howardwhite

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content

    2,605

  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by howardwhite

  1. howardwhite
    "The motorized Nikon stopped Don Henderson step by step hassling Ken Rounds." (Pix taken over Lancaster, CA). QuotePS) I thought you said you never subscribed to SkyDiver. I didn't. But other people did. There are two more or less complete sets in storage at Para-Gear awaiting the construction of the National Skydiving Museum. One came from Tony Fugit. There are also, I think, two pretty complete sets in the USPA library, one from Bill Ottley. They're fun to read. One ongoing theme is Lyle Cameron's ongoing war with most of what he perceived as an entrenched and corrupt bureaucracy at PCA headquarters. Another fascinating theme is his ongoing admiration for Jacques Istel. PCA/USPA politics then as now makes strange bedfollows. HW
  2. howardwhite
    This series of pictures by the late Ralph White appeared in Sky Diver in 1964. Just people having fun.
  3. howardwhite
    Will some Green person please move this to the DB Cooper thread, where it belongs and was apparently intended to be. HW
  4. howardwhite
    Ah, yes, Wikipedia, that bastion of reliable, verifiable info. I'm surprised no Wikibody has inserted [citation needed] somewhere in the vicinity of that quote. Anyone ever heard that story anywhere else? HW
  5. howardwhite
    The official records of the Caterpillar Club are held by Airborne Systems. Unfortunately, the link on their web site to the Club is currently broken; I've told them about it. As chair of the PIA Historical Committee, I spoke with their PIA rep at a meeting a couple of weeks ago; she wondered whether PIA might be interested in publishing a book of Caterpillar Club stories based on the original applications they have on file. I said yes. Now we just have to make it happen. HW
  6. howardwhite
    If I'd had my way, you would have to have gone through a full first jump course and be on radio instead of going up and scaring those nice people by being so near them in freefall. HW
  7. howardwhite
    Google Boeing 40C and you'll find a lot. My friend told me the open cockpit was to give the (mail) pilot a better sense of the weather (being right out there in it.) He could converse with the passengers via a telephone. The mail itself, as well as the passengers, were in the wood-paneled cabin. There was also a story about how, when the plane crashed in California years ago, rumors circulated about diamonds being on board, which prompted endless searches. Guess I've got to find the EAA magazine. HW
  8. howardwhite
    I obviously have a big gap in my information flow. I need to stick to obscure skydiving planes. HW
  9. howardwhite
    oh, well... Here are the rest of the pix. HW
  10. howardwhite
    Not a jump plane, but... A friend, ex-jumper, ex-jump pilot, took this and several others this summer. He flew his Stearman on trips around the midwest with it, and has some interesting stories. It's probably the only one flying. I'll post others later. HW
  11. howardwhite
    I've now had a chance to look at the 1991 Poynter manual (mine at home is an older one.) I continue to think the canopies in my original post are "Eagles" (pre-FS-1), and that's consistent with what's in my original source. (BTW, that dude modeling the NB-6 on page 5.022 is me.) HW
  12. howardwhite
    I haven't been able to find a picture of an FS-1, but I have found a reference saying it was first put into service in 1943. Poynter says the first 60 were manufactured in 1942. One of the attached pictures is from a 1939 Forest Service report. The source of my orginal picture identifies it as "1940s Smokejumpers on the job," and the accompanying story identifies it as something other than an FS-1. That something is also the identification given to the canopy in the second attachment. HW
  13. howardwhite
    OK, well then.. was the canopy considered to have forward motion and to be steerable? And if so, how was it steered? HW
  14. howardwhite
    ...and who's jumping them, or has jumped them? HW
  15. howardwhite
    On the Home page (yes, I rarely look at it, either), push the magic button (see picture.) HW
  16. howardwhite
    The NTSB has released four recommendation letters (attached). Two are to the FAA, the others to USPA. HW
  17. howardwhite
    I'm with you, but the "gawdy and incredibly irritating ads" are coming from the new owners of dropzone.com and they are basically profit people, not content people. (That said, I am probably going to place a banner ad shortly, and I wouldn't want to diminish viewership among the Premies.) HW
  18. howardwhite
    I once saw this plane begin a takeoff at Orange, then abort rapidly. The pilot, a retired Eastern Airlines pilot with something like 39,000 hours, had forgotten to remove the rudder lock. I don't remember it being used for static lines in Orange; I certainly never put any out of it. HW
  19. howardwhite
    Was there supposed to be a picture attached? (The wonder of my collection is not so much that I have pictures, but that I can occasionally even find them. In this case, the picture was on an external hard drive at home and I was in a motel in northern New Hampshire. Networks are fun.) Absolutely beautiful day of jumping today out of Skydive New England's TwOtter in the shadow of Mount Washington. HW
  20. howardwhite
    IIRC, he said he wanted to go out with a bang, over a crowd. HW
  21. howardwhite
    PI had several DC3s, though I only recall one with the logo. It was at Elsinore for a while, and also at Orange. Here's a picture of it from a PI brochure. The N-number comes back "Revoked Enforcemnt," whatever that means. HW
  22. howardwhite
    Well, for starters, a couple of ads. On my only visit there (1976), I stayed at Curt Curtis's house in the woods on the hill to the west of the airport. Like you, I remember it as a really magical place. HW
  23. howardwhite
    Fans of 121PM will appreciate the new paint job for the tool truck. HW
  24. howardwhite
    iTunes, $1.99: "Skydiving 44:49 The Works. Many of us have marveled to see a man whizzing to earth in free fall wondering how it's possible. Now, we're uncovering the physics, biology and technology behind skydiving. Its history in World War II aside, skydiving today has many surprising applications." HW
  25. howardwhite
    I don't think that's the same Owen Quinn.....but I could be wrong. HW