Irvin Delta2 Parawing

Hi Dennis,

Re: Ed Drumheller

The story going around at the time is that Drumheller said that it was so reliable that he would jump it without a reserve. Then a couple of jumps later it malfunctioned.



JerryBaumchen

Well, that depends on if you are talking about the morning or the afternoon. The only time I watched it dropped without a reserve attached, the test jumper was a sandbag.

-With a sleeve, after you pulled the sleeve over it, as you folded it the remainder of the sleeve would stand straight up like a tree between folds. It opened so fast and hard you had to suck in some air and grit your teeth together. Also, at first it was a good idea to have an evacuation pit-stop before you went up. And for sure you had to pull your leg-straps real tight so you would not be walking around with a high voice after opening, or uneven jewels for a long time.

-With the what I called the sleeve-bag you had to have help to bend it over and almost stand on it to get it into the container.

-The final short bag did the trick, and after the line trim was finished, yes it was safe, MOST OF THE TIME. Before we got the line trim finished that puppy sometimes would fly great and then the nose would get a cold and try to blow you out of the sky. It could invert and turn into a big bundle of laundry at any time. After that it did turn into a good platform.

I loved to pull down one side and spin it out of the sky.

My brother would take up one color of smoke and I would have another color. He would screw down in one direction and I would come down in the other direction through his smoke. It made for a great DEMO at events.

Ed Drumheller along with Bobby Degan were two great people to work for. Ed passed away about 4 years ago and I have no idea where Bobby is these days.

Regards,
Dennis

Just back from VN in Jan70 bought my delta II from Irving. Put 70 jumps on it with no problems except one on Nov 7 when a engineer (business card presented) confronted me at the Santa Nella CA dz.

All my jumps were with the three nose lines outside the OSI which still created some concern when it stood me up in the saddle to watch it slowly do it’s thing. He said all lines should be inside the OSI! When I finally walked back from where my reserve dropped me he was nowhere to be found!

I went back to my way and had no further problems. It was fun going to a new DZ and going wayyy past the exit point….drove pilots and other jumpers crazy! Always wanted to try a “road trip” from 10,000!

USPC C3823 1964

Steve Snyder began playing with the Delta II in 1967.At Ripcord Para Center( he owned the dropzone).Dick Morgan (he was a Golden Knight at the time) began collaborating with him at that time