DrEco

DrEco Updates and Correction! I just dug up my old log books. My first jump was a jump count to 3 and pull, 12/59 My 3rd jump was a 12 second delay. No sleeve hard opening My 4th jump was a 15 second delay. Used a sleeve for the first time My 5th jump was a 18 second delay. Tried a baton pass. My 7th jump was a 15 second delay. Landed in the sewage disposal lake next ot the DZ. I made a bad spot. My 8th jump was a nite jump I was on an 1960's accelerated free fall schedule. Correction! Correction! My first baton pass was in 2/61. My first jumps in Houston with Clyde jacks were in April 1961. The nite jump with Clyde Jacks where we passed the flashlight back and forth about 3 or 4 times and then tracked around the high thunder head cumulus clouds was in 9/61. DrEco D115

Creaming in D 344 CA Jack C. Smith Jack was the area safety officer at Lancaster and “creamed-in” circa 1966 while working with a freefall student. The student pulled too low and by the time Jack stop concentrating of his student and pull his ripcord he hit the ground at about 130 mph. Ouch! His body was a mushy lump. Had about 30 jumps with Jack. The area safety officer was not too safe. I head that the term “creamed-in” came about because a body is like thick cream inside your skin after you hit the ground at around 130 miles per hour. Its a good discription. DrEco D115

Junps with: Jacks, Clyde E D 42 TX Luck was with me when I met Clyde Jacks I did not developed any good freefall technique until I started going to Houston in 1959 to Jump. At Houston, I had about 50 jumps with Clyde who had Gold Wings (Over 1000 freefall jumps). License No.2 or 3. Clyde was undoubtedly one of the best skydivers in the world. Plus he was bright, thoughtful, articulate, well educated, technically competent (the complete Anti-Typical Skydiver) and a stunt pilot to boot. He was a great jump instructor and jumping partner. Our personalities meshed and every time I was in Houston we jumped together. I learn more from Clyde in one jump than I had learned in all my previous jumps. After a jump, Clyde could tell you exactly what you did wrong and how to fix the problem. During freefall, he would come up next to you indicate what your problem was, e.g., your left leg was too high. If you did not respond he would push your left leg down to the right position. Clyde had over 1000 freefall jumps and I only had about 60 but he would treat me as an equal because we both had a methodical approach to skydiving. After 20 jumps with Clyde, I was as good a jumper as anyone at Houston, except for Clyde of course. One full moon night in 1960, Clyde and I jumped from 15,000 ft with a flashlight. We pass the light back and forth several times and then saw that we were starting to drift into some tall cumulus clouds. We both went into full reverse arch track position (In this position you bend forwards at the waist roll you shoulders down and cup you hands by the side of your body. This position turns you body into a wing segment and produces a lift vector pointing upward and forwards. In this position you can move about a foot horizontally for every 1.4 feet you fall vertically, or a Lift/Drag ratio of about .7). We were able to track our way around and stay out of the high thunder head cumulus clouds. There were lighting flashing in the clouds all around us and they would looked like big white frosted light bulbs. We open our chutes about 1800 feet when we were under the cloud bottoms and could see the DZ lights. With about 1500 jumps Clyde was killed doing low altitude rolls in his stunt plane near Houston, Texas in 1962. Flying is risky.

From: Dr Richard Economy D-115 DrEco@aol.com I jumped at Lancaster Calif DZ from 1962 to 1967 because it was the closes DZ to Edwards AFB where I was a Capt in the Air Force at that time. Pep and Chuck Hill ran the DZ. Pep took the money and Chuck flew the Twin Beach. I also jumped at Taft and at Arvin and was in the first 6 man star that Bob Buquor shot photo of for SkyDiver Mag. I also made a some jumps at California City DZ when Bob Sinclair (of the old ParaVentures) ran it.