Hammitt

That was always one of my favorites. Got packed away somewhere out in my shed.

Also at Pope, you could get $100 worth of tickets if you paid $90 cash. That was a hell of a deal. My first jump course was at YOLO in 73. It was $45, but that also included a year membership in USPA.

Little Pete is right. That's Howie and Shelley AKA the Funk and the Girl Next Door. I know they spent some time in Hawaii in the late 70's I think. Looks to me that's where this picture was taken. I don't recognize anyone else either.

I jumped from the Loadstar that weekend at Pope Valley. There was some sort of 10 way meeting going on. It was a great jump plane. Climbed like a bat out of hell. I never experienced a stall in one, but we all knew not to croud the back of the plane. I remember Jeanne McCombs told me about her experience in a Loadstar that stalled at 12.5 and didn't get control back until about 5 grand. I believe that was at Elsinore, but I could be wrong.

I have a titanium hip, but it's from a motorcycle accident I was in before I started jumping. I always tell folks I gave up motorcycles for a safe sport, Skydiving.

I think I had the second or third cutaway on a Top Secret. After Jerry found out about it, he came out and looked at the rig the next weekend. He gave it quite the once over. Boy isn't that a way to build up your confidence in your new rig.

I have an old Jerry Meyers jump suit in my shed. It makes that Brand X look tiny.

I spent a week in McCall Idaho this last summer. It also happens to be the home of one of Idaho's smoke jumper schools. Naturally I took the opportunity to take a tour. They have a beautiful Turbo Prop DC-3 for the bigger fires. 20+ Jumpers For small fires they use one of their two Twin Otters. 10 or less jumpers. It was also the first time I had seen a slider on a round parachute. I talked to some of the riggers. Everyone seems to like to hear about the old days.

When I first started jumping at YOLO DZ in California back in the early 70's, George Morar had a two needle Altimeter. He had one of those huge Security Pig Rigs. This was when nobody jumped Pig Rigs yet. Watching that altimeter in freefall was really interesting. The hundred foot needle would make a revolution about every five seconds. It really gave you an impression of how fast you were falling.

Where I come from a proper Flaming Asshole is done with a properly torn, rolled, inserted and torched Crown Zellerbach. A number 12 bag if I recall. Back in 75 a group of us from YOLO did a beautiful 10 way Flaming Asshole on top of the judges trailer at Perris Valley. I believe we made our mark that night.

Excellent job. That really brings back some memories. Especially the April 1981 cover. I was there at Livermore when we got to jump the Twin Sikorsky. We were expecting a Skyvan, but got a huge helicopter instead. What a shame, we had to settle for a Sikorsky. I did the spotting on one load. Once on jump run it seemed like it took forever to get to the spot. I think our ground speed was about 30 MPH. I have most of those issues from late 73 through 1998 boxed up in my shed. I'll have to dig them out one of these days. Thanx again for putting this together.

I put about 700 jumps on a strat in the 70's. Made the first 50 or so with the rings and ropes. Talk about your slow openings. I then had the slider put on, reinforced the tail, short lined and had slots put in the stabilizers. Shortly after that I sewed a diaper on the right stabilizer, anyway I think it was the right stabilizer. A diaper is kind of like a bag that has velcro down the middle. The canopy packs right into the diaper like a bag, but is was much easier. And of course the diaper is part of the canopy so it's always in the same place when you go to pack. With the diaper, the openings were so consistant I could tell immediately if I had a problem and take care of business if I had to. I had two malfunctions on the strat. I know one of them at least was my fault. As far as end cells are concerned, I never had a problem getting them open after opening, and mine was not cross vented. In fact I used to like to fly it backwards. There again, I never had a problem getting the end cells open once I put it in forward.

Like most of the folks in here, an oldie but a goodie.

I don't remember the name right off hand. I knew most everyone there from the mid to late 70's. I didn't jump there much the last two years it was open though. It really was one of the coolest place to jump or just hang out. I remember my first introduction to Pope Valley. I had about 30 jumps. It was windy at YOLO so we decided to fly over to Pope and jump in. So the first time I saw Pope Valley was from seven five in freefall. That was neat.

I remember one time at YOLO Calif during a style and accuracy meet, Jeanne McCombs go caught in a thermal in her papillion. She was stuck at about a thousand feet for about ten minutes. She was low enough that we could yell up to her and talk to her. It really was hilarious. I believe this was in 1974.

When I first started jumping back in 73 at Yolo, the RSL was referred to as the Steven's system or Steven's Lanyard. So it was pretty well established at that time as being Perry's idea. Hey, Scratch, I don't know you remember me or not. I used to jump with you and Clarice at Pope in the late 70's. If was certainly one of the most innovative times in my skydiving career. I used to hang out with Sparky Gregory.

I'm still sticking with my guess. I looked at the picture again and it looks like he has the old paraboots Styleboot on. John Cook was one of the few guys I knew that bothered to buy a pair of those. After we got off our PC's (Paracommander for you young'ns) most of us just wore tennis shoes or running shoes.

I think our mystery guest is John Cook who used to Jump at Yolo. If memory serves, he was at Fran's Star Ranch when Adrian Merideth ground looped the Beech 18 that's refered to in the post about the Chicken Ranch which we figured out was Fran's Star Ranch.

I used to jump with all of those guys at Pope Valley in the late 70's. Sparky and I did a lot of skiing together in the 80's. The last time I saw him was about 96 or 97 when I ran into him and his girlfriend Pat at the Reno Air Races. As far I as I know Sparky still lives in the Bay Area. His first name I Kent if that's any help. Pat has a Cessna 172 so if you want I can go through my friend Jim Casper (old Yolo jump pilot) to see if he has heard from either one of them. Even in the Bay Area the private pilot community is small enough that Jim can probably find them.

I was just digging through my old log books and found I had four of these, from 75 through 78. I think that about the time they were phased out.