howardwhite

Hmm.. I thought I filled all the holes in your collection last December when I was at USPA; they have at least two bound collections (one was Bill Ottley's). I have December '63 and December '64 in the set of scans that day. HW

Having floaters outside a Cherokee 6 is not a great idea, especially if the pilot has little or no experience flying jumpers. It loses altitude at an alarming rate with all that drag out there. HW

A little more on this. 1. The story was written by G. Brooks Baekeland and Peter Gimbel, who were at least by title "New York investment bankers." But Baekeland was also a physicist and anthropologist, and Gimbel was the heir to the Gimbel department store chain. Gimbel went on to be one of the two first divers on the Andrea Dorea after it sank, and later recovered a ship safe and opened it on TV. He also produced and directed the movie "Blue Water, White Death." 2. Others who jumped in were Jack C. Joerns and Peter Lake. Jack was a WW2 RAF pilot, a NASA engineer in Houston and long-time Galvston skydiver. According to news stories, he had also participated in underground nuclear tests in Nevada prior to the Peru expedition. Peter was then a 19-year-old Dartmouth student, and was later executive producer of the movie "The Deep." Peter lives in Massachusetts, and has a lot of memories and memorabilia (including Peter Gimbel's log book) as well as unpublished pictures of the National Geographic expedition. I have been leaning on him for nearly a year -- so far without success -- to write a story for Parachutist about it. 3. One of the pilots was Richard H. Tomkins, C-49. One of the pictures in the story shows the expedition's two Helio Couriers. Dick Tomkins was among the founders, in 1957, of the Cambridge (MA) Parachute Club, perhaps the first collegiate club. He retired a couple of years ago from his position as a professor at Hunter College in NYC. A letter from him, about skydiving-related aircraft accidents, is in the June '08 Parachutist. 4. Jacques-André Istel had a lot to do with making the expedition happen, both as a media-savvy guy and as the president of the company distributing Pioneer's sport products, including the Para-Commander. His health, however, prevented him from going on the trip. Jacques told me last year that National Geographic canceled other planned parachuted-empowered trips as the result of the publicity surrounding the jumping death of an 11-year-old boy. (I'm not sure about this because the NatGeo expedition was in August, 1963 and Dana Rutledge's death was on his ninth jump in November, 1966.) Attached: a better scan of the cover and one of the jungle jump pictures. HW

Here's the whole story, from Sky Diver, October, 1972. ----- Many jumpers have dreamed of jumping out of a big airplane from a maximum altitude without the necessity of hijacking the plane at the same time. Bernd Irrgang from Freiburg (West Germany) had this chance and wrote the following story. The idea was born at the Para Club of I'Aisne (France) — a mass jump out of a Super-Conny. To rent such an airplane is very expensive. On the other side the organizer couldn't take every student to fill the list up with about a hundred jumpers to make it rentable. An ad was published in the French magazine "Les Hommes Volants" and 103 jumpers paid 100 Francs (about $20.00). The drop zone chosen by the organizer measured 7500 x 3500 meters (4 miles by 2 miles) as the flight speed was 70 m/sec and they had only one small door for dropping one jumper per second. When all difficulties had been managed, ninety-six jumpers met on a beautiful day in autumn (1971) at Le Bourget (near Paris), as expected by good organization. After license-control, a very careful briefing was held. All freefall-work (flash, etc.) was strictly forbidden and before pulling the ripcord between 1000 m and 700m every jumper had to turn a full (360 degree! turn and to wave two times. After a snapshot in front of the plane (see photo) the jumpers entered the plane and took places on the floor, where it was very narrow. After the take-off, at 1500 feet, the jumpers were allowed to stand up. Twenty minutes later the plane arrived at the drop zone near Laon, at 12,500 feet. One turn and the pilot took the cut. The jumpmaster opened the back door and the jumpers ran to the door and got out. After 70 seconds the plane was empty and weighed ten tons less than before. What a beautiful scene to see 100 jumpers in freefall at one time. Because of the high dropping speed, the jumpers were about 150 feet apart. When the canopies were opened, it looked like pearls on a chain. There was no case of hindrance among the jumpers. Ed. note: Prior to this, the previously known civilian mass freefoll record was the Pacific Coast Sport Parachute Club's Connie loads of 61 at Taft, California, on May 31, 1965.) --- My "collection" consists largely of access to old magazines such as this one, and a good scanner which lets me steal photos from them. The Museum collection includes a pretty complete set of Sky Diver donated by Tony Fugit. But 100 one-ways seems a shame -- no "freefall-work (flash, etc.)" allowed. What's "flash", anyway? HW

I made a jump with Sally today on a beautiful New England afternoon. I even got a kiss pass -- although she was wearing a full-face helmet. She has read the messages here and appreciates all the kind thoughts. HW

Not the one in the picture. HW

Too easy for "What is this plane?" So: Where and when? How many jumpers? (count 'em) How big a formation resulted? What was the (unofficial) record for the largest #of jumpers from this kind of plane before this (and when and where was that?) HW

The Boston Globe has a brief notice for Charlie, with a link to a guestbook, should you choose to share remembrances/condolences for Sally and other members of his family. HW

When I scanned the picture, I stored the info in the file. It says Yolo, and I'm sticking' to it. HW

Sally has sent me this card to help us all remember Charlie. HW

Yup. Carl Boenish photo of J.C. Harrison over Yolo; cover of Sky Diver September '67. HW

Well, it is California farm lands, but northern, not southern California. And it has nothing to do with The Gypsy Moths (though it was taken by Carl Boenish.) HW

Charlie Burgess, long a familiar figure at DZs in New England and Florida, died earlier this week after a long battle with cancer. He was the husband of Sally Burgess, who has participated in most of the large RW records over the past decade, and Charlie was always there with her. His exuberant celebration at the 400-way in Thailand was captured by BBC television news and broadcast around the world. Although he had not jumped much in recent years, he was active in the life of drop zones both in his native Massachusetts and in Florida, where he had had an ownership interest in a DZ in the Tampa area. Many jumpers first met him soon after they landed off the DZ, or at the far end of the field; his white van quickly showed up to give them a ride back. Others met him when they were struggling to straighten out a canopy hopelessly tangled after a cutaway, or when they were struggling to pack a new canopy. He quickly took over the situation, straightening out the mess or giving direct, no-nonsense packing lessons. His generosity and kindness were usually hidden behind a gruff, Boston street-wise exterior, often perceived as grumpiness until you learned that he really liked you and really wanted to help -- he just didn't want you to know it. He will be missed. In celebration of his life, there will be a missing-man skydive and circle of remembrance Saturday, May 31 at 5 p.m. at the Pepperell, MA skydiving center. The dive has been designed by Tom McLaughlin. As Tom and Wendy will be in Florida at that time, Tom will organize a similar dive at the same time at Skydive City, Zephyrhills. There will also be a Celebration of Life Sunday Jun 1, at 1 p.m at Magnolia Beach in Gloucester MA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Home for Little Wanderers 271 Huntington Ave, Boston MA 02115 617-267-3700 http://www.thehome.org/ HW

I left the N-numbers visible. Go for it. Any idea who or where? HW (I notice I posted two #32s so this should really be #34.)

One of the pictures is of a check for first jump course deposit. It's dated 7 June 1975, so a bit after the dates I'm wondering about. HW

The 1970 USPA directory lists "Konitz, 2 mi SW of Edgenton, KS..." with Danny Payne as contact and LTC Joe Thomas as ASO. Thomas is also listed as ASO for the Ft. Leavenworth SPC and the Tri-City Airport, Parsons, KS, (KSC Skydivers). HW

For an article on Twin Otters as skydiving aircraft, I'm looking for info from people with old logbooks and photo albums, long and accurate memories, or dated newspaper or magazine articles. Specifically, I'm looking for info on any Twin Otter jumps made before, say, mid-1971. This might include military and governent operations as well as skydiving, and might include jumps made in places other than the U.S. This is an extension of another thread asking for Otter info. Documented, verifiable info only, pls. "I think I remember my grandfather telling me about... " stories, while possibly interesting, are not what I need. I'd rather get this via PM, to avoid cluttering up the forums. HW

A number of DZs have done variants on this theme -- $2 bills, circulated in the community and maybe with a skydiver stamp, to provide a reminder of the economic impact of skydivers. I'm guessing this one came from deLand, but could have been lots of other places. HW

I believe that relates to cutting cheese, not eating it. HW

Just when I though I knew everything about skydiving, I find this entry in the Definitive Authority, Wikipedia: "For typical people, less than 1g of force along the body's long axis is what causes the 'stomach in your throat' feeling on a roller-coaster or other amusement park rides. This is why skydivers in the armed forces are encouraged to eat a block of cheese about an hour before jumping to keep the acids from coming up in their mouths.[citation needed]" I've never done that. (I also don't remember having "the stomach in your throat" feeling.) Am I missing something important? How big a block of cheese should I be eating? HW

This cartoon, from an old Spotter, may help explain; you need to blow it up to see the detail. It was drawn by Mike Buckley, who later died in the Golden Knights DC-3 crash. HW

No. HW

I know from nothing about Kansas, but I was just looking (for other reasons) in the March '68 issue of DZ-USA and found: -A For Sale ad for a rebuilt 16mm helmet-mounted Fairchild movie camera, offered by (and with a picture of) Jim Garrison, D-94. -Notice of a meet at Tonganoxie, "..located about 15 miles west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri on Highway 24-40." DZ-USA was published by C. E. "Gene" Hunnell of Wichita. He showed up on another web site a couple of years ago, looking to renew acquaintance with people who remembered him. HW

I just posted a calendar listing for a canopy control course, and was surprised that there is no appropriate listing category under "Discipline Focus." It's not CRW, and it's really not "swooping" (though that's how I ended up listing it.) "Canopy Control" ought to be a possibility. HW

For your area, try here. Easily modified by state and airport. Easy-to-read graphics. HW