Lost Drop Zones Project

I've "only" been jumping since 1990, and don't have a ton of old pictures. I do have connections with a few of the guys who go back to he 70s who may have pictures. I'll circulate an email and see what we can come up with.

Martin

Martin - I greatly appreciate it!

On another note, I FOUND MY LOGBOOKS!!!!! For the past five years I've been missing all fourteen logbooks, rigger's log, and pilot's log. I spent the morning digging through a little used closet and discovered them. A pleasant find was my UK D license #648. At the time I hadn't even been to the UK but an acquaintance got one issued to me in 1968. It became a great autograph book. You'll undoubtedly recognize many of the signatures on its pages - perhaps even yourself (SEE ATTACHED). Sadly many of them are no longer with us.

It took me a while to figure it out but there's now a submission form for DZGone.com. You can upload your stories and images from there.

Unrelated: I hit my 18th anniversary of being an AARP member. To commemorate the event I took a short ride on one of my unicycles.

For the moment I'm caught up. We've documented 465 former DZs in the US representing all states except DE, ME, VT, and NE. Texas leads the list with 42. Please dig into your archives so we can add stories and photos to these pages. Thanks to all who have contributed so far!

patmoore

For the moment I'm caught up. We've documented 465 former DZs in the US representing all states except DE, ME, VT, and NE. Texas leads the list with 42. Please dig into your archives so we can add stories and photos to these pages. Thanks to all who have contributed so far!

Someone who was there should tell the stories from the Millican, TX DZ. Two interesting ones would be the tree removal from the runway and the killing of the neighbor's cow and Texas Ranger involvement. I never got tired of hearing those retold at the V-Mills DZ.

I don't have Millican on the Texas list. I'd love to add it. Tell me what you remember about those stories and I'll add them. We can update them as more folks chime in.

BTW, Texas leads the list of states with the most entries at DZGone.com - 42!

Only a handful of states have no entries: Delaware, Maine, Vermont, and Nebraska. Those states have current operations but no defunct ones that I've been able to identify.

We're now up to 488 defunct DZs in all fifty states.

New photos and stories are being added daily. Check out the story of raccoon at Ridgely....

Update: Count is now up to 510.

Bonus: The Bill Ottley Christmas Card collection is now online. 22 of his legendary cards are on display. Does anyone have some I'm missing?

For the moment, the submission form for DZGone isn't working. Please send stories and photos to pmoore(at)snet.net

I guess you can't edit posts after a few days.

In any event, the submission form has been fixed. AT&T sold my email provider (SNET) to a company called Frontier and my DZGone email was suddenly blocked.

You can submit stories through this link. If your photos are over 1024 kb you can just email them to me at [email protected]

I see you have Homestead FL listed, but that is where I started jumping 12 yrs ago and I believe they are still operating out of the municipal airport

I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing that out. It's been removed.

Or maybe the airport changed during time. I don't know. But Skydive Miami operate there

In doing my research for DZGone.com I'm looking through my old magazines. DZ USA used to publish a list of who were the most experienced jumpers in the country. In 1966 Paul "Pop" Poppenhager was the only jumper with over 2000 jumps. See attached.

Trying it again with the image embedded.

[inline awe.jpg]

Gary Corderman submitted a fascinating account of the first ram-air canopy jump by Paul Poppenhager D-47 way back in 1962.

Ironically it was at Pop's Indiantown DZ that the first-ever ram air jump was made by a woman. My first wife Connie and I were competing at the winter meet in 1969 when Steve Snyder showed up with a prototype. I jumped it and then Connie did. Later that day Donna Huminsky jumped it and broke her leg.

To date DZGone.com has identified 565 "Lost DZs" in all fifty states. Can you think of any that I've missed?

Today DZGone.com takes a look back at Kissimmee, FL. I first met Jimmy Godwin in 1967 and ultimately competed at several meets at Kissimmee and later at Eustis. I recall Jimmy telling me that shortly after he took up jumping he met up with Doc Gaffney at DeLand. He noticed that Doc had a stopwatch mounted on his reserve. Jimmy asked him what it was for and Doc told me he watched it to know when to open. Jimmy replied, "You can see in freefall?". Apparently he had been closing his eyes and pulling by feel. Intrigued, JImmy bought a stopwatch but couldn't figure out how to mount it on his reserve so he welded two pieces of angle iron to his helmet and mounted the watch right in front of his eyes. Unfortunately it was oriented to the right instead of vertical. Jimmy told me that the first time he jumped it, he kept inclining his head to the right to see it and put himself in a flat spin. I don't know if he was pulling my leg or not but it's plausible. I really liked Jimmy. I've just added this story to the Kissimmee listing. Please share your stories from the old days!

We had gone a couple of months with no new submissions but about a dozen have surfaced in the past few days. I just did a recount and the list of defunct Drop Zones in the US is now up 590. Can you think of any we've missed?

DZGone.com

As always, I'd love to post your photos and stories.

On 1/24/2009 at 11:34 PM, upndownshop said:

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Let's see, in the Dallas / Ft. Worth area alone the following DZs have come and gone since the late 50s:

(Old) Grand Prairie Airport (Bobby Crump's place)
Pilot Point ??????
Cedar Hill (Crump and Forest McBride)
Alvarado (same as above AFAIK)
Seagoville (Dallas Parachute Assn.) Jerry & Sherry Schrimsher, then Bob Chaffin
Mansfield ("The Limey's" place)
Commerce (Forest McBride and ??) Maybe Bob Chaffin or Dennis Dorris
Aero Country
Hartlee Field (Skydivers of Texas, Jerry Rouillard)
Lavon North (Jerry Rouillard's 2nd place)
Ennis (Slavo Mulik's place)
Forney (Doc Linden's place)
Rhome Airport (DZ later moved moved to Decatur)
Decatur Airport (Skydive The Metroplex)
Aerodrome (John Mitchell's place and the seed for Skydive Dallas).
Skydive Texas Ranch (Tom Bishop's place)
Gainesville (Forest Mcbride)
Eagle Flight (Granbury) Jeff Hughes

I think the names are right that I added, will ask about this Blackwater one I keep thinking of.

 

 

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Hartlee field was the site of my FJ in 1981. Also had 2 jumps at Lavon North. Jerry Rouillard was my FJ instructor and JMd my FJ. Then went to Aero Country (just too much waiting at Lavon North). Made jumps there with Donna, Calvin, Jim Newman and many others. 

i started jumping at tri state skydivers at lawrence county oh airport in '97.  they closed and split up, tri state went to the airport outside ashland ky and larry lemaster ran it for a few years.  wv skydivers went to robert newlon field and is my home dz now.  not sure when they opened, sometime around '04 maybe?  tri state is closed and has been for a while.

Edited December 27, 2020 by sfzombie13
clarification

Lost DZs in the Mid South:

Humbolt Tn.

Skydive Covington Tn.

Skydive Panola Cty Ms.

Mound City Ark.

Carlise Ark.

Stuttgart Ark.

Cockrum Ms.

Skydive Paris Tn.

 

I live georgia near locust grove I remember. TripleH skydiving club I was wondering if any had any info about it  it back in the 70s  the plane they and when started and when it closed. Thanks for any information.  Terry

On 10/19/2010 at 11:29 PM, howardwhite said:

Hmm, I thought Gift of Wings was Tibor's place in West Bloomfield. I have a T-shirt.
I could never sort out the Arcade/Java stuff. I just remember the pissing contests among the upper New York DZs.
You spent a lot more time there than I did. I was just the poor USPA dude who sometimes had to sort it out.

HW

A friend and I were just talking about Gift of Wings Skydiving Center.  We were trying to find it on google earth.  I typed in a search and found this https://www.ebay.com/itm/134322991142  and finally found the old Java Airpark here https://www.google.com/maps/place/Arcade,+NY/@42.6451461,-78.4156223,418m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x89d24c9e5f0f2713:0xe45f2b718da16f11!8m2!3d42.566526!4d-78.4069732!16zL20vMDFtaGJf?entry=ttu  The pole barn just left of center was the hangar.  If you look to the right of the dirt pile, you can barely see the outline of the former east west runway.  If you look just right of center between the old runway and the dirt drive, you can see where the old pea gravel target was.  Their clubhouse was a modular building which is no longer there.  I jumped there a few times in the late 70's.  6 miles down the road was Wyoming County Parachute Club.  I jumper there a few times also.  My home DZ was Seneca Sport Parachute Club located at the Seneca Falls Airport.