bunda@cs.utexas.edu (John Bunda) (04/25/91)
Robert's secret dream of frapping a dummy reminds me of one such prank
that was actually carried out here in Austin circa 1985.
A group of jumpers were doing a demo into an outdoor Grateful Dead
concert, held at Manor Downs, about 15 miles east of the city. At the
point in the festivities where the jumps were to take place, the demo
announcer gave a spiel about how they had placed a big mattress in the
next field, and one of the jumpers was not going to use a parachute,
but land on the mattress instead. They tossed a dummy out of the
plane, which landed with an audible whump in the adjacent field.
The announcer made a big deal about "Yes, he's all right", and so forth,
but I still can't imagine there weren't a few there dazed by a headful
of Owsley's best that didn't miss all the announcements and to this day
wonder if it really happened.
That nothing came of this, either from the FAA, the concert promoters, or
the community still amazes me.
-John
--
John Bunda * bunda@cs.utexas.edu * {uunet,harvard}!cs.utexas.edu!bundarobie@umbc2.umbc.edu (Mr. William Robie; POSI (GRAD)) (04/26/91)
>Robert's secret dream of frapping a dummy reminds me of one such prank
In 1972 I got snagged into doing a demo for one of those "March To Raise $
For The War On Somethings" and invited my very sweet, but elderly, landlady
out to see me jump (she always worried about me returning after the weekends,
but *never* insisted I leave an extra month's rent on deposit just in case).
I was really interested in her reaction to finally seeing a parachute jump,
so I looked for her right after I landed. She didn't see it. It seems that
she got hysterical when the WDI didn't open!
In the "round" days, when 7TUs were cheap and expendable, we liked to do
demos with at least one parachute that had bunches of baby powder and long
strips of white toilet paper packed between the panels....
Oh my GAWD!! That parryshoot BLEW UP!!!!
Childish pranks ... I'm far wiser and more mature now.
(yeh...shir)