personal Acts of aviation stupidity, who has done one and is prepared to admit it? me

[Guest Maj Millard]

And Oz you may also remember we didn't even have jump doors on the planes back then. Generally froze our arses off above 6 or so. Jumpers these days are just pussys who can't handle real pain.

 

 

[Yenn]

Jumping was the only time I ever felt nervous in a plane. Sitting on the floor beside the pilot of a C172. No belt. No chance if the engine failed below 500'.

 

I later saw a pilot who had dropped off jumpers have an mag failure, when he tested it on the ground. Told me it had been like that when he left Gladstone with a load of jumpers. The skydivers loved him, but he was an accident waiting to happen.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I had 70 jumps before i landed in any aircraft. then one day we had to come back down and land with the aircraft because the wind had come up. talk about crap myself. jump pilots don't have much experience landing a c185 at gross with a quartering wind blowing at 30kts.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Barefootpilot]

I always loved bringing a load of jumpers down. I've never had 17 people so scared in the aircraft before! You guys are happy to free fall and trust a bed sheet that you jammed into a backpack and you get nervous when you have to land in a plane! Eh jumpers if they didn't buy the beer I'd never hang out with them!

 

 

[Guest Elk McPherson]

G'day Adam

 

I know what you mean about the beer... except... hang on, they didn't buy much beer either :black_eye:

 

Ozzie... I might have kicked you out of KPF once or twice if you were at Elderslie around 1999-2001:question:

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Apparently he reckons I threw him out a couple of times at Wilton in the Seventies, but I don"t remember any beer, 'cause we were too drunk !. I was on the first load into Elderslie with Bob Barry, probabily out of Cessna 180 VH-CYJ. Somewhere around 71-72, I'd have to check my log book. Thought we would go and check out this airstrip somewhere, that this woman had offered to the NSPC.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Yes Ozzie I would love to see some photos. You show me your's, I might show you mine.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Major, i seem to remember you preferred the parafoil. this one i think. and standing in the foreground looking athletic.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Yes Oz, that's definitly me on the Jalbert Parafoil, but not sure about the not -so -athletic guy in the red shorts, maybe, but I don't remember red shorts. I think that could be Graham Hill going into the pit,or Robbo, sort of remember that jumpsuit. Jesus that's going back a bit, mate.

 

That Parafoil was one of two that I inherited with the Parasport business, the other was under the packing table, and was red and white. It was wrecked and torn to shreds, as it was the one that Col Kings wife put into the surf at Nth Sydney, and unfortunately drowned during a demo. Col was also on the jump, and possible Allen Jay. I don't remember meeting her, but I did get a lot of respect for her once I jumped the other one, as they were one hell of a ride in that original long -line form. I don't believe she had many jumps on the Foil, and the surf and wind were big that day, plus I think she ended up on the rocks.

 

They were original Jalbert parafoils that Allen had imported from the States, there were only about 200 made, and they were the original man-carrying square built by jalbert at the UNI of Notra Dame. Allan also had all the original test date etc. on them which made for fascinating reading. I did several hundred jumps on the one in the photo, after shortlining it. It's still in it's original form in the photo, so it would be one of the first jumps I did on it. I believe there were only two in Oz, as I don't recall hearing of any others.

 

It is amazing that I ended up doing so many terminal openings on it, (rel work) as it was total zero-perosity fabric, (real thick) and never designed for terminal openings in the first place. There was no crossporting, and it had the old rings and ropes system as sliders wern't around yet either. Several other people were brave enough to try it including I believe Stu Stubbs, Graham Hill and maybe Ian Handley. Robbo may have had a shot also. I blew an end cell up once over Rutherford, but didn't chop it, and it landed fine with the right end flapping in the breeze. The rings and ropes would occasionally not work properly, and I still have some small scars from some super hard term openings, and probabily some permanently re-arranged brain cells ?.

 

The one jump of my career that I remember getting closest to going in on, was with that foil. A cold mongrel day over Captains' flat in Canberra. About an 8 person rel load, and I just kept going out the bottom of it, come opening time, whilst everybody else had nice clean openings. The whole thing was massivly heavy, and the twin MA-1s just wanted to sit on my back forever. I think I sat up to get ready to cut, and away she went. Even when the rings and ropes worked quick, it was still a good 5 secs later before you got a full canopy. Can't remember what height I opened, but I was definetly first to land !!. After that I had a French Paraplane, and then a red/white yank parafoil, which I recall was a good canopy also, as we had sliders by then. Thanks heaps for the memories Oz.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I jumped the parafoil that Ray Dunkerley had. I think it was the red and white one. it was a great canopy. be interesting to make one from todays lightweight material. they weighed a ton back then. i had my first sqaure jumpe on a black 'sled' that someone converted to a slider but had rigged the steering lines outside the slider rings. took over a thousand feet to open. good thing i was high to start off with.

 

Lots of advancements were happening with gear back then seemed each weekend jumped something new some was good some not so remember a few moments of terror with some of the cutaway devices. but it all led to reliable gear in the end.

 

Robbo now there was a character. rest his soul.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[pylon500]

 

OK, back in my gliding days I had been endorsed in one of our super glass ships and having released in dead air was quickly approaching circuit height without any joy (lift).

 

Not wanting the flight to be a complete waste I decided to have a bit of fun in the circuit, emulating those competition pros' by doing a high speed beat-up on downwind.

 

The idea being that if you were at point A, and dived to VNE and then pulled up back to glide speed, you would almost end up back at point B where you would have been if you just kept gliding normally

 

I joined downwind at the usual (then) 500ft abeam end of roll, and proceeded to accelerate towards the VNE of 125kts.

 

While I was concentrating on not exceeding VNE, a movement out of the corner of my eye made me look up just in time to see the top of a gum tree go past the wing tip :raise_eyebrow::ah_oh:

 

Pulling about 2g's I ended up rolling right into a combined base and final with brakes and sideslip to a greased on landing.

 

The other solo pilots thought it looked cool, but the CFI looked at me and knew why it had taken me nearly a minute to get out of the glider! ;)

 

Arthur.