tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16275416129029273942024-03-14T02:56:32.656+10:3050 years of South Australian skydivingThe history of skydiving and sport parachuting in South Australia. The sport celebrated its 50th anniversary on November 19, 2011 at Lower Light.Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-36632789844155107542011-11-29T15:40:00.013+10:302023-01-23T14:04:02.891+10:30Falling for a Sport – skydiving history book<br />
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This 208-page full colour, limited edition book is a fascinating history
of South Australian skydiving from its beginnings in 1961 to the
present, recording the people and the events which have shaped our
sport.<br />
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A collector's item:</div>
<b style="color: #073763;">•</b> Hundreds of photographs from the past 50 years<br />
<b style="color: #073763;">•</b> Detailed historic accounts of how the sport grew and developed<br />
<b style="color: #073763;">•</b> Colourful stories from the sport’s characters, innovators and pioneers<br />
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Published by the SA Sport Parachute Club and the South Australian Parachute Council.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.swanns.net/Falling_for_a_Sport.pdf" target="_blank">You can download a copy here »</a></span><br />
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Contact<b> <a href="http://www.adelaideskydiving.com.au/" target="_blank">Adelaide Tandem Skydiving</a> </b><br />
or <b><a href="http://www.saskydiving.com.au/" target="_blank">SA Skydiving</a> </b>if you'd like a hard copy.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b><a href="http://issuu.com/gardenandoutdoorliving/docs/skydving/1" target="_blank"> </a></b></span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-9529947412147308202011-06-04T16:34:00.010+09:302018-02-09T15:25:12.178+10:30Parachute training 1961 – the way it wasSkydiving film in South Australia doesn’t come any older than this 1961 footage of original members of the SA School of Parachuting training at Parafield for their first jumps. <br />
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The old 8 mm home movie footage is from the collection of pioneer SA jumper Max Chaplin, who later drowned in a para-scuba demo jump off West Beach in suburban Adelaide in 1968.<br />
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It also includes a brief shot of original SA female skydivers Susi Wright, Mary Summers, Kathy Henderson and Cathy Williamson about to board the Beaver, at Virginia.<br />
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The training footage was taken sometime between August and November, 1961, and shows the original instruction equipment – the ramp, suspended harness (which would have cracked someone's skull if the rope attaching it to the tree had broken) and the military style training.<br />
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The training area was about where the airport depot is now. But, according to Col Parsons, who was on that first course and went on to train generations of skydivers himself, it was was pretty bare back then – although a couple of the old galvo huts which are evident in the film still exist!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dlmnc_5rQMc" width="425"></iframe>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-82619351388929602052011-02-17T11:00:00.002+10:302011-02-17T11:03:14.805+10:30Jubilee year kicks off with parkland demoSA skydiving's 50th anniversary year was launched with a mass evening jump into Adelaide's south parklands on Monday, February 14.<br />
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Twenty-six jumpers gathered for the demo, using five Cessnas but only 16 managed to make the jump – air traffic control problems meant the remaining 10 ran out of light.<br />
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Channel 7's "Today Tonight" current affairs program ran the following positive story on the sport.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="312" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-gYEQu3ltAc" title="YouTube video player" width="512"></iframe>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-41867407859491602692010-08-19T09:53:00.008+09:302011-06-14T15:51:30.554+09:30Ted Harrison – how SA skydiving started<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF-3OK-lF-I/AAAAAAAAAKs/e7Y6AQWy3SU/s1600/ted+harrison_1970_closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF-3OK-lF-I/AAAAAAAAAKs/e7Y6AQWy3SU/s200/ted+harrison_1970_closeup.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>A chance 1961 meeting in a Hindley Street furniture store was the unlikely catalyst for the birth of sport parachuting in South Australia.<br />
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Ted Harrison, a young Adelaide newspaper reporter and part time “weekend warrior” with the Army Reserve (then known as the CMF), had only recently completed a static line parachute course. Pleased with his novel achievement, Ted took to wearing a modest lapel badge issued by the GQ parachute company.<br />
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It wasn’t something the average man in the street would recognise – but it was spotted by a genuine World War Two parachute veteran (the furniture salesman) who ignited Ted’s interest in turning what was then in Adelaide still seen as a military-only activity into a brand new sport.<br />
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This historic interview with the colourful Ted Harrison captures the essence of the man and the time when SA skydiving was born. <br />
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<b><i>Edited extracts from a recorded interview with Ted Harrison by Donna Berthelsen in 1998. </i></b><br />
<b><i>The interview was one of 45 recorded with early jumpers from all over Australia as part of an oral history project for the Australian Parachute Federation. </i></b><br />
<b><i><br />
Ted made his first civilian jump at Kooweerup, Victoria, in early November 1961 at the age of 25.</i></b> <i><b>He died in 2004.</b></i><b><i></i></b><br />
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<br />
<i style="color: #b45f06;"><b>DB:</b> How did you start jumping. What was the impetus?</i><br />
<br />
<b>TH: </b>I started jumping in the army. I did National Service, and then I was in the CMF.<br />
<br />
<i style="color: #b45f06;"><b>DB:</b> That wasn't standard necessarily – that you do jumps when you were in the CMF? </i><br />
<br />
<b>TH:</b> No it was a voluntary thing. I was the intelligence officer of an outfit at the time in what is now called the Army Reserve. It was called the CMF – the Citizens Military Forces.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And you had to do subsequent training in that? </i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> You didn't have to. You could volunteer to do certain training. <br />
I volunteered to do army parachute training and I did that in 1958. <br />
<br />
I did a five-week course at Williamtown at Newcastle, which was the RAAF fighter base and the School of Land Air Warfare at that time, and so I got what would approximate my hero's badge like a number of people in the early days of jumping – people like Bill Molloy and Louis Johnston.<br />
<br />
I was probably the only one in Adelaide who'd done that because there was no parachute unit in Adelaide that required parachute qualifications. <br />
<br />
The way parachuting came to South Australia arose directly from that.<br />
When we did basic army training we were presented with little lapel badges from the makers of the parachutes of the X-type static chutes which the army used in those days.<br />
<br />
And these were made by a mob called Gregory Quilter and his company, GQ. We were given these little lapel badges – GQ lapel badges which I used to wear everywhere, you know. Bloody lapel badge with GQ - “I'm a bloody hero, I'm an army parachutist.” <br />
<br />
Anyway I went to a furniture store in Hindley Street in and the salesman came up to me and said "I notice you are wearing a GQ badge. What unit are in?" <br />
<br />
I said I had just recently qualified that year and that I was in the CMF and I was not in World War 2. <br />
I think he thought I may be somebody in Z Special Forces like this guy was – he was probably 20 years older than me - well he would have been.<br />
<br />
And he said "I'm a member of the Paratroopers Association, why don't you come to one of our meetings?" <br />
<br />
It was an RSL type group – all the units that had been involved in parachuting in World War 2 – Z Special, the Commando Force and guys who jumped in New Guinea and a lot of pommies, you know, who had come out here to live – they were a great bunch of guys. <br />
<br />
So I went to this meeting in North Adelaide – Melbourne Street – a little Masonic Hall or some bloody little hall down the east end of Melbourne Street, North Adelaide. <br />
<br />
There I met a pommie called Joe Mutch who had a cast in his eye, a six-footer and he said he was a member of the Guards Brigade and had jumped in the Libyan Desert.<br />
<br />
Later on I had cause to believe that was bullshit because he used to tell a story about how he did stand up landings in the Libyan Desert and ripped German guard dogs jaws apart, you know, with his bare hands.<br />
<br />
Seriously – you know – the German Shepherd – and ripped the jaws apart. <br />
<br />
And he never did jump, he claimed that he had stuffed his back doing a stand up landing in the Libyan Desert and he never did jump. <br />
<br />
He just said to me "why don't we start a parachute club". I forget the context in which the conversation happened but over many beers, you know, and much piss drunk and the suggestion either by him or me “why don't we form a club.”<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF_dTCuaRsI/AAAAAAAAAK0/NDB0PMFKKK0/s1600/ted+harrison1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF_dTCuaRsI/AAAAAAAAAK0/NDB0PMFKKK0/s320/ted+harrison1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="320"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Ted Harrison (centre) at Aldinga in 1962, after photographing a lipstick pass by Hans Magnusson (left) and Cathy Williamson (right).</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>And this is actually what happened. Either he egged me on or I egged him on. <br />
<br />
But I had been a cadet journalist and I'd worked on <i>Truth</i> Newspaper in Adelaide. At that stage I don't think I'd worked on News Limited for the Adelaide <i>News</i>.<br />
<br />
I contacted a mate of mine who was working on the <i>Sunday Mail</i> and said how about doing a story for us. How about running a story about the formation of a parachuting club – we didn't talk about skydiving in those days – a parachuting club which I'm organising.<br />
<br />
I had contacted the Royal Aero Club of South Australia and spoken to them and asked whether we could use their premises for an inaugural meeting in the hangar.<br />
<br />
So I got onto this mate, John Cotterell (who later worked for the ABC in Adelaide) and he wrote this yarn. It said that the following Sunday there would be a meeting at Parafield at the Aero Club – forget what time – 1 p.m. – and bloody heaps of people turned up – over a hundred people turned up – it was amazing.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Were you surprised?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yeah – shit yeah!<br />
<br />
Magic absolutely magic – all these bloody people came who wanted to become parachutists. <br />
<br />
Bear in mind I had had eight bloody jumps – eight jumps, you know. <br />
No freefalls, one night jump – all static jumps, right! <br />
<br />
The majority were from 1,000 feet but I think one from 800, you know, with full gear from 800 and you had no bloody time to do anything if you got into strife. <br />
<br />
We didn't have reserves – I didn't have a reserve. My first eight jumps were with no reserve. <br />
<br />
And it was only when we were getting briefed for our seventh jump the bloody instructor called Dutchy Hollands, who was a very famous Warrant Officer – he went off and got the bloody reserve and said "this is a reserve parachute. This is what we use to train parachutists who are <i>valuable</i>!" <br />
<br />
And of course it really added a lot of spice to jumping to not have a reserve, I'm telling you.<br />
We were all petrified and I defy anyone to say they weren't. Stand at the door and shit yourself. We had never jumped with a reserve and that is what made my first sport jumps such a breeze because I had a bloody reserve. <br />
<br />
Oh, shit, nothing can happen to me – I’m fireproof, I've got a reserve. <br />
<br />
Anyway, what happened is we had this meeting in which people like Kathy Henderson . . .<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> The love of your life!</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yeah, she bloody was. Oh yes! And Cathy Williamson, John Williamson – her brother – Mike Soph. He is a Czech. A very tall and imposing guy and an absolute gentleman. He was a man of impeccable morals – proved a bit to me because I was married you know, at the time, and I fell head over bloody heels for Miss Henderson and ...<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And Col Parsons?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yeah Col Parsons – he was an original – and, of course, my mate Brian Brown who was a 17 year old brash youth who ...<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Who was a kid -</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Who was in everything – Brian was in everything and you couldn't keep him back. He was away – he was so bloody likeable – as he always is – you know – Max Chaplin and Trevor Burns.<br />
<br />
And of course Stan Kruszewski who was an old Polish army paratrooper.<br />
Even though we only had his word for it that he was on old paratrooper and no documentary evidence, I definitely believed him.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TPcd55nSM0I/AAAAAAAABmA/haNFaLcDQFQ/s1600/brown_img516.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TPcd55nSM0I/AAAAAAAABmA/haNFaLcDQFQ/s320/brown_img516.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td 240="" ;="" class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Ted Harrison at Aldinga, early 60s.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"></div>On one occasion we jumped at Kooweerup in Victoria and Stan just went off the planet – he had a relapse and started gibbering in Polish and was very agitated and crying because it brought back memories, I think, of what happened in the war. They had a pretty bad time, the Poles. <br />
<br />
And he was an absolute gentleman. Really he didn't offer much in the way of instruction except his name and the fact that he said he had been an instructor in the Polish Army. <br />
<br />
And the bloody Department (of Civil Aviation) accepted that – I actually went to the Department with him and put him up as an instructor and they accepted it. <br />
<br />
They accepted the school – they accepted him as our chief instructor so we could start training and jumping.<br />
The Department had no bloody clue – they didn't know what to do because there had been no parachuting and so they just – they were a bit wary – but they accepted it because we had this initial affiliation with the Aero Club and we got away with it and we hired a hut just near the Aero Club buildings.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> At Parafield?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yes. We hired a hut as our club room, we built a bloody great ramp – army type – you know, a wooden ramp for running up. Hammered hessian over it and people would race up it and hurl themselves off it and do a landing roll.<br />
<br />
So we did military style training. We stuck harnesses, up in a tree and swung people and made them lower ... but it was fairly reasonably thorough ground training.<br />
We did packing and all that. <br />
<br />
It was all centred on Parafield at first and our first jumps were at Virginia which is north of Adelaide.<br />
I think some of the Melbourne guys jumped there or one or two of us. Some people came over from Melbourne – Charl Stewart, I think.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Did you do the first jump, do you remember.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> No I can't remember.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><b>DB:</b> Because what Brian Brown was saying to me, there was all that delay on gear as he remembers. And the ground training went for months.</div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yes, went on for ages. And we sort of went through magazines and looked at bloody disposal stores in the States and then we ordered the stuff and it came by sea, you know. <br />
<br />
That's how we got our stuff, on Claude Gillard's and Charl Stewart's advice.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So you had got in touch with the people in Melbourne ...</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh shit yes. When they saw the story in the paper. They saw the story and the story had apparently got to Melbourne. The story that was published – it was a full page yarn in the<i> Sunday Mail</i> and that was published over there and they got in touch with us, I think through the paper – Claude, Charlie or Bill Sparke. <br />
<br />
They offered to come over and bring their chutes to get us jumping. But in fact what happened in the end was we got in our bloody cars and we drove over there. <br />
<br />
So our first jumps were at Kooweerup, not far from Labertouche – where Labertouche is now ...<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> I remember that.</i></div><br />
<b>TH: </b>It has cowshit eight feet thick. In fact, I did my first sport jump from a Tripacer I think at Kooweerup.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Which was before the new jumpers in Adelaide jumped?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yes, it was before the new jumpers jumped. Stan Kruszewski and me. There were a number of us.<br />
<br />
Claude and Charl Stewart and Bill Sparke put us on and I landed in cowshit in a cow paddock with bulls and shit – that was absolutely bloody magic.<br />
<br />
Stan Kruszewski – he was gibbering afterwards he was very shook up.<br />
<br />
And all I can remember of my first sports jump – I was standing out on a bloody wheel – it was just magic compared to the bloody military bullshit with one chute. And now having a reserve as well– oh! Christ Almighty!<br />
<br />
And jumping from twice as high – from 2,000 ft, which is a lot different to jumping from 800 feet. And, of course, they were just circular canopies, the bloody army ones, no slots, no steering lines.<br />
<br />
The only steering was to pull down on a riser or both risers to slow your speed. Anyway we did one jump and mate I can't remember whether it was a static line.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> You don't have to remember the absolute detail. It probably was.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yeah, I think it was.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> It probably was. But then you went back – you took on increasing responsibilities for the training of all those other people.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Well yes, a number of us shared it, you know, Another guy called Jim Louth. He was a Pommie and he was very good. He was a ground instructor. <br />
<br />
He said okay, I'll be your ground instructor. Now he was ex-British Army and I think he was ex-Red Berets – not absolutely sure about it. He may not have had any previous experience. <br />
<br />
But Jim Louth was good. We had some bloody good people. Mike Soph was great because – he was one of those people who'd work, work, work and he build the bloody ramp and he was marvellous – Mike Sopf.<br />
<br />
Anyway that Virginia drop zone thing was a once off. <br />
<br />
We couldn't use that anymore, but I can't remember why – so we went looking for drop zones. We went to Mallala, which used to be an Air Force Base where the City of Adelaide, University of Adelaide squad used to operate Mustangs. <br />
<br />
That is now a car racing track north of Adelaide – Mallala. We went there and saw a farmer and we used once of his paddocks for a while and I can’t remember his bloody name. Maybe Brian can.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Brian can't remember all these details anyway.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> We operated at Mallala for a short period but then we went looking – and I think we had departmental problems – they were starting to think about aeroplanes or what ... <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB: </b>Because it is associated with Parafield but of course no one ever jumped at Parafield.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> We were associated with Parafield for a while, maybe 12 months. That got us going. <br />
<br />
That's where we had all that ground training. These bloody people could have jumped off a twelve foot truck and not broken anything because they were very very good at landing rolls, stand ups.<br />
<br />
And everybody had bloody army style boots – they never made Paraboots in those days. You know army style boots and bloody overalls. We wore King Gee Overalls and our bloody badge, we designed our bloody badge ... <br />
<br />
When I was talking about the original people there was Don West.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB: </b>Was he part of that first group?</i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TH:</b> I think he was. But there was another one called Bob Palmer.<br />
<br />
We went to Aldinga. Absolutely beautiful old couple had this little farmhouse down the back. It was actually owned by the man's brother-in-law who had the farm a kilometre away. <br />
<br />
And we had this strip at Aldinga. It wasn't a strip it was just a bloody paddock at Aldinga and we used a DeHavilland – a Dragon, the old fabric, you know what I mean.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Trevor Burns and Brian only talk about their first jumps out of the Dragon.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> The fabric bloody Dragon! Exactly, that was our jump plane. Army style – we fitted bloody cable all the way down the thing and sat across and hooked up. <br />
<br />
We did it all in a military way out of this bloody old Dragon. And it was a bloody mighty old jumpship, you know. It did the job for us. <br />
<br />
And our pilot should be mentioned. He was a little Pole called – no a little Lithuanian, called Sid. Sid Koroncevicus and he was a marvellous guy. I'd love to meet him. He was absolutely a delightful little bloke. One of those Laplanders – he was like a little Laplander – a mighty guy and he was our pilot for a long time. <br />
<br />
And it was about 4 km from the coast but no one ever landed in the bloody sea, thank Christ, because there were some great white sharks out there. <br />
<br />
But we operated from there most of the time I was involved. We had our first championships down there – State Championships – that was blown out after about three jumps of accuracy. And, do you know what date the nationals were held at Cessnock in those very early days. 1963?<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> I'd say it was 1962</i>.</div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TH:</b> A whole heap of us went over there and that's where we met people like Allen Jay, Col King, Laurie bloody Trotter who was a magic character – first baton pass – a mighty mob and Harry Pugsley. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So you competed in that 1962 Nationals.</i></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF_ec0L_tbI/AAAAAAAAAK8/9sxyahvhI98/s1600/ted+harrison_1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF_ec0L_tbI/AAAAAAAAAK8/9sxyahvhI98/s320/ted+harrison_1970.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="320"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Ted Harrison dumps his Paracommander while linked with Kevin Nielsen over Camden, NSW in 1970 – after he had moved on from SA.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>TH:</b> Yes, I landed on a cow – landed on a fucking cow. This was one of the early chutes. We got a C9 canopy and I decided to go one better than a double-T – I had a triple gore. It came in like a rocket anyway.<br />
<br />
I cut three gores out of the bloody thing and cut the bottom panels out across eleven gores so I used to come down a fair rate of knots.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> You did that rigging yourself?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yeah – scissors – ching, ching, ching. <br />
Up to the saddlery shop – “Binding tape please. Thank you.” <br />
<br />
“What do you want it for?”<br />
<br />
“For our parachute."<br />
<br />
“Parachute?”<br />
<br />
“What do you call that tape, you know that heavy tape – we should get some of that. We really need some strong stuff. I mean, this is a parachute<br />
you know.”<br />
<br />
We had no idea.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But a lot of heaviness on packing, and yet you could to what you liked like cutting them up?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh Jesus Christ yes.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But I mean all that packing?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yes, ching, ching, ching ... chopped all the gores out. Sat down at the sewing machine – we'd do this ourselves, your know, and put the tape on.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But were you doing you own packing right from the first day?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Of course, we did our own packing. Because I'd watched packers pack at Williamtown.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> All right, okay.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Do you think we were stupid or something? I watched them do it a couple of times in the Army. Because there's a lesson – a confidence building lesson where they take you into the packing shed ...<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But the students in Adelaide weren't allowed to pack? </i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Students were taught to pack – they were all taught to pack. That was a major part of the training. And of course by the time the chutes arrived – we had old static chutes – where did we get them from? <br />
<br />
They weren't Yank. We actually had Pommie chutes. I can't remember where we got them.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Brian Brown talked about X-types.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yes, we had quite a few of those. I don't know just off-hand, but I'd say about five or six X-type static chutes. They only used those, and were completely familiar with them. <br />
<br />
<i><b style="color: #b45f06;">DB:</b> We know there's not a lot to it but it was taken fairly seriously in those early days.</i><br />
<br />
<b>TH: </b>My bloody oath we took it seriously. People would virtually get the iron out ... very neatly pleated, absolutely neatly, meticulous.<br />
<br />
In fact, we had cord separators. People used to have their own packs – they'd unroll their little carry-all and take out the metal base – they'd screw the bloody three prongs in ... lines go in here!<br />
<br />
There was much packing that used to go on in that hut at Parafield. Much packing training. People certainly knew what it was all about.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But none of you had any freefall experience.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Absolutely none.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> People moved straight on to freefall. I am just intrigued about how you learnt that progression and you were more informed than anyone else because you had the Bud Sellick book?</i></div><br />
<b>TH: </b>Yeah, that's right. The Bud Sellick book. We just read what we could. We had much correspondence with people – I can't remember who the hell they were.<br />
<br />
I do remember my first freefall – I went for about a 10 seconds I think.<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Your first freefall?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yeah.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Was that intentional?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yeah.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Was it stable?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yeah, bloody oath. I remember one person who saw it and that was Mary Summers who became our secretary after Mike Soph – don't know where she is now.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Do you remember that first freefall?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Oh yes, I remember it very well. It was great. Absolutely magic. I mean that's when I first felt laying on air. Magic. <br />
<br />
I had no intention of going for it. Looking back, people may say it was foolhardy. But it wasn't. <br />
<br />
I knew we had to get the experience to get the club going and to get other people to do it. <br />
Someone had to demonstrate that you didn't splat in when you did freefall. Oh, Jesus Christ, I'd worked it out. <br />
<br />
Probably the strongest influence was, of all bloody people, Charlie Horvath.<br />
<br />
He came to the initial meeting, he was one of the originals. He was an instructor as well but it would have been Charlie Horvath who would have given the impetus to do the packing training, to do things quickly.<br />
<br />
He certainly gave me the impetus to go terminal velocity. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Because he had done freefall?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> He said he had, you see, he said he had. He was a loveable bloody character – there were a lot of characters around in those days. <br />
<br />
You know what it's like – you go into a pub and people get pissed and someone starts talking skydiving and suddenly every bastard from the tables around have all been skydivers. <br />
<br />
Oh what sort of chute do you use? Oh a red and white one! You know you've been there and done that. That is what happened when we had the flrst meeting. <br />
<br />
All these bloody people came out of the woodwork and, you know, whether they're genuine or not it doesn't matter. They got the club going, you know. <br />
<br />
This is the whole bloody point. But Charlie Horvath was the great impetus, because what happened was that he actually came to live with me with his wife and two kids, because I got him kicked out of his other house. <br />
<br />
We met at the initial meeting and at the training – I went back to his place one night, drove him home, and we got extremely pissed and his landlady kicked him out because of all the noise, so he came to live with me. <br />
<br />
Charlie and I must have jumped at Virginia. Anyway Charlie broke his bloody leg somewhere. It was just normal weekend's jumping. I took him to hospital, sat around all bloody night while he got his leg X-rayed and then plastered – plastered above the knee, right, right down to the ankle. <br />
<br />
So he's got a bent knee, bent leg in plaster, toes sticking out the bottom. <br />
<br />
I go to load the Volkswagen van with the gear on Saturday morning to go jumping. <br />
<br />
Charlie comes stamping out, see. I said “where do you reckon you're going?”<br />
<br />
He said “I'm coming jumping.”<br />
<br />
I said “bullshit you can't go jumping.” <br />
<br />
He said "why not I go jumping?" You know, he talked broken English.<br />
<br />
I said “you can't go jumping with that on your fucking leg” and I continued to pack the gear into the van. <br />
<br />
A few minutes later he comes out – no plaster on his leg. I said “where's the bloody plaster?” <br />
<br />
He said “I cut bloody thing off. You say I can't jump with plaster on so I took the bloody thing off. Now I can jump because I don't have it on.”<br />
<br />
Unbelievable.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And did he?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yeah. So then we have a demonstration, a demo jump. I think it was at Victor Harbour. This was the flrst demo. <br />
<br />
I think Bill Sparke had left his gear with me after they closed Virginia and he said I could borrow it for a while. That's the gear we used for freefall.<br />
<br />
A B4 pack, with a sleeve. Oh shit, this was magic – with a sleeve! <br />
<br />
It was not much different from a static chute with a bag. But I had a reserve – his B4 and his TIs. I had the full gear. Charlie had some bloody Gregory Quilter type Pommie ex Air Force thing with a bum pack – you know that they sit on, it was one of those with the risers which go all the way down the back and you sit on the bloody thing.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> The early barnstorming stuff ...</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yeah that's right and no slots in it – you know, full canopy – and Colin Parsons had that. Colin either provided the bum pack or he provided the reserve, which was another one, you know ... clips on the front ... you know gunners in Lancasters they reach over – just in their harness and if anything happens they reach over and grab the chute from the rack and clip it on.<br />
<br />
Except the bum pack didn't have any rings (D-rings). We didn't have bloody supplies of rings that you've got these days – we didn't having fucking rings. And I said to Charlie “you know, you can't really jump on the demo.”<br />
<br />
He said “why not?” <br />
<br />
“Because”, I said, “you don't have the bloody full reserve.”<br />
<br />
He says “me, I afix, I afix this one up Ted.”<br />
<br />
He got some bloody nylon strapping and tied the reserve on. And so the reserve was tied on and away we went. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Did you start to experiment with relative work.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Yeah! Oh shit yeah.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> With Charlie?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> With Charlie – baton passing – we'd cut these broom sticks up and make them look very pretty. Yeah baton passing – there was Charlie, Kate Henderson, Don West, Bob Palmer and Cathy Williamson.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Brian Brown?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> Of course, yes. The main group of people, that was the main group. Col Parsons was for a long time but he was sort of in the second eschelon, you know. The second group of people who came along and came good but ...<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> He certainly persisted ...</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> He used to get depressed. We used to get depressed and we'd look out the door and he'd be fucking spinning ...<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> You got to give him "G" for guts. He never gave it away eh?</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> But see, he did heaps of other things as well. He was a racing car driver at Rowley Park. He was a dirt speedway driver.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> What is your theory as to why jumping is so addictive? It is sort of addictive, you know, it gets people in.</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> I don't know but we were just doing something that hadn't been done before by most people and we were lucky because there were no constraints on us really. Very few constraints on us. <br />
<br />
We were free to do what we wanted up to point. And we were trail blazing, you know, we were finding out how to do things. It was a very exciting time. <br />
<br />
In fact, too exciting because we just got completely addicted to it, many of us, and it just ruined marriages, ruined families, you know. <br />
<br />
Every bloody cent we had went on jumping – every moment we had – I use to leave work. We used to leave work and race down to Adelaide airport and jump on the 210 and one person would be in the car and race down to Aldinga and put the bloody target out.<br />
<br />
I was doing that. In retrospect it was bloody stupid.<br />
<br />
We still dropped drifters anyway – but we'd do a 15 grander after work, you know. Bloody magic. In extremely bad weather too, you know, sometimes. Windy westerlies.<br />
<br />
Looking back I'd do it all again. Exactly the same way.<br />
<br />
There was no reason why we shouldn't have done it. Maybe if parachuting wasn't as regulated as it is now there'd be more fatalities – but maybe there wouldn't be, you know. Who knows!<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> There were bad years but .. .</i></div><br />
<b>TH:</b> I certainly can't say that I was any better than anyone else because I wasn't.<br />
<br />
I wasn't an athlete. Some people used to say to me "Shit are you a parachutist?" <br />
<br />
And I'd say "Yep". And they'd say "Wow!" <br />
<br />
But to be a parachutist you've actually just got to drag your centre of gravity over the door sill ... get it outside the door and fall out. <br />
<br />
And that is really what it boiled down to – you didn't have to be good at all.<br />
<br />
We were bloody people who were stuffing around.<br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia Lower Light</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-89003610103319915972010-08-19T09:50:00.001+09:302011-02-12T16:24:12.449+10:30Jumping at Aldinga - in living colourThis historic footage of jumping at Aldinga in 1962 is from Col Parsons' collection. The Dragon Rapide, SA's first jumpship, features in the early sequences.<br />
<br />
SA skydiving legends in this rare film include Ted Harrison, Phil Edwards and Brian Brown.<br />
<br />
Old 8mm movie camera technology is a far cry from today's high definition options – but the old gear, early relative work and baton passing attempts captured in this film make memorable viewing.<br />
<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MSHf6ugdBoM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MSHf6ugdBoM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-45992433187399983662010-08-18T09:55:00.004+09:302010-09-16T18:19:50.602+09:30Cathy Williamson: perseverance pays off<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4CgvZOikI/AAAAAAAAAMY/VTm2QQereMo/s1600/cathy+williamson1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4CgvZOikI/AAAAAAAAAMY/VTm2QQereMo/s200/cathy+williamson1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>One of Australia's first female sport parachutists, SA's Cathy Williamson, made her mark on skydiving in the days when jumpers taught themselves many of the the basics.<br />
<br />
She made her first jump at Aldinga on that historic weekend in November 1961 and quickly went on to secure a place among the nation's best known jumpers of the day.<br />
<br />
Cathy, who won a place on the 1964 Australian team and competed in Europe, recalls the early challenges of a young woman taking part in what was still in many ways a macho, fringe activity.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<i><b>Extracts from a transcript of a recorded interview with Cathy Burrow (nee Williamson) by Narelle Hall in 1996.</b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b>The interview was one of 45 recorded with early jumpers from all over Australia as part of an oral history project for the Australian Parachute Federation.</b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b>Cathy made her first jump at Aldinga on November 19, 1961.</b></i><br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> Cathy, you were one of the first women jumping in Australia. How old were you when you did your first jump? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> I was 20. But there were certainly three South Australian women, I remember in that first group. There were probably more and I would remember with logbooks etc – Kathy Henderson, who is now Kathy Flynn, and Susie Wright who became Susie Brown, were certainly in that first group in SA in 1961. But again I would have to check the records to be absolutely sure. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> And did you all start jumping at the same time? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Yes, we were all in the first group. We were, in a sense, pioneers and we had very little experience from other people (except the military) to go on. <br />
<br />
Ted Harrison had something like 4 military jumps and he was our instructor/mentor. So there was quite a large group of us and we took several months of training because we had lots of enthusiasm but no parachutes! <br />
<br />
That was one difference, certainly, as foundation parachutists in SA. But it must have been the same in NSW, I guess, and in Victoria too. And we were following slightly behind Victoria. <br />
<br />
Claude Gillard was jumping, Bill Sparke – they are names I certainly remember. And they were giving advice, I should have thought, to Ted. But they were only slightly ahead and there was no one really who was experienced. <br />
<br />
Not like today, where there's a great wealth of experience to draw on. And we were learning as we went along. It was trial and error. People were learning about frog positions, and about spinning, and how to control spinning, and so on. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> I'm really interested in those aspects because we have talked about them, both in interviews and with other people, and I feel they need a bit more clarification. </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>It’s not exactly clear as to how people came to become stable; how they knew to become stable; and how they knew to use the position. But I'll come back to that. How did you first become interested in jumping? How did you first hear about it? </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>CB: </b>I was at University at the time. As one would expect I was impecunious, but I have a brother who is two years older, and it was certainly my brother who enthused me. <br />
<br />
And Susie, the sister of one of my university friends, was also keen. My brother sponsored me initially, because I wasn't earning any money at that time. <br />
<br />
I mean, I was on a scholarship. It was my 4th year at university. So it was actually through John, through my brother initially, and then I just sort of got caught up in it – the usual motivation, challenge, and all that. The same as just about everyone really. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So when you said the eight months training, do you mean it was 8 months ground training? </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>CB:</b> Yes – I'm not sure of the exact time, but it was long! Simply because there were no rigs and no equipment and no aeroplanes to jump out of at that stage. <br />
<br />
And really Ted Harrison has credit for this – he was able to enthuse everyone and keep motivation up over this long period when we hadn't even seen a parachute! We would go out each weekend and practise these military type manoeuvres – so that was a bit odd. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> That's amazing! An interesting question too, Donna Berthelsen interviewed Warren Hutchings in Victoria and Warren said that he refused to train women because he didn't know how they were thinking – he couldn't understand them at all and he refused to train them. </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>So, with him being the main trainer in Victoria refusing to train women, there would have been very few women jumping, and you in Adelaide were being encouraged by Ted, so it's a very different scenario for a woman.</i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Absolutely. In fact, now that you mention that, (and we probably didn't think much about it because we didn't have a lot to do with the Victorians in the early days), but, yes, there seemed to be a dearth of women. <br />
<br />
I can't remember any in Victoria. But yes, we had quite a few women, and I think Newcastle did too. That's why the 1964 team comprised two South Australians and two New South Welsh women. <br />
<br />
Because we were in an egalitarian environment. Yes, South Australia – I can't remember any problems except that the men would be more aggressive in their pursuit. And we tended to follow behind them; maybe because we were more cautious, or they were leading faster, and we were sort of watching to see what we could learn from them. <br />
<br />
We were all teaching each other and learning as we went along. But, yes, South Australia, they were certainly very positive towards women, and there were more than those three names that I mentioned ... I can remember Mary Summers. Yes, there were quite a few women. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So, getting back to the stability situation – were your first jumps static line, or how was the progression at that time – how were you trained? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Because of the military influence, and the general lack of experience per se, our first several jumps were static line – we only did eight statics. I think it was some years that they stayed with eight and then they switched to about six. <br />
<br />
I remember in New Guinea we were using six. But in the early days, it was always eight statics. But I seem to remember the first four were military type – you sat on the edge and just sort of lifted yourself out into space – it was really a bit weird, in this foetal military position, as I remember. <br />
<br />
There were probably about four like that, or maybe only two like that. I'd have to check with somebody. And then there would have been the standard star-type exits, eight static lines and then a gradual build up in delays. <br />
<br />
It probably didn't change a great deal for 10 to15 years perhaps. I mean now it is radically different, but in those early days there was no great revolution – they seemed to stick to the same sort of structured development. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> It seems that when jumping first started nobody knew how to fall stable, so was that still being discussed when you started or was stability old hat by then? </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>The frog position seemed to have been developed along the way. </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> There was, of course, communication between America and Australia with some of the leaders. Not so much in South Australia. But, publications – there were some publications and articles available. <br />
<br />
I mean we didn't have the globalisation you've got today, but this information did spread across from America and Canada to Australia so one knew about the frog position. <br />
<br />
But early in the piece it was just the basic spread. And I can't remember when we started talking about "frogs" and so on. The NSW people would have been regarded as the leaders, I would have thought. <br />
<br />
They had people like Andy Keech, Col King, Allen Jay and Don McKernbut Andy especially of course, (we've still got his books), but he especially was a great propagator of information. <br />
<br />
He was very generous, he shared his information, and that was not only within his State but interstate as well. <br />
<br />
And of course there were frequent travels. We went to Victoria, we jumped in Victoria, we hitchhiked to Victoria; we hitch hiked up to NSW. And there was also an exchange of information then. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So, the first baton pass was done in SA? </i></div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4YTqpU8DI/AAAAAAAAAMo/s700SpV9GFQ/s1600/cathy+williamson2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4YTqpU8DI/AAAAAAAAAMo/s700SpV9GFQ/s320/cathy+williamson2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="320"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Climbing over Adelaide's suburbs in the old Dragon en route to a jump-in at Aldinga in the early 1960s. From left: Len Hunter (Vic), Cathy Williamson and Les Sampson (NZ). Photo from Cathy's book, "Falling Free."</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>CB:</b> No, but the first would have been Kathy and Ted – I'd have to read my book. (<i>Falling Free</i>) Everyone was after records and firsts – and it might not have been in SA, but then someone might have gone after the first one in SA. <br />
<br />
Lipstick passes became the thing and I seem to remember I got the first lipstick pass – maybe in Australia, but it was all a bit ... It would have been Ted – Ted of course being a journalist, and the media – Oh, it was with Hans (Magnussen), that's right. <br />
<br />
It sounds so puerile now, doesn't it, when people are doing advanced relative work. But in those days ... the thrill wouldn't have changed but the relative work was so hit and miss! <br />
<br />
Trying to link up. But who actually did the first baton pass – the book would be accurate. The book was primarily written in London with about 18 other parachutists living in the one house in Hampstead and Col King was there, Allen Jay was there – they wouldn't have let me get away with anything that wasn't correct – they would have proof read it. Jock Moir too. <br />
<br />
So it might say, I don't know. Andy Keech would be another good source. You must interview Andy – he was an absolute pioneer. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> He wouldn't have started jumping much before you though. </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> No, chronologically they were all about the same as I remember and from memory I would have thought that the Victorians were slightly ahead, chronologically, and then maybe the South Australians and then these young keen – I don't know exactly the chronology, one would have to look at log books, the memory really is so fallible, but a log book doesn't lie, so you've got the accurate dates etc. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> What do you recall about those early jumps – the gear, the instructors and the aircraft used? The gear would have been interesting because in the beginning you had no parachutes – when they came, what were they? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> I guess they were unmodified. I remember we jumped out of the old De Havilland, with a great pilot, Sid ...... and the gear was pretty primitive. <br />
<br />
I think we had old military type boots and great, gross helmets – I remember one woman I was flatting with said "why does everybody write their name across the helmet?" <br />
<br />
I didn't realise at the time – was it because they might get stolen or was it because we were all so egotistical? <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> How many jumps did you do altogether? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> I did just 662. Looking back there are certain milestones, and I wished I'd reached 1,000. I did 662 and had switched to aviation. I would have done my last jump in the States at Elsinore, just a fun jump really, in 1977. <br />
<br />
But I was more or less pretty inactive since 1974 because I was flying and I didn't feel like going out to the DZ when I was flying five days a week, instructing at that stage. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> How long did you jump in SA before you moved? I know you used to travel a lot.</i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> 1961 to 1965. Well really the global travelling only just started in 1964 when we all went over to jump for Australia. <br />
<br />
We had a male and a female team in Germany at Leutkirch, but again everyone was pretty impecunious because they'd spent all their money on parachuting. <br />
<br />
People were working then. They weren't students. I was working as a teacher/psychologist in South Australia, and then we were overseas for eight months! Came back and Keith and I were married in 1965. <br />
<br />
We went up to New Guinea after a few months for 1966 and 1967. There was no parachuting in New Guinea then, but in 1966 I did actually go solo flying. <br />
<br />
This was during the period of the Vietnam war so there were some interesting stories about parachutists like Joe Larkin at that time – of course, we were all overseas together in London. <br />
<br />
Again I don't know the full details, but I received a letter at the teachers’ college which Joe wrote to me from jail in the old Belgian Congo. <br />
<br />
He had joined the mercenaries, and the story went that he and a Belgian guy stole a DC3. Ted Harrison would know the details because he followed it up as a journalist. <br />
<br />
Joe was massacred as a reprisal thing. They were pretty violent times. So a lot of that group spread out throughout the world and there were some sad stories. <br />
<br />
Don (West) was killed, then Joe died, then of course Bill Molloy who was one of the pioneers from Victoria – he was a leading Victorian jumper and like Andy Keech shared his information with people at that time. <br />
<br />
He was killed in a car accident, having survived the Vietnam war. Then of course Brian Brown, very much alive still, who did a couple of tours (of Vietnam) as a helicopter pilot. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH: </b>You went to Victoria very early in the piece – you didn't have a lot of jumps when you first went there. How did you find Victoria when you went there – taking into account my comment they wouldn't train women. </i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"></div><b>CB: </b>It used to be a regular event – travelling across. I have no memories of any overt sexism with the people that we jumped with. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4Zz8ceTQI/AAAAAAAAAMw/bf1yak8_thc/s1600/cathy+williamson4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="145" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4Zz8ceTQI/AAAAAAAAAMw/bf1yak8_thc/s200/cathy+williamson4.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><i><span style="font-size: small;">After the first 5-man baton pass in the British Commonwealth, at Cessnock, NSW in 1962. From left: Cathy, Don McKern, Andy Keech, Col King and Allen Jay.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>I guess what happens in all parachuting is that you find your own niche and you relate to certain people. They were keen to share – we were young, and men like to share their information with young women, don't they? Which is a good thing. <br />
<br />
Later, I only really became aware of the gender thing as I really got better. As long as I was in a learning process (and the men were doing the teaching) then that was a good relationship – I hadn't really thought of that before. <br />
<br />
Certainly I wasn't conscious of any discrimination against women early in the piece, but later on I can think of instances in New Guinea even in competitions where the rules would be changed – they became fluid. <br />
<br />
I can certainly recall that. I won't mention any names. That was a gender thing. And really it was quite silly. It didn't mean I was the best jumper inherently, it just meant that at that time I was the most experienced. <br />
<br />
So it would have been a little bit odd if I wasn't winning some of the events. But some of the men weren't so comfortable with that as they were in the teaching role. <br />
<br />
And in SA, we were all fairly much at the same level and I can't remember that Victoria was that different really. Although the men that we related to were more experienced – like Andy Keech and Bill Molloy. I remember them as being happy to share their knowledge. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> Do you remember anything about the early days of the APF? When that started and the rules etc. </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Well, we all had the requisite licences and I've still got them:<br />
APF Licences: A#22 15/8/62; B#23, 15/8/62; C#23, 15/8/62; Packer #4: 005; Instructor #124, 119/68; 0#15, 6110/62; E#75, 116/68; F#32, 1110/69.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So tell me what led up to the Australian team going away to the 1964 World Meet – your training, how you felt about that. </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> The motivator probably for the women (for Susie and myself) and for the women jumpers in 1964 was Kathy Henderson. She was the first person to represent Australia but not in a team.<br />
<br />
Kathy jumped in the 1962 World Championships in America and we were all green with envy, because Kathy's parents could afford to pay, and she had the latest gear. I think Annie bought her white backpack. So Kathy was the envy of everyone. Again I'd have to check my logbook and the book, but it was exciting. I was personally, as I remember it, still under bond (to the Education Department). <br />
<br />
Don West had been trying to talk me into going, and I had been resisting because I felt responsible because my parents were guarantors and they couldn't afford to repay if I abjugated my responsibility – it was a financial bond. <br />
<br />
In the event the Education Department gave me leave without pay, and I came back and finished it off. So I had some qualms because of this commitment to the Education Dept. But it was great. We had Beryl Blakemore and Barbara Lewis and Suzie and myself. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH: </b>From Col King's tape he said you took a boat to the UK and you were doing exercises on the deck etc. </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Yes, Col was terrific. He would look into the girls cabins and not believe the mess! He was fastidious even then. He was the youngest. I turned 23 on the boat and from memory Col was 21. He was the baby. But he was a really good jumper, very confident, and of course he went on to win Australia's first medal. But a really great guy. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>N</b><b>H:</b> So, it was the next world meet that the won the medal?</i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> I'm not sure. None of us had the experience. But it was good fun though. We all paid our own way, so we didn't really feel that we had to do everything that we were supposed to have done. Who pays the fiddler calls the tune. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b><br />
</b></i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So, how did you feel at the World Meet – four women plus a men's team there with all the other people who you had not met, nor seen the type of jumping they did. How did you feel and what did you learn? </i></div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4W25VYIPI/AAAAAAAAAMg/sKNXLcGJRjE/s1600/1964AustralianParachuteTeam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4W25VYIPI/AAAAAAAAAMg/sKNXLcGJRjE/s320/1964AustralianParachuteTeam.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="320"><i><span style="font-size: small;">The 1964 Australian Parachute Team. From left:Susie Wright (SA), Andy Keech (NSW), Bill Molloy (Vic), Cathy Williamson (SA), Brian Brown (SA), Bill Kenny (Vic), Col King (NSW), ??, ?? and Beryl Blakemore (NSW).</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>CB:</b> Obviously we felt daunted – we realised we were quite inexperienced vis a vis the Americans and the Europeans.<br />
<br />
And, of course, they were all sponsored. So we felt like the cinderellas. We were the cinderellas. But the camaraderie was great – Australia had a great reception and it wasn't so highly competitive that you couldn't enjoy it.<br />
<br />
There was still, as there are in the Olympics today, a great range of abilities and experience. There were fully sponsored Europeans and Americans and then the Australians paying for themselves!<br />
<br />
This made Col King's later achievement so remarkable because it was like comparing amateurs with professionals. It wasn't a level playing field at all, but I mean the whole experience was just wonderful. And the venue at Leutkirch and the organisation and the whole international aspect of it was lovely. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> Did you come straight back from there? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> No, again the Australians did their usual bit – trekking across the globe. Well, no I followed my ovaries ... and then disaster – then we all met back up in London. In West Hampstead where Col and Allen Jay and Brian had managed to secure a house. I think about 16 of us were living in a rather luxurious flat. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> And is that when you started to write your book? (Falling Free)</i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> I had already written 40,000 words, and had sent it off to a publisher who had recently published a book on parachuting. They sent it back saying it wasn't book length – that I had to write another 20,000 words, and if I did they would give me 100 pounds – which was a lot of money. I mean, I didn't even have the fare back. <br />
<br />
Susie's parents had given her the fare back, whereas I was really insecure, like a lot of the other people. You are in a country where you can't get work and it is expensive and you don't know where you are going to get the fare. <br />
<br />
Jock Moir was very supportive, making cups of coffee, and I typed away on some basic machine. In two weeks I wrote a third of it, and they gave me the 100 pounds. <br />
<br />
I think when it came out some of the parachutists stole their copies – well, I don't know how true that is! <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So, who were the most important influences on your jumping? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> My brother – I wouldn't have been able to do it without my brother. Ted Harrison was for all of South Australia, and Andy Keech. In those early days. In New Guinea, we were the leaders really. <br />
<br />
We actually trained and instructed and put out on their first jump, people like Graeme Windsor and Bruce Towers. They were our students. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> This is not a very positive question – but what have been your most negative experiences in jumping? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Well, losing friends. I never really had any big scares – in aviation. Early in the piece there were worrying times when we were all learning together and one would have the inevitable dream where you were spinning. <br />
<br />
But in 662 jumps (which is not many compared to what they have today), I only ever had one malfunction. That was in a jumpathon, on my 13th jump, with the Olympic which you couldn't jettison. <br />
It was a French canopy, and that was a packing thing. <br />
<br />
Losing friends – that was pretty hard. People like Don West. I was on that jump. And the same in aviation. It makes you aware of your own mortality, but it is really sad to see a young life terminated when there is so much ahead. Such a talented young life. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So in your jumping time, what would you say were the great tragedies? </i></div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4bl6LNuRI/AAAAAAAAAM4/5I5XPYl87mk/s1600/cathy+willimson_+alf+white.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TG4bl6LNuRI/AAAAAAAAAM4/5I5XPYl87mk/s200/cathy+willimson_+alf+white.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="156"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Cathy talking with Alf White at the Goolwa Nationals half an hour before his death. Photo from "Falling Free."</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>CB:</b> I remember when I wrote the book people were really cross with me because I wrote about Alf (White) who was killed and they all thought you just had to excise the negative things. <br />
<br />
But that would be untruthful to deny things. <br />
<br />
Don West, of course, that was personal for all of us. And it had its impact on everyone in a different way, as death does, especially when you are closely associated with it. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So what do you consider to be your personal achievements in parachuting? </i></div><br />
<b>C</b><b>B:</b> Gosh I don't know. It was a way of life. We used to collect jumps and count them and move with things, but it was also a means of travel. It was an existential way of life. <br />
<br />
It was freedom. And it meant you weren't tied in the suburbs. It meant you were free and unencumbered. It was an illusion really, but it was a nice illusion. <br />
<br />
In terms of achievement, I sort of went out on that good note, winning the British Women's championships. But I can't recall being particularly competitive. I enjoyed jumping in New Guinea, and instructing in New Guinea. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> I remember when I started jumping it was the most exciting thing. I couldn't believe it ... so could you explain how you felt about your first jump, your early jumps – how the day would progress – you'd go to the airfield, the wind, how you would feel going in the plane, how you would feel jumping. Just explain a typical day. </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Yes it was exhilarating. All of those things. Adrenalin pumping, and the camaraderie – it was wonderful. But I do remember – I always thought for me it was the challenge. <br />
<br />
I have instructed students since who seemed to take to it far more quickly than I did, although they had the wealth of our experience and they could look and say "oh well if a girl can do that!" or a woman can do that it mustn't be that hard.<br />
<br />
Whereas, we were still in the early days and we weren't quite sure of what we were doing. But I do remember it was a challenge.<br />
<br />
There was always a goal slightly ahead until you reached the stage where you were actually felt comfortable with jumping. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So what do you think have been the most important influences on the development of sport parachuting in Australia? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Well early in the piece, there was the military influence. I think America was a big influence in the early days too. Now of course I couldn't comment. <br />
<br />
But in the early days it was a global thing that spread slowly. It was a minority sport. I mean nowadays it is not even that. You meet many people constantly who have done a tandem. <br />
<br />
So it is not that 'elite' thing that it was in those days. Now you can experience it in a sort of vicarious way, with someone else doing the actual jumping for you. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>NH:</b> So when you say parachutists are a particular type of people – what do you mean? </i></div><br />
<b>CB:</b> Well to me I preferred parachutists because they were more laid back, more natural about things. It seemed – I am just now comparing them with pilots, who by comparison are a stuffy lot – they are a different type of person. <br />
<br />
I'm sure if you could do personality profiles – if Donna could get one of her multi-facet things – then you'd probably notice. Then having said that you've probably always got exceptions. <br />
<br />
I don't think I would fit the perfect pilot and yet I've got over 9,000 hours and I made a living of it for 20 years.<br />
<br />
And the same for parachutists – you've still got parachutists who are quite introverted, but generally they are more extrovert <br />
<b>###<span style="color: black;"></span></b><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-67687315263759345972010-08-17T09:54:00.009+09:302014-11-04T14:42:23.772+10:301960s movie puts the focus on jumping<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6BwVV3n7bIfF4nLUn8uRcvQXJl_mSrSgcVl82rFSEgD9WXhcwpcXBKfhmYUyHxNdsO-Gw4h_ynujDhZaEUMvde5yTPhKm34_5JfpXU0O4Vd1b_orBIKUlPkc-NZzMzBfGXdXB2imkANhC/s1600/gypsy%20moths%20poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6BwVV3n7bIfF4nLUn8uRcvQXJl_mSrSgcVl82rFSEgD9WXhcwpcXBKfhmYUyHxNdsO-Gw4h_ynujDhZaEUMvde5yTPhKm34_5JfpXU0O4Vd1b_orBIKUlPkc-NZzMzBfGXdXB2imkANhC/s200/gypsy%20moths%20poster.jpg" height="200" width="91" /></a></div>
The 1969 movie <i>The Gypsy Moths</i> went down a treat with SA’s still emerging skydiving community. Not only was the feature film’s aerial footage an inspiration in an era when freefall movies were a rarity but the movie, playing on Adelaide’s big cinema screens, also gave the sport a valuable profile boost.<br />
<br />
While the Metro Goldwyn Mayer movie, starring Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr and Gene Hackman, played to the then still prevalent “daredevil / barnstorming” image of parachuting, it nevertheless helped our early promotions. The SASPC mounted a foyer display in the old Metro theatre in Hindley Street during the movie’s run.<br />
A digital copy of the original film is safely tucked away – highlights were available for viewing at the SASPC 50th in 2011.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeeQAetUWAY" target="_blank"><b></b></a><b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="blank">»» </a></b><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0aDHD39I3k" target="blank"></a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeeQAetUWAY" target="_blank">In the meantime, here’s taste of the movie action »»</a><br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">ve skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span></b>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-33868005635303297712010-08-15T09:52:00.005+09:302019-03-31T17:58:29.992+10:30Skydiving's origins: Col Parsons looks back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5KQfEJblI/AAAAAAAAAJk/c5COBxN7wQw/s1600/col+parsons6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5KQfEJblI/AAAAAAAAAJk/c5COBxN7wQw/s200/col+parsons6.jpg" width="153" /></a></div>
If anyone is qualified to reflect on South Australian skydiving's 50 years it has to be veteran parachutist Colin Parsons.<br />
<br />
An active jumper right from the kick-off in November 1961 until 1995, when he had a hip replaced, Col has witnessed all of the sport's progress.<br />
<br />
As chief instructor for the SASPC for many years and later as founder and CI of the State's first truly successful commercial operation, Skysport Parachute Centre, Col introduced many hundreds of South Australians to skydiving.<br />
<br />
In this extensive interview Col looks back on the birth of the sport and the characters who got it off the ground. Sadly, Col died in 2018.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><i></i><br />
<b><i>Transcript of a recorded interview with Col Parsons by Donna Berthelsen in 1997. </i></b><br />
<b><i>The interview was one of 45 recorded with early jumpers from all over Australia as part of an oral history project for the Australian Parachute Federation. </i></b><br />
<b><i><br />
Col made his first jump at Aldinga, on November 19, 1961 at the age of 24. </i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<i style="color: #b45f06;"><b>DB:</b> When did you start jumping and how did you come to start jumping? </i><b></b><br />
<b><br />
CP:</b> I started jumping on the first day of parachuting here, which was on 19 November 1961. I was in the original group that was brought together by Ted Harrison. Ted was actually a former school acquaintance of mine although we hadn't seen each other since leaving school in 1952.<br />
<br />
I just happened to notice in the back of the Sunday newspaper here in Adelaide one day a small advertisement inserted by Ted which suggested that people who were interested in parachuting might like to go to Parafield the following Sunday to talk about it.<br />
<br />
I had been interested in parachuting for as long as I could remember so I went along and found 120 other like-minded people there. <br />
That was the start of the South Australian School of Parachuting (as it was then) which later became the South Australian Sport Parachute Club. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> That was an amazing number of people to turn up? <br />
</i></div>
<b>CP:</b> Yes, it seemed a huge number. We then trained for about three months I think it was. We used to meet every Sunday morning for three or four hours. The reason it took so long was that we were waiting for the gear to come from America.<br />
<br />
Amongst other things, we learnt how to do parachute landing rolls off a ramp which went up about 3ft off the ground. We got so bored with training that we had contests to see who could run up the ramp at full pelt and leap the furthest through the air and then do a landing roll on to the bare ground. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> No one got hurt or anything? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP: </b>Sunday morning training always resulted in bruised hips on both sides and no skin on your elbows but the result was that everybody in those days could certainly do a good landing roll. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><br />
</i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> But obviously not that many people stayed the distance. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Many did, but I don't think we had the full 120 when we actually got to the first jump stage, although I do remember that in order for everybody to do their first jumps it took two full weekends out of a Dragon Rapide.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5LU2gVI5I/AAAAAAAAAJs/ub1A_iriQ68/s1600/col+parsons2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5LU2gVI5I/AAAAAAAAAJs/ub1A_iriQ68/s320/col+parsons2.jpg" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="158"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col Parsons kitted out in all the latest gear, circa 1961</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I guess there must have been sixty jumpers, or more.<br />
<br />
Then, in the usual way, once everybody had done a jump or two the numbers thinned out pretty quickly.<br />
<br />
Things settled down from my memory to about forty to sixty people in the first few months. They did not all come to the drop zone on the same day, of course but there was a solid core of about twenty people who were there both days of every weekend.<br />
<br />
<i><b>DB:</b><span style="color: #b45f06;"> You were jumping out of a Dragon.</span></i> <br />
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, a fabric-covered twin-engined biplane which would carry about eight of us. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So you had to wait for the gear to come. How many sets of gear arrived? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> The club bought some and a lot of us bought our own. We all started off using old Army X-type club chutes from World War II which Ted had got from somewhere, but pretty soon we all went on to the surplus US Air Force B4 stuff with 28 ft C9 canopies. <br />
<br />
The club's X-type chutes were modified with a simple single blank gore. <br />
Most of us who were keen and bought our own gear had 5-TU or 7-TU steering modifications. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> And who were the core people that you remember? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Ted, of course, was the driving force. He was the chief instructor in practice, but on paper another guy, Stan Kruszewski, was the official chief instructor. <br />
The DCA (Department of Civil Aviation) regulations back then required that the chief instructor have a whole 50 jumps. <br />
<br />
Ted didn't have that many. Through the CMF, he had done the Army parachuting course which amounted to about only eight jumps, but had come back so enthused about it that he got things going and dug around until he found this guy, Stan Kruszewski, who had done 400 jumps during the last war with the Polish Army. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5N2ZGIqvI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/Abd4JTcAtlg/s1600/col+parsons1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5N2ZGIqvI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/Abd4JTcAtlg/s320/col+parsons1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="320"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col with his 28 foot C9 canopy after a jump in the 1960s.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
So Stan became the paper chief instructor who fulfilled the regulations and guided us through the static line stage, but Ted was the guy who had the ideas, read the books, stimulated the people and drove things forward. <br />
Stan had never done freefall. He had only done static line jumps, whereas Ted, as inexperienced as he was, would go up with a book about freefall parachuting in one hand and a parachute in the other, and work it out and come back and tell us all how to do it. <br />
<br />
Getting back to who was involved, the core were Trevor Burns, Brian Brown, Susie Wright, Dave Shearer, Cathy Williamson and her brother John, Max Chaplin, me and given a bit more thought I could probably think of others. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Joe Mutch, where did he fit in? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Joe was a very keen individual. He had been in the British Parachute Regiment during the last war along with a few other guys of that time, but I don't think he ever jumped with the club. <br />
<br />
He was the club president or something, yes he was the president, and was a useful force in the sense of keeping things moving along and wanting to be associated with it, but he never did any jumps as I recall. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> What happened from there in terms of your personal career? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> It makes more sense to talk about what happened to the organisation as compared to what happened to me. Things went along fairly well until Alf White got killed, I think in 1962, at the Australian Parachuting Championship at Goolwa. <br />
<br />
His was the first fatality that occurred in SA. He just got out at three and half thousand feet and went all the way in without any attempt to pull the ripcord. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> How old was he? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Mostly likely in his late 40s – ex commando type. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So he'd done Army jumps? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I really don't know about that. I think ... well I can't say that he had. <br />
But that fatality knocked things around a lot. Immediately there was big reduction in the numbers of people who were involved. <br />
<br />
Things then went into a bit of a decline. However, in the meantime, in fact only six months after the whole thing started back in 1961, Max Chaplin, John Williamson (Cathy's brother) and a couple of other people had started a break-away group called South Coast Skydivers ..... <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So the original group that came together, you actually formally constituted a club? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, the South Australian School of Parachuting, then about six months later (I could actually look up the date for you from my log book) Max formed this breakaway group, South Coast Skydivers. <br />
<br />
The reason why it happened was that Max, of course, was a strong personality. Ted also was a strong personality and, as is the way in parachuting, they couldn't get on together so Max formed a splinter group. <br />
<br />
I had friends in both groups so I jumped with both clubs. <br />
Then Brian Brown, Dave Shearer, Trevor Burns, Phil Edwards and I formed a third little group called Freelance Skydivers whose objective was really just to do parachute displays. <br />
<br />
So we did the first parachute displays that had been done in South Australia, in 1962. <br />
<br />
We were just a few guys who were trying to become famous. Getting back to the beginning, from about 1962 onwards the SA School of Parachuting, which became SA Sport Parachute Club, gradually dwindled in size. <br />
<br />
It seemed to become quite small in the period from 1963 through to 1967 and Max's South Coast Skydivers group probably operated at a more active level. <br />
However, he was drowned in a parachute display at West Beach in February, 1968. <br />
<br />
After that, I was certainly the most senior parachutist in South Coast Skydivers, and Phil Edwards had become the guy who was more or less running the SA School of Parachuting. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5O06RoiuI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/_NsqBG9l6ms/s1600/col+parsons5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5O06RoiuI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/_NsqBG9l6ms/s320/col+parsons5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="320"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col demonstrates to students correct exit procedures from the 172, wearing his new Security piggyback system.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
He and I got together and decided that the sort of the conflict that had existed was not necessary and tried to bring together the remnants of both groups. <br />
<br />
There weren't too many people jumping by then – because of rivalries and a few fatalities things had lapsed into the doldrums – and so we combined both groups into what we called South State Skydivers. <br />
<br />
Eventually, as things settled down, we resorted to the name of SA Sport Parachute Club. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> And when about was that? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Sometime in 1968. Max drowned in February 1968. His South Coast Skydivers had been operating at Lower Light, so we continued jumping there with the amalgamated clubs. The SASPC has been there ever since. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So where did you start jumping? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Well that's a story in itself. The original SA School of Parachuting started off at Aldinga. <br />
<br />
When Max's South Coast Skydivers split away they set up a DZ about three miles further on. Then DCA closed down that area to parachuting because of air space problems, so Max moved his group to Mallala on the other side of Adelaide. <br />
<br />
The SA Sport Parachute Club moved around a fair bit from one farmer's paddock to another, but also jumped for a while at Mallala. <br />
I remember doing a few jumps with Phil Edwards at Roseworthy. They did not seem to have a regular base. <br />
<br />
Max was eventually moved on from Mallala by the farmer who owned the property. There were a couple of fatalities out there – Don West for example ..... <br />
<br />
So Max got moved on by the farmer. I think the farmer might have had enough because of the fatalities and didn't want to be associated with parachutists anymore. <br />
<br />
Max then wandered over to an area nearby called Lower Light, looking around for a possible DZ, and found a farmer who was happy for us to use his paddock. This was in about 1967, and the DZ is still there. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> George Quigley. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, George Quigley was the farmer, and the present South Australian Sport Parachute Club now owns the land. So there's quite a history there. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So where did Trevor Burns fit in. I mean he was jumping up at Port Pirie, so that was another group? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, that's right. Trevor lived at Pirie, he worked as an insurance agent up there and he set up Spencer Gulf Skydivers to provide local jumping and avoid the long trip to Adelaide. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF-Ftx_LyfI/AAAAAAAAAKc/feevx8c5_no/s1600/col+parsons8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF-Ftx_LyfI/AAAAAAAAAKc/feevx8c5_no/s200/col+parsons8.jpg" width="162" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="162"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col exits the 172 during the State Meet at Port Pirie in 1970.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I can't remember the exact time but again it was in the early 1960s and they operated over at Whyalla, at Point Lowly, and also at Port Pirie Airport. In fact, the State Championship was often held there. <br />
<br />
Trevor was quite active throughout the whole period until he left Adelaide and went to Sydney in about 1972. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So virtually I mean you were the senior person right from .... </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, I was an active parachutist right from 1961 until 1995, when I had a hip replaced. <br />
<br />
By virtue of having the most jumps and having been involved the longest I ended up becoming Chief Instructor of the South Australian Sport Parachute Club in 1968 I think it was. <br />
<br />
With the help of Steve Swann, Bernie Keenan and Mike Tonks we kept it going. <br />
We built the club house at Lower Light on George Quigley's land and things gradually developed again because these guys had enthusiasm and energy and worked well together. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So how long did you stay as chief instructor?</i></div>
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>CP:</b> From 1968 right through until 1979 I was Chief Instructor of the SA Sport Parachute Club. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF-Hk6kiRdI/AAAAAAAAAKk/MuwRLrddRa0/s1600/col+parsons9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF-Hk6kiRdI/AAAAAAAAAKk/MuwRLrddRa0/s200/col+parsons9.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Skysport Parachute Centre's 180 in action during early the 1980s.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But as the years then went by I got a bit tired of the club committee system. It gradually became hard to achieve anything with the conflicting egos and different barrows being pushed, so eventually in 1979 I decided I'd had enough of that and set up a commercial parachute centre called Skysport Parachute Centre – on the same land but just a bit further down the paddock. <br />
<br />
And it boomed. So I operated Skysport from 1979 through to 1986 when I sold it because I was going off on university study leave to England for a year. <br />
<br />
I didn't really think that I would be able to sell it, but a wealthy tuna fisherman who had just started jumping with the SA Sport Parachute Club heard that I was interested in selling and made me a good offer, with the intention of putting one of the instructors from the SA Sport Parachute Club in as Manager and Chief Instructor.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Who? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Steve Boldog. Steve was an excellent instructor and a lovely guy.<br />
He shifted Skysport to Strathalbyn where it still operates under a different name.<br />
<br />
When Steve moved on, Skysport was sold back to the club members, and then the club committee asked me to become chief instructor when I returned from England. This was in late 1987 or it might have been early 1988. <br />
<br />
And so I was chief instructor again, and remained so until 1994 when the writing was on the wall about my hip. <br />
<br />
To keep the ball rolling I trained Tony McEvoy and his wife, Laurie, who were ultra keen and who now fill the positions of full time chief instructor and DZ manager down there. It's now called Skydive Adelaide. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<i><b style="color: #b45f06;">DB:</b><span style="color: #b45f06;"> Skydive Adelaide, but as well there still is ....</span> </i><br />
<br />
<b>CP:</b> At the moment there is the SA Sport Parachute Club at Lower Light. Skydive Adelaide, which was my Skysport Parachute Centre is at Strathalbyn, and at Murray Bridge Greg Smith is operating a flourishing tandem operation. <br />
<br />
Greg Smith was most recently the chief instructor of the South Australian Sport Parachute Club. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Did you know Don West at all? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Oh yeah. He was one of the originals. He and Bob Palmer were bosom buddies and both of them were quite smitten with parachuting. <br />
<br />
Those of us in the hard core were all pretty keen and it nearly consumed our everyday lives, but those two were smitten by it. <br />
<br />
West left Australia and went to the States and did some jumping at Orange and other places I understand. He came back here as a bit of a skydiving guru ... and then died in an attempt to beat the world baton passing record. <br />
<br />
I wasn't present on the day so can only piece bits together according to what I've heard. <br />
<br />
However, I understand that Phil Edwards had taken the baton close to opening height and passed it to Joe Larkin (who later was executed as a mercenary over in the Congo for stealing a plane full of something). <br />
<br />
Larkin and West just kept on trying to do the next pass below opening height. <br />
It wouldn't have broken the record anyhow because even if they had successfully completed the pass it would have only equalled the record. <br />
<br />
Larkin evidently went for his main ripcord at some ridiculously low altitude and opened up just in time, whereas West went for his reserve and hit the ground with the canopy still coming out. <br />
So totally avoidable. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGfB5xyAtLI/AAAAAAAAAL0/RVlEAZaifSw/s1600/col+parsons10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGfB5xyAtLI/AAAAAAAAAL0/RVlEAZaifSw/s200/col+parsons10.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col Parsons sporting the very latest gear (as usual) circa 1971.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The accident, of course, created big problems for us. It was sensationalised by the press – a world record attempt ending in tragedy. You can imagine what they did with that. <br />
<br />
Unfortunately, soon after there was another fatality in Max Chaplin's club which as operating in the same district. He was a novice jumper who was in the early stage of freefall or perhaps even on static line, I can't recall the details. <br />
<br />
But the deaths and the poor publicity which followed from both accidents certainly led to a marked falling off in membership and virtually no recruiting.<br />
<br />
Those sorts of things decimated the ranks pretty well and parachuting entered the doldrums in South Australia for a number of years. When did Don West die? About 1963, I think. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> 1963 I think. Because he had been at the World Championships in 1962 and although he wasn't an official Australian representative I think he did jump at the Orange World Championships, which were the second ones or whatever. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>The first ones were in 1958. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>The early jumping days can you talk about the starting of relative work and what you were doing then? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Well, it is interesting if we go back to the training. The training we had was extensive because we were waiting for the chutes to come from the US. <br />
<br />
However, it was static-line orientated because nobody knew much about freefall. Most of the instructors were ex-wartime military jumpers and we learnt their techniques for exits and landing rolls and so on. <br />
<br />
So we were very well set up for static line sorts of operations. <br />
Freefall was pretty much pioneering territory, and it was Ted who went up and experimented with exits and positions and got things going there. <br />
<br />
Somebody developed a freefall progression table. You started off with a 3 second delay, then a five, then a seven, then a ten and so on to 30 second delays from 7000 feet. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> But were they stable? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> They were supposed to be but I didn't do my first completely stable 30 second delay until I had about fifty jumps. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> But were they just thinking stability wasn't an issue – that there wasn't a connection between stability and malfunctions. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Well, Ted would have to answer that. I can remember him getting very exasperated with me. 7,000 was the altitude we operated up to then and I'd go up and jump out and arch like crazy in the way that I had been told, and then spin all the way down to 2,500. <br />
<br />
Ultimately somebody took a film of me exiting the aircraft and this showed that my problem was that the arch was so severe that there was really no arch. <br />
<br />
That is, there was nothing stuck out from the side. My arms and legs were pulled so far back and so stiff that there was no real arch. <br />
<br />
Anyhow, what I am getting at is that as soon as you had done a 3 second delay, you went on to a five and if it was unstable so what, you know<br />
<br />
You just kept going up in altitude to do longer delays. That was the story for people like me who were slow learners. <br />
<br />
On the other hand, the naturals like Susie and Ted and Brian Brown were baton passing within weeks. I don't recall too much about freefall formation building in those days: that came later. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Well it was baton passing. That was the first form I suppose. When did you do your first baton pass do you remember? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> The first one I did was about three years later, long after they'd done it because my freefall skills weren't good enough. <br />
<br />
But in those early days I put an 8 mm movie camera on the side of my helmet and got Brian Brown to use it in freefall. <br />
<br />
He would have taken the first bits of movie freefall photography that were taken here. <br />
<br />
He got some footage of Phil Edwards, or was it Bob Palmer, passing the baton to him. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So you have still got that film? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, although it's pretty blurry and wobbly. Apart from a lot of blue and green, all you see is a reserve and a hand with a baton going past at one point. <br />
The problem was that the camera wasn't sighted well. <br />
<br />
Nevertheless the image was there. So we were doing that in 1962. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5PWox7FHI/AAAAAAAAAKE/Aet0zbJskbM/s1600/col+parsons4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5PWox7FHI/AAAAAAAAAKE/Aet0zbJskbM/s320/col+parsons4.jpg" width="222" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="222"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col makes a downwind accuracy approach under his PC (Paracommander) into the seaweed pit at Lower Light in the early 1970s. Downwind was the conventional approach for serious accuracy jumpers in those days.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As far as freefall formations are concerned – I might get a bit disorganised here – I remember the huge excitement of going to Labertouche in about 1969 or 1970 and Ted and Skratch Garrison who was out here from California and he was helping Ted and others to do the first ten way out of a Navajo. <br />
<br />
They did eventually and there was huge excitement to think that people were able to put ten together.<br />
That was about 1969 or 70. <br />
<br />
Prior to that of course people had been building three ways and four ways but even that was regarded as an achievement then. <br />
<br />
I remember that Steve Swann, Phil Edwards, Bernie Keenan, Trevor Burns and I went up to Port Pirie in about 1967 or 8 to try to build South Australia's first five way out of a Cherokee Six. <br />
<br />
We all piled out but the exit was so spread out that we didn't even see each other in freefall. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Back just to the 1960s ...... You started doing rel and starting doing style. Did you go to the 1966 nationals and what do you remember about them.?</i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> No, I didn't. Trevor would be the one to tell you about that because he went to those as a judge I think. The first nationals I went to were at Labertouche, but again I would have to look up the date. Probably in about 1969 I think, or 1970. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> I don't think the first ones there were until 1971 actually. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Well it might have been 1971. I remember it was very hot, and then it poured for seven days, but that was the first nationals I had been to. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So you participated in other nationals. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Only one or two, I didn't go to them all that often because it conflicted with family commitments at that time of the year. <br />
<br />
However, we had the annual state championships which, as time went by, I just kept on winning because there was no one else with the same experience. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So accuracy has always been the thing that you really enjoy? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, the thing I enjoy most. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> You became involved in the organisational aspects of the APF, just by default? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I didn't become an APF member until about 1964 or 1965 and that was largely at Phil Edwards' suggestion. <br />
In fact I tended to jump with South Coast Skydivers more than anywhere else after the split away. <br />
<br />
The reason I did that was that they were operating more often. <br />
To give Max Chaplin his due, although he was a very irascible and domineering guy, he made sure that we operated on at least one day every weekend. <br />
<br />
The SA Sport Parachute Club seemed to gradually become an ingroup sort of thing and tended to jump irregularly and only when and where it suited a few particular people. Max's operation was more predictable.<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> I asked you about when you started your involvement in the APF. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> So I didn't join the APF until the mid 1960s if not later. It was certainly before I became chief instructor of the SA Sports Parachute Club in about 1968. <br />
<br />
By that time the APF was very well established in everybody's mind by then and Phil persuaded me to join. Again it was just through being the most senior guy around that I eventually became the chairman of the state council and organiser ...... <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Organiser and serious minded sort of person? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> That was it! Those of us who .... There are always some people in each club who are prepared to move things along and take responsibility. They come to expect a bit of authority out of it as well. <br />
<br />
So I was on the board for probably a period of ten years or more. But again this would be from the early 1970s through to the mid 1980s. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So what do you think the APF's contribution has been? What are the issues that have been salient in terms of South Australia and the APF or your position? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> It did, of course, provide the structure for development. Claude was the one who had the vision and the drive in the early days and subsequently he was the main ideas man, the one who saw the need for a national body to set up standards and training tables – to have a policy. <br />
<br />
That, of course, made a lot of sense to anybody who saw some sort of need for rules in jumping. In the early days the Board was a group of experienced jumpers who got together to pool ideas. <br />
<br />
It developed a bit like Topsy but that was a natural starting point and it has subsequently become more and more influential and, of course, it is an extremely professional body now. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> What are your thoughts about the role of clubs and the balance between commercial and clubs as operators? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I think most of the present clubs operate commercially in the sense that each club has a guy who owns the aircraft and the aircraft is dedicated to club use.<br />
<br />
The aircraft was bought specifically for jumping but it has to make money for the owner. Also the clubs themselves operate commercially in the sense that the instructors are paid and some do that full time.<br />
<br />
Skydive Adelaide has got a full time chief instructor. He gets paid, although it may be true to say that he has to generate enough business to get an income. <br />
All the same there are guys now who by their instructional activities can make a living, perhaps not a terribly good one, but it is what they want to do.<br />
<br />
I think that without the commercial thrust jumping would never have developed into the sort of sport it is now. <br />
When you travel overseas and see the facilities the commercial operations have got over there you realise that it's the commercial thrust that has produced a lot of the development.<br />
<br />
On the other hand you can also look at the achievements of the rebel jumpers and see that they're the guys who have tested the edges and pushed things in a new direction.<br />
<br />
When it was first suggested that we might do this accelerated freefall stuff, there were those who poo pooed the idea. It was thought to be far too dangerous .... <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> And Dave McEvoy putting students out on squares with piggybacks. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, that's right. So it's sometimes been the guys who are not just commercially concerned but who are more individualistic who have pushed the sport along, you know. <br />
<br />
Clubs or commercial centres, I don't know. There probably is a place for amateur clubs but I can't see that they'll ever operate at anything except the very elementary level of a few people having a bit of fun. <br />
<br />
To provide good facilities and regular jumping, the costs are such that the operation has to be professional and commercial. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Although as a psychologist I mean the individual who develops this taste for parachuting never gives it away – it stays in their blood. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> That sort of enthusiasm you find in all sports of course. You only have to talk to the gliding fraternity to see that they are equally smitten. <br />
<br />
Talk to people in a yacht club, talk to footballers – a lot of people get huge satisfaction out of intense dedication to some particular activity. <br />
<br />
As a psychologist I have been fascinated by this over the years and in fact, to find out more, have run a whole batch of tests over everybody I could lay my hands on in the club on two occasions. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Is this back in the 1960s or the 1970s. </i></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF6Exl7dxLI/AAAAAAAAAKU/MgdPb2pFhpI/s1600/col+parsons7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF6Exl7dxLI/AAAAAAAAAKU/MgdPb2pFhpI/s200/col+parsons7.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="176"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col conducts polygraph tests on skydiving guinea pig Steve Swann in the early 1970s.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>CP:</b> In the 1970s it would have been. A university student of mine wanted to do some research on personality in sport and we just used things like the 16PF Personality Test and ... I forget what the others were now. <br />
<br />
It showed what so many other studies of the same kind had done using those instruments: that skydivers were of above average intelligence, and that they do not have a specific personality profile but rather a wide range of personalities. <br />
<br />
If there is some element in the skydiver's personality that differentiates him from people in general or those who are keen about other sports, it certainly is not detected by a test like the 16PF. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> You've got no personal opinions about it? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Skydivers tend to be people who like intense involvement, who enjoy the sense of skill and getting better at things, and are open to the challenge of the activity. <br />
<br />
They are also there for the social benefits. They like the company of other people with the same interests, but not necessarily the same personality.<br />
<br />
There is such a range of different personalities from the lively brash-natured individual to the quiet, unassuming person who nevertheless still make a good skydiver. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> But, you know, there has always been that issue and I think in jumping there is an element of competitive jumpers versus the person who jumps just to have fun, but each contributes in their own way. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>In some ways the rivalry seems detrimental and I can still see it on drop zones. I think it is disruptive to the sport in some ways. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I think it is a sport that breeds conflict because there is so much scope for individuals and individualism. <br />
<br />
In fact it is encouraged in many ways. So I suppose a dominant person is certainly in the right environment to be able show it. <br />
<br />
You can look back to the early days here when Ted Harrison – an effervescent and charismatic but volatile person – would show his temper and the plaster would peel off the walls. <br />
<br />
He had an infectious humour but was quite a dominant individual.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless he got on extremely well with people – with guys like Brian Brown who was an entirely different character. Totally laid back, without the same showcasing effect as Ted. <br />
<br />
Not that I want to play that down: Brownie is a larrikin in his own way. Ask him about the time he flew a Mirage 10ft above the ground towards an ABC photographer at 600 knots ... that's the extravert in him. <br />
<br />
So you get that wide range of personalities and most of them get on extremely well. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Certainly in terms of the friendships they're the last thing one would expect. Anyway well we'll get back to South Australia too. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>The Gulf Meet how did that come to start and what do you know about that?</i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I think Trevor Burns originated it, because he set up Spencer Gulf Skydivers at Port Pirie and Whyalla. <br />
<br />
There's another guy, who was a huge driving force and had a liking for responsibility and organisation and authority and was extremely confident. He was the one that got it going I think. <br />
<br />
The name Gulf Meet came from the name of Trevor's club and the location of the two drop zones on the edge of Spencer Gulf at Port Pirie and Whyalla I went to my first Gulf Meet at Whyalla in about 1966 or 67. <br />
<br />
They had a huge seaweed pit - it was lovely and soft - in the middle of sandy waste near the beach with an elementary enclosure for packing. <br />
<br />
You just got sand in everything. Gillard drove across from Melbourne to be the judge. There were the likes of Laurie Trotter among the competitors. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Was he around here very much? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Well, off and on in those days. Trotter and Andy Keech, of course, were the two originals. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Two original what? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> They were the two who did the first freefall jumps at Cessnock back in about 1958 or something or other. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Well that's a moot point but certainly they had the first sort of demo team travelling around the two of them. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Completely different characters those two. <br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Yeah. What did you think of Laurie Trotter. I mean you're a conservative guy I suppose but.... </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I though Trotter was a wonderful fellow. In fact I can tell all sorts of stories about him. I mean he is the first guy I met who would split words with 'bloody' or 'fucking'.<br />
<br />
It wasn't unusual for him to say something like "Was I ever sur-fucking-prised ..... " <br />
<br />
Laurie was just one of those infectious, enthusiastic guys like Ted whose only interest seemed to be skydiving and skylarking. <br />
Despite all his swearing and swaggering, you had the sense that he was a really genuine individual.<br />
<br />
I met him at the first Gulf Meet I went to at Whyalla in about 1966. <br />
I had just bought my first PC, Paracommander, and had only done four jumps on it. <br />
<br />
I was using an old B4 system with two-shot capewells, and when I arrived at the DZ and unloaded my gear, Laurie came over and said to me "Ah, two-shot capewells. What are you jumping a PC with two shot capwells for?" <br />
<br />
I said, "Why not?" He said, "What happens if the PC mals and you have to cutaway." <br />
<br />
I said, "What's a cutaway?" <br />
<br />
Nobody had told me that PCs had horrible mals and I had never heard of a cutaway. <br />
<br />
And he took me aside and said: "Look these things have got a bit of a reputation. If they don't open up correctly you'll spin around the sky so fast you'll see the horizon over your toes". <br />
<br />
And he went on to say: "Look here's a technique to use if it happens. Hold your left riser in your left hand and release the left capewell with your right hand. Then let the riser go up to the full length of your arm and undo your right capewell with your right hand. <br />
<br />
“When the right riser flies up let go of the left riser". <br />
<br />
And do you know on the very next jump I had a mal. <br />
<br />
Just as he said, I spun so violently that I could see the horizon over my feet. <br />
If he hadn't told me all that I guess I would have deployed the reserve into the mess and become a statistic. <br />
<br />
When I landed all Laurie said was: "That was fan-bloody-tastic. Didn't I tell you so". <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> When was that? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> It was about 1966. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> So where might have that knowledge come from. Who might have told you about cutaways. Do you think that was an interesting issue as to how that knowledge was then being transmitted? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I'm not too sure who could have told me. I had the first PC in South Coast Skydivers. The other PCs were owned by people jumping with SA Sport Parachute Club whom I saw nothing of at that stage. <br />
<br />
So in a sense I was on my own: keen to jump the latest bit of gear but ignorant about its vices. <br />
<br />
When the PC arrived in the post all it had was the packing instructions with it. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> But nothing about how to deal with a malfunction? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> That's right. Mind you, I read those packing instructions plenty of times. <br />
And I packed it, and opened it and repacked it and so on about ten times before I did my first jump on it. <br />
<br />
Before I went to Whyalla I had done four jumps on it and all the openings had been perfect. Probably packing in the sand at Whyalla without tension on the lines let the upper control lines tangle with the apex, causing the mal. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Back to the 70s. Steve Swann was talking about the Golden Arrows, so tell us about your skydiving team. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP: </b>I am pretty sure Trevor Bums set up the Golden Arrows. Yes, he did, because I remember he adapted the name of the famous Golden Knights in the States and made it the Golden Arrows here. <br />
<br />
The team started off with Trevor and Phil Edwards and somebody else, and then I got involved in it, then Steve Swann, Bernie Keenan and Mike Tonks. <br />
<br />
It was specifically a display team through which we tried to become rich and famous. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Have you got any stories from that? You' enjoyed that in those days. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Go back earlier. I can tell you my first display jump here in South Australia was done in 1962. I had 24 jumps and you've got to remember that Brian Brown, Dave Shearer, Trevor Bums and I set up a group called Freelance Skydivers. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Yes, you said that. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> That was around early 1962. I think jumping started in November, 1961, so by about April '62 we – Burns, Shearer and Brown and I – had a few jumps more than most others with the exception of a few people like Ted. <br />
<br />
The other three had 25 jumps and I had 24. So we regarded ourselves as comparative experts and set up Freelance Skydivers - parachute display team. <br />
<br />
I think it was Trevor who wrote off to all the country horticultural and agricultural societies and tried to convince them that this skydiving team could come to their show to do the first-ever parachute display in South Australia. <br />
<br />
Sure enough, the Crystal Brook Show Society contacted us so we went up there to do the first parachute display in South Australia. <b><i>[<a href="http://skydivinghistory.blogspot.com/2010/03/tent-landing-for-pioneer-sa-demo-jumper.html">See the separate item on this historic demo and Col's unfortunate landing</a>]</i></b><br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Actually there was a whole issue that I remember - correspondence between Claude and Ted Harrison about a high altitude jump in South Australia. Do you remember those high altitude jumps? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Yes, but I wasn't involved in it. I remember them happening. They were the very first jumps done here in South Australia and were done by Claude and Hans Magnusson and a few others.<br />
<br />
I think Bill Kenny might have been in the group. And Claude's best mate at the time, Bill Molloy. I know they jumped out of a Beaver from 24,000 ft. <br />
We started training in about June or July 1961 and we jumped in November, so they came here just before we got our gear. <br />
<br />
24,000 ft in 1961 it wasn't bad was it? <br />
<br />
And then, of course, much later Bill Kenny did another one in Victoria. 30,000 ft or more and that was out of a Navajo wasn't it? <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Yeah, I talked to Dave Millard so I've got the story of that jump. But you've always been closely involved with instruction here. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>Can you talk about how you think instruction has changed and what have been the big issues or any stories? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Well again, the APF is the one that's been responsible for and achieved the development there. <br />
<br />
In the early days some of the training was pretty rudimentary. When I was jumping with South Coast Skydivers in the early 1960s the training was being done by Max Chaplin. <br />
<br />
He was his own man and just did things his way. His training was done by talking to students over a cup of coffee in his kitchen. <br />
<br />
There was no practical training, just all talk. <br />
<br />
Because I was an educator and working at a Teachers College, education and training was of great interest to me, and I thought there had to be a better way. <br />
<br />
Because a friend of mine wanted to start jumping I asked Max if I could train him. <br />
<br />
You know I didn't know anything about instructional standards and technique apart from being a trained teacher and a 50-jump parachutist. <br />
I don't think Max did either, about any requirements for instructors at that stage. <br />
<br />
That was about 1963 or probably 1964. So I trained my friend and that was fine. I did a lot of practical training. Built a harness with a few risers hanging down and became really interested in training then. <br />
<br />
I didn't do much more, however, until Max died and then I more or less moved into the CFI's role. <br />
<br />
At that stage I remember Phil Edwards and I got together and put things back together.<br />
<br />
Phil had qualified as an instructor through the APF and I watched what he did and realised that there was then a syllabus for training and I followed that from then on. <br />
<br />
Training of course has developed enormously since those days, from being a lot of talk with little action, through the period where we introduced slides and a bit of movie, to the present period where the APF has purpose-made videos. <br />
<br />
So, again, it's become very professional now both in terms of the qualifications expected and the things that students are introduced to. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> But I mean there's a leap from the sort of pioneering stuff you are talking about and when I started jumping in 1965, so I remember a lot of those things but students nowadays, you know, it is just so enormously different. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>I mean, I can remember all that issue about refusal even when I was an instructor. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>When you have refusals, you know, go around tap them on the shoulder. Having people to refuse to jump these days just isn't an issue. It is just a different mindset. It is interesting, you know, that somehow they were stages that you go through. </i></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i>You learn to instruct in a different way or something like that. But even the mindsets of the instructors have changed as they have come into the course. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> I think there is a much greater awareness now of what the students mentality is. In the early days it was pretty macho sort of instruction. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> It still had that element of the army training that training had to be rigorous. It still had that hangover from the military style. Don't you think or - you're looking doubtful. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Well no, in the early days it was very much that. I don't know that it is now. Here, with the group that I'm with now, I don't think it is too military. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5PmRK6PtI/AAAAAAAAAKM/5Y_epOggG-M/s1600/col+parsons3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TF5PmRK6PtI/AAAAAAAAAKM/5Y_epOggG-M/s200/col+parsons3.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="color: black;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="150"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Col under his Paraplane, the first ram air square parachute owned and jumped in SA.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><b>DB:</b> Oh no, but it stayed that way for a long time - 20 years. </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Until the squares starting appearing that's when all the big changes occurred isn't it. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #b45f06;">
<i><b>DB:</b> Can you remember your first square jump? </i></div>
<br />
<b>CP:</b> Again, I had the first square in South Australia. I bought that from Gillard as well. A Paraplane – what a monster? 25ft long lines and weighed a ton. Wasn't all that reliable. <br />
<br />
But that first jump on it was one of the most exciting jumps of my life. Again it came with packing instructions: didn't know anything about it, just read the book - as with the PC - sat down and packed and repacked it until I thought it would work, and it did. <br />
<br />
But it was a living animal that thing - it vibrated and whistled as it went through the air and had such an enormously improved performance over the PC - you couldn't turn back.<br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-43759377185340527982010-08-14T20:16:00.009+09:302010-10-06T15:27:19.067+10:30Parachuting pioneer at home in the sky<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TKsAO7i0rKI/AAAAAAAAA9o/IIF2VoXXzTo/s1600/brian+brown1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TKsAO7i0rKI/AAAAAAAAA9o/IIF2VoXXzTo/s200/brian+brown1.jpg" width="108" /></a></div>Brian Brown’s aviation career had humble enough beginnings – he was one of the young, adventurous few who jumped at Aldinga in November 1961, launching the new sport of skydiving in South Australia.<br />
<br />
Brian was one of the early “naturals”, excelling at the brand new art of baton-passing (the precursor of relative work) and devoting all of his spare time and enthusiasm to the sport.<br />
<br />
Places in national and international teams in the early 1960s were an obvious recognition of his talent.<br />
<br />
But his feel for the air really blossomed after he joined the Royal Australian Airforce, flying helicopter gunships in Vietnam and, later, Mirage fighters.<br />
<br />
But despite those diversions, Brian continued to jump.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><i><b>Edited extracts from a recorded interview with Brian Brown by Donna Berthelsen in 1998. <br />
<br />
The interview was one of 45 recorded with early jumpers from all over Australia as part of an oral history project for the Australian Parachute Federation. <br />
<br />
Brian made his first jump at Aldinga, on November 19, 1961 at the age of 18.</b></i><br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> How did you come to start jumping and when? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> One of the magazines at the time – <i>Pix</i> or <i>Post</i> – ran some photographs of the French jumping. Freefall was a bit ahead of the world in France in those days. I was 17 or so at the time and I thought “boy, I'd like to do that” and then I thought “boy, I'm going to do that.”<br />
<br />
And that is really where it started from.<br />
<br />
That was the initial interest but after that an ad appeared in the newspaper.<br />
<br />
"People interested in forming a skydiving club – please write to this number." So I decided I'd do that and that's where we all started. There was no jumping in South Australia up until then.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Can you remember any others?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Trevor Bums, Col Parsons, Cathy Williamson, Susi [Wright], Kathy Henderson. Cathy's brother, for example, Cathy Williamson's brother. David Shearer. Phil Edwards. Stan Kruszewski – he'd been a parachutist in World War II.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And where did the gear come from finally? Did you all put in money to buy the gear?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, basically we put in money by joining the club and the gear was purchased – X-type parachutes the initial ones that turned up. Ted Harrison had a lot to do with that because he was the other guy who did have some experience.<br />
<br />
He was in the Citizens Military Forces, as it was then and he'd done a parachute course at Williamtown. So he'd actually done 10 jumps or so. That made him way ahead of the rest of us. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB: </b>What did your family think about that at the time? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> I'm going parachuting Mum. “Fine – don't kill yourself.”<br />
<br />
We did a lot of training – a lot of jumping off vaulting horses and rolling on mats and learning all the basically army style, approved parachute rolls. I think the training was actually being extended because there were no parachutes to jump with anyway. It was just to keep the people interested – training, training, training. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So, your first jump? What you were jumping out of? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> The first jumps were at Aldinga just south of Adelaide, out of a Dragon Rapide – the old dreaded Dragon. X-type parachute. I think it was 2,000 feet on this one.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And how many static lines did you do? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Eight or nine. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Was there an emphasis on stability? Was a lot of the initial focus about how to fall stable? It wasn't an the issue for static liners but then moving on to freefall?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> It was pushed a bit towards the end of your static line jumps. We were looking to a good stable exit before they put somebody in freefall but I can't quite remember the timings but I have a sneaking suspicion that we might have been in no rush to get them off statics because the freefall chutes were not yet there. They were still coming. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So, were you jumping full canopies on those – were they full canopies or were they a blank gore? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> I think they were blank gore – pretty basic.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Who was leading the club at that time, do you recall? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Well there was always a lot of politics in the whole thing but, effectively, Ted Harrison was probably one of the leading lights. <br />
<br />
He was definitely on the management side and had most of the say, I think, in what went on because he was actually an active jumper rather than some of the people involved who were not really active jumpers.<br />
<br />
They wanted to be in position of authority in the club but didn’t seem to want to jump all that much.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So that ended up being a division?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> There were currents there and then I think Maxie Chaplin, who was in that initial bunch, started a rival, breakaway club on the south coast and some people went there.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Did he eventually die parachuting? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, he did. A scuba jump into the water off Adelaide.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Alf White also died in that early period.</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Alf White was the first fatality and he died at the national championships at Goolwa. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> What happened there? Because that's not enlarged upon in Cathy's book at all. [Cathy Williamson, Falling Free] It just happened. </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> I don't think we actually knew. He was one of the early guys but he was what we thought of then as an incredibly old bloke – he must have been 40 or 50. <br />
<br />
Imagine an “old” bloke like that jumping. But he was a nice old bloke. Kept to himself. He went out on a medium sort of a delay, I think it was 20 seconds or so, and he just didn't pull. <br />
<br />
It wasn't like the chute malfunctioned or anything. He just speared straight on in. <br />
He was definitely a lot older than the average jumper there. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> I think people have progressed since that time perceptually, just talking as a psychologist, like taking up flying or something as an older person, the reaction is not as sharp perceptually . . . </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Jesus! I must be in danger.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So when were those championships at Goolwa? 1963? And did you jump at those nationals?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes– accuracy and style. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Was it a full style set? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes. A left series, a back series or whatever the other one was. But they didn't tell you before you got out of the plane. They rolled out the arm [of the target cross] and windsocks. You had to get out of the aeroplane and you would see R (the right series) or L (the left) etc.<br />
<br />
It seems sort of primitive. <br />
<br />
I did pretty well there – I got a couple of trophies, which I've since lost in the various moves. <br />
<br />
Philip Edwards won one of the accuracy events. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> What was it like at that national championships? Who was there? Can you remember significant events at all? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, the three girls that were always there - the two Cathies [Williamson and Henderson and Susi [Wright]. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So did they hold a separate women's event do you know? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> I think they jumped in the same thing but they were scored separately. Really, there were three or four other girls there too. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Can you remember who – oh the Newcastle girls, because there was a group of three from there too. </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> There were actually other South Australian girls too but those three South Australians were so far ahead of the rest that you tend not to remember the rest. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Where did people stay. Was it a camping on the drop zone affair? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, camping on the drop zone. With the usual social lubricants – like lots of alcohol. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> What was happening with relative work in those days?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Well baton passing was the name of the game there initially. Like, a baton pass was good news. You became quite famous amongst the fraternity when you achieved a baton pass.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And can you remember your first baton pass. Who was it with? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> I've got an idea mine was with Noel Comley. He was in the Air Force and I think had been jumping in Victoria. He was a ground crew guy and he had been posted to Edinburgh in South Australia, so he turned up to jump with our club with a bit of experience as he had already jumped in Victoria. <br />
<br />
I can tell you from my log book, the times and so on.<br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>[Donna refers to Brian’s logbooks which she has and reads out various extracts as the interview continues . . .]</i><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So, South Australian School of Parachuting. Brian's log book at Aldinga. First jump on 19/11/61. </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>So you did one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight statics then two three seconds, a five, an eight, three, eight, twelve. Who signed up those jumps? Oh, it's Ted Harrison. </i></div><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>So how did you learn to do a style set? Can you remember was that a difficult thing? That was 50 jumps that you'd done from 19/11/61 to 23/9/62.</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes. It was an expensive business in those days too. <br />
The only thing that was holding back jumping was the cost –it was probably about five times as expensive as it is now in relative terms. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But I mean, these were all on delays but you weren't doing style or anything?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Well, it was mostly relative work. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Yes, so they're all ... oh, you did a back loop there, 25 yards, attempted back loop, right, okay. </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> And from 50 onwards, I got into this log book for a while. There was a lot more detail. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> When did you take up flying. Were you interested in flying from when you started jumping?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> No, I took up flying when I joined the Air Force after I came back from Europe. I spent a couple of years in Europe, jumping basically, running a parachute school. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> We'll get on to that in a moment. Okay so Aldinga on September 1962. So that was, reading from your log book: <br />
</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>“Susi Wright, Kathy Henderson then myself. I sat about 15 feet out slightly high while Kathy completed a good pass with Susi then tracked across and got it from Kath at about three five and easy double, my first. Susi had a malfunction and deployed her reserve.”</i></div><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>And October 7, 1962 was your first jump on your new seven place TU. Where did you get that from? Was that imported from the States? Presumably? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> It was only a secondhand B4 type thing – we modified it ourselves. So seven spread was pretty radical then, like you didn't let new people on to those. They stayed with a Double L or something like that. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Who was doing the rigging there? That was a bit of an issue, I think, at that particular time wasn't it? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Basically some of us were doing it ourselves. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Another log book entry: </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>“Dropped Col Parsons as drifter.” </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>I mean that’s a bit vicious isn't it? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> He was on static still. That was a demo jump. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Maybe he was still on statics because he said he wasn't the greatest jumper in the world and he didn't get off statics or on to any sort of delays for a long time. </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>So October [this is reading from Brian's log book again]:</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i> “I despatched a one-legged jumper, Dave Burchell on his first static line, did a circuit and despatched Max Chaplin and then jumped myself. Target area was about 3/4 of a mile offshore. My first water jump.”</i></div><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Did the students land in the water? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, yes. But Dave Burchell was a famous scuba diver. He owned dive shops and all that sort of thing. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Oh, so that was a planned water jump? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Oh yes. By that stage the clubs had fractured a little bit. Harrison was basically running South Australian Skydiving Club, Max Chaplin was running the opposition South Coast Skydivers and they used to compete for students. <br />
<br />
A group of us formed another outfit called 'Freelance Skydivers'. We were still sort of allied with South Australian Sport Parachute Club that we came from but we were also into the demo jumping and it wasn't a student training organisation. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So who formed that group? Who were the people in that? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Myself largely. People in it were initially myself, Dave Shearer, Trevor Bums – Phil Edwards, I think joined then and Col Parsons.<br />
<br />
And eventually a couple of the girls started jumping with us as well like Cathy and Susi because they went over well with the crowd of spectators. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And Ted wasn't offended about that or he was more responsible for the students? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> He was more responsible for student training and we were always friends anyway. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Getting demos was that hard? I can remember it was pretty competitive in those days between the groups.</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, we used to sit around and drink lots of beer and work out how to get ahead in this thing. There was a lot of politics to it. We drummed up a circular and sent it out the district agricultural societies where they had their country shows and that's where we started jumping into the ovals and things. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Was Laurie Trotter a part of that group at sometime when he was in South Australia?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> He was jumping with us there. I don't think he jumped with us as Freelance Skydivers but he was certainly jumping with us at SAPC, think. <br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So tell us about those demos?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> They were interesting because we were getting permission from Civil Aviation authorities because we needed it to jump into these quite small (for then) areas.<br />
<br />
It was a big deal for us because we were jumping into quite small ovals – your normal agricultural show oval full of headers and reapers and jumps for the horses. And some of these demos were actually with pretty antiquated old parachutes. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Was there much money involved? Was it worthwhile? </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>BB:</b> Oh it was worthwhile but not any serious money – you'd make 20 bucks or 20 quid. <br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Divided between three: paid for the aircraft and that was about it. </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> You know, if you got accommodation and a free jump – the free jumps were more of a draw than the money you actually got for it. I guess we sold ourselves pretty cheap. <br />
<br />
We had quite a bit of trouble convincing basically conservative authorities that ran the events that they needed a parachute display and some wouldn't have a bar of it. Others conceded it would be a bit of a drawcard and they might get people in. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Any incidents? Was it a difficult thing? Marginal conditions – all that? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> No, I think we always managed to get where we were going. Somehow. We were fairly ambitious for the experience we had. <br />
<br />
We were reasonably fortunate in that we had some reasonable people in DCA [Department of Civil Aviation] but there was a paternalistic side to them. <br />
<br />
Once Harrison and I both went into DCA headquarters to apply for a demo jump and they used words something like “the two jumpers who are known to this department” – and they gave us a tick and let us do it. But it was more or less on a personal basis. <br />
<br />
You had to get their trust. Once you had their trust you could rig the figures a little bit – make the big distances they used to ask for. [Minimum target sizes, distance from spectators etc]<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Now let’s talk about baton passing. For legitimate baton passes, you had to have a separation before the next jumper left the plane didn’t you? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, you couldn't jump out hanging on to each end of it.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> What was the period of separation and can you remember the sort of rules, not the formal rules but the informal rules that governed that process? </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>The whole notion of baton passes – do you remember how it came about?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, basically what we were trying to do was learn to fly ourselves. <br />
<br />
To me freefall was always the attraction. I wasn't all that interested in the parachuting side of it. I was reasonably good at it, like good enough to get into the accuracy – it was a challenge but like any other competition you go for it. <br />
<br />
I even got to the stage where I used to think the average weekend jump was over once you opened – landing was just a detail. <br />
<br />
It wasn't a very exciting part of it at all. I was just there for the freefall: that was the new frontier. <br />
<br />
We were learning to track, learning to fly, all the things that were taken for granted by people that came along later. <br />
<br />
It was all new stuff. I mean we weren't far behind anyone else in the world, I don't think. We used to get American <i>Skydiver</i> magazine and read about all the goodies they had there and how things were going. But I don't think we were too far behind them. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Andy Keech was telling me some aspects of that too. It's interesting that skydiving developed right down the eastern seaboard and in South Australia fairly much at the same time. </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>People were doing the same sort of things but having somehow connected with the American literature as well. I mean Andy Keech and, as we said before, being the sort of guy he was. He was writing to Bud Sellick. </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Andy was very early into the freefall photography too. In fact he took some photos of myself and a Canadian guy who was out here. A fellow called Glen Read. And they made the front page and centre spread of <i>Skydiver</i> in 1962 I think it was. <br />
<br />
And that was kind of big news. We realised that we weren't that far out in the sticks. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> On the development of the baton passing – it eventually got to the stage where, after Don West was killed, it sort of died away, but maybe not necessarily due to that fatality. </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> We were all chasing the record for the number of baton passes. You know that would have been a world record, I think. <br />
<br />
We were defeated in that one but we were certainly going for it. In parallel with that, as we'd learned to fly better, we got into the lipstick passes. <br />
<br />
The first baton passes were pretty much like that and then we got the control and we realised we could come in and link up nicely and go on to the girls for a kiss or whatever and the baton passing probably disappeared and became into the star work then. Like getting three-man, four-man, five-man ... <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But that's a lot later really would you think? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Well not particularly, I mean that was the development of it. It started off this way and then – hey we can stop and do it nicely, and hey we can join up with two, three, four and then it came along quite quickly. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Do you remember what licences you had? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> I think some of the licences were almost issued retrospectively. I ended up with an F licence – F7, in fact.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Okay, this jump. I'm just reading in your log book from June 30, 1963 – your 118th jump from 8,000 ft. It is at Port Pirie and you were jumping out of the Auster. You might like to comment on this one? Your log book says: </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>"I climbed out on the wheel of the Auster and Trevor [Burns] clambered to the usual exit position." </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Actually Austers are pretty small aren't they?</i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Pretty hard to get out of in the old fashioned rig. As Trevor left, my ripcord came out of the pocket and flew down behind me. <br />
<br />
Free housing – I caught the housing and fell off after Trevor, still holding it. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> The housing came off? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> No I fell off after Trevor still holding the housing. Using necessarily non-radical tracking movements, I had approached within 10 feet of Trev when his reserve popped open at about 4,000 ft for no apparent reason <br />
Sounds like a shambles. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> It does a bit but there we go. This is July 13, 1963: </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>“Supposed to be a four-man pass attempt. It was out of the Auster again.” </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Four people from the Auster? Oh no. </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>“Me from the Auster, Joe Larkin as passenger and Dave, Phil and Ted from the Cessna. I waited between 8,000 and 9,000 feet for about 10 to 15 minutes – no sign of the Cessna. Complete cloud between 4,000 and 5,000 feet and very bloody cold. Eventually went down below cloud and jumped out. Did not bother to spot correctly. Too cold I think. Joe took some shots of me from the aircraft. New beaut jumpsuit and boots.”</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>In 1963 you were still into baton passes. So again from Brian's log book:</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>" July 14, 1963 7,000 from Cessna 182. Trevor Burns exited first with the baton, followed by Ted Harrison and then me. Ted dropped below, Trevor who did a couple of quick turns as I approached him. I too dropped below after coming close and I could not get back up. Spent so long waiting for Trevor to come down which he never did but it was too late to go up again." </i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i>So how many jumps did you do altogether? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> About 700 total. I went to Vietnam flying helicopter gunships in August 1969 – I was pretty busy in 1968 flying helicopters so I only did the odd jump in 1968 when I was around, usually with Harrison.<br />
<br />
I'd come down to Sydney and we'd go jumping and Susi and I had identical red, black and white Paracommanders with piggyback packs and state of the art stuff in those days and I actually left mine with Harrison when I went to Vietnam. <br />
<br />
I didn't jump at all in 1969 because I was in Vietnam all year then I did a bit of jumping when I came back and then I trained as a fighter pilot and I just gradually drifted off from there, once I started flying as a full time pilot. <br />
<br />
I really didn't get into the air at the weekends. That's just about what it amounted to it. Then I had a resurgence and got about another 150 jumps later on. I ended up with a ground job in Williamtown as liaison officer to the Army Parachute School. It used to be done by the Air Force up until then. <br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> In what year was that? </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>BB:</b> That would be in 1973. That really spoilt me for any civilian jumping because you used to get as many parachutes as you like for the day and you were jumping out of Hercs and Chinooks and Iroquois. <br />
<br />
.....it was all good fun going around all the air shows doing displays again. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But you subsequently went back to flying then? </i></div><br />
<b>BB:</b> Yes, I went to full time flying when I finished my tour there where I was jumping every day. I went up to Butterworth in Malaysia. I spent three years up there then I came back to fly Mirages again at Williamtown in 79 and 80. <br />
<br />
I had virtually stopped jumping then but I did do one jump when I got back there.<br />
<br />
I had another friend in the Army there and giving him a bit of hard time in the bar about he was jumping then and I wasn't and we had some discussion about who could get into a four man star first, so put your money where your mouth is. <br />
<br />
So I found myself next morning in a Caribou at 12,000 feet and it was no problem – it was just the same. That was about 1980. I don't think I have jumped since then. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Actually some people are natural jumpers, hey!!</i></div><b>###<span style="color: black;"></span></b><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-66230971774848396332010-08-13T09:48:00.004+09:302010-09-06T15:58:00.124+09:30Trev Burns makes it to the top<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKenhLgUirNKRJvTbIj72IMjMj0GgpwN82SEdAG0C3PzrUHI9BhpFLefeE7v6t97Q0Y4sp2a3keD9vrBZXbaDK_4qPuKpysra-rQfplkrRjRCEphnYBSC77EjlWuPcbfBGuk3Gb77BgAuE/s1600/trev+burns1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKenhLgUirNKRJvTbIj72IMjMj0GgpwN82SEdAG0C3PzrUHI9BhpFLefeE7v6t97Q0Y4sp2a3keD9vrBZXbaDK_4qPuKpysra-rQfplkrRjRCEphnYBSC77EjlWuPcbfBGuk3Gb77BgAuE/s320/trev+burns1.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>Thirteen must have been SA parachuting pioneer Trevor Burns' lucky number.<br />
<br />
Nineteen year-old Trevor, one of those who made skydiving history with a step into space over Aldinga on November 19, 1961, was the thirteenth student to jump that weekend. He went on to be a leading advocate of the young sport.<br />
<br />
Trevor set up his own parachute club and commercial centre, edited and published the sport's national magazine, served on the board of the Australian Parachute Federation and was the APF National Safety Officer and later the Department of Transport's inspector of parachuting and a number of other air sports.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<i><b>Extracts from a transcript of a recorded interview with Trevor Burns by Donna Berthelsen in 1998. <br />
<br />
The interview was one of 45 recorded with early skydivers from all over Australia as part of an oral history project for the Australian Parachute Federation. </b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b>Trev made his first jump at Aldinga, on November 19, 1961 at the age of 19. </b></i><br />
<br />
<b style="color: #b45f06;">DB:</b><span style="color: #b45f06;"> How did you start jumping, how old were you, and do you know the date of your first jump? </span><br />
<b><br />
TB: </b>I was 19. I started jumping because I wanted to learn to fly and I couldn't afford to fly in those days. It was five pounds an hour to learn to fly and I only earned eight pounds a week and was paying four pounds a week board and rent, so there wasn't enough left to fly. <br />
<br />
They advertised in the paper in South Australia in 1961 for the formation of a parachute club so I decided to have a go at that. They had big numbers – I think from memory we had something like 150 students when the club was formed. <br />
<br />
That was the South Australian Sport Parachute Club. We did our initial ground training at Parafield. All of the training was based very much on the military style of things because, in fact, our instructors were ex-military guys. World War II veterans and things like this. <br />
<i><br />
<b style="color: #b45f06;"></b></i>Ted Harrison was the chief parachute instructor because I think he'd done some military parachuting in the reserves or the CMF or something. There were a couple of other guys who I really can't remember now. I know that we did have a Polish guy who was actually in the Air Force – Stan Kruszewski. <br />
<br />
When I first met Ted he was a reporter for the <i>Truth</i> newspaper in South Australia. <br />
<br />
The ground training lasted for about 17 weeks – mainly weekends. We kept going out on Sundays and doing this ground training mainly because they were trying to keep us interested. They ordered the equipment but it took a long while to get there. <br />
<br />
The initial gear for static lines when it arrived was mainly the British Army surplus X type parachutes. There were also a couple of B4s and things which were really pretty swish bits of gear, but they were only for the elite – Ted Harrison and the rest of them!<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So, for anyone who had some jumps, like Ted? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> Well, none of us had any jumps really. We all started off doing static line jumps except perhaps for Ted, and I can't recall at all whether Ted did any static line jumps to begin with. <br />
<br />
If he did it would have been only one or two. I can still remember seeing him do his first freefall which was, from memory, a seven second delay which was a pretty good deal in those days. <br />
<br />
And that was down at Aldinga. The aircraft we used was an old Dragon, De Havilland Dragon, so you had to hand start the thing. The Rapide we used later had an electric start. <br />
<br />
During our training and before we started jumping, and I suspect probably as a way of trying to keep us interested, Claude Gillard, Bill Molloy, Hans Magnusson and I can't remember there was definitely another. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Charl Stewart? </i></div><br />
TB: Yes, Charl Stewart came over to South Australia to break the Australian freefall record and they jumped out of a Beaver north of Adelaide. I can remember that and it was before we started jumping. We had our first jump day in November of 1961. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Yes, see there is quite an interesting little core – survival of the fittest or whatever but Harrison, yourself, Brian Brown and Col Parsons I think were in the original group. </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> Yes that's right. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So that was the four core that really have stayed right through. There were some females too though. </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TB:</b> Yes, that's right. I remember when we first started jumping and we all got our log books. They were specially printed and they only had provision in them for 25 jumps because it in those days I don't think they envisaged that anyone would ever do more than 25 jumps. <br />
<br />
The log books were all numbered and they were issued in the order in which you jumped as a student and we were taking six up at a time in the Dragon. I was the first out of the third load, so I was actually number 13. <br />
<br />
But my log book is numbered 12A. There is no number 13 log book – that was the superstition of the day. That wasn't anything to do with me, it was the old Polish Chief Instructor. I can't have 13 – it had to be 12A. <br />
<br />
So my log book was 12A and that's how we started doing the jumping down at Aldinga, as I say mainly with static lines, flat round canopies, really flash if you got one with a blank gore cut out of it. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But obviously you hung around, so you did enjoy those jumps. </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> Yes, and it was fun. Looking back, I was probably shit scared for the first few jumps. I think that had I kind of rocked up there to do the jumps and not made a lot of friends or if my friends had decided to give it away I suspect I would have given it away. <br />
<br />
But fortunately for me, the bunch of people that I got friendly with during this long period of training beforehand were people like Brian Brown – and the bastard kept jumping so I had to keep jumping too. <br />
<br />
Then after a while I started to enjoy it – it was all pretty primitive in those days. On my first jump they had us all lined up like a military deal and they were going along checking the equipment and part of the deal with the X-type parachutes is that with the quick release snap in the chest you had to give it a half turn and thump it to open.<br />
<br />
So part of the deal was they'd come along and they'd belt this thing to make sure the thing was locked and in the meantime sort of try to cave in your chest while they were doing it – just for hell of it. <br />
<br />
And they came along and this is just before I am about to get in the aeroplane for the first jump and they hit this thing and the bloody new parachute fell out all around my ankles – I wasn't all that impressed about that. <br />
<br />
Of the initial 150 odd that we had in the club – I'm not too sure how many actually did their first jump – quite a few – I think it was somewhere in the order of seventy or eighty. <br />
<br />
But then after that it tailed off fairly quickly until we got down to a core of about thirty odd who sort of hung around and then new students started to come through.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> When did you move up to Port Pirie? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> Our first jump day was in November 1961, and I moved to Port Pirie in 1963. <br />
<br />
In my first year I remember I did 17 jumps. Now, in those days 17 jumps was a fairly respectable number, although there were other guys who did more. I seem to remember Brian Brown did over 30 which we thought was a lot. <br />
<br />
And I can remember driving down to the drop zone at daybreak on the Saturday morning because basically it was first in, best dressed in terms of who was going to jump.<br />
<br />
They would have flown the Dragon down the afternoon before and I remember getting down there at bloody daybreak one morning and arriving thinking well I'm on the first load, and there were six buggers sleeping in the aeroplane. <br />
<br />
They'd gone down there the night before! But it was nowhere near like it is now – the ability to amass big numbers of jumps.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> And you formed your own group at Port Pirie? </i></div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGdB2o1pWhI/AAAAAAAAALk/b5zTNFUgtFM/s1600/trevor+burns3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGdB2o1pWhI/AAAAAAAAALk/b5zTNFUgtFM/s320/trevor+burns3.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="257"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Trevor Burns (right) at Port Pirie with Leo Brogan (left) and Col Parsons in about 1969.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>TB:</b> I formed a club in Whyalla called Spencer Gulf Skydivers. I was the chief instructor of that club and had to get dispensation from the APF because I only had 28 jumps.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB: </b>Right, and you got that dispensation? </i></div><br />
<b>TB: </b>Yes, and then we ran the club up there – Spencer Gulf Skydivers, which operated right through until I left Port Pirie which was in 1971. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Well, I mean, that was relatively successful? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> Yes. It was one of those clubs that was never going to get really big because of the relatively small population base. <br />
<br />
We used to get a lot of guys coming through working in BHP and the steelworks and the shipyards and they'd be only there for twelve months so what we often found was that towards the end of a year we'd really have quite a number of jumpers – you know we'd have 15 or 20 active jumpers in the club – and then come the new year, and there would be four of us looking at each other because the rest of them had all packed up and gone off back to where they came from. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Who were other significant people in Spencer Gulf. </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TB:</b> Noel Weckert. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Right, so did he actually start with you. </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TB: </b>Yes, Noel was one of my first students and then he progressed fairly rapidly and was the assistant chief instructor sort of thing - 2IC- until he went to Townsville. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> That's interesting. I sort of vaguely knew that I suppose. But also was there anyone else particularly or mainly yourself and him? </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TB:</b> We were probably the mainstays in terms of the instructors and so forth. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> It was hard work – training, despatching, packing all the gear and whatever. Did you find it arduous? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> It was yes. Because we were young and silly you see. But yes, you're right, we started off with pretty basic equipment, we didn't have any X-types. <br />
<br />
We had progressed to the stage where our gear was all B4 equipment and that sort of stuff and the club probably had eight or nine sets of gear, and then quite a few of us had our own equipment. <br />
<br />
But it wasn't all that plentiful and I know that on busy days there I'd often lend my parachute to one of the students and then I would go and despatch them without wearing a rig or anything like that. I mean that was sort of quite normal and you wouldn't bother about that. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> That would have been against the rules wouldn't it? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> Well sort of ... you'd hang on, yeah! But you know that was the sort of thing we did. We used to operate with a 172 that was based in Port Pirie. I’d often fly across the Gulf from Port Pirie on the Saturday morning and jump into the drop zone and then we'd jump all day, stay overnight, jump on the Sunday and then fly back and jump into the aerodrome at Port Pirie. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So how far away from Port Pirie is Whyalla? </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TB: </b>By road it is about 100 miles, by air it is about 20. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So there was another club at Port Pirie? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> No. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But Adelaide jumpers used to come up there? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> Yes, we'd often have a jump weekend in Port Pirie and the guys from Adelaide would come up and we'd all jump at Pirie on the aerodrome there because I was living in Port Pirie at the time. <br />
<br />
And that sort of progressed to the point where we ran the nationals at Port Pirie I think in 1966. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Just on your personal jumping then. Were you ever interested in competition? You were a reasonable accuracy jumper weren't you? </i></div><br />
<b>TB: </b>Oh yes. Accuracy, yes. But I was never a very good style jumper and never terribly interested. <br />
<br />
I was more interested in relative work and I guess I wasn't really serious – I was never a serious contender for the national team or anything like that. I think part of it was that when I moved to Pirie I was married and shortly thereafter had a son and then a few years later another son. <br />
<br />
So being a married man and having those sorts of responsibilities, you really don't have much money to throw around on things like trips and jumping. The fact that I was able to keep jumping was by virtue of the fact that I was instructing and running the club and doing all those things. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> So what made you propose to run the nationals? I guess that's been your talent – your organisational skills – but I mean it was a reasonable thing to take on and to persuade people to go to Port Pirie. </i></div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGdCOHrTHpI/AAAAAAAAALs/0nFGprbNbYg/s1600/trevor+burns2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGdCOHrTHpI/AAAAAAAAALs/0nFGprbNbYg/s320/trevor+burns2.jpg" width="116" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="116"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Trevor at Lower Light for the 1970 Gulf Meet.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>TB: </b>Well, that's right! Well yeah, I thought the facilities at the aerodrome would support a nationals. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> I remember that was just when I started jumping but the selling point was the swimming pool wasn't it? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> The place was an ex-World War II base and it had an old swimming pool on it that we resurrected and got going – looking back, I don't think I'd swim in it now, but ... <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b><br />
</b></i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> I've seen photos – it didn't look real hot actually ........... . </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TB:</b> But it was wet, and when it was 110º in the waterbag it was fine .... But I think partly because as you say I guess – I've always had a bent to organising things, you know. <br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b><br />
</b></i></div><div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Well ideas really, in a way. </i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TB:</b> And probably had ideas beyond my capabilities I guess, in terms of doing those things. But I found it a very interesting exercise, I learnt a lot out of it. found it a very interesting exercise, I learnt a lot out of it. <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> But they were quite successful? </i></div><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>TB:</b> Yes, yes it was good. But we burnt the aerodrome I remember that. Niels Asche dropped a flare and we burnt out about 300 acres of the aerodrome.</i></div><b><br />
</b><br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Was that at night? </i></div><br />
<b>TB:</b> No, during the day. We had a DC3 up there for a day or two during the nationals and we did this mass jump. Niels had this flare and it started to burn his foot and he kicked it off and, of course, being summer and dry grass, it burnt out the whole of the aerodrome in between the runways – made the local paper. <br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-40023948596585991672010-08-11T09:46:00.010+09:302010-09-28T09:16:46.219+09:30Para scuba jump goes wrong<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_Vuz2M7aI/AAAAAAAAAIo/Fjp2ee2_cxw/s1600/chaplin+front+page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_Vuz2M7aI/AAAAAAAAAIo/Fjp2ee2_cxw/s200/chaplin+front+page.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>Publicity for SA skydiving in the 1960s was frequently bad.<br />
But it didn’t get much worse than this – the front page headline story in <i>The Advertiser </i>on Monday, February 12, 1968 reported on the death of local parachutist Max Chaplin, who drowned the day before while taking part in a scuba jump off West Beach.<br />
<br />
Max Chaplin was one of the original SA skydivers who first jumped at Aldinga on November 19, 1961, marking the birth of the sport in this state.<br />
<br />
The tragedy occurred at a time when parachuting wasn't even considered by the general public to be a sport – it was just a "daredevil" activity for people at the edges.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
The old photographs (see below) of 1960s crowds on Adelaide's beaches marvelling at people descending from the sky, are fascinating, especially now that every man and his dog seems to have done a tandem jump and thinks (with some justification) that it's ultra-safe.<br />
<br />
Pioneers like Max Chaplin, however, were in at the birth our sport – and deserve to be remembered.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Here's the full story from <i>The Advertiser</i></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br />
</i></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Skydiver lost in sea </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>on mass airdrop</b></span><br />
<i>The Advertiser</i>, February 12, 1968<span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
While hundreds of people watched from the beach, a skydiver vanished in the sea off West Beach yesterday after he and four others had parachuted from 3,400 feet wearing diving and underwater breathing equipment.<br />
<br />
The skydiver, George Maxwell Chaplin, 45 of Osborne avenue, St. Marys, is believed drowned.<br />
He had sufficient air in his scuba equipment (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) for 10 minutes under water.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_ddpAKnhI/AAAAAAAAAIw/BK_b2LmeGfQ/s1600/chaplin1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_ddpAKnhI/AAAAAAAAAIw/BK_b2LmeGfQ/s200/chaplin1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Photo taken at Parafield by David Formby before the fatal jump: Max Chaplin (centre, partly obscured) checking the gear of Bruce Marshall. Rod Evans (left) and Col Parsons (right).</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Mr Chaplin, who was president of the South Coast Skydivers' Club, was taking part in a club exhibition.He was married with four children. His wife watched the drop from the beach.<br />
<br />
The most experienced skydiver in the club, Mr Chaplin was in charge of the drop.<br />
He was also a leader of the St. John Ambulance Brigade parachutists' squad. Mr. Chaplin was one of a "stick" of three skydivers who leaped from a single-engined Cessna aircraft at about 2 p.m.<br />
<br />
Two others leaped a few seconds later from a similar aircraft. Waiting on the water were five surfboats each carrying a skin diver assigned to enter the water to accompany a skydiver as he landed.<br />
<br />
Although the skydivers landed in a 200-yard group, it is believed that gusting winds carried them about a quarter of a mile from the target area.<br />
This delayed the arrival of the surfboat and skin divers at the landing points and when they arrived there were only four skydivers on the surface.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_k5p7jhTI/AAAAAAAAAI4/oFwwdJOT2i0/s1600/chaplin6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_k5p7jhTI/AAAAAAAAAI4/oFwwdJOT2i0/s200/chaplin6.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Max Chaplin's last exit. Photo by David Formby from a second aircraft carrying other skydivers on the jump.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>It was intended that the skydivers should stay underwater for a few minutes before surfacing, after jettisoning their parachutes. <br />
Each surfboat was marked with a number corresponding with the jumping order of a parachutist.<br />
<br />
The skydivers were supposed to hit the water as close as possible to their respective boats and unbuckle their parachutes just before hitting the water.<br />
Then they were to swim towards their boats to be picked up.<br />
<br />
<b>Plane search</b><br />
<br />
When it was discovered that Mr Chaplin had not surfaced a full-scale search was started. <br />
Off-duty members of the Police Aqualung Squad were called in and went to the scene. All five surfboats continued to search until dusk and the 5AD Surf Patrol aircraft circled the area for most of the afternoon to help in the search. <br />
Several lone surf skiers also joined in. <br />
Mr Chaplin's main and reserve parachutes were found soon after the search started, but no sign had been found of him by dusk, when the search was stopped for the night.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_18U-_yjI/AAAAAAAAAJA/cg3DMCFlfow/s1600/chaplin5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_18U-_yjI/AAAAAAAAAJA/cg3DMCFlfow/s200/chaplin5.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Beachgoers watch the 1962 para-scuba jump off West Beach. Two canopies are still in the air.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>It will start again at first light, when police divers will search in widening circles about the target area.<br />
<br />
A member of the skydiving club, Mr D. J. Formby, of Diagonal road Warradale, was in the second aircraft taking photographs of the descent.<br />
<br />
He said it had been planned that the parachutists would leave the aircraft at one-second intervals, but the first to jump, Mr. Rod Evans, left the first aircraft well before the second, Mr. Chaplin. [Other members of the "para-scuba" team were Fred Rothe, of North Adelaide, Colin Parsons, of Glenside, and Bruce Marshall, of Beverley.]<br />
<br />
"I assumed he had got a bit tied up in the plane, but he jumped after perhaps 10 seconds," Mr Formby said.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>“Fanatic”</b><br />
<br />
“Max was an absolute fanatic for planning to the last detail, and safety was his main consideration.<br />
“He never took risks with his own or anyone else’s safety, and he told me this jump was perfectly planned.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_3M7B6E3I/AAAAAAAAAJI/ib7fkXYiZFs/s1600/chaplin3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE_3M7B6E3I/AAAAAAAAAJI/ib7fkXYiZFs/s200/chaplin3.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Surf boats return to the beach after the jump.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>“But once before when he did a water jump something like this happened.<br />
“Each boat crew thought the other had picked him up and none of them had.<br />
“That time he managed to stay afloat until they realised he was not in any of the boats.”<br />
<br />
An observer, Mr W.A.B. Lemon of Garnet avenue, Blackwood, said he believed the failure to pick up Mr. Chaplin could have been caused by confusion.<br />
“I heard that someone had told his boat crew he had been picked up by a speed boat, and since he wasn’t around the crew returned to the beach with the others,” he said.<br />
<br />
“There was also a rumour that he was on Henley Beach, presumably where the fictitious speed boat had dropped him.<br />
“Both these stories later turned out to be wrong.”<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><b><i>Footnote:</i> </b>Max Chaplin's sister Shirley honoured his memory 40 years later, making a tandem jump at Goolwa with tandem master Mark Gazley on January 5, 2010, marking her own 82nd birthday.</div><div style="color: #b45f06;">The event was noted by the local <i>Southern Times Messenger</i> newspaper, which published a report on its website, including a link to <i>YouTube</i> footage, shot by Nicki Dowden.</div><br />
<b><a href="http://southern-times-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/supergran-skydives-in-memory-of-her-brother/" target="_blank">Here's their story and video in full >></a></b><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-58307816724562490132010-08-10T09:46:00.002+09:302010-09-06T15:58:50.481+09:30SA lipstick pass makes the headlines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE-YyzdFwtI/AAAAAAAAAIY/GXkgjGoV_6U/s1600/williamson+lipstickjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE-YyzdFwtI/AAAAAAAAAIY/GXkgjGoV_6U/s200/williamson+lipstickjpg.jpg" width="145" /></a></div>SA’s Cathy Williamson, one of the pioneering parachutists who kicked the sport off in 1961, made the first ever lipstick pass in the British Commonwealth only months after her first jump.<br />
<br />
The freefall kiss, recorded in July 1962 at 5,000 feet over Aldinga with Victorian jumper Bill Molloy, caught the attention of the national media and generated some great publicity for the fledgling sport.<br />
A couple of months later Cathy did it all again – this time for the benefit of national pictorial magazine <i>Everybody’s</i>, which ran a 4-page feature spread on the jump.<br />
<br />
All the action – once again over Aldinga – was captured on camera by SA sport parachuting founder, Ted Harrison, who was also a journalist.<br />
Cathy’s partner for the lipstick pass this second time was another visitor from Victoria, Hans Magnusson.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b>Here's the full story</b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">(including some dubious stuff about the magazine's own photographer positioning himself in another aircraft below the jumpers to catch the freefall action on the way past.)</span><br />
<br />
From <i>Everybody’s</i> magazine<br />
October 10 1962<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>10 seconds too long </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>and it would be</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>THEIR LAST KISS</b></span><br />
<br />
Like most young couples in love, Cathy Williamson and Hans Magnusson like to go out together, to hold hands, and, naturally enough, to kiss.<br />
Unlike other young couples, however, their idea of going out together is to leap from an aeroplane at 8,500 feet and kiss as they plummet earthwards – before opening their parachutes.<br />
<br />
This is not easy, even when you have the nerve. In fact, it is so difficult that Cathy, an Adelaide girl, was the first skydiver in the British Commonwealth to accomplish recently the difficult “free-fall” kiss or “lipstick” pass.<br />
<i>Everybody’s</i>, anxious to obtain pictures of the pass – never before photographed because of the score of problems involved – asked Cathy if she would try it again.<br />
<br />
Her partner for the jump was handsome Swedish-born Hans Magnusson, of Fairfield, Victoria – Australia’s most experienced skydiver. Hans holds the record for the highest free-fall-from 23,600 feet above Virginia, S.A. <br />
Cathy was delighted to attempt the pass with Hans for two reasons: if anyone could do it, she was sure he could; and, most important of all, romance was blossoming between them.<br />
<br />
Cathy telephoned Hans in Melbourne, and the following weekend he came to Adelaide to attempt the difficult jump.<br />
To get the pictures of the jump, even if it could be accomplished, posed many difficulties.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE-aq6MXE4I/AAAAAAAAAIg/Qer-D51gsTM/s1600/williamson+lipstick2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TE-aq6MXE4I/AAAAAAAAAIg/Qer-D51gsTM/s320/williamson+lipstick2.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>To photograph the fall, <i>Everybody's</i> needed to be in a plane below the one from which the couple would jump. The plane would need to be a low-wing monoplane; to allow the camera to get an unobstructed view of the sky above. Perspex from the canopy of the aircraft – a South Australian Aero Club Chipmunk – had to be re-moved to avoid the danger of reflection on the camera lens. <br />
<br />
We asked Ted Harrison, the president of the S.A. School of Parachuting, if he would jump with them and try to photograph them as he dropped. <br />
<br />
There was no knowing exactly at what height Cathy and Hans – who would jump one after the other – would be able to come together. If the Everybody's plane were too close there would be danger that the trio might strike it on the way down. If it were too far away, the camera would not be able to pick them up. <br />
<br />
The Chipmunk and the parachutists' Cessna 172, with the door removed, met at 8,500 feet over Aldinga. There were few clouds and conditions were ideal for the jump. For a few moments the two planes flew wing-tip to wing-tip, while the man from Everybody's, his hands blue from the icy, 100 m.p.h. slipstream, took pictures. A few minutes later, Cathy climbed out on to the wheel of the plane. The temperature, at freezing point, stung her face and the wind sent her plaits streaming behind her. <br />
<br />
Hans climbed out on to a wheel strut. Ted squatted in the doorway of the plane. <br />
Then Everybody's plane screamed in a vertical, 200 m.p.h. dive to 6,000 feet the approximate height where "the kiss" might be attempted. <br />
As it straightened out, the three skydivers above jumped, one after the other – Cathy, Hans, Ted.<br />
<br />
As each jumped, they faced the direction the aircraft was travelling. <br />
The three figures moved hands, legs and bodies to control their speed and angles of flight. Rapidly, Hans gained on Cathy. As he neared her he flared out his arms and legs, using them as brakes.<br />
<br />
Then, as both rushed towards the ground at a speed between 120 and 160 m.p.h., Cathy flipped over – she, like Hans, had been facing the ground – and they kissed.<br />
<br />
Ted, only about 16 feet behind them, clicked. the shutter of his automatic camera a fraction of a second before Cathy flipped over. A second later he pressed the shutter release again – this time to get a chance-in-a-million picture of the kiss, taken under conditions that could not have been more difficult. Scots-born Cathy Williamson is a 21-year-old teacher at the Vermont Girls' Technical High School. <br />
She teaches English, social studies, and physical education. She is studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree.<br />
<br />
Hans Magnusson, 24, of Stockholm, is working his way around the world. He, too, is interested in social studies. Soon, he will return home. <br />
And Cathy? <br />
"She may not be able to come travelling with me – but she will be coming to Sweden."<br />
<br />
It was obvious that Cathy and Hans, who like the high life, had it all arranged.<br />
<b>###<span style="color: black;"></span></b><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-76257129928509938772010-08-09T19:53:00.009+09:302010-09-19T16:08:57.718+09:30Inner city parachute demo 120 years ago<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TIDNFISc3hI/AAAAAAAAAPY/tsXZkNd9EiI/s1600/old+exhibition+grounds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="113" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TIDNFISc3hI/AAAAAAAAAPY/tsXZkNd9EiI/s200/old+exhibition+grounds.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="200"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>A tight demo: the Old Exhibition Grounds on North Terrace in about 1890.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>When was South Australia’s first parachute jump made?<br />
It almost certainly wasn’t this one, reported in<i> The Advertiser</i> in 1890 – at least not judging by the irritable tone of the reporter who remarked on the public’s expectation that such daring spectacles should take place on time and without keeping spectators waiting.<br />
<br />
You have to assume they might have seen it all before!<br />
<br />
But it must have been a challenging spot! It was a remarkable achievement – aiming to land on what, even today, would be a tight target on North Terrace, Adelaide. And it was made even more interesting since the “aircraft” involved was a balloon. We're still looking for records of SA's first parachute jump – any clues? Give us a call. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>Here's the original story from the newspaper of the day.</b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b> A PARACHUTE LEAP</b></span><br />
<br />
<i>The Advertiser,</i><br />
Monday, December 15, 1890<br />
<br />
There was an attendance of several hundreds at the Old Exhibition Ground on Saturday afternoon to see Signor Leo Hernandez make his parachute descent. <br />
The public has in the past been accustomed to so much delay in these spectacles that the majority only begin to roll up about an hour after the advertised time.<br />
<br />
This was the case on Saturday, the result being that although the ascent was billed for 3.15 pm it did not take place until 20 minutes to 5. <br />
<br />
A lecture by the aeronaut on ballooning was promised for 3 o'clock; it did not take place. But as the people came to see a jump from the clouds, they did not mourn much over the loss even of "marvellous tales of hairsbreadth escapes," preferring to see this sort of thing for themselves. <br />
<br />
The entertainment was given in connection with Messrs Wirth Bros “Wild West Show”, which is to open here this week. <br />
<br />
The balloon was made in the Old Exhibition Building and is of fine calico, 76 feet high and 150 feet round. <br />
<br />
It hold 75,000 cubic feet of gas. It was inflated by the “quick hot air” process in about half an hour. <br />
<br />
Signor Hernandez's parachute is slung differently to that of some of the aeronauts who have visited Adelaide, being fixed not at the side of the balloon, but between the balloon and the trapeze on which the descent is made. <br />
<br />
At 20 minutes to 5 the balloon was full and got away splendidly, Hernandez, who is a colored American, swinging head downwards on the bar at he shot up into the air. <br />
<br />
The balloon, gleaming in the sunlight, drifted gradually northward, and as it went the aeronaut scattered in the air showers of many colored papers, which glittered with rainbow hues as they came dropping back to earth. <br />
<br />
After about four minutes the balloon seemed stationary, and Hernandez no larger than a spider at the end of a web. Then the parachute expanded, presumably as the balloon began to descend, and the aeronaut was seen to have freed himself and to be coming gradually downwards at about the same pace as the balloon. <br />
<br />
The descent only took about two minutes and Hernandez touched earth on the North Parklands, near Barton terrace east, and about a mile and a quarter north-west from the starting place. <br />
<br />
Messrs Wirth's buggy picked him up and brought him back to the grounds, where he was heartily cheered by the crowd. <br />
<br />
He explained that owing to the parachute being a new one he had been unable to make the drop as soon as expected as he had been obliged to cut through three ropes to get away from the balloon at all.<br />
<b>###<span style="color: black;"></span></b><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist Adelaide South Australia Lower Light</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-3217083146370684562010-08-09T09:46:00.004+09:302010-09-20T19:40:23.288+09:30Lessons from 1964 fatality still worth learning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TEvYJ0H7YHI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/ahyMRzgtN2c/s1600/don+west+clipping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TEvYJ0H7YHI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/ahyMRzgtN2c/s320/don+west+clipping.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>The 1964 death of SA jumper Don West, who went in while attempting a world record baton pass at Mallala, was headline news in Adelaide.<br />
<br />
But for once the parachuting community couldn’t complain about sensationalist headlines or sloppy newspaper reporting.<br />
<br />
The graphic story which recorded the tragedy in the following day’s edition of the afternoon daily newspaper <i>The News</i>, was written by Ted Harrison, the founding father of SA sport parachuting and a senior reporter on the then young Rupert Murdoch’s flagship publication – and Ted was on the jump! He even took the photograph which accompanied the page 2 news story on Monday, March 9, 1964, capturing a missed baton pass early in the descent.<br />
<br />
It was a classic case of loss of height awareness and fixation on the relative work – a story which, even today, warrants the attention of current jumpers.<br />
<a name='more'></a><b>Here's the text of the full story.</b><br />
<br />
Photo caption:<i> Philip Edwards, of Myrtle Bank, shown missing the first pass with Catherine Williamson (left) who was first to jump. The pass was eventually made by Ted Harrison, who took this picture and gave the baton to Edwards a few seconds later.</i><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Held on second too late</b></span><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>By Staff Reporter TED HARRISON, who took part in yesterday's parachute jump</i><br />
<br />
Australian champion parachutist Don West, who was killed yesterday while attempting to set a new world baton-passing record, would be alive today if he had pulled his ripcord a second earlier.<br />
<br />
He was second last to jump from a twin-engine aircraft 12,500 ft. above Mallala with a team of six other men and two women.<br />
<br />
They were to have fallen for 60 seconds before opening their parachutes at 2,000 ft. after attempting to relay a baton from onto the other.<br />
<br />
<b>Count mistake?<br />
</b><br />
Don delayed opening his parachute to gain a few extra seconds in free fall which enabled him to add one more baton pass to his team's score.<br />
<br />
But it was a futile pass. It did not break the world record. <br />
It only equalled it – a feat the team achieved a month ago.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGoj7_6g-fI/AAAAAAAAAMA/sTt9Y1spcOc/s1600/don+west.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TGoj7_6g-fI/AAAAAAAAAMA/sTt9Y1spcOc/s200/don+west.jpg" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="148"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Don West, Australian parachute champion, 1964. Photo from Cathy Williamson's book "Falling Free".</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>But in a sky filled with nine milling, free-falling bodies Don may have lost count of the number of passes and may have believed he was making the vital pass which would have captured a world record for Australia.<br />
<br />
In an effort to make the extra pass, Don, 26 of Melbourne street, Darlington, fell below the usual parachute opening height of 2,000 feet to hand the baton to fellow parachutist Joe Larkin, 21, of Hectorville.<br />
<br />
Another skydiver, Brian Brown, of Maylands, saw them inch agonisingly slowly towards each other as they continued to plummet at 120 m.p.h. <br />
They appeared to be engrossed in the pass, oblivious to the nearness of the ground.<br />
<br />
As soon as they succeeded in the pass, Larkin realised the danger and opened his main parachute immediately.<br />
<br />
But it is thought that Don, being the more experienced jumper, with 280 jumps to his credit, decided to fall clear for a second or two longer.<br />
<br />
<b>Tangle risk <br />
</b><br />
This would have eliminated the risk of their parachutes entangling if they had opened close together.<br />
<br />
Knowing how close he was to death, he used his fast-opening reserve parachute instead of the main parachute. The main parachute is specially designed to open more slowly to reduce the opening shock.<br />
<br />
But the extra second he delayed to fall clear cost him his life.<br />
<b>###<span style="color: black;"></span></b><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-31210924800444326202010-08-08T10:14:00.002+09:302010-09-19T16:08:33.632+09:30SA's skydiving ancestors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TIBEG_405OI/AAAAAAAAAPA/n6z-2q8455Y/s1600/airforce_parafield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TIBEG_405OI/AAAAAAAAAPA/n6z-2q8455Y/s200/airforce_parafield.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Almost 20 years before the birth of skydiving in South Australia parachute training was underway at Parafield.<br />
But it had a strict military focus. This wartime photo shows a Royal Australian Airforce sergeant instructing new arrivals in parachute drill outside the hangars at Parafield in 1942.<br />
<br />
Even in the late 1960s old rigs like these could still be found occasionally – anyone know where we can get hold of one now to add to our 50th anniversary display?<br />
<b>###</b>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-65835051980888430992010-08-08T09:45:00.005+09:302010-09-18T14:57:33.695+09:30Tent landing for pioneer SA demo jumper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S5RokwI-y_I/AAAAAAAAADo/wtrayiek2Xg/s1600-h/cp_img328.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S5RokwI-y_I/AAAAAAAAADo/wtrayiek2Xg/s320/cp_img328.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Col Parsons, one of SA's parachuting pioneers, had a memorable 25th jump, landing on top of a sideshow tent at the Crystal Brook Show in April 1962.<br />
<br />
It was SA's first ever public display of the new sport of skydiving and Col, 25 at the time and a member of what was then known as Freelance Skydivers Club, had got out at 3,500 ft, jumping a basically modified 28 ft military surplus C9 canopy.<br />
<br />
A photographer from <i>The Advertiser</i> was on hand to grab this shot of Col on top of the "knock-em down" tent and to record how close he came to decorating the ferris wheel.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b><i>The following extract from an interview Col did in 1999 with Donna Berthelsen, who was compiling an oral history for the APF, covers the demo in detail.</i></b><br />
<br />
The Crystal Brook Show Society contacted us so we went up there to do the first sport parachute display in South Australia.<br />
<br />
The DZ was an oval which is quite small even by today's standards with a grandstand on one side and a railway siding behind it. <br />
On the other side were all the sideshows with a ferris wheel. <br />
<br />
At one end they had all the agricultural machinery with the stump jump ploughs and nasty things sticking up in the air, and at the other end there were trees and a creek.<br />
<br />
So it was pretty damn tight. Remember we were jumping cheapos of course. <br />
The other three guys had 7-TUs mods and I had a 5-TU.<br />
<br />
We arrived on the Saturday morning about mid-morning just as a gusty northerly wind began to develop and I think all of us secretly thought this is not too good, but we were filled with daring and wanted to be the first heroes.<br />
<br />
So off we went. <br />
Brownie had a natural talent as a spotter and he dropped out the paper drifter. <br />
Because I was good at accuracy I was nominated as the first guy out – the drift marker as we used to call him.<br />
<br />
So out of the aircraft I went – you know 24 jumps .... <br />
<i><br />
<b style="color: #b45f06;">DB:</b><span style="color: #b45f06;"> Did you draw for that or you just jumped?</span></i><br />
<br />
No, I was nominated to do it. And remember I couldn't fall stable until I had about 50 jumps.<br />
<br />
So after a 10 second unstable delay, I opened up and saw that because of the gusty northerly wind I must have been three quarters of a mile from the damn oval. <br />
When I looked at how far I had to go I thought – no, I'm a dead man. <br />
But as I starting drifting back I could see that I was going to make it. I couldn't believe it.<br />
<br />
I thought, Brown you amazing person, I'm going to land right in the middle of the oval.<br />
<br />
And the closer I got the more confident I got about this. The worries about landing in the trees, which were at the closest end, disappeared. <br />
I was going to be famous.<br />
<br />
My big error came when I reached the edge of the oval where there was a double row of parked cars all the way around.<br />
<br />
I started to tum into wind to land in the centre of the oval, but those TU modified canopies didn't exactly turn on the spot.<br />
<br />
As the canopy began its slow arc around into the wind there was a nice gusty blow from the north and the next thing I knew I was heading out over the side of the oval, back over the row of parked cars, descending all the time.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S5RpMS1dS7I/AAAAAAAAADw/RctrPaZnYqs/s1600-h/cp_img358.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S5RpMS1dS7I/AAAAAAAAADw/RctrPaZnYqs/s320/cp_img358.jpg" width="152" /></a>When I looked ahead I saw this Ferris wheel coming and just lifted my legs up and shut my eyes – a great deal of skill there.<br />
<br />
I shut my eyes, expecting to be dead in seconds, but then had this amazingly soft landing, associated with a big cracking noise.<br />
<br />
I didn't feel any pain, so opened my eyes to find myself up to the waist through the top of a tent and hanging over the ridge pole.<br />
<br />
It turned out that I had landed in sideshow alley, and all the people there were stunned with amazement. The intrepid birdman descending from the sky! <br />
They didn't know whether I was hurt because they had also heard the big crack, you see.<br />
<br />
However, it didn't come from me but from the ridge pole which I had broken. <br />
I realised I wasn't hurt so I looked at them and I waved. <br />
They immediately burst into relieved cheers and applause. The intrepid birdman lives!<br />
<br />
It was at this point that a little woman ran out from the tent through which I was hanging and looked up at me, literally stamping her feet on the spot and as red as a beetroot, and said, "I hope this is not going to go on all day."<br />
<br />
The irony of it all was that the tent contained a Knock'em down stall. I was told later how her husband had been out the front saying, "Come on ladies and gentlemen, five shots for two bob. Don't worry about the parachutist."<br />
<br />
Then ... crash.<br />
<br />
The next day on the front page of The Advertiser were the headlines “Sky jump ends in tent tangle". <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #b45f06;"><i><b>DB:</b> Did the others get in? They must have been okay. </i></div><br />
Oh yeah, Brownie landed right in the middle or close enough to it. One of the jumpers was Ted Crowther. He landed in the children's playground and hurt his back.<br />
<br />
I didn't jump on the second sortie. I think that was done by Burns, Brown and Dave Shearer – and they all landed on the oval.<br />
<br />
Those guys were just naturally good. Just a final embellishment - you weren't supposed to do display jumps unless you had 25 jumps in those days, so I got hauled over the coals by DCA.<br />
<b>###</b><br />
<br />
<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /></div>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-56159639664398276702010-08-07T10:00:00.008+09:302018-08-07T10:04:09.110+09:30Such is Life!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
The cream of South Australian skydiving are pictured here in 1964 at Whyalla, home of the old Spencer Gulf Skydivers, run by Trevor Burns.<br />
<br />
But what happened to many of these young, would-be adventurers in later life makes interesting reading.<br />
<a name='more'></a><i><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Standing at the rear (from left) are:</span></i><br />
<br />
<b>Trevor Burns<br />
</b>Area Safety Officer and later National Safety Officer for the Australian Parachute Federation; editor and publisher of <i>Australian Skydiver</i> magazine; APF Board member and Inspector of Parachuting for the Federal Department of Transport, also responsible for a number of other air sports.<br />
<br />
<b>Laurie Trotter</b><br />
<b> </b>A skilled and highly respected jumper.<br />
<i>-- more detail to come --</i><br />
<br />
<b>Roy Butson</b> <br />
<i>-- more detail to come --</i><br />
<br />
<b>Brian Brown</b><br />
Later a helicopter gunship pilot in Vietnam and then a Mirage fighter pilot. (<a href="http://skydivinghistory.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/brian-brown.html">See the extended interview with Bomber Brown</a> elsewhere on this site.)<br />
<br />
<b>Noel Weckert<br />
</b>Trevor’s “number two” in running Spencer Gulf Skydivers, who, with his wife Sophie (also a jumper), was murdered on the roadside while driving from Townsville to Rockhampton to judge at a parachuting competition in March 1975. <br />
<br />
Noel was found slumped and still seatbelted, in the front seat of his Toyota Celica. He had been shot dead through the head with a .22 calibre rifle, having been woken by his assailants who demanded money. Later Court reports record that Noel told them to “go to the shithouse.”<br />
<br />
Sophie’s body, also shot through the head, was found, two weeks later, in a creek, where she had fled from her attackers.<br />
<br />
Two itinerant carnival roustabouts were tracked down, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders.<br />
<br />
<b>Bob Rowe</b><br />
<i>-- details to come --</i><br />
<br />
<b>Fred Turner</b><br />
One of two fatalities on a notorious, illegal night jump at the 1975 Nationals at Rylestone, NSW. This incident rocked the sport and was the subject of embarassing attention from the Federal Parliament. <br />
For more information on this incident <a href="http://www.steveswann.net/saspc/blog/ASM%20Birth%20of%20a%20Magazine.pdf"><b>see this article</b><span id="goog_1695187476"></span><span id="goog_1695187477"></span></a> from Australian Skydiver magazine.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Sitting (from left):</span> </i><br />
<br />
<b>Hans Wochnik<br />
</b><i>-- more detail to come --</i><br />
<br />
<b>Richard (Rick) Abraham<br />
</b>Killed in action as a National Serviceman in Vietnam in July, 1969 while serving as a Lance Corporal with 9RAR.<br />
Rick was killed by the enemy during the withdrawal from a night ambush position during Operation Matthew in South Vietnam.<br />
<br />
<b>Carola Fritzsche </b>(later Hume)<b><br /></b><br />
After moving back to Sydney Carola wanted to join the NSW School of Parachuting run by Andy Case at Camden. However, he required parents' permission for jumping if you were under 21 – she was 19. Her parents refused, so she took up flying, progressing through various aspects of general aviation from flying instructing, charter work, corporate pilot, chief pilot, night freight on MU2B’s & Learjet. <br />
Her adopted-out daughter Jan Heylen, whom Carola found some 27 years later, was also a skydiver & had about 1,300 jumps. She started jumping aged 16 in the early 1980s, coincidentally she is also pictured in the book Falling for a Sport pages 146 & 148 the grand prix relative work squad. Carola now has three generations of jumpers in the family, with her 16 year old granddaughter recently doing her first tandem in 2018.<br />
<br />
<b>Max Evans</b><br />
<i>-- more detail to come --</i><br />
<br />
<b>John Favell</b><br />
He was Carola’s boyfriend at the time and died in a motor cycle accident in Whyalla not long after this photo was taken.<br />
<br />
<b>Keith Wilson</b><br />
Went on to become Mayor of Whyalla.<br />
<br />
<b>Joe Larkin</b><br />
Joe ended up in the Congo as a mercenary working for Colonel "Mad" Mike Hoare and was executed there after stealing what was reported to be a DC3 load of gold.<br />
He was a talented jumper and involved in numerous early record attempts.<br />
<br />
<i>There still a few gaps in this story and I'm still chasing the survivors down – but Trevor Burns and Brian Brown will certainly be at the SASPC 50th celebrations and, hopefully, we'll locate some more from this photo.<br />
</i><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-68545654309917516932010-08-07T09:45:00.013+09:302011-10-07T09:19:28.764+10:30Freefall photography the hard way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S6Qg10HH47I/AAAAAAAAAFY/-qYwhYPhJ6A/s1600-h/b-mux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S6Qg10HH47I/AAAAAAAAAFY/-qYwhYPhJ6A/s200/b-mux.jpg" width="115" /></a></div>While every second jumper these days seems to carry a video camera or a GoPro, freefall photography in the 1970s was a rarity. And those shooting movies were in a distinct minority.<br />
<br />
One of the few Australian jumpers shooting 16 mm film and the only SA jumper making movies of any kind in those days was SASPC's Bernie Keenan. Most amateurs were limited to the lower resolution 8 mm home movie format but Bernie, a television news cameraman with Adelaide's ADS7, could access state-of-the-art equipment through his work.<br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="piccaption">Bernie is pictured (above) outside the Lower Light packing shed after a jump with his neck-stretching helmet camera rig, a 16mm Beaulieu news camera with hand held bulb release and Newton ring sight. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="piccaption"></span><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S6RrCcBhcvI/AAAAAAAAAFo/gV8K6KqFWu4/s1600-h/IMG_4407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S6RrCcBhcvI/AAAAAAAAAFo/gV8K6KqFWu4/s200/IMG_4407.JPG" width="200" /></a><span class="piccaption">Opening under a high performance Paracommander roundie with something of this weight attached was a challenge and Bernie habitually braced his head with his right hand after pulling the ripcord. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="piccaption">After moving to Sydney Bernie put his aerial camera skills to good use at work, often climbing out onto the skid of the Channel 7 chopper, secured by a harness he had made by Parachutes Australia, and shooting great, unimpeded views of the daily news. </span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S8lZniouGqI/AAAAAAAAAG0/l73brTECF0I/s1600/n724421748_1187961_5396.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S8lZniouGqI/AAAAAAAAAG0/l73brTECF0I/s200/n724421748_1187961_5396.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="piccaption">He's pictured here (above), hand nonchalantly on hip, recording the action at a waterski speed record attempt, and (left) in a feature spread from a professional cinematographers' magazine.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="piccaption">Unfortunately, none of Bernie's black and white or colour skydiving film survives ( that we know of ) except for this one of rel work at Lower Light out of the old Dornier 27 in 1973.<br />
Bernie died in 2011. <br />
<br />
<br />
</span> <br />
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<span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-75428794051815919822010-08-06T16:22:00.003+09:302010-09-19T16:09:24.638+09:30Adelaide Oval demo with a difference!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TI3Jq3tuF4I/AAAAAAAAAtU/L4nd8BwvsPM/s1600/tiser+clipping_rinaldo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TI3Jq3tuF4I/AAAAAAAAAtU/L4nd8BwvsPM/s200/tiser+clipping_rinaldo.jpg" width="191" /></a></div>Skydiving may not have been invented as a sport until the 1960s but 50 years earlier, in 1910, South Australia was treated to a remarkable parachute display at the Adelaide Oval.<br />
<br />
It had everything! The two parachutists were in a race to see who could land first after jumping from a balloon, cutting away from multiple canopies as they descended.<br />
One, riding a malfunctioned canopy, landed in a tree at a nearby North Adelaide nursing home, narrowly missing a baby and causing a female patient to flee in panic. <br />
The other came to earth just in front of a tram on King William Road, close to the Cathedral.<br />
<br />
And these guys didn't wear reserves or even harnesses – they simply hung from a trapeze. No ASOs or CASA in those days! <br />
<a name='more'></a>Here’s how the big event was recorded in the local newspaper.<br />
<br />
From <i>The Advertiser</i>, Monday, January 10, 1910 <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>FALLING FROM <br />
THE CLOUDS</b></span><br />
<b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2,000 FEET IN 6 SECONDS<br />
A PERILOUS DESCENT</span><br />
</b><br />
Thousands of people held their breath and shivered with fear and trembling when, soon after 6 p.m. on Saturday, the parachutist, Rinaldo, was seen descending from the clouds above the Anglican Cathedral at a terrific speed, hanging to a parachute which had only partially opened. <br />
<br />
"Oh, oh, he will be killed," said one anxious spectator, and this was a fear which, if not expressed, was present in the mind of every spectator of the man's perilous journey. <br />
<br />
The Viceroy Tea Carnival had been held on the Jubilee Oval, and the final event was a balloon ascent with six parachutes by Zahn Rinaldo, of Austria, and Albert Eastwood, of Australia. <br />
<br />
The balloon was inflated at the Oval in the presence of a large number of interested onlookers. It was held in at the bottom by a number of lads, and as it expanded to its full capacity Rinaldo, who was waiting, seated on his trapeze, said, "Let her go when the pistol's fired, boys."<br />
<br />
Bang went the report of the gun, back sprang the boys, and as the great sphere filled with hot air felt its freedom, it rose steadily upwards. <br />
<br />
"Goodbye, boys!" yelled Rinaldo as he waved his hand and swung from his trapeze by his feet. <br />
<br />
He little knew he was to perform a sensational and unrehearsed descent, which, as advertised, would "live in the memory for ever." <br />
Eastwood also hung in a similar manner from another trapeze. <br />
<br />
Both men resumed a normal position as the balloon floated away serenely and majestically in the direction of North Adelaide. <br />
<br />
It moved slowly, gradually mounting upwards. It was to be a parachute race between representatives of Australia and Austria, and thousands of people besides those on the Oval watched the ascent, and waited with interest for the start of the exciting contest. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TI3TO-lWccI/AAAAAAAAAtc/04LmISYLtQk/s1600/balloon+jumpers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TI3TO-lWccI/AAAAAAAAAtc/04LmISYLtQk/s320/balloon+jumpers.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="225"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Still working on the Op Regs. <br />
No harness here – just a trapeze. And the guy in the circular frame at the bottom isn't in deep brakes on final approach - he's on the way up, just launching with the balloon.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Suddenly the manager of the balloon ascent, Mr. Beebe, fired his pistol, and at the signal Eastwood, the lighter man, released his parachute. He was at a height of 4,500 ft., and used first a red, then a white, and finally a blue parachute, all opening up splendidly. <br />
<br />
Rinaldo remained with the balloon till a height of 5,000 ft. had been attained, and then at a given signal he released his parachute. <br />
<br />
He dropped 2,500 ft., using a red and then a blue parachute. At this height above earth, the daring aeronaut, in order to make his descent with greater rapidity, released his last parachute – a tricolor one. <br />
<br />
It failed to open properly, and to the horror of the eager watchers, who could see that something was wrong, he dropped with startling rapidity, passing his companion in mid-air with tremendous velocity. <br />
<br />
Fortunately for his safety he crashed into a large fig tree in the yard at Mrs. Bartels' Quambi Nursing Rest Home, Pennington Terrace. <br />
<br />
The parachute partially dragged through the tree. Rinaldo, who was suffering severely from affected respiration, caused by the fearful rate at which he had passed through the air, was immediately conveyed into the Home, where he was attended by the nurses and Dr. Corbin. <br />
<br />
He was soon able to leave the institution, and except for bruises on the hip and leg and a nasty shaking, was little the worse for his perilous adventure.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Thrilling Predicament</b></span><br />
<br />
People in the immediate vicinity of the spot gazed open-mouthed at the descending parachutist, and his thrilling predicament caused them great alarm. <br />
<br />
Mrs. Bartel, referring to the event, said the parachute looked as if it would fall on the hospital cottage, but escaping this it missed the edge of the hospital roof by a few feet and crashed down through the fig tree in the yard. <br />
<br />
"The dense and leafy foliage broke his fall," she said, "or he must have been killed. The force with which he landed in the tree was so great that as he bumped the branches in his downward progress he skinned the bark of the tree with his hip. <br />
<br />
"Nurses released him promptly, and as he was suffering from faulty respiration, due to the excessive speed at which he travelled through the air, he was quite purple in the face.<br />
<br />
"He was conveyed into the hospital, where ice was placed in his mouth and on his head. He rapidly recovered, and as no bones were broken he was able to leave the institution soon afterwards. He had a marvellous and providential escape."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Baby's Peril</b></span><br />
<br />
"So had two of our inmates," continued Mrs. Bartel. "When Rinaldo came flying down through the fig tree he landed within a yard of a small baby lying in a cot, and within a couple of yards of a lady patient. Had he struck the baby in his fall it might have been killed. <br />
<br />
"The woman, who was sitting in a chair, was so startled by the sudden apparition, of which she knew nothing, that she jumped up at once and ran away terrified. <br />
<br />
"Dr. Corbin, who examined the man, saw his descent from a balcony, and thought he was going to fall in the river. It was fortunate he did not as his respiration was so bad that he might have been drowned before aid was forthcoming."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Nerve-racking Experiences</b></span><br />
<br />
About an hour after his nerve-racking experience Rinaldo returned to the Oval in a cab, accompanied by Mr Beebe. <br />
<br />
To a representative of <i>The Advertise</i>r as he limped into the dressing room he said:<br />
<br />
"No, I never felt nervous, but when the 'chute refused to open – the south-east wind caught one part of it, and prevented it from opening on that side – I thought I'll be worse off directly than I am now. <br />
<br />
"I passed Albert like a flash. I beat him easily, eh," he remarked with a smile, "and when I got near earth I heard women and children screaming. I suppose they're not used to it. I reckon I dropped over 2,000 ft in six or seven seconds. It was going some, and I thought 'I’ll see the joo through.<br />
<br />
"The chute was not one-tenth part open at first, but it bellied out a little. When I got close down I spread my legs out and looked for a good place to fall. I took the fig tree with my buttocks, and here I am. <br />
<br />
"The descent shook me up, and it was about three minutes before I could breathe normally. It's not the worst experience I've had. At Burra a month ago I was knocked out for 20 minutes.<br />
<br />
"Only once before did a 'chute fail to open with me That was at Newcastle, where the chute opened when within about 20 ft of the ground. It was a bit late, but luckily I landed in a muddy spot near a biscuit factory, and sank above my knees into the mud.” <br />
<br />
He laughed cheerfully as he added, "I'll be down the street tonight."<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Narrow Squeak</span><br />
</b><br />
Mr Beebe, who was much perturbed until he saw that what appeared to be a serious affair was only an eventful experience, said, “It was a narrow squeak for Rinaldo. His last parachute was not more than half or two thirds open He was trying to race Eastwood, and used his first 'chutes so quickly that I reckon he was breathless when he tried to open up the third, and when the wind held some of the segments overlapping, did not have strength or time to catch the cords and) shake out the folds. <br />
<br />
"His last chute carries 30 sets of segments, whereas the ordinary number is from 22 to 26. This makes it a little more difficult to work. <br />
<br />
"Eastwood does not like it, as he says he gets a bump with it every time, but Rinaldo prefers it. He's had worse bumps. This time fortunately he has escaped practically scathless. I do not think he would have been killed had he fallen direct to earth."<br />
<br />
The two men and their parachutes, were equivalent to the weight of four men on the balloon, which came down at the Children's Hospital gate. <br />
<br />
Eastwood landed on King William road, in front of an electric tram, at a spot about 50 yards from the Cathedral. He got a nice descent. All’s well that ends well."<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Thankful Mate</span><br />
</b><br />
Eastwood said he could not describe his feelings when he saw Rinaldo pass by him with such velocity. <br />
<br />
"I was full of concern," he said, “as I could see the chute had not opened, and when I got to earth I nearly fainted when someone said he was killed. He’s not hurt, and I’m jolly glad."<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Rush to the Hospital</span><br />
</b><br />
When the crowd at the oval saw that the parachute had not properly opened a large number of them, anticipating a tragedy, scaled the northern fence and rushed along Victoria Drive. <br />
<br />
They were soon passed by a cab with the horses at a gallop.|<br />
<br />
Mr Beebe, with an anxious, look on his face, was seated next to the driver and he called for more speed. <br />
<br />
The crowd ran across the bridge and through the park to the hospital. Many ran through the gates, but scores, eager to know the fate of the aeronaut wriggled over the high corrugated iron fence. <br />
<br />
Curious looks were cast at the limb of the fig tree from which the piece of bark had been sliced. The crowd pressed round the door but Mr Beebe and a policeman kept them back.<br />
<br />
"He is only slightly hurt," someone said, and delighted that a fatality had been averted, the anxious crowd melted away.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Coincidence</span><br />
</b><br />
It was somewhat remarkable that Rinaldo should have walked in to see Best's pictures at the Trocadero Gardens on Saturday evening just before the pathetic picture of the burial of the victims of the disaster which befell the airship <i>Republic</i> was shown. <br />
<br />
The thought of what might have happened ran through the aeronaut's mind as he watched the funeral process on. <br />
<br />
Rinaldo was at once recognised by the audience, and during the interval was warmly congratulated on his wonderful escape.<br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-71638242654015739932010-08-06T09:45:00.002+09:302010-09-06T16:32:00.164+09:30Bestseller from the 1960s<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S9jesQa9AfI/AAAAAAAAAHE/wX2aq0Cf1ps/s1600/sellick3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S9jesQa9AfI/AAAAAAAAAHE/wX2aq0Cf1ps/s200/sellick3.jpg" width="100" /></a></div>Teach yourself skydiving – that’s not quite what it boiled down to in 1961, when South Australian sport parachuting was born.<br />
But if you were inclined to read up on the latest techniques in a sport which, even in the US had only been around for about five years, you could turn to this now classic publication.<br />
<br />
In fact, Ted Harrison, the founding father of SA sport parachuting, credited the Sellick book as one of the few sources to which he and others referred when they made their almost blind leap from military style static line jumps to the uncharted domain of freefall.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>“<i>Skydiving: the art and science of sport parachuting</i>” by Bud Sellick, was first published in 1961 and became, over several re-prints, a must-have reference source.<br />
<br />
Sellick, a pioneer of US jumping, wrote and published the book to dispel public misunderstandings of the infant sport and to help novice parachutists.<br />
<br />
In his introduction to the 250-page book he noted that sport parachuting was worldwide and as common in some European countries as baseball is in the US.<br />
“Russia, France and Czechoslovakia have developed parachuting into an art and consistently score high in international competition,” he said. Look no further than Lower Light’s Vlasto Zamecnik for confirmation of the Czech content of this observation.<br />
<br />
Sellick’s book cannot be under-estimated in what it contributed to public perceptions of skydiving in Australia in the early days. On sale in major bookshops and available in the bigger public libraries, it presented a measured, sensible picture of skydivers.<br />
<br />
<i>"Skydiving"</i> featured numerous photographs and graphics, illustrating correct freefall and landing techniques and showing how parachutes were designed, constructed and worked.<br />
<br />
This was at a time when virtually all sport equipment was either military surplus or adapted from that basic gear.<br />
<br />
A few extracts illustrate the type of gear South Australia’s early jumpers used and how far the sport has come. (<b style="color: #b45f06;"><i>Click images to enlarge</i></b>)<br />
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<tr> <td valign="top"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9Bcf22dzI/AAAAAAAAAHg/BFQDoB8hrF4/s1600/sellick_pack+opening.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9Bcf22dzI/AAAAAAAAAHg/BFQDoB8hrF4/s200/sellick_pack+opening.jpg" width="108" /></a></td> <td valign="top"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9CHi-SRpI/AAAAAAAAAHo/BZK9_wbVO4c/s1600/sellick_c9+mods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9CHi-SRpI/AAAAAAAAAHo/BZK9_wbVO4c/s200/sellick_c9+mods.jpg" width="110" /></a></td> <td valign="top"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9MEhGpNqI/AAAAAAAAAHw/M9fOiZpkNN0/s1600/sellick_reserve+throw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9MEhGpNqI/AAAAAAAAAHw/M9fOiZpkNN0/s200/sellick_reserve+throw.jpg" width="130" /></a></td> <td valign="top"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9MeCDT4WI/AAAAAAAAAH4/cl_06uFdlh4/s1600/sellick_turns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S-9MeCDT4WI/AAAAAAAAAH4/cl_06uFdlh4/s200/sellick_turns.jpg" width="180" /></a></td> </tr>
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-537370948771714562010-08-05T09:44:00.010+09:302015-01-23T08:02:28.389+10:30Paracommander ushers in a new era<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S7PtnqIsUrI/AAAAAAAAAGA/d8cUih6VB40/s1600/blue+max.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S7PtnqIsUrI/AAAAAAAAAGA/d8cUih6VB40/s200/blue+max.jpg" height="140" width="140" /></a></div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S6cAu3Z2ztI/AAAAAAAAAF4/84G48zsrYSM/s1600-h/Paracommander+airflow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S6cAu3Z2ztI/AAAAAAAAAF4/84G48zsrYSM/s200/Paracommander+airflow.jpg" height="140" width="84" /></a>You're looking at a revolutionary canopy. As the 1960s merged into the 70s, trading up to a Paracommander was akin to downsizing to a 120.<br />
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For those SA jumpers who came to skydiving on military surplus C9 canopies ( little more than umbrellas with a couple of holes cut in them) the advent of the PC was groundbreaking.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Here was a canopy that delivered remarkable accuracy, stand-up landings and the ability to jump in stronger winds.<br />
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<b>To get an idea of what jumping a PC feels like, take at look at this recent footage from German round canopy enthusiast Michael Rast, who is helping keep the old rigs in the air today.</b><br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-35473281899717037942010-08-04T15:27:00.014+09:302010-09-19T16:04:09.580+09:30Wing-walking demo in the city<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">Here's another great demo from the days when fronting up to the Australian Parachute Federation's area safety officer or a gaggle of government bureaucrats was a distant dream.</div><br />
Wing-walking on a bi-plane over the city, exiting at 2,000 ft and then landing on the roof of a building off Frome Road in Adelaide – now that's a demo!<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Here's the report from the daily newspaper of the time:<br />
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<i>The Advertiser</i><br />
Thursday, October 11, 1928<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A PARACHUTE DESCENT</span><br />
<br />
SENSATIONS AT JUBILEE OVAL</b><br />
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The fact that Lieutenant H. Qviller, a Norwegian parachutist was to make a parachute descent from an aeroplane, together with the attractions of a buck-jumping show, drew a crowd officially estimated at over 25,000 to the Jubilee Oval on Wednesday afternoon. <br />
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Prior to leaving the oval for the Parafield aerodrome to board the aeroplane, Lieutenant Qviller walked round the ground to give the crowd a chance to see him. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TJWmtMB3AHI/AAAAAAAAAzs/PFcNrkQeKWs/s1600/avro_avian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TJWmtMB3AHI/AAAAAAAAAzs/PFcNrkQeKWs/s320/avro_avian.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>At 4.15 his Avro-Avian plane [<i>similiar to the aircraft at left</i>], piloted by Captain Jacques, was seen, approaching the oval from the north.<br />
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It circled the ground twice in order to give Lieutenant Qviller an opportunity of judging the strength and direction of the wind, and seeing the arena into which he was to attempt to drop. <br />
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The plane then flew across the ground from east to west, the parachutist being plainly visible standing on the right, wing. When it was about 50 yards west of the ground and at a height of about 2,000 feet, Lieutenant Qviller jumped clear, falling about 150 feet before his parachute opened.<br />
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As he slowly came to the ground, swaying from side to side with the breeze, he waved his hand to the crowd several times. <br />
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As he came lower it was apparent that he would not land in the oval and he passed out of sight behind the avenue of plane trees in Frome Road. <br />
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He landed safely on the roof of the immigration depot in the old Exhibition Building and quickly scrambled to the ground. <br />
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A few minutes later he entered the oval and walked across to the grandstands to the accompaniment of loud cheers. <br />
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In a short speech, which was broadcast by means of the amplions [<i>an early type of loudspeaker</i>] he said he had jumped from the plane about five seconds too soon, which was why he failed to land on the oval.<br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-3144802796133834502010-08-04T09:44:00.002+09:302010-08-29T17:27:11.968+09:30No Facebook, no email back in the day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S7133aouBlI/AAAAAAAAAGk/se4vpURIB0k/s1600/nielsen+telegram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S7133aouBlI/AAAAAAAAAGk/se4vpURIB0k/s200/nielsen+telegram.jpg" width="190" /></a></div>Long before the advent of email, urgent APF safety advice was conveyed by telegram. This message to the SASPC from then APF national safety officer Claude Gillard was hand-delivered by Post Office messenger, probably on a pushbike, to Col Parsons at his Tusmore flat in 1970.<br />
It followed lengthy investigation of a recent Sydney fatality in which an experienced instructor (781 jumps) died at Wilton after a main-reserve entanglement. The investigation had established the cause of the main malfunction was an unsecured steering toggle snaring the pilot chute bridle.<br />
This was before ram airs when brakes weren’t set. Steering lines (with wooden toggles ) simply sat in elastic keepers on the risers – easily dislodged while packing or just as easy to overlook.<br />
<b>###</b>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-65219966718737540982010-08-03T09:44:00.000+09:302010-08-25T12:49:42.264+09:30Strapped for cash?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S8lDILpgruI/AAAAAAAAAGs/48GJl9gYJz4/s1600/cp_img368.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/S8lDILpgruI/AAAAAAAAAGs/48GJl9gYJz4/s200/cp_img368.jpg" width="65" /></a></div>How would you have fancied a student course which took you all the way through to advanced freefall for just $30, including a year’s SASPC and APF membership? And gear hire at at a princely 50 cents a jump?<br />
It could have been yours back in 1969, as this item from <i>The Advertiser’s</i> “What’s your problem?” advice column shows.<br />
<b>###</b>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1627541612902927394.post-89481229686046051972010-08-03T07:00:00.006+09:302010-09-19T16:09:48.167+09:30Early parachute demo excites beachgoers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TICCOKNIsvI/AAAAAAAAAPI/BisDI2PKrc8/s1600/tiser+masthead+1928.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="80" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TICCOKNIsvI/AAAAAAAAAPI/BisDI2PKrc8/s200/tiser+masthead+1928.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Parachute displays in South Australia were massive drawcards to public events long before skydiving and sport parachuting were introduced in 1961.<br />
Demo jumps before the 1960s were confined to descents by barnstorming “aeronauts” or the odd military drop.<br />
<br />
However, the public imagination was firmly gripped in 1928 when a visiting Norwegian daredevil made a much publicised jump into the sea off Glenelg Beach.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
As the daily newspaper <i>The Advertiser</i> reported, he had intended to land just offshore between the Glenelg Jetty and the old Glenelg Baths, a nearby public swimming enclosure.<br />
<br />
Given that he was jumping a round, silk parachute of about 37 feet diameter, his accuracy was very impressive – even if he did manage to land in the Glenelg Baths.<br />
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<b>Here's the full newspaper report from the time.</b><br />
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<i>The Advertiser,</i><br />
Monday, November 5, 1928<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A PARACHUTE LEAP</span><br />
AIRMAN LANDS IN THE GLENELG BATHS</b><br />
<br />
Lovers of the sensational had a thrill on Saturday afternoon, when Lieutenant H. Qviller, the Norwegian airman and parachutist, leapt from an aeroplane about a mile above Holdfast Bay and descended safely in the old Glenelg Baths.<br />
<br />
He had announced his intention of endeavoring to fall between the Glenelg Jetty and the baths.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TICCvnc5G6I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/eMyijeePNyM/s1600/glenelg+baths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEuPCT-e8DE/TICCvnc5G6I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/eMyijeePNyM/s200/glenelg+baths.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;" width="133"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Lt. Qviller descends into the Glenelg Baths in 1928. The swimming enclosure was surrounded by changing sheds, piers and diving platforms.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The leap was witnessed by an immense concourse of people, but the affair was badly stage-managed from a business point of view. <br />
<br />
Saturday was regarded by the showmen on Colley Reserve as their official opening day, and with a view to increased business they engaged lieutenant Qviller for an exhibition. <br />
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As there was no time advertised for the event the vast crowd lined the jetty and beach, and patiently awaited the arrival of the aeroplanes. <br />
<br />
Immediately after the descent the crowd rapidly vanished. Had a specified time been stated, it is quite likely that the spectators would have strolled round and patronised other attractions, always sure that they would miss nothing. <br />
<br />
The plane containing Lieutenant Qviller and an escorting machine, crossed the foreshore at North Glenelg shortly before 5 o'clock, at four minutes past the hour the parachutist leapt from the plane.<br />
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The descent seemed very slow, and he appeared to be drifting towards Somerton. <br />
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Vigorous leg work, however, brought the swaying airman over the jetty, still very high in the air.<br />
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Thence the descent became more rapid, and when be was within about 200 yards of the sea, further leg work took the parachutist well into the baths area, where he landed in about three feet of water. <br />
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The time occupied in the descent from the moment the parachute opened was 3 minutes, 15 seconds. <br />
<br />
A number of bathers were ready and quickly released Qviller, who made his way to the beach, but he found it a great deal more difficult to get through the excited crowd than to drop through space. <br />
<br />
The silk parachute, which has a circumference of 75 feet, proved, when wet, a decent load for half a dozen young men.<br />
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<input onclick="history.go(-1)" type="button" value="« Back" /><span style="color: white;">skydive skydiver skydiving parachute parachuting parachutist freefall Adelaide South Australia</span>Steve Swannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00038289246177717328noreply@blogger.com0