Mr. Douglas DC-3 restoration front page newspaper

America's most famous skydiving boogie DC-3 Mr. Douglas front page story article on the non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt restoration project.

386dallas

America's most famous skydiving boogie DC-3 Mr. Douglas front page story article on the non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt restoration project.

Someone who has been around awhile, whats so special about this plane? Google was no help.

Others will certainly add more info.

Before turbines there were very few DZs that had anything more than C-182s or similar. Most jumps were a 20-25 minute ride to 7500'. If you were lucky you had access to a Twin Beech or DC-3.

There were not that many boogies and Z-Hills and Perris were the hot spots. The Thanksgiving and Xmas boogies at Z-Hills were memorable. I was not a west coast jumper so others will certainly add more flavor on this.

Mr Douglas was one of the most well known DC-3s around. I've got a few pics of her and Southern Cross. Some of them seemed to run on oil and you just checked the gas.

My last DC-3 jump was at the old Skydive Chicago sometime around 1995. I was a first time visitor and some guy had funding for 2 jumps to build the 6-sigma formation for his company calendar. All I heard was the announcement that said, "see Max for a free jump." I got in the line to see Max and heard everyone in front of me get vetted and denied, somehow I made the cut.

Max introduced me to his crew of regular jumpers, we dirt dived and up we went. We built it on the first jump. Of course having funding for two jumps we had to do better. On the climb to altitude the left engine blew. Everyone exited and upon landing Max demanded a debrief - just to see who had oil on the front of their jumpsuit. From that he jokingly determined who really knew how to exit a DC-3.

That brief encounter led to many visits to Skydive Chicago and an invite to the 300-way. Fun times with Max and crew.

Young billeisele, has left a lot of skydive pioneering information OUT of the "Mr. Douglas DC-3 Story" hereon.

In the early 1970s before there was tandem parachuting, tandem parachuting began jumping from "Mr. Douglas" based in DeLand Florida. Before there were the 3 ring release system they were jumped out of Mr. Douglas by Bill Booth in DeLand. Before there were hand-deployed pilot chutes, they were jumped out of Mr. Douglas over DeLand Florida. Before there was Accelerated Freefall they began jumping AFF out of Mr. Douglas in Deland Florida. Before there were "Skydive Boogies" Mr. Douglas begat the term jumping over Deland, Florida.

One of the reasons that DeLand is the skydiving training capitol of the world began with the famous Mr. Douglas blue-tint windows, and 8 track stereo music on climb out. Every "old-school pioneering parachutists" know and love Mr. Douglas. There are almost 2,200 Facebook followers of the restoration process. No other DC-3 has those bragging rights.