howardwhite

Well, since those were so exciting, here are a couple more. HW

...and, from USPA, http://www.uspa.org/GroupMembers/StartingaCollegeClub/tabid/304/Default.aspx (By the way, USPA has just launched its new-look web site.) HW

First of a series. HW

There have been a number of discussions of this one -- search for both Lodestar (right) and Loadstar (wrong), but I didn't see a full list of names. I knew one or two of them. A news story about the crash is attached. HW

Ok, I don't believe you. My life, lately. It was rainy all week. Tornadoes in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Wednesday was geek day. Stood in line for 90 minutes but succeded in buying an iPhone G3

Gimme a break. It took me 18 minutes to respond. Believe it or not, I have a life HW

Yup. See http://www.millsmanufacturing.com/products/cargo-parachutes. Mills is still very much in business and is an active member of the Parachute Industry Assn. HW

Well, it's obviously a very easy one, as lots of other people have already correctly IDed it. It was a Sky Diver cover (don't have the date at hand), and I have a slightly better scan of it. In fact I'd already posted a black and white version of it here, and there were responses. The scans I posted earlier were in Howard Gregory's book, "Parachuting's Unforgettable Jumps III."(1987). The photo was taken by Luis Melendez Jr. using a 4x5 Speed Graphic (for those not familiar with it, that's the classic old news photographer's camera often seen in old movies.) The jumpers are Lyle Cameron, Susie Bateman, Rick Remler, Billy Lockward, Ed Melendez, Chip Maury, Hector Nunez, Rick Montez, Andy Skrodinsky, and Jim Hyland. Gregory's book has almost two full pages of Melendez's description of how the picture was taken; in short, he worked for about eight months and a lot of jumps before he got this one. Chip Maury was himself a well-known and prolific skydiving photographer; he retired a few years ago from teaching and now lives in New York state; I exchange email with him from time to time and would love to get a look at the huge volume of neat pictures he's made. I've also posted elsewhere another famous picture of Chip, Cameron and others on the outside of another plane in flight. Attached is the exit shot associated with the original pic. HW

I was there last month and couldn't agree more heartily that it's a great DZ with wonderful people. (I'm kinda guessing that the "Doug" with whom you had Mexican food was DSE, who's a moderator here and a regular there.) HW

Same also at my DZ last weekend. I'd guess she was no more than 3 1/2 feet tall. I'm sorry I didn't see the landing HW

Think it's bad here? Look at the DB Cooper thread in History and Trivia. HW

Here's the Churchill credit. I don't really need to talk with Jim Reuter, though come to think of it, I wonder if he'd sit through a video interview for eventual inclusion in the Skydiving Museum collection. I was just curious/dubious about the value of a wrap as an OSI for a square. (But I'm also dubious about the hydraulic reefing system, and I own one.) At a very quick pass, the only 1968-vintage Golden Knight I recognize by name is Ray Duffy; it would be nice to get IDs on the rest of the team shown in the movie. HW

Gee, I remember them working pretty well as main pilot chutes, too. HW

That is indeed the movie. In the closing credits, Dave is prominently listed as "Supplier." It was the late 60s. One can only speculate what he might have supplied. It would be fun to have access to Pioneer's archives of test jump movies. Got any in your stash? HW

OK, to put this one to bed.... The shots are from a movie called "Another World," made for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) TV at Orange, MA in (I think) 1968 (it could have been early 1969). It's beautifully done. Follows students through their first jump course, shows the Golden Knights doing a demo, and includes a longish segment on test jumping (from which these grabs were taken.) This segment features Max Knor, who defected from the Yugoslavian team at the '62 world meet and was a Pioneer engineer at the time. He's sitting with a blanket over his legs during the interview; as it turns out, he had broken both of them on a test jump. The first shots were certainly what became the Volplane, though as noted, the Volplane as shipped did not have a wrap -- it had the hydraulic reefing system. Jim Reuter, then chief engineer at Pioneer, had developed the "Reuter wrap" for round reserves, and (I'm guessing) someone thought it might be a good idea for the Volplane. I'm not sure what the red and white square is -- doesn't look like the Volplane. And the triangle thing was Pioneer's take on the Rogallo wing. The movie itself is lots of fun; I showed it at the DZ over the weekend and people gasped at the canopies and the landings. The freefall video was done by Grant Perry (a Canadian skydiver) and is quite good; some of the airplane to airplane stuff of student exits is great. When I figure out the copyright and other things, I hope to be able to offer it for sale to benefit the National Skydiving Museum. HW

Ted Strong showed up at the Pioneers (aka old farts) reunion in Utah last month with a huge stack of 8x10 B&W photos, most of them taken by Tom Schapanski and many also by Joe Gonzales. Jim Arender took a bunch of them away with him (most of them duplicates and most of them of him.). I guess Ted took the rest of them home; I had wanted to scan a lot of them but didn't have time. But I guess Ted knows where Schapanski is. HW

And here are two more grabs from the same movie, of yet another canopy. Also a couple of pictures of what I guess is approximately that same canopy, but possibly taken earlier. I don't know the dates on the canopy shots in the movie. HW

I bow to tri160 in his knowledge of obscure aircraft. HW

Here are another couple of grabs from the same movie. I'm not suggesting they're the same canopy. So, since people are homing in on this one, when was the movie made? HW

These are screen grabs from a wonderful movie which I've just had digitized and am cleaning up for distribution. I know who made the canopy, and about when, and I think I know what it is (or was to become) but there are some details I hadn't seen before. HW

Not even Nancy LaRiviere of Jump Shack? HW

Yes, for demos. HW

Hmm... "They're skydivers who wear special suits that allow them to go faster than free falling, at nearly 120 miles per hour. " HW

I didn't know that. Interesting HW

They look sorta like this. HW