Scary stories from the old days?

Thom,
Those sound like wild and crazy times in "Nam". I was never there but I did make a lot of static line jumps out of H-34's, here in the states, during the 70's. They kind of reminded you of a big grasshopper. I think the marines were about the last soldiers to use them. The Marine Corps always seemed to get the short end of the stick. Steve1

"Thom,
Those sound like wild and crazy times in "Nam".
I was never there but I did make a lot of static
line jumps out of H-34's, here in the states,
during the 70's. They kind of reminded you of a
big grasshopper. I think the marines were
about the last soldiers to use them. The Marine
Corps always seemed to get the short end of
the stick. Steve1"

REPLY:
Lets say the experience was UNIQUE! The DZ was also had as rock so you either did an excellent PLF or stood it up whichwasn't often in that heat and humidty. AP DONG was also the DZ for the Vietnamese 2nd Airborne Division and there was a small triangular fort on the DZ. The chopper could land right next to the packing area but we discourage that for obvious reasons.

Every time we jumped we were plagued by people trying to sell us everything from cokeacola to their daughters and these boys were all over who would field pack for you for a couple of cigarettes. Carry your gear back for another one.

The club had mostly Army in it, and a couple of Navy and Air Force but also some Aussies and American Civilians. The first CrossBow in Viet Nam didn't get jumped more than a few times. An American civilian brought it in and did a hook turn into a tree trunk and the H-34 had to fly him to the 3rd field hospital which left us without a jump ship for several hours.

By the way, the H-34 was Viet in VNAF colors and we paid the pilots a (5th) bottle of Johnny Walker each to fly for us, the chopper was free. I didn't drink so it was usually my ration for 5th's that got used up.

After TET in 1968 the club couldn't get the chopper anymore and the club folded I'm told. Love to hear more from anyone who jumped in Nam.

THOM
Still suffering from Post Traumatic Opening Shock!!

I met a guy back in the 70's who started jumping. He had lost one of his legs due to bone cancer and he did his best to skydive. He finally had to quit though because the landings were just too brutal under round canopies. He kept injuring his only leg ankle and foot. He had all of our respect though. He'd ride a bike all over town, snow ski, kayak, and even skydive, all with one leg. A couple years later he started calling up all his jump buddies to say goodbye. His exact words were, "I'm about to go on the ultimate trip." He was actually joking about his own impending death. Apparently the cancer was spreading throughout the rest of his body. A short while later he died. I'd like to think, I had that kind of guts when my time comes. Steve1

I remember a girl, back in the old days, who started jumping. She was really small and not very strong. She worked her way up from static line to freefall. The only problem was that sometimes she wasn't strong enough to pull her rip cord. On one of her early freefalls she tugged and tugged on her rip cord, but it wouldn't open. Then she focussed all her attention on pulling her belly reserve rip cord, and after several tries it opened. Going to terminal with a reserve back then was no fun, because you would fall to the end of your lines, after the canopy inflated. But she was not quitter. Then the same thing happened a while later (her main wouldn't open, so she started tugging on her reserve until it opened.) So bruised and battered, she began lifting weights and got another rig that was easier to open. (I think one solution they tried was to put some teflon washers around the cones and under the ripcord pins.) Her nickname after all this was "Total". She made hundreds of jumps, and lived happily ever after. (believe it or not it's true) (this is not just another of my big windies)..... Steve1

When asked to sign off a logged jump for someone, if there is time I will often page back a little to get a some background feel of the person.
I'll never forget the last line of the entry on something like jump 50 in this young man's logbook...
"Only had 3 line twists left when I hit the powerlines"
I wonder if he's still with us?!

A 4 way demo into a football field supposed to be from 2500 ft but a cloud deck came in and the highest we could get was 800 ft. I was spotter and looking down thought no way we're going to do this but some impulse made me, like a dumbass, exit the aircraft. I landed with a one minute smoke canister that burned for 40 seconds after I was on the ground. Even the wuffos at the event were shocked and questioned the altitude. Amazingly, the other three guys jumped also and when they landed they were all highly pissed at me because we had jumped from such a low altitude. Everyone on the load knew the altitude and nobody forced anyone to jump. They didn't refuse the money paid them for the demo, though

How about getting out of a plane at 150' and successfully landing under an open canopy? I watched about four hours of old parchuting, BirdMan, and skydiving footage from British Pathé last night. I saw some amazing things, but I'd love to hear the stories behind some of these jumps.

Respect to anyone that landed a parachute before the PC. You f*¢kers are made of steel.

Two items:

#1) We had a hot dog pilot. I used to bitch at him regularly for being too acrobatic. On a cross-country to another DZ in our old Beech D-18 he pretty much flew on the deck most of the way. He had to go up to avoid fences. I just layed down in the back because I was sure I was going to die and I didn't want to see it coming. Returning from the trip at night he did two full barrel rolls with a full load on board. It was pretty, but I still didn't like it.

... By the way, he's dead now.

#2) A similar hot-dog pilot did some zero-g and floated an observer up against the handle on the in-flight door on the C-182 on descent. The passenger fell out. She actually found the ripcord and had about a 2 second canopy ride.

20 some years ago I went Arizona to compete in the collegiate nationals with a group from my university. After the meet, we decided to drive over to another Az. dropzone that at that time had a bit of, shall I say an 'outlaw' image.
The ten of us wandered around for twenty minutes to kind of get the feel of the place as many jumpers do when they come to a new dropzone. Suddenly the WHAP of impact stops everyone in their tracks...not 30 yards from the clubhouse is a prone figure, no handles pulled. The first remark I heard was from a crusty old salt, with patches all over his jumpsuit covering tears, mismatched shoes, carrying a rig that was a dinosaur even back then....His comment:
" I don't know who spotted that load, but he's good!"
We all looked at each other, headed for the van and left for home, 2500 mile east.
Those Arizona guys were HARD!

Airwardo this is so sick, but yet so funny! I'm glad I wasn't there that day. I guess I have a sick sense of humor.

This story is second hand, but I guess there was a wuffo who went to a drop zone in the old days to watch. On the very first load that he watched, someone went in. Everyone was sick, except this new guy, who said, "damn I got to try that." He later went on to train and jump.

A lot of people bounced in the old days. I knew some folks who died that way. Luckily I've never been there to see it happen. I don't think that part of jumping would be any fun....Steve1

I knew some guys from Montana, almost 30 years ago, who moved to Arizona to jump. This was before Eloy and Coolage. Most of them were jumping at Casa Grande then. There was B.J. Worth, Hod Sanders, and a guy named Jeff Frangos. Jeff drove around in a black hearse. He called Sky Diving "Sport death". Actually the guy was a cool Dude and not nearly as crazy as all this implies. He may have spent too many years in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot though. At any rate Hod had been on a few loads (in Arizona) where a team-mate went in. I know Casa Grande had a terrible rep back then. Hod's wife Tina, told a story of watching a two way, go in there back in the good ole days. I guess I better quit, I'm starting to scare myself with some of these stories. At any rate is there anyone else out there who jumped in Casa Grande in the 70's? I hope I didn't exaggerate too much on these stories. Most of them I'm telling second hand, and I wasn't there......Steve1

On my first trip down to Z-hills in '79 we had a crater party for a Canadian girl who'd gone in there within the last couple of years... According to the guys who'd been there, she hit within about 50 yards of the clubhouse... My buddy had spent the night before with this girl, and when she was getting geared up (she was a student) he went into the clubhouse to get an AAD-equipped reserve... When he finally came out with one the rest of the load had gotten impatient and given her one without an AAD and loaded up the DC-3 to jump... She spun in on her back, no pull... This was the fatality that left H***** saying, "I may not have been her first, but I know for damn sure I was her last!!!"

It was sort of scary going down there for the first time with about 19 jumps from a small dz... I remember there was a ding in the eaves of the clubhouse that was pointed out to me - from two guys who ran into each other at a few hundred feet and spun down only to bounce off the roof...

OK - I remember 2 instructors doing a linked 2-way exit at 1000 feet with T-10 static line systems. For fun! Late 1970's when I first started.

Texas, lake jumps, 1983. A "known base jumper" who was also a regular at our drop zone took a static lined 20' round reserve out of a Cessna 206 going full speed across the lake at 150'. Opened horizontally, swung to vertical immediatly touching down in the water. What balls he had!!

Back in 1983 I was doing a 3 way and I was the last one going out of a c-182. I was still in the door (on my knees) when my main deployment bag went out the door and my main inflated over the tail. I had just over 100 jumps and it almost knocked me out.

I cut away and dumped my 22 foot round reserve at around 10,000 feet. I was 19 years old and scarred to death! I could not figure out what had happened, I just reacted.....My main was shreaded, the plane was damaged but he was able to land.

That was a long reserve ride, the uppers were cranking and I landed about 6 miles from the drop zone and was lost for some time. No roads, no help.

I can't believe I still do this.....


.

Second jump 1966 in the Phillipines out of a Phillipine Air Force C-47 over Canlubang which is a huge sugar plantation with 2 grass strips. My buddy goes out first and I follow, seems like I am going a lot faster than on the first jump, so I look up at a streamering TU7 and the lines are twisting down towards the risers and my buddy's canopy is getting real small real quick. I go for the belly wart reserve borrowed from the club, throw the handle away and let the bungies open the pack. Wham! Am under a small white round of unknown size. It had a pilot chute in it which wasn't supposed to be there for students. I saw the flash of white after the damn thing opened!! As I am hanging from the d-rings on the front, the main starts to fill with air and untwisting. Eventually landed in 15 foot tall sugar cane with both canopies laying on top of the cane. Third jump was clear and pull as I had shown I could pull a rip cord. Sure was exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That story reminds me of this one. Back in the early 70's there was this guy who could fall stable, but he always started spinning out of control. One day he came out to jump and needed a belly reserve. My locker pardner had one, so I loaned it to him. At any rate I was watching from the ground when he left the plane and started spinning. He pulled his main and ended up a perfect streamer. He wasn't trained to do a cut away, and pulled his reserve. Luckily they didn't tangle and the reserve saved his life. Then I realized this was my pardner's reserve that I had loaned him. When he got back to the hangar we discovered that the reserve had multiple burns and holes that needed major repair. This was caused by the reserve deploying against the lines of his main. And the end of the story is, the cheap-skate refused to pay for the repair work......Steve1

[ At any rate is there anyone else out there who jumped in Casa Grande in the 70's? I hope I didn't exaggerate too much on these stories. Most of them I'm telling second hand, and I wasn't there......Steve1

Yeah, I jumped casa Grande in the 70's - it was 1976 and I was on a 3 month jumping vacation around the US. Stayed at Casa Grande (the Gulch) about a week. Evenings after a few beers were entertaining - the locals would take you on a "crater-tour", of the previous bounces. Yes it was a long tour. Someone had "the arm" - a mumified forearm and hand, clutching a ripcord. Ghoulish!!!!

But it was great jumping there - everyone was friendly and visitors were welcomed as brothers.

At the end of that trip I busted my femur in Antioch (Cal) under one of the original ring-and-rope strato-stars. We didn't understand what a gust induced stall was - took a few of getting busted up to finally recognise a danger of these ram-air rockets, hahahah.



fergbird

First I would like to say...this is my favorite thread and hope to read a lot more stories of the bad 'ol days. I can not contribute 'cause I have only been
around 10 yrs and any scary stories I tell could get
me or my friends locked up! So....who can provide
a picture of a silkworm( CRW ). No I have never
tried to do it. Has anyone even seen it done( don't
sound that hard).
....mike

Maybe it's a somewhat stupid question but what is a silkworm?

2 Stack ( CRW) lower canopy has very large cells like
DC-5 or XL Cloud, Top guy/gal enters center cell feet first up to chest line...smiles for camera. Landing it is not recommended. I know where there is an XL Cloud. I have never seen a pic...maybe it's a myth...but if it works in cartoons...it's good enough for me.
...mike
P.S. It all about good pictures!

I remember a picture like that in Parachutist years ago...

Quote

I remember a picture like that in Parachutist years ago...

Maybe I did see a picture?...my short term memory=toast!
...mike

I think there was such a pic in one of the Skies Call books - probably II or III.

Skies Call 2, photograph number 31.

I wonder who the dude inside the bottom canopy is? I believe that photograph 105 is the first 8-stack and the same guy docked last on it. Obviously an early CReW dog guru.

Anybody know? His canopy is a 5 cell, Star most likely, ans is orange and black.