Contributed by Tommy Bryant
The 60's
Please forgive the large file sizes of the photos. They will take a while to load! The airport was built in the '40's as a military facility to train pilots and send them off to World War 2. Hugh Bergeron made a jump in July 1962 from a Piper Cub that had to be flown to 2,000 feet with Hugh hanging his legs out of the door because it was so small. The Peninsula Skydivers was born. I am still trying to get some photos from the early 60's. Here is a shot from the Richmond Times Dispatch on Friday, August 16, 1968 reporting the winning efforts of Peninsula Skydiving club members at a Style and Accuracy meet at Lakewood, NJ. There were many top Style and Accuracy competitors from the early days of the Peninsula Skydivers, including Hugh Bergeron, Tommy Bryant, Walter Nott, Mike Schultz from Pelican Land, Stan Hicks, Bob Holler from Pelican Land, who's brother Jerry was President of Peninsula at one time, and others.
Contributed by Tommy Bryant
Just one month later Tommy Bryant made the Times Dispatch again with the photo below:
Contributed By Tommy Bryant
Just imagine what Tommy was thinking about Miss Virginia, that sure is an evil grin! On January 14, 1969 Peninsula Club member Walter Nott attempted to break the record for the number of jumps made in a 24 hour period. Alas the FAA saw an article about the attempt in the Richmond Times Dispatch the day before. They stopped the attempt because the club members packing for Walter were not Riggers. He had made 47 jumps at the time the record was stopped. The paper had the photo below:
Contributed By Tommy Bryant
The greatest story from the '60's is about Tommy Bryant's night jump into the Washington Burgess pool. Here is a group photo of the wild bunch. Click on the link for the actual pool landing photo and story. It is amazing and would probably get anyone thrown in jail if it were done today! Plus it isn't a long enough pool to swoop with a 90 square foot parachute!
I will continue to look for things from the '60's to add here. If you have photos or stories from the '60's send me an EMAIL and let me know!!