Magazine article: '"Family" Wins Big Z Star Meet'
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Original title: Skydiving magazine article: '"Family" Wins Big Z Star Meet'
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Id: Cooper-Part-52:274-274
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-52:274-274 Document: Magazine article: '"Family" Wins Big Z Star Meet' Id: Cooper-Part-52:274-274 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-52%3A274-274 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
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FBI 164-81, Vault Part 52 p. 274 (DB Cooper-21953), News clipping — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-52%3A274-274
The "Family", 1st Place winners. Back row (l to r): Jeff Searles, Tom Mitchell, Jim Mitchell, Jim Hooper, Russ Petty, Jim Bohr (eating chicken), Jerry Tyson, Paul Schlee; front row (l to r): Tom Larson, Helen Tyson, John Sherman, Judge Bill Newell, and Bruce Cunningham.
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The Taft, California Team, 2nd Place winners. Back row (l to r): Max Freeman, Ty Pearson, Rich Armstrong, Dennis Henley, Bob Olson; front row (l to r): Terry Ward, Sam Alexander, Donna Wardean, Frank Venegas, and Tony Fredin.
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"Family" Wins Big Z Star Meet
by Jerry Tyson with photos by the Author
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The first big star meet to be held outside of California took place November 29 and 30, 1969 at Zephyrhills, Florida. Three ten-man teams competed and the "Family," from Hinckley, Illinois, were the winners. The meet practically never got off the ground. Originally scheduled for the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving Day weekend, it suffered from that rarity in Florida, a stalled front smack on top of Zephyrhills airport that produced the following aerological nonsense: Thursday, November 27, low clouds, wind, rain 5500' max; Friday, November 28, same soup plus more rain; Saturday, November 29, low clouds in the morning, chill wind but a promise of a break at noon. It did break at noon and the meet got rolling.
The Teams
It's hard to find a place in the U.S. that's farther away from most any place else than Zephyrhills. It's even harder to get jumpers to go such great distances for a meet. The odds against getting 10 in a group to ante up the necessary travel, entry fee, and expense money are phenomenal. In sponsoring such a meet to further large star relative work, Jeff Searles took an enormous chance on losing his shirt. Two months before the meet he had verbal promises of as many as five entries for the 10-man event plus several more for the five-man event. The five-man event never got off the ground and three teams showed for the 10-man: the "Family" from Hinckley, Ill., a team from Taft, California and a pick-up team from the Tampa-Zephyrhills area. Neither the "Family" nor Taft arrived with a full quota, the "Family" picking up three jumpers on the spot and Taft picking up two.
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The Aircraft
"Big Z" is one of the best places in the U.S. to have a star meet. In regard to aircraft support it is the best place. On hand for the meet, should they be needed, were the following: a DC-3, a C-47, a Lockheed Electra (like an overgrown Twin Beech), 2 Cessna 196's, and a Cessna 182. All of these aircraft, loaded and flying formation, could deposit 96 jumpers into the air over Z-hills. I personally wouldn't want to be anywhere near such a mess but you get the idea — there are a lot of jump platforms at the place. For the 10-man event a DC-3 was used. It accommodated three 10-man teams at a time plus assorted photographers, observers, hangers-on, et al. Let's lay to rest right here the fallacy that you can't use a DC-3 or a C-47 for RW. It's simply not true. All it takes is know how and a nice hand at the controls. Both the pilot, Bill Griffin, and the co-pilot, Bob Porter, who owned the plane, have several hundred hours each flying jumpers in this type aircraft. Except for the first round, which the judges didn't see because of intermittent clouds, we were climbing at 1,000 fpm with 35 passengers in the plane and reaching 13,500 feet in 18 to 20 minutes, using 142 gallons an hour. At $7.00 a head it beats flying freight. The exits averaged seven seconds per team and our speed on jump run was 75-80 knots. During the third round they had it down to 70 knots indicated. You say that's not possible? It is and here's how: on jump run the wheels are lowered, quarter flaps are extended and some power is reduced on the left engine. The aircraft has a tendency to yaw in this attitude but any experienced pilot can compensate. Very little altitude is lost and at 13,500 who cares? It was a good plane to jump from. You can stand up, stretch, chant exhortational mantras, harass the other teams, in short, really get yourself psyched up for some inspired wrist-breaking.
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DB Cooper-21953