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Skydive St. Louiswww.skydivezion.com |
The History of Skydive St. Louis |
Skydive St. Louis formally came into existence at Jonesburg, Missouri in 1986, when it was incorporated by Bill Hayes, Pat Quigley and Sarah Leweylln. The operation began with one single engine Cessna 182 and operated on weekends with a lot of volunteer assistance from skydivers and pilots throughout the St. Louis region. As the operation began to grow, so did the demands of managing a skydiving facility on a part time basis, so the club was put up for sale in 1990.
A General History of Skydive St. Louis
Skydive St. Louis operated on private property, and it was also the FBO on the airport, so there were virtually no political conflicts at the airport. The town of Bowling Green is only one mile south of the airport and as a result most everyone in town watched the skydiving activities on a daily basis. The skydivers were well received in the community as we were worth about one million dollars a year to the local economy. On the rare occasion that a skydiver landed off of the airport property, more than likely a local resident would pick them up and drive them back to the airport before we could even drive out to them.
Skydive St. Louis boasted an outstanding safety record, probably the best in the region (accurate statistics are not recorded at all operations) as we never had a fatality, had only two long-term injuries (ankles). Most years we averaged about 6000 skydives (about 50,000 total), and out of that number there were an average of about two injuries a year; usually to experienced skydivers who got careless. 1994 was the last year that an ambulance was called to come out to the airport for any reason. Skydive St. Louis was one of only two or three operations in the country that used automatic opening devices on the main parachute as well as the reserve for student freefall skydives. And most of the instructors over the years were very experienced, much more so than people could expect at other operations at that time.
But lets take a look at things year by year....
1990
During the first season the operation was located at Jonesburg Missouri on a private property airstrip. Three days after the operation was acquired by Rick Eddy and Lew Welzel Jr., a man arrived at the airport to inform us that he had bought the property and the airport was to be closed. After an exhaustive search a new location was found in Bowling Green Missouri, and Skydive St. Louis was relocated there on August 1, 1990.
That season we operated out of an old worn down hangar and from a rental trailer. Bob Russell and Linda Collison came from Colorado to manage the operation that summer and helped introduce tandem skydiving and AFF training to the St. Louis area. Courses were taught by Tom Gettemeyer, Lonnie Lee, Rick Eddy, Don Mundschenk and other helpful people. Bob Curtis helped us move to Bowling Green and after many years of watching at Jonesburg, he became a skydiver too! The first AFF student graduate was John Bartis, who has gone on to become an accomplished skydiver and tandem instructor. Several other graduates from that season have gone on to become highly skilled skydivers and long term participants, such as Rex and Don Krueger, and Jim Lucas.
Skydive St. Louis used one single engine Cessna 182, N5015D, which was in excellent condition due to the constant attention from Tom Gettemeyer and Bill Hayes. There were many different pilots who flew the airplane that summer and they all flew for fun. George Nelson would fly once a month and every time he would bring out a case of beer for the end of the day. This is also when Mike Sims began to fly for us.
Towards the end of the season Skydive Colorado flew out a Twin Engine Beech 18 and everyone was primed for a great weekend of high altitude skydives. Insteaed the weather was terrible all weekend and we barely got off two flights, and we were fighting clouds on those jumps. Of course, we had a great time anyway!
1991
Melissa Moss became the first full time manifestor and as the summer progressed the business began to grow. Bill Hayes added to his list of accomplishments by becoming a busy tandem instructor as well as helping out with AFF training. The training program was changed to drop the static line freefall training dives and the emphasis was changed to AFF training. Students either made six static line jumps, or two tandem skydives and then went directly to AFF level two training. This program immediately began to show improvements in the skills of the graduating students. At the end of the season Steve MacAnulty had earned his AFF rating and Lonnie Lee became a Vector rated tandem instructor.
The Beech 18 came out from Colorado in March on the way back from the Parachute Industry Convention in Florida. We were hoping to give the area skydivers a rare treat in late March. Instead we experienced high temperatures of 20 degrees and strong cold winds and no one was willing to even go outside the building so no jumps were made that weekend.
Mike Sims became the regular pilot and flew several hundred hours of skydiver loads over Bowling Green that year. He was also the pilot that went down to Florida to bring back our second Cessna 182, N4090D as we continued to grow.
In the early spring Tom Gettemeyer was found to have two large tumors in his brain, and barely survived major surgery. He passed away a year later.
1992
Audrey Jones was hired as manifestor when Melissa and Rex became married. At almost the same time Larry Flanagan became our first full time pilot, and was the first pilot to be paid to fly! Also Lance Litton was hired as a full time packer. Both Lance and Larry became long term members of Skydive St. Louis, and both became licensed skydivers with several hundred jumps.
We held a tandem certification course taught by Larry Bagley and five of our skydivers got Strong tandem ratings. Right as the course began there was a severe oil leak in one of the engine oil coolers, and the engine had to be replaced. We flew our older airplane hard all weekend, and then the next week learned that its engine also needed to be replaced. So suddenly we had gone from two airplanes to zero.
We barely had enough money to buy one engine, and so ushered in the era of Ron Lander's Cessna 182 and Kelly Crittenden the pilot. They came from Oklahoma and leased their 182 to us for the majority of the next three years. The sudden major maintenance costs had a major financial effect on our growth, but this summer brought in several dedicated skydivers including Jean Potvin, Bill and Ed Maschmeir, Dave Steiferman, Dan Cytron, and Rick Segal. By late July we were flying our 182 along with 124K and were averaging 35 flights a day on the weekend.
Linda Smith became involved with skydiving again and became our rigger and a busy AFF jumpmaster. She brought her 7 year old daughter Valerie, who within a year started packing her mother's parachute.
In August the Greater St. Louis Parachute Club brought their two 182's and their club members over to Bowling Green to help conduct an RW seminar. Over the two days the four Cessna 182's flew 94 loads, which is a record for this dropzone to date.
Rob Smith learned to skydive here in June, and by December he had accumulated over 400 jumps, almost all of them at Skydive St. Louis. He had an intimidating aggressive personality and sought to push all the rules. Many of the rules that now exist at Skydive St. Louis were a result of Rob trying to manage the skydiving systems to his desires. By January 1994 his behavior had gotten out of hand and his jumping activities were suspended, and so he immediately went to Archway Skydiving, which had just recently relocated to Vandalia, Illinois. The second day Rob Smith jumped at Archway he tried to do a 360 degree hook turn landing and slammed head first into the ground, and died shortly thereafter. To those who knew him, it seemed an inevitable ending to this talented but very troubled person.
1993
This is the year of the great Mississippi flood. We are located only eleven miles from the river, which gives us a great view of the region. Every day throughout the summer we would watch the flooding spread out from the overloaded river.
The pyrotechnics specialist, Paul Miller, put on a July 4th fireworks show that almost blew up our airplane when the fireworks shot all over the airport, and even under our airplane. That was a show! That was probably about the same time Skydive Colorado sent out a turbo Cessna 206 for us to use for a weekend. Again we fought occassional bad weather throughout the weekend, but were able to fly the highest jumps that had happened at Bowling Green to that point (12500').
During the season Don Krueger returned as an AFF jumpmaster and helped train several dedicated skydivers, including Fred Strunk and his daughter Tracy. They made their second tandem skydives on Sunday afternoon and by Friday they had graduated from their AFF training! Although Tracy and her husband Boyd have made hundreds of skydives, it is Fred who has gone on to become a full time skydiving professional who has participated on several world record skydives.
In November Rick Eddy suffered a ruptured appendix and spent three months recovering from the surgery. During this time the DZ moved out of the old cement block hangar and into the main airport building, and they also became the primary business on the Bowling Green Airport.
1994
By June of 1994 the business seemed to be recovering from the previous years unexpected airplane costs, and the numbers of students continued to increase. Then at the beginning of July the Oklahoma Cessna 182 returned to Oklahoma, and Skydive St. Louis was left with one Cessna 182. The tremendous demand of students and experienced jumpers on one airplane caused several experienced skydivers to move to the new operation in Sullivan, Missouri. While it seemed to be a substantial loss of business at the time, the new operation became a blessing in disguise. The operation in Sullivan could offer services to the experienced skydivers that Skydive St. Louis did not because of our emphasis on instructing novice skydivers. This helped relieve the demand that existed even after we purchased our second Cessna 182 in August. At the beginning of August Larry Flannagan decided to leave aviation, and Russ McMichael became our full time pilot and quite a bit of work and money was put into our airplanes.
From August through November we trained and graduated several dozen people, many of whom became dedicated long term skydivers and became part of the next generation at Bowling Green. This season brought us dedicated skydivers like Steve and Marina Wanthal, Ken and Donna Callahan, the Markowski brothers and all their friends and families. By the end of the season it looked as though the operation had recovered from the financial problems of the previous years and we were poised to make some major gains in 1995.
1995
The beginning of the 1995 season was the low point for Skydive St. Louis. The very last flight in December of 1994 a reserve parachute deployed while the skydiver was still on the step of the airplane. The skydiver and all others were uninjured and landed fine, but there was damage to the airplane and the pilot landed in a farmer's field near the airport. Everyone was fine but the airplane was totaled. Then in March of 1995 the airplane ran out of fuel on descent after dropping off the skydivers, and the pilot was unable to land on the runway and he landed the airplane in a farmer's field. That airplane was totaled and it looked like our operation might be forced to close.
But a small group of skydivers led by Dane Bowman and John Tallman got together and loaned Skydive St. Louis enough money to buy another Cessna 182, which became N4916D, which is still being flown today. Somehow we managed to operate the bulk of the season with just one small airplane, and yet we had a very positive year.
Austin Smith donated a foosball table to the operation, and it has been a mainstay ever since. In his honor we have named a certain type of scoring situation after him known as "an Austin score".
South African Steve Woodford and Maria Wjnker came to be our full time staff instructors and to provide video and packing services. The student business continued to grow and we graduated more long term skydivers like Mike LaMartina, Tim and Gene Kohler, Cris Betta, Bill Gaddis, Bud Manlove, Honza Uher...
Erik Kientzy was our full time pilot, and by September Lew Welzel in Colorado had finished rebuilding N4090D and we had a second airplane to fly again.