howardwhite

..and the state-of-the-art canopy releases... HW

OK. 1. Operated by a corporation and with the intention (not necessarily realized) of being profitable. (As opposed to a club, military recreational activity, Boy Scout Troop or ragtag band of gypsies, who also may charge for training.) 2. Open to the public, without requirement of "membership" (even temporary membership for the day, like bars in some dry states.) 3. In furtherance of that activity, advertising and getting coverage in local (and maybe even national) media. See attached. Got any earlier candidates? I'm open to claims. HW

Not to mention the Powell Tribune. HW

Poynter and Turoff, on the USPA web site: I have pointed out to Mr. Poynter that, AFAIK, the first commercial skydiving center opened May 2, 1959 and that the article cited as the source for credit to Mr. Young doesn't use the word "skydiving." HW

OK. It's Rod Pack (of chuteless fame) with an F-100 over Taft DZ. "Photo" is by Don Molitor, published in Sky Diver, May 63. Sky Diver sometimes published fake photos and labeled them or at least hinted they were fake. This one wasn't so labeled (I think). In any case, 1963 was way before Photoshop or any kind of digital photo manipulation, so any fakery was done in the darkroom. HW

Responding to my own question. The first two are from 1935 and 1936, the last from 1951. HW

Well, if you didn't buy that one, here's the start of a press release on another one: It needs to be said that this "study" was commissioned by a department store chain. HW

Another study on the wonders of the skydiving brain. HW

Here's a quick screengrab of Lurch as horse a couple of years ago. Justin was wearing a wingsuit. HW

Could be. I was probably there (Easter Boogie.) HW

An Otter owner/pilot/mechanic told me (after the June crash in Massachusetts) that pilots sometimes leave the lock in place while taxiing in gusty winds so they don't have to keep fighting the wind blowing the controls around. That wasn't the case in the June crash, where the wind was essentially calm, and probably would not be the case for a jump plane. But I once saw a retired airline captain with some 39,000 hours abort a DC3 jump plane takeoff after he had lifted the tail and found he had no rudder control because the rudder lock was in place. In that case, it was an external lock on the tail of the aircraft, where of course the Otter locks are inside, in front of the pilot. HW

The FAA today published an airworthiness directive affecting most Twin Otters. It requires a modification intended to prevent takeoff with the elevator control locks in place. A Twin Otter -- not a jump plane -- crashed in Massachusetts in June, killing the pilot. The investigation found the control locks were in place. HW

The attached picture is on loan from the wall of a local (MA) DZ, one of a bunch of old pictures donated years ago by a skydiver/photographer. On the back: "Chicago-Hammond Airport, November, 1969. 'Gypsy Moths' Meet." and: "(after reserve landing on this runway) in sack race" -- Chicago-Hammond is now Lansing (IL) Municipal. Presumably the "Gypsy Moths" reference is to the then recently-released movie. But that's all I know. Recognize anyone? HW

Here's a picture of Smitty with his "rig." I think I took it but have no idea when or where. One of the people is looking over his brochure; I've got a couple of copies of it. HW

Noorduyn Norseman. See your January Parachutist for more. HW

Lee's pictures are included in a much larger Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/parachuting1960s/ They are mostly of Parachutes Inc. centers at Orange, MA and Lakewood, NJ, with some other northeast DZs thrown in. Vince Marchese has also recently added some movies from the mid-sixties which are fun to watch. HW

Actually, the second one was sent to me by Bob McDermott. HW

Yeah, here are a couple more of a foil, giving a better look at line length. HW

Yup. I think a fair number of the labels are wrong, based on what I've been through so far. But it's still a treasure, not just for the skydiving pictures; Life had week in, week out, some of the best photojournalism ever seen. HW

It is. I'm in it. That's Lew Sanborn in the blue pants and white T shirt in the front row. I'm in the second row, just behind and to his right as you look at the picture. Istel is in the bright yellow coveralls to Lew's left as you look at it. The picture (which became a postcard) was taken by a very famous Life magazine photographer. It was taken in 1969. There are a couple of other versions (one attached) in which a canopy (different ones in each version) is clearly visible over the bowl. No one has figured out where they came from, as all the local jump planes were on the ground. HW

I've had a chance to look through these a little more, and some may be interesting. What's on line now is only some 20 percent of the Life collection, and I know there are a lot more Life pictures of skydiving not yet on Google Images. LewNate is (l-r) Lew Sanborn (D-1), Jacques-André Istel (D-2), Nate Pond (D-69), and George Flynn (pilot). 84C is that same Cessna and maybe the same three jumpers. It is not the same 84C that flew jumpers at Orange through the 60s and 70s. in_plane is a first jump student in that plane. These pictures were taken at the Orange Sport Parachuting Center in July, 1959, just a couple of months after the center opened. At least some of them were used in a Life article about the new sport of parachuting. The photographer was George Silk, a very famous long-time Life photographer who among other things took the first pictures of Nagasaki after the atomic bomb landed there. JAI_Russian is Jacques Istel jumping a Russian canopy at Goodhill Farm in Woodbury, CT. It is undated, but probably taken in September, 1956, just after Istel returned from the World Meet in Russia. The photographer was Peter Stackpole, another very famous Life photographer. Goodhill Farm is the long-time home of the Pond family, and was the site of the first collegiate nationals in 1957. The three foil pictures were taken at Ft. Bragg in 1968 as part of a life story about foil canopies. Fun stuff for a history wonk. HW

The 180-day repack rule change is published in today's Federal Register. It takes effect Dec. 19. Text attached (it's essentially the same stuff the FAA posted earlier, but is now official.) HW

Added to the list of questions for which clarifications will be sought (and maybe even received) Wednesday. HW

Or even Berry Gordy. HW

Thanks for finding those; they're a treasure. I've just started looking through them, but I'm already puzzled by some of the pix in the "Russian parachute in Woodbury, CT" sequence. Some are indeed from Woodbury (the site of the first US collegiate meet in 1957) but others look rather like Queen Elizabeth and definitely not taken in Woodbury, CT. There are also several pictures of Lew Sanborn, Jacques Istel and Nate Pond in the earliest years of the Orange Sport Parachute Center and some of Nick Piantanida, who died in a high-altitude balloon jump attempt. And Dave Jansen, shown in several shots of a water jump from a seaplane, signed off my jumps 97-99 in 1966. HW