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The Gypsy Moths
The Gypsy Moths

Any of you guys ever see this flick?
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Gypsy Moths
Rainy day at a DZ in the back of a camper getting fucked up. What a great movie...

Me and a tandem master sat on the plan that whole season throwing quotes at each other after watching it and confusing students.

"You never know what they'll settle for!"
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Gypsy Moths
Carl Boenish did the skydiving film work for that film. There are a number of wingsuit jumps. Those wingsuits had rigid wood. No deaths in the filming from what I recall. But of the 62 wingsuits that were made and 62 jumpers who used them, 60 died from their wingsuits, and Carl Boenish was one who did not. It involved having their arms broken due to the flawed wingsuit design, which resulted in a no pull situation. Told it's a good film.
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Re: [460] The Gypsy Moths
I heard that on one scene were someone goes in doing a demo, they didnt tell the crowd they were tossing a dummy out for maximum realistic effect from the crowd.
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Gypsy Moths
Its a classic dude!
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Re: [gauleyguide] The Gypsy Moths
Rumor has it the nice hum job in the last scene is real.I think the stunt jumper that did it is still alive.I had heard he dumped sub 500 ft.
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Re: [thegrump] The Gypsy Moths
Lancaster: "Sure, I'll jump the cape tomorrow. I ain't scared. But tonight I'm giving Deborah Kerr a perl neacklace."

Line cut from the original movie . . .

NickD Smile
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Gypsy Moths
yup on DVD!
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Re: [thegrump] The Gypsy Moths
Rumor has it the nice hum job in the last scene is real.I think the stunt jumper that did it is still alive.I had heard he dumped sub 500 ft.

Boenish did hum it down with a camera on to 500 ft. to show the ground rush, but the director didn't like the footage, so they made something up out of the helicopter to simulate it.

Boenish got the cold shoulder for a while from some of the guys who didn't think he should have gone so low.

As for the crowd shot, yes, they threw a dummy out of the plane without telling the crowd what they were doing.
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Re: [460] The Gypsy Moths
Carl Boenish did the skydiving film work for that film. There are a number of wingsuit jumps. Those wingsuits had rigid wood. No deaths in the filming from what I recall. But of the 62 wingsuits that were made and 62 jumpers who used them, 60 died from their wingsuits, and Carl Boenish was one who did not. It involved having their arms broken due to the flawed wingsuit design, which resulted in a no pull situation.
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That is the legend, but I believe it's mostly myth. There are lots of people around even now who were jumping wingsuits in the old days. Most just stopped doing it because they weren't real efficient anyways, or maybe they got scared. When they first started, guys couldn't even fall stable, let alone get much performance out of batwings.... That's not to say there weren't a number of deaths under batwings, but there were probably more people that jumped them, and percentage of fatalities was much lower than legend says.
colebatwings.jpg
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Gypsy Moths
It's still the finest parachuting movie ever made.

When they leave the bar and look up to the sky and sniff the air, I'm thinking to myself, 'Yeah, it'd be a great night for a night jump!'

This next part could be a spoiler, but....




When Rettig is humming it and about to go in, I had to get up and walk around the room. It's that real.
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Re: [skypuppy] The Gypsy Moths
http://www.skydivingmovies.com/...tion=file&id=294
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Re: [GreenMachine] The Gypsy Moths
wiki wrote:
Todd Higley, a prominent skydiver in the Seattle area today, is said to have been the main technical advisor and stunt double for Mr. Lancaster, and today is well known for having invented wingsuit BASE jumping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gypsy_Moths
I had no idea he was that old! Laugh
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Re: [thegrump] The Gypsy Moths
thegrump wrote:
Rumor has it the nice hum job in the last scene is real.I think the stunt jumper that did it is still alive.I had heard he dumped sub 500 ft.

that's not true, actually. Boenish did do a real humjob during filming. In fact, I think he did it on a sunday or something so no one would be around, and everyone was telling him not to do it, and got mad at him after he did it. But then the director took a shot mounted under the helicopter of it lifting off, and reversed it for the shot of the ground rush that was included in the film...

I have a copy of the book signed by author, James Drought. We have a jumper here who is distintly related to him, great-niece or something....