wartload

The switch from the PCA to the USPA triangle logo was either very early 1968 or late 1967 (maybe effective the new year). Pretty sure that the triangle USPA logo was phased out by USPA in late 1976.

Gunnery Sgt. Davis, USMC. He will always be a role model. "Kiss me goodnight, Gunny Davis, Tuck me in my little trundle bed, We all love you, Gunny Davis, Even though you're fat and growing old! Don't forget to wake me in the mo-o-orning, Bring me 'round my little cup of tea! We all love you, Gunny Davis, Gunny Davis, you're a MUTHA to meeee!" KIA Vietnam - RIP Gunny! (For those of you who don't understand this, sorry. Somebody out there might.)

I flew them for quite awhile, instructed in them, built five or six of them, ran a dealership for a company, had my own dealership, and was regional sales manager for an airline that sold them through a subsidiary. I also flew one of the first skydivers to ever jump one. The only potentially dangerous thing about the ones that are on the market now is the pilot. Just like skydiving, an undertrained participant is a danger to themselves ... and possibly others. If you get proper training, and fly them as if they are gliders that temporarily have an engine running, they are as safe as, say, a motorcycle. As for "the best" type, that depends on your needs. One of the better makes, though, is CGS. (Never had any affiliation with that company. They were simply the greatest competition for the now-defunct models that I sold.) As for ceilings, a thermal can suck you up to God's outhouse. Realistically, though, most flying is done at 2,000' or less, AGL. Also, a two-seat machine that will carry a jumper up isn't an ultralight, by definition.

Plenty. If it's cheap enough wine, you get to taste it twice.

Too late. I think he's gotten himself stoned already.

Stopped by the Flying Circus in VA a couple of weekends ago and there was a guy there flying an RC jet -- not a looks-like-a-jet -- a real jet! The thing was fast, sounded very cool, and VERY expensive (someone told me it was about 15K)

I figure it this way ... God created wine bottles just the right size for one person to finish it off in an evening. Leaving wine unconsumed overnight is heresy ... unless you plan to cook with it. If anyone is still reading this, SwedishCelt is incredibly hot. Now that I've made a public ass of myself, it's time to go drink a bottle of wine and have an excuse for having done so.

Just my luck ... when I was young and fit, walking in my underwear in public would have gotten me arrested. Now that I'm old, bald, and fat, walking in public in my underwear would STILL get ME arrested. Thank Dog that, when I was young and fit, we just got nekkid and ran in public ... fast!

I'm not sure that there was any significance to that at all. Although I don't know for sure, I believe that it was simply a stylistic reflection of what was considered to be modern at that time.

Stuart rose, an Amhearst College student, was the youngest participant, and overall winner, at the first East Coast military and civilian parachute meet -- 1958. Anyone know what became of him?

In 1951 the CAA (predecessor to the FAA) banned freefall parachute jumps, calling them "reckless stunts." In the same year, twenty two states required that every parachute jump made had to have an individual CAA waiver issued for it in advance. PCA President Joe Crane had the rules rescinded.

His name is Jerry Rouillard--known to some as "Ruler Head" (as they were running away). Among other things, he was a stunt double for Burt Lancaster in the filming of Gypsy Moths. For a time he ran a DZ in Roanoke Rapids, NC and drove a pretty neat "woody" wagon. I think that he later worked at the Academy of Model Aeronautics before going to work at a museum somewhere. Nice guy.

When you find that one, go for a NPJRI patch next.

http://manifestmaster.com/parachutist/big1970_04.jpg You might also want to look at this ...

"She's barely legal" And your point is...?

Take good care of it, Froggy, it's a nice piece of history. There weren't all that many factory-made 7TUs in those days--military stuff was too cheap and easy to get and convert.

There are lots of people here who knew Bobby far better than I did. Truth be told, I only ran into him a few times, at Barnwell and Raeford. But he was one of those guys whose reputation extended a long way beyond where he might have been at the time. I think that it's fair to say that Bobby was a good ol' boy who never let life get a chance to become too boring.

The first time I met D-1, it was the morning of the fifth day of creation. I was chatting with God, just as he was about to create the fowl that may fly above the earth, and I asked, "Do you think any of the creeping things and beasts of the earth, will ever fly?" God giggled at the thought, and then made Lew.

The east-to-west (and opposite) rule applies to planes flying from one location to another. In theory, at least, jump planes are circling. Since pilots are not supposed to throw anything out of a plane (including jumpers) when they can't see the ground, they are flying under VFR conditions - which means thousands-plus-500 altitudes in level flight and see-and-avoid rules apply (unless they are in controlled airspace).

Interesting that the online article is dated July 23, 2005. It appears that CNN can now predict the future!

I have tech articles from the Washington Post automatically sent to me. This link was in one of those ... column was about the City using Websites.

The fact that this Website exists is odd, to begin with, but it gets even more disturbing as you look through it! http://www.chicagopolice.org/ps/list.aspx

Isn't this guy just changing spark plugs on an endurance flight? IIRC, the in-flight refueling required flying low while a pick-up truck kept pace so fuel cans could be handed up. Do you have more pictures? Mark No ... while there were several different endurance flight attempts, using various aircraft, I think that the one that you are thinking of (famous photos) was an Aeronca C-3. The guy seen in the famous pic, changing the sparkplugs, had a little platform build around the engine of the Curtiss Robin. The pilot was Forrest O'Brine and Dale Jackson was the mechanic. This one's a Piper J-3 Cub--one of the only planes that had a fold-up door allowing you to do this. Note that the photo's called "Air Start" and that the prop isn't turning. The plane didn't have an electric starter, and had to be "hand propped" (not the same as what some of you do). By leaning just a bit further forward the guy can flip the prop and get it spinning again, especially since the relative wind against it will help. The most common way to restart would be to get the nose pointed down ... speed builds up fast enough to get the prop spinning before long. There's probably a pilot in the back (you usually fly a Cub from the back seat), holding the brakes so that the wheel doesn't turn while he's standing on it.

Yeah ... sort of like take-out that can transport itself.

I take the same approach. Otherwise, I guess that I should downgrade my own "years in sport", too. Both my knees and my left ankle tell me that my relatively small number of jumps on rounds and what now is sometimes thought to be "unsafe" gear might be the equivalent of some greater number of jumps on soft gliders. How about people who pay to have others pack their gear, then get into spacious aircraft that get to 12,500 (plus) in a fraction of the time that we used to sit cramped together on the floor of spam cans? Should they log some sort of fraction of a jump? Just musing ... it really doesn't make a shit.