1960s movie puts the focus on jumping

The 1969 movie The Gypsy Moths 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.

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.
A digital copy of the original film is safely tucked away – highlights were available for viewing at the SASPC 50th in 2011.

»» In the meantime, here’s taste of the movie action »»

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Skydiving's origins: Col Parsons looks back

If anyone is qualified to reflect on South Australian skydiving's 50 years it has to be veteran parachutist Colin Parsons.

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.

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.

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.

Parachuting pioneer at home in the sky

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.

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.

Places in national and international teams in the early 1960s were an obvious recognition of his talent.

But his feel for the air really blossomed after he joined the Royal Australian Airforce, flying helicopter gunships in Vietnam and, later, Mirage fighters.

But despite those diversions, Brian continued to jump.

Trev Burns makes it to the top

Thirteen must have been SA parachuting pioneer Trevor Burns' lucky number.

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.

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.

Freefall photography the hard way

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.

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.

Paracommander ushers in a new era

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.

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.

No Facebook, no email back in the day

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.
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.
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.
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Australian Skydiver magazine's SA roots

SA was home to Australian Skydiver magazine for more than 10 years in the 1960s and 70s. Published by Trevor Burns at Port Pirie and later by Steve Swann and Bernie Keenan in Adelaide, the black and white magazine was produced every two months and distributed to jumpers all around Australia. This was before the Australian Parachute Federation became involved in subsidising its production and postage.

The APF's 50th anniversary in 2010 was marked by a special edition of ASM, which included a feature article on the magazine's evolution and production in the early days.
• Download a pdf of the full article here »»»
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Spotting old style – without GPS

Spotting in the age of GPS and in-flight doors may be close to a dead art.

With the powerful drive of ram air canopies capable of salvaging all but the most wayward of spots, there’s little reason why modern skydivers would want to take control and actually decide for themselves where they should be getting out.

This two-page feature article from Australian Skydiver magazine in 1972 focused on the niceties of learning to spot.

Then ASM editor and pioneer SA jumper Trevor Burns wrote the piece, aiming it a novice skydivers who, jumping old round canopies with extremely limited performance, were still very much at the mercy of the wind.

A skydiving child of the 60s

Nineteen-year-old Steve Swann was one of those attracted to sport parachuting back in the late 1960s, when it was still considered a decidedly odd pastime.

"Whuffo" – the imported Americanism, short for "why for you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" – pretty much summed up the public attitude to the embryonic sport in those days.

In this interview, recorded in the late 1990s, Steve (later a senior instructor and, for a time, chief instructor with the SASPC) reflects on what attracted people to jumping in the early days.