Telstar parachute...like Paracommander?

Hello verybody

I would require some information from the VERY experianced old school skydivers here, please. What ia a Telstar parachute like...is it a canopy like a PC? There is on for sale on E-bay that I might be interested in...Can anybody post some specs, please, or even pictures?

thanks a lot
Uwe

Uwe,

While I'm no expert here, it seems to me that, this canopy is a PC mark 1, no way to know with out inflating it. The markings would normally state MK-1, 2, RW etc.

Tel-star # 89 is clearly stamped as well, but below the mark PC 676774 I have never seen a PC marked like that, but that means nothing..... because I have seen some marked strangely for those in the civilian worlds.

What I can tell you is, after looking at those photos and having packed a whole lot of PC's, that is a PC, clearly. What model, can say from those pics.

Looks like a nice canopy in close up pics.... she also had another PC in a blue sleeve that looked real nice too... that said all her stuff is way over priced IMHO, but seems today people will pay it. Good luck.

Hello Stratostar

Thanks for this...I was also looking at the stars and stripes PC...I know some of the gear is well overpriced but good Paracommanders are not being offered a lot. My dream would be a 28ft Mk1 "Jumbo" but those are rarer then hen's teeth. I was outbid on a nice black one about a year ago and I really did bid a lot! Unfortuantely the general intrest in rounds is not yet where it should be in order to justify picking up PC production again.

cheers
Uwe

They still make them for the military. That jumbo you and Kurt were bidding on is what drives up prices. Because then everyone uses that as a base for market price....

I have two jumbo's, love them, but the 27 Russian is really nice as well. You were willing to spend the big bucks on that jumbo canopy.... I know where there is a mint condition 1980 wonderhog with reserve and a 27 Russian with only a handful of jumps on it..... as in New old stock!

Guy wants a thousand dollars for it. But it is really nice.

Interesting question. Here's the little I dug up:

[Slightly edited because Alpha Para Equipment was the company name, and Telstar is the rig name, but it looks like Telstar might unofficially and later officially also have been used as the company name.]

Poynter's I has Telstar at 5.130 and 9.2:

- In 9.2 there is just a list of company addresses

- 5.130 has half a page on Bob Boswell's company in Kentucky and their rigs. Alpha-Para Equipment built the AL-1 and later the AL-2 Telstar.

Web searches:

Another site (not updated for some years) says about the Telstar rig:
"Packing information obtained from Bob Boswell (Owner / operator of now out of business Telstar Systems). Bob Boswell now owner of Kentucky Balloon Loft, 502 477-6333"

And a retired jumper (who I actually know) made a comment on someone else's site: "At the time, I jumped a red & blue (TelStar pattern) Mark I ParaCommander. "

I also have a set of graphics showing round canopy colour patterns (from Beatnik or someone on this site). The page showing the official 1968 Pioneer PC colours has one that is "New dark blue Telstar" -- dark blue with 6 red stripes basically.

How ever that pattern got to be known as the Telstar pattern, perhaps the ones that passed through Bob's loft, or ones that went into his rigs, got stamped Telstar? PC's didn't seem to normally get stamped with any identification of their colour pattern name.

Hi Peter,

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TelStar pattern Mark I ParaCommander

This is going way back for me; but I do seem to remember something about that if a dealer ordered a fair number of canopies, Pioneer would build them an exclusive pattern. This would be a pattern that no else could get.

JerryBaumchen

Hello again

I found the picture that was mentioned...

[IMG]http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y187/anj4de/4053158227_d40abcb170_o.jpg[/IMG]

About the prices that PCs and other old gear fetch recently, I guess it's the same as with old cars or bikes...no one pays a lot for a 15-10year old car, when they turn 25 intrest slowly picks up, with 30 the first reproduction parts start showing up and with 40 it's concidered a classic...with a very high demand.
Last night there was an very nice crossbow container set ending on E-bay...it went for 285$! I did bid but it went to almost double of what I had scheduled :-(

cheers
Uwe

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Last night there was an very nice crossbow container set ending on E-bay...it went for 285$! I did bid but it went to almost double of what I had scheduled :-(

Oh so your the Fokker who drove up the price on that.....

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Last night there was an very nice crossbow container set ending on E-bay...it went for 285$! I did bid but it went to almost double of what I had scheduled :-(

Oh so your the Fokker who drove up the price on that.....

...if you think bidding 140$ is "driving up" then yes...

Gotta blame someone..... might as well be you.

Was nice too, and I had an all red jumbo in pod that would have fit in there real nice I think.

I just have to wonder how long that PC has been daisy chained. We'll never know, but there just might be a story there.

You might be surprised that it could 30 yrs or two, depends on the owner.

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Interesting question. Here's the little I dug up:

[Slightly edited because Alpha Para Equipment was the company name, and Telstar is the rig name, but it looks like Telstar might unofficially and later officially also have been used as the company name.]

Poynter's I has Telstar at 5.130 and 9.2:

- In 9.2 there is just a list of company addresses

- 5.130 has half a page on Bob Boswell's company in Kentucky and their rigs. Alpha-Para Equipment built the AL-1 and later the AL-2 Telstar.

Web searches:

Another site (not updated for some years) says about the Telstar rig:
"Packing information obtained from Bob Boswell (Owner / operator of now out of business Telstar Systems). Bob Boswell now owner of Kentucky Balloon Loft, 502 477-6333"

And a retired jumper (who I actually know) made a comment on someone else's site: "At the time, I jumped a red & blue (TelStar pattern) Mark I ParaCommander. "

I also have a set of graphics showing round canopy colour patterns (from Beatnik or someone on this site). The page showing the official 1968 Pioneer PC colours has one that is "New dark blue Telstar" -- dark blue with 6 red stripes basically.

How ever that pattern got to be known as the Telstar pattern, perhaps the ones that passed through Bob's loft, or ones that went into his rigs, got stamped Telstar? PC's didn't seem to normally get stamped with any identification of their colour pattern name.

Bob here. Telstar was always the name of the rig. We never marked any PCs as Telstar.
A standard PC would be way too big to go in a Telstar main container. We did build several for RW PCs but most were built for the squares of the day.
A guy picked up some of the packing instructions a number of years back for a data base that he was putting together. He mistakenly called it Telstar systems, but it was actually Alpha Para-Equipment. Sandy Reid at Rigging Innovations manufactured a round reserve for a student rig called a Telstar.
I seem to remember a PC Pattern called a Telstar but I wouldn't swear to it. For those that don't know Telstar was an early communications satellite, as well as a 1960s R&R instrumental by a group out of England.

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Bob here. Telstar was always the name of the rig.

Damn, right to the source, that's handy!

So it sounds like the Para-Commander color scheme Telstar was unrelated to your rig. And that the canopy on the market with the name stamped on it, was actually likely stamped by the factory, which seems unusual (in my limited experience). And for a change it seems that the "tel" is unrelated to any particular French-American fellow, unlike in say "telsan". So Telstar got picked up as a name in various unrelated fields because a communications satellite was a big thing in 1962. ..

It might have been as Jerry suggested and the dealer stamped it. There were several big dealers like Para-Gear and maybe Midwest that could order enough PCs to get there own patterns. In 67 & 68 if you had something different than red, white and blue it sold like hot cakes. My first one was R,W,& B like every other one in existence.That was the first chance to get something different. For containers your choice was OD or Sage Green. The latter going for a premium price.

Hi Bob,

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For containers your choice was OD or Sage Green. The latter going for a premium price.

People today have no idea of what you are talking about.

But Sage Green; wow, that was the cat's meow back then. And a premium price, for sure.



JerryBaumchen

Or now a days... they go to gear stores.... I remember when the gear store came to you, in the parking lot when he opened the trunk... Wow you mean it's not surplus.... yea all the cool kids jump um...

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Sandy Reid at Rigging Innovations manufactured a round reserve for a student rig called a Telstar

Sandy/RI has long made a student rig called the Telesis. I don't recall him ever involved in the manufacture of a round reserve or any other canopy.

I've known Sandy a long time and spent some time with him last week. We talked a lot about his history in the gear business but I'll ask him more specifically about this.

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Sandy Reid at Rigging Innovations manufactured a round reserve for a student rig called a Telstar

Sandy/RI has long made a student rig called the Telesis. I don't recall him ever involved in the manufacture of a round reserve or any other canopy.

I've known Sandy a long time and spent some time with him last week. We talked a lot about his history in the gear business but I'll ask him more specifically about this.

Sandy may have had the reserve made for him. He called me when he was working on the Telesis and asked if I cared if he used the Telstar name in connection with that student rig. In all honesty I didn't keep up with it after that. I didn't care since the Telstar had been out of production for several years prior to that.
Please ask him since now I'm curious about it.

Just happened across your posting, I'll be putting a solid black PC-Mk-1 up for sale Tuesday, have to wait because of the 3-day new-comer policy. Just thought I'd let you know.

I am a bit late, but....

Telstar is just a pattern, and the # is just the series of that pattern. So that would be a regular Mark 1 madein the Telstar pattern .

Here's one of mine.

As mentioned, TelStar refers to the Blue & Red pattern of the canopy. The patterns had different names and TelStar was one of many. My first Mark I was a TelStar purchased at Lakewood Sport Paracenter in New Jersey.

Edited July 20, 2021 by EPalumbo
Misspelling