danchapman

Sanssuit- I spoke with my brother last night, who used to jump with me back in the day. He remembered Tommy Walkers stories, and said he believed the jump was in the Carolinas, and that the wives were at the event. Tommy said he was quickly picked up in a Sheriffs car (with sirens blasting and lights flashing) after he landed and wrapped himself up in his canopy. I then checked internet and found out TW was only in his late 40's or early 50's when we talked with him in '63. He was also a test pilot before WWII and a wing walker. In the late 60's the US Navy conducted a test with a Stinson, single engine. TW piloted, and the wings were rigged to blow off. They did and a Bill Jolly rigged Pioneer 60' round deployed from the tail. Walker exited at 1k and pulled his 28' modified High Porosity. Both plane and pilot had about same rate of descent and landed about the same time. This took place at Navy's Lakehurst Base in NJ (I write about that base and jumping there elswhere on this forum). For many years I had Walkers business card he gave me, one of those that fold in two. Open it up and it had the stuff about stunt flying jumping wingwalking, etc. And a large photo of a pair of biplanes crashed in a heap on a field, Walker sitting atop the wreckage with a big smile. It was the aftermath of a stunt he did in Hollywood. I also believe Walker was the pilot of the Twin Beech that shattered the billboard in the movie "It's a Mad Mad World", thou I think Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz (The legendary Tallmantz of Hollywood stunt flying fame) are credited with that stunt. I was 16 at the time I had met him and already heard about him from other jumpers, he was one of those unforgettable "larger than life" characters.

Back in the early 60's I had a student at Manville who was Tommy Walkers neice. Tommy Walker was a legendary barnstormer and jumper. He was in his late 60's when I met him at Manville. He told us that in the 40's he jumped naked for a Sherriffs Convention (in Ohio I believe), paid for by a group of the lawmen who wanted to shock their buddies, and he was paid double his normal rate to go sans clothing. He was known for some crazy stunt flying in pre war Hollywood. If any of you have read Don Dwiggen's books on aviation, he has a chapter on some of Walkers jumping and flying stunts.

We jumped at Lakehurst, NJ also, for a MEPA meet, in spring '63. I don't know if this was a military DZ but it was the Navy Base that was the scene of the Hindenburg dirigible disaster, late 30's. In '63 you could still see the huge dirigible hangers at Lakehurst, so big that clouds would form inside them. That meet was the result, in part, of the efforts of Navy's Mac McGraw, an all around great guy, who the old timers from NJ will recall. The meet was for intermediate or expert jumpers who had logged over 100 jumps. At the time I had about 50, but was logging jumps in 2 log books as one of my instructors had lost his, and recommended we keep a dummy log books. Well, I had logged over a hundred jumps, and managed to be accepted. Actually, most of us knew each other, the MEPA meets were monthly, and the rules were not always enforced to the letter. We jumped Navy C-47 (civilian DC3), the Navy Shootin' Stars regular jump ship. The last jump of the day was team accuracy and it got dark before all the teams jumped. Ground control radioed the plane to land with the remaining jumpers aboard. Mac was still abord with a dozen or so of us still left to jump when the orders came through. Mac assumed command and persuaded the pilot, instead of landing, to make a jump run at 10,5 and we made a mass exit from there.Also at that meet I met Ted Taylor (I believe that was his name), the first black jumper I'd met, a D license holder, Jumpmaster and I believe a Navy rigger. I always wondered what happened to Ted.

RR- Malfunction Junction was the nickname for a small bar in rural central New Jersey, circa 1962-63. The actual name was HillBilly Hall, I believe. It was not far from Adam's Airpark, home of Tri-State Skydivers, one of the largest operations in the country at the time. Malfunction Junction was the preferred watering hole for the instructors and riggers from Tri-State. I can tell you from experience, that there was no card check there. If you could see over the bar you were served- even if you were sitting on a bar stool. Tri-State also had a bunkhouse for the guys to sleep in. If any jumpers were left at closing time, who could not find there way, they were transported to the bunkhouse to sleep it off.

An old timers quiz: What was it and where was it?

!962 TriState, NJ was same, 2 SL/3 drcp and Jump and pull, same day. I had same weather problem, did an extra J&P. I remember the Instructors wanted to see you stable at terminal velocity and to be able to spot by 15's or 20's. They wanted some controlled turns, 180/360 stop on headings, and Back loops. After that you were on your own with 20-30 jumps. But in student accuracy events a jumpmaster would be avaiable for spotting.

Hello Jeff- Before the PC, the LoPo or 1.6 (the way I recall seeing it back in the day) with a 5 or 7 TU modification was a hot ticket for accuracy, but because of the expense, most jumped Cheapos, or 1.1's, the lighter fabric being more porous. I believe the theory was for any given loading, the LoPo would push more air out the modification (however, they were heavier, that would tend to increase sink rate). In any event they were beautiful to look at, when most canopies were all white, 'candy stripers' (orange and white gore alternation), or a few that had 4 different colors, white, olive drab, 2 other colors whose shades I don't recall (I seem to recall these as ex Air Force canopies and may have been called 'quarter panels'). Regarding landings, I never jumped anything but a Cheapo, but for a 140 #er they were easy, so long as you were holding in a light wind without oscillatiion, and we would sometimes try to do stand up landings. George Gividen, a one legged jumper and past pres, I believe of PCA/USPA is reported to have done a one legged stand up landing on his LoPo at Tri-State, but that story may be apochraphal.

OK, this goes back to '63 jumping open team accuracy competition, MEPA meet in NJ. We put together a team of 'B' license holders my brother, Paul Caprone, and myself and we are all jumping cheapos. The idea was to all go out at about 3k, and open sequentially, 2800, 2400 and 2000, for seperation. The lowest guy should be the heaviest, greatest sink rate and the highest guy the lightest, lowest sink rate, so there is no crowding when it comes time to hit the pea gravel. Sounded good in theory. We bail out and opened, proper stagger. Then its just keeping an eye on the disc, the wind sock and the glide angle. If the glide angle opens, run, if it steepen, hold. Set up to run on final and hook into the disc the last 30-50 feet. I am middle man and turn to run in for final approach and all of a sudden I'm looking at the low mans canopy, I pass below it but above him and his canopy 'steals the air' from my canopy. I plummet by him, we both have the 'Oh Shit' look in our eyes. He landed in the peas, as did I but hard so my chin contacted my instrument panel (front mounted reserve) and opened up my chin, nicely right across the edge of the sheet metal instrument housing. Larry Heasom's gal, a beautiful, sultry, dark eyed brunet was also a nurse, and managed to tape me up for the second jump. It seemed the more she fussed over me, the more attention I needed. We ended up second to Lenny Potts team. I never did get to see Larry's gal for my follow up, check-up.

Hello Howard, Tnx for the historical (hysterical?) stuff. Regarding Dave Burt, I heard a rumor back in mid-60's that Dave was going to go, with another jumper, and try to find the gold/silver ore Jimmy Angel was looking for when he discovered Angel Falls in Venezula, highest in the world and unknown to the outside world before JA discovered them in '33. Angel crash landed a year later on the high plateau and had to hike out, 10 days thru the jungle. The airplane was still on the plateau when Burt was planning his trip. I never have been able to find out if he ever went. I once knew the name of the other jumper, might have been Deke Sonnishon, but I'm not sure of that. Did you hear of this or know if they ever went? What ever happened to Dave Burt. Deke is still around. Tnx, Dan

Jumped a cheapo into a huge party at the Inn, 1965. Hit the trees and missed out on the first keg, clearing my canopy from the trees. My mug was still on the shelf there when they closed years later, always wondered where it ended up. I still have the 'INN' patch, however on my Pioneer jumpsuit, circa 1965, as well as a decal from '62 WSPC at Orange. I understand they will have a 50th Reunion of the '62 World meet in 2 years in Orange.

Hello Jerry- Tnx for the info. Do you know if the lines where the modification were slightly longer? I thought they were trying to push more air out of the cut-outs, and this supposedly helped. Before PC's the LoPos had an edge in accuracy, of course, but few could afford them. I jumped the cheapo until '67, and got an invite to the Nat'ls from the regional meet, in accuracy, but only as a 'downlister', where one of the top qualifiers couldn't go. The Lobster Tails and the Army Team won the accuracy event at TriState in '62-63 time frame and that was the only time I remember seeing those canopies. Tnx again for the info.

Does anyone remember these from '62-64 time frame? I believe they were lo porosity 28' modified to a 7 tu configuration, with the canopy material between the cut outs being hi porosity. The hi po material, was bright red, the rest white, as I recall. I saw the Army Team jumping them in competition, when Accuracy was king, in '63 I believe. They may have had slightly longer suspension lines in the hi-po material. Who developed this design and who manufactured it? I thought maybe Loy Byrdon was responsible for their design. Was it only available to the Army Team? Are any still around? Have any of you jumped one? They were, of course, displaced by the ParaCommander, or 'PC' aka 'pretty chancy'.

Monkey on a static line? In the early 60's the old military riggers at TriState told the story of the Monkey on the Static Line. These riggers included Frank Schoch, a veteren of D Day (82nd Airborne) who told me the story. The DZ pet was a Cupuchin Monkey, known for their intellegence. They tried to teach it to pack B4's but all it wanted was bananas. They figured it should at least earn its wings so they fixed up a little harness, containe, a drag chute, rigged with a static line. To the best of my knowledge, the canopy was unmodified and no reserve was used.. The Capucin was put out on static line and the canopy deployed normally. However, the Monkey soon did what monkeys do, but that no one had thought of. The monkey started climbing, up the suspension lines and went from 'full slip' to streamer in short order. I understand from Frank that they gave the parachuting primate a military burial, with his wings, that he earned the 'hard' way. I once told this story to a girl I was dating, on one of our first dates. She was horrified and angry. That relationship didn't last.

Very sorry to hear about Mac, who was a good guy. He spoke briefly after the wreck, and before bailing he tried to get a student past him and out- next to impossible the way they were seated in the Howard. He hollered words to the effect of 'follow me' when he exited. If I remember correctly the student who bailed pulled his main, which was still in sleeve at impact, rather than his reserve. Bill Ottley used to jump in NJ from time to time in the 60's. You may recall he had a Bell Helmet with his initials in bold type- WHO?- just like that, with the question mark, across the front.

I jumped in MEPA competition at Navy Lakehurst in '63, they told us it was the first time they let civilian skydivers jump there out of military aircraft. I remember the HUGE blimp hangers, so big clouds used to form inside them. We jumped the Navy C-47.

Hello Nitrochute- I'm new to this forum and it gives me a chance to remenisce (sp) about the old days. Well, you posted about the crash of the Howard dga18 in May '66 at New Hanvoer, Pa. I was on the first load that morning, it was competition and I was there with the Hudson Valley Club out of Gardiner, NY. As usual, I was broke but the event organisers let me help judge, marking landings for accuracy, in the pea gravel, in lieu of entry fees. As was typical, the judges made the first jump of the day, so the competitors could watch, then we landed and discussed our spot with the competitors. I went up on the first load, which was incomplete, only 4 or 5 jumpers, all jump and pulls, nowhere new gross load. After landing, the Howard took on a full load of fuel and a full load of jumpers, every one from the US Navel Club at Lakehust NJ as I recall. Moreover, it was student accuracy, so they all had less than 35 jumps. Their JM was Mac McGraw, well known to jumpers from the 60's in the NE, and the Cap't of the Navy Team I believe. I watched the entire flight, from takeoff to climb out and stall at about 1100' to crash and burn in the farmers field next to the DZ. Mac was also a private pilot, he was in the door and looked to the pilot when the stall occured. The pilot nodded that conveyed 'I got it' to Mac, who hestated for a second then bailed and opened about 5-600 ft. I don't recall if he pulled his main or reserve. A second jumper followed immediately but was too low. The plane hit nose a little down and exploded in a fireball as we ran to the accident site. The body of the second jumper was about 30 ft away. The Howard dga was not known as a gentle handing aircraft, and the pilot had a full load of fuel and jumpers. On the flight before the pilot had instructed us, as was customary, to huddle foward as much as possible on takeoff and climbout, to avoid the dreaded tail heavy stall condition. I suspect the jumpers redistributed themselves during climbout, moving cg rearward. The pilot had a commercial rating, 300 hrs total with 7 in the Howard. That Howard had a big old P&W radial hanging off the nose and he must have been right up against gross. The thoughts on watching it drop was how slow it appeaded to be falling, like a leaf, and that the nose was not down, that is it was not a nosed down spiral, at least at first. Then there was the unreality of it all, 'this can't be happening' thing. The wreck took less than 5 minutes to burn all that fuel. We all just packed up and left, competition canceled.

Doug Angel put me out on my second or third SL jump at Tri-State in '62. He was a real nice guy, quite and unassuming- truly one of the good guys. He put my mother out on her First Jump. Another JM teaching the FJC at TriState at the time was Carl Blessing, and the two- Blessing and Angel often taught together. The joke at the DZ was that with names like Blessing and Angel they'd never lose a student. When TriState closed Doug moved on to Lakewood, NJ for a time. Tri-State was a large operation at the time, with as many as 20-30 FJ students on a weekend, many from NY city. Some of the other Jumpers there were Tom Murray, D200, Bill Markhoff, Sonny Thoren, Mike Hilden (now a Professor of Advanced Math at U of Hawaii), Joe Dye, George Gividen (had a wooden leg, but removed it to jump), Frank Shoch (jumped into Normany with the 82nd Airborne, and was a rigger also). I was told that Murray and Gividen once used Gividen's wooden leg in lieu of a baton, and passed it in free fall.

I have many memories of these DZ's, especially Manville, NJ, home of the flamboyant millionaire playboy of the 1950's Tommy Manville, and home of Johns-Manville, huge insulation mfger. I left home for the summer of '63 and hitchhiked from my home on Long Island to Manville with my rig- a B4, I was 15 and had about 50 or so jumps. Ray Guilfoyle was opening a DZ (Lee's brother) and needed some help. No pay, but sleeping on the packing table in an old Chicken Coop which I helped convert to a packing shed. Ray and his wife fed me and I got free jumps, got to pack chutes and teach first jump course. I would also stay up nights if there was a night flight coming in to Decker Field and needed runway lights turned on. I remember down the road was a college (AB White College, no longer in existance) whose total enrollment was about 50 students- Zarepath we called it, they lived communally and were pacifist/vegetarians. They would let me eat lunch with them, in the communal dining room, they grew their own food and were adept at making food look like meat. I would swear I was eating meat loaf but it was all vegetables. Got back to LI in time for preseason football practice.

I'm a little late on this post, but I jumped against the USMA West Point club in a meet at Galeville, NY in 1966 and also at the colligate Nat'l, I believe '65 or '66 in Orange Mass. In '66 their team leader was a Capt from West Virginia, named Lon Spurlock, a great, wonderful guy. He was killed in VN in spring '69, 32 years old, aboard a helicopter took an AK-47 round in the head and the helicopter crashed. I visited the Wall in Wash DC and found his name. I have a photo of that meet, where I'm about 10 feet off the ground, feet stretched out and slipping my 5-tu cheapo, for closest jump of the meet, about 2 ft. Spurlock loved it, wouldn't let up on his Cadets, who were jumping ParaCommanders. I'll try to figurte out how to post that photo.

I first met Dan in 62-63, in NJ. He jumped from time to time with our club in Manville, where I worked doing odd jobs, including packing rigs for free jumps. Dan had real nice gear, Pioneer, with his personalzed insignia on his chest mounted reserve. His personal insignia was an English Pointer- the dog, in full color embroidered patch which was sewn onto the reserve flap that covered the pins. One day he had some distinguished, non-jumping visitors, family as I recall, which he was showing around the center, including the packing shed, where he stored his gear. Shortly before, another jumper, whose name is lost in the mist of history, had taken a pen to Dan's insignia, and made the dog an 'anatomically correct' well endowed male. Well Dan pulls out his rig to show the folks and we all start howling..... Years later I got my riggers license from Dan and Ted Strong at Ted's Squantum, Mass loft. Dan insisted we always use the factory manual when packing different types chute, and we had to follow the recommended steps regardless of what we thought was best. The morning of our 'Practical' Exam (the non written part), he gave me a strange looking rig to pack, along with the instruction manual. The rig was a WWII japanese troop main, and yes, the manual was in Japanese, and no I don't read japanese.

I first met Steve in '63 jumping at his south NJ skydiving center, he was flying and the Weber brothers were running the operation, as I recall. I was 16, looked 10. He was 'baby faced', looked like a teenager. It was a MEPA meet and I was with the Manville NJ club. On one flight they filled the Cessna jump plane emgine with oil but apparently forgot to put the cap on. By 2000 feet the windshield was covered with oil, tho not so bad you couldn't see. Steve gave us the choice of jumping or landing with him. He got us to on a short jump run and we all went out on one pass. He landed the plane without difficulty. I believe that meet was one which carried on the early MEPA meet tradition of torching the outhouse or 'Loo'. I recently located an 8 mm film, home movie of the meet, in which I finished 2nd in the intermediate class- accuracy. Maybe I can figure out how to load it and post it. Fun to watch hook turns on a 7-tu LoPo.