howardwhite

Well, o.k., it's easy. But what's missing from this picture, and what does that suggest about roughly when it was published? HW

Perhaps you will also instantly like the late Col. Emmett L. (Buddy) Plunkett. In a story in the June '71 Parachutist, Rick Valley writes: "During his barnstorming career a real estate firm in Tampa, Florida paid Emmett $2,000 to perform to help attract attention to their development sites. This stunt turned out to be the most spectacular of his career. "A few weeks before the stunt was supposed to take place over Tampa Bay he pieced together an old Jenny. It was in such poor shape he wouldn't even test fly it before the stunt was to be performed. "He attached a gallon can of gasoline just forward of the cockpit, with two copper tubes leading from the can down to the bottom of the lower wings. "At the end of the tubes were two spark plugs attached to a magneto in the cockpit. On the great day, he climbed into the cockpit, started the engine, and nursed it to 3,000 feet over Tampa Bay. He then turned the stop-cock, allowing the gasoline to flow down the copper tubing. "The gasoline vaporized as soon as it hit the slipstream. Emmett then made a swift turn of the magneto crank and as the Jenny exploded into a ball of fire, he dove over the side. He drifted down under his parachute and was picked up by a waiting boat." HW

Many of you read here about the fire at Vermont Skydiving Adventures. Terri and Ole have asked that this message be posted here: ----- Dear Friends, Family and Fellow Skydivers, On behalf of Vermont Skydiving Adventures, Inc., Ole and I would like to thank everyone who helped keep Vermont Skydiving Adventures, Inc. (VSA) running during this challenging time. For those who are not aware, on September 24th at approximately 8:30 pm, the rigging trailer at VSA burned to the ground. In the trailer were numerous parachute systems including student and tandem gear, various rigging tools, supplies and equipment; and most unfortunately a number of personal rigs stored at the dz by friends. The opposite end of the trailer was our video room and pilot lounge. All our video equipment, including camera helmets, and friends’ video equipment were lost. Various plane parts, including the keys to our Cessnas were also lost in the fire. So that’s the bad part. The good part is that no one was hurt. Everyone had left the premises when the fire started and no one made it back to the fire in time to play “hero” and get injured. We are truly grateful that it was only “stuff” that we lost and no lives. The cause of the fire has been listed as “unknown” but not of malice. We can only speculate since there was nothing left to investigate. We would like to extend a special thank you to all our skydiving friends who have called, emailed, sent money and came out to the dz over the past week to help us clean up. J&M Aviation was at the scene almost immediately and brought the aircraft up to speed with new keys. We especially want to thank Orange Skydiving Center (Jumptown) and Mohawk Valley. Gary Pond and Brian Grady flew up from Orange the Friday after the fire and brought 7 sets of equipment for us to use in order to keep us in business. Jimmy Stahl from Mohawk Valley lent us an entire video system so we would be able to continue to offer video to our students for the rest of the season. They also offered to lend us student and tandem gear. We realize there were many people whom we have not named helping out behind the scenes to keep VSA in business. VSA staff and jumpers are an example to the skydiving community in their call to action; donating time, equipment and energy to get VSA back on her feet. This message would not be complete without thanking the West Addison Fire Department for their prompt response to the fire. They were at the scene within minutes. Had it been longer, we might have lost our aircraft as well. Please know that we are truly grateful to all of you. We feel very blessed to be a part of the skydiving community. Thank you, Terri Mayer, Owner, Vermont Skydiving Adventures, Inc. D-13108 Ole Thomsen Owner, Vermont Skydiving Adventures, Inc. D-10429

If this were an accuracy jump, Pop and jimp would get about 1 cm, not a dead center but impressively close. It's actually a Found Centennial 100, an improved version of the FBA-2. According to that usually reliable source, Wikipedia, only three prototypes and two production aircraft were built in 1967-68 and the company folded. This one was tested at the Air Force Academy in 1968, and as Pop noted about the FBA-2, it was found severely limited in climb ability, especially at Colorado Springs altitudes. It was later tried at Applegarth, NJ by Bill Ottley and Lenny Potts, et. al. It had a Lycoming IO-540. The one in the picture (from an article in the Sept.'68 Parachutist) was CF-WFO. CF-WFN can be seen here: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0300328/L/ In the magazines of this period, there are many articles about airplanes brought to PCA/USPA DZs by their manufacturers specifically to demonstrate their suitability as jump aircraft. And manufacturers such as Cessna and Fairchild-Hiller actually provided aircraft for the Nationals and other events. Times have changed. HW

I'm happy to report that, for once, Zing is wildly wrong. HW

And who are those people and where are they jumping? This is very obscure. HW

Well, as long as you're Googling: http://motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/hofbiopage.asp?id=119 http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/accidents.htm http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/articles/aviation.htm HW

"Where" is pretty obvious. But who and when, I don't know. (Oh, and what is this canopy?) HW

(as you posted in response to my earlier post.) Here are some pics from elsewhere of a Sedan/Travelair. HW

No, but if you hack through his web presence, you find these interesting packing instructions. http://www.geocities.com/sf260ray/Parachute/Switlic1.html HW

http://www.google.com/patents?id=8eEyAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=parachute+OR+release+ininventor:Jeswine&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=1&as_miny_ap=2007&as_maxm_ap=1&as_maxy_ap=2007&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2007&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2007#PPP1,M1 HW

You know everything I know about the Google entry and the lap parachute. Now that I am at home and have had a look at Poynter, I find no picture of one, and only one reference: "The U.S. Army Airplane parachute Type S (service) was produced in back, seat, chest and lap models." (1977 Poynter, haven't looked at the 1972 three-ring binder version, but doubt it's different in this section.) HW

Google is your friend

I posted this elsewhere on dz.com a few years ago and got lots of wrong answers before the apparent right one. So if you really want to cheat, find the earlier posts. Anyway, it's a pretty picture and I expect some of you may have jumped it. So -- what and where? HW

Oh, I know that. He's jonesing for my Volplane, whenever I manage to get it back from the person I "loaned" it to a few years ago. HW

Well, since this one seems to be boring... Well, yes, but "cruciform" just means "cross-shaped." And if you Google "cruciform parachute," you'll get a lot of hits, including some stating that "squares" are just highly-modified cruciform parachutes. And you'll see them in common use for cargo drops and for air and spacecraft deceleration. Hoop notes "the photo triggered a cob-webby synapse. I do remember it appearing in Parachutist. It was called X-something. X-wing? X-canopy?" Actually it was called the "Cross Parachute," and it was developed and made by Gary Patmor. The article about it, in the May, '68 Parachutist and the pictures were by Carl Boenish. The jumps were in October '67 at Yolo County Airport. His description: "Two large rectangular strips, each 10 x 40 feet of nylon twill...are placed perpendicular to and bisecting one another. The 10 x 10 foot 'high pressure' area formed by the common intersection of the two rectangular strips is double weight.. and is securely fastened at the corners. Each of the four 'arms' has five suspension lines 36 feet long sewn to it at equal intervals." Boenish notes that while the canopy can be "steered" by pulling down lines, "the forward speed essentially is identical to that of the prevailing wind." If you look at magazines from the 60s and 70s, you'll find several articles about home-grown parachute designs, usually jumped only by the person who built them. I haven't seen any of that lately. HW

The latest Google Earth has a flight simulator. Not exactly Microsoft, but fun and free. http://earth.google.com/intl/en/userguide/v4/flightsim/index.html

You've obviously never seen my barrel. This one is much closer to the bottom. These pictures speak to something I haven't seen for years; skydivers with both engineering and sewing skills creating essentially one-off canopies and then (for the most part) having the courage of their convictions and jumping them. No military contracts going on here, no thought of huge riches -- just a personal challenge and lots of time. The canopy in the OP was designed by someone whose name you'll recognize, and its design was the subject of a multi-page article in Parachutist. HW

No. I think one of the birds is actually the bag (see attached) HW

I didn't get it from a book; I got it from Parachutist. You can even see the Para-Gear ad on the back of the page. But I want the book. HW

And who, and where, and would you like to jump it? HW

O.K., so here's the right one, just in case you were saving it for your scrapbook. HW

This chart was printed in the May 1971 Parachutist in conjunction with an article --"Why They Jump" -- about the psychology of jumpers. A corrected version was published in the June issue. By that time, according to the note accompanying the correction, most readers had already figured out the problem. Aside from that, the chart would seem slightly curious today -- the time between "Immediately Before Jump" and "Chute Opening" is "Less Than 30 Seconds." The general conclusions about the personality and behavior of skydivers would be familiar to most jumpers, e.g. "...a significantly large number of skydivers admit to having indulged in unusual sex practices, doing dangerous things just for the thrill involved, and using alcohol to excess." Or..."Skydivers are very sociable people. They enjoy parties and get-togethers, especially when they are loud and ribald." For those who can't figure out what's wrong with this one, the corrected chart will follow some day. HW

Good place to start:http://www.collegeskydiving.com/

Correct (as I said earlier.) PIA is an international organization (its next Meeting/Symposium will be in Barcelona in February, 2008), and I expect the content, as Joe outlined it to PIA, will be sufficiently generic to be valuable in other countries; it won't contain any USPA-specific stuff about licenses and ratings and rules and regulations. HW