggin along. My ride pulls around and zips past the 20-30? year old pickup owned by a chicken farmer. In the back it's got chicken wire, farm implements, feed, a dead chicken, and about a dozen skydivers all piled on top of each other. I cruise past riding solo, smiling and waving. Several of them waved back......with one finger. By the time the whole load gets back, it's time to leave. The sun is not long from setting, and the DC-3 crew says we gotta get going cause they dont have any running lights on the plane. We flew all the way back at 7-800 feet, and by the time we get to Covington, it's BEEN dark for awhile. Covington was a grass strip in the the middle of some sod farms...no lights of course. The manifest building had the only light on the dz, and from the direction we were landing, it was about 2/3rds of the way down the runway. Looking out the door, we see the manifest building go by FAST....one of the Covington regulars (Bubba- the Emperor of the Universe) shouts above the den of engine noise "100% Lord...I'll give'ya 100% of every thing I have if you get us outta this" ..the pilots stand on the brakes and do all that nifty stuff they do...and we come to a stop unscathed. They shut the engines off, the silence is deafening, and in that silence you hear Bubba say "10% God ...well you know, over head and all" Which drew several shouts of "move away from Bubba, he's fix'en to get kilt with lightening!" The next morning, daylight revealed the plane sitting 20-30? feet from the tree line at the end of the runway. Took a bunch of jumpers to push it back so the pilots could fire it up and turn it around. Happy ending...and as far as we know, Bubba never got kilt with lightening.

Wondering how much my brother exaggerated...he told me he could guarantee that NO ONE in a several state area got the gift I did. I live in N. Louisiana... anybody else near here get a "dinosaur turd"?! Yep...not kidding.....it came with a very official looking certificate of authenticity...apparently this squat rocket was fired off between 140 and 220 million years ago. It's cut in half and highly polished....cant tell'ya how much fun I've had showing it to coworkers today, and before telling them what it is, asking them to.."smell this..now lick it"