The
Golden
Eagles

In the beginning the team was made up of the Labertouche instructors but as the team became more popular it was necessary to induct suitable jumpers into the team.    Until the research is finished many of the team members will only have the date and place of their first display with the team.

Claude and Steve Filak made their first display jump together at Labertouche from a Piper Tri-Pacer in January 1961.   A 10 second delay from 2,000 feet.

As sport parachuting grew and landing accuracy progressed from being measured in hundreds of yards to centimetres, it was difficult to convince government authorities that some parachutists had mastered the art of landing accurately and could be trusted to land in tight (small) areas.

Claude played a leading role in changing the authority's attitude and bringing more reasonable laws to display jumping.

When he decided to earn a living from parachuting, it was necessary to be a jack of all parachuting trades to make ends meet.   In the beginning, display jumping was mostly used as a promotion for the parachute training school but as the civil aviation regulations were eased and displays could be made into smaller areas, they became an important part of the income stream, used to finance the training, commerce and rigging sides of the enterprise.

It was some time before jumpers like Ian Handley, Grahame Hill and Jim Cox realised that display jumping could be part of the entertainment industry.

Steve was the Operations Officer of the Golden Eagles.  As the Eagles developed into a highly professional team and found that even the best commentators at big events had no knowledge of skydiving and gave bland descriptions of the Eagles displays.  If Claude were not on the jump, he would take over the microphone and do the commentary.  Show Ringmasters recognised that the informed commentary gave the display more spectator appeal and would request Claude as the Event Commentator.  That became the norm and from then on the full responsibility for the display operations fell on Steve's shoulders.

Steve had been the preferred Display Jumpmaster since the team was formed.  Choosing the team exit point was critical in the days before high performance parachute canopies and Steve a master in this area.

Steve's habit of always choosing the exit point for the worst possible situation paid off when jumping into the Adelaide agricultural show, Bruce Towers had a rotating malfunction.  Bruce was wearing a video camera on his helmet and calmly filmed the malfunction before cutting away onto a small round reserve. Steve's spotting paid off with Bruce landing on the target.

Steve was always prepared to turn his hand to whatever was needed on the dropzone and as he was the fastest packer and most knowledgeable equipment inspector, over time he added role of Centre Rigger to his role of student continuation training.  This resulted in most of his parachuting being student supervision and display jumping.

As Claude spent more and more time overseas, Steve also took on a lot of the administration tasks as well.  A lot of budding sky gods owe him for steering them through the basics.

He was the Golden Eagles' "Chief of Operations".

Lennie was an all round jumper who performed well in competition and as a "Fun Jumper".

A quite young bloke when he took up parachuting, after completing the Southern Cross Skydivers Instructor Course he became a self-confident skydiver with an outgoing personality.

One of the six skydivers who took part in the world-best 5-Way (6 person) baton pass at Pakenham in 1963, he earned the title "Skydiver" at a time when few in the world could aspire to that honour.

These days, Lennie lives in the Darwin area and works out in the bush as an electrician.

Jimmie was an early member of the Golden Eagles and loved display jumping.

A memorable moment we have of Jimmie was at the Hobart Regatta where the Eagles made a water jump from 12,500 feet wearing wet suits.   The team was to make a 4-Way star but jumping wet suits with very little drag gave them a very fast fall rate as each relative movement required much less use of control surfaces than normal.  Jimmie didn't make it into the formation.    The 250,000 spectators were ecstatic about the jump and in the radio interview that was being broadcast on site immediately following the jump, Jimmie was asked "How come you didn't join the formation".   He answered "We exited over the Hobart Town Hall and the city below was such a beautiful site that I was gawking at the scenery too long and I ran out of time"  The crowd went mad and cheered long enough to interrupt the interview.   There was radio not television but Jimmie was a very popular guy in Hobart that night.

Ray first jumped with the Golden Eagles at Coldstream in April 1969 and is a Jack of all trades in skydiving.  He spent some time in the USA working for Strong Enterprises and 6 months in Malaysia setting up a parachute manufacturing facility.

His involvement in BASE jumping surprised many in the skydiving establishment.   His most outstanding venture in that field was to hike through the Tasmanian forest to leap off Frenchman's Cap.

He excelled as an FAI Judge and has judged a great number of World Championships.   For a number of years he was the only FAI Judge to be rated in every parachuting discipline.  These days he is a guru amongst artistic event judges and is in demand as an artistic event judge.

He was APF Director Judging for 1981 and again from 1986 to 1994

He is currently studying business administration full time and fitting overseas judging assignments into his curriculum.

Kilmore Races 20/10/68

Gene, an army sergeant and parachuting instructor, was transferred to Melbourne in Oct? of 1969 and went to work as an instructor at the Centre.

Gene first jumped with the Eagles at the Geelong Show on the 16th of October 1969.  He was an outstanding member of the Golden Eagles and participated in every display while he was at Labertouche until he ran foul of the Bald Eagle by bringing a girlfriend to a display where the team was living in a five bedroom house with only one bathroom and the girlfriend held up everybody for more than  an hour making up her face and everybody was late for dinner.    Gene was warned not to bring her again but brought her along to the next display relying on his Sergeant Bilko tongue to get around the problem.   It didn't work and Gene was banished for three months from displays.

Kilmore Showgrounds 19/10/69

Kilmore Showgrounds 19/10/69

Bob came to the Centre as a foundation member of Monash Skydivers. He became a parachute instructor but found that his interest in flying did not allow him time to give both activities the attention required to well in both.   So he chose flying and eventually went into partnership with another Centre pilot, purchased a Piper Navajo and started a charter business.

Bob's first jump with the Eagles was at the Tyabb Airshow on the 28th December 1969.  He enjoyed jumping into Monash University each time the Eagles had a display there.

He has had a successful career in aviation and now flies corporate aircraft in Australia and overseas.   

2/1/70  Paynesville Sport Spectacular

2/1/70  Paynesville Sport Spectacular

24/1/70  Longwarry Rodeo      21/10/1972 Geelong Show

24/1/70  Longwarry Rodeo

24/1/70  Longwarry Rodeo - Lang Lang Rodeo

24/1/70  Longwarry Rodeo

15/10/70 Geelong Show

18/10/70 Kilmore Gymkhana

22/11/70  Launceston Air Pageant

10/04/71  Peaches and Cream Festival Cobram

12/04/71  Lang Lang Rodeo

16/10/71   Geelong show

17/10/71   Kilmore Races, Bendigo Show

20/10/1972 Geelong Show

21/10/1972 Geelong Show

21/10/1972 Geelong Show

23/04/1973  Lang Lang Rodeo and 1977

09/12/1973  Bayswater

09/02/1974  Edenhope, 17/11/74 Shepparton,

09/03/1974  Tongala  (Peaches and Cream Festival)

10/02/1974  Trafalgar   17/03/74 Longwarry

10/02/1974  Trafalgar

17/03/1974  Longwarry     28/09/1977 Horsham Show    
13/10/1977 Geelong Show

17/03/1974  Longwarry, 28/07/74 Monash Uni, 17/10/74 Geelong

17/03/1974  Longwarry, 28/07/74 Monash Uni

17/03/1974  Longwarry, 28/07/74 Monash Uni, 17/10/74 Geelong

19/10/1974  Charlton

23/02/1975   Portland

05/10/1975   Geelong Show    12/11/1977  Dandenong Show

14/11/1976   Dandenong Show

January 1977   Bright Woodchop.

Guest Jumper: Bill was a regular guest jumper with the Eagles.  He loved display jumps and always played to the crowd.  He first jumped with the Eagles at Tyabb Airshow on 28/12/69.

He had a rapport with the media that did not always work to his advantage.   He once took sick leave from his job to jump in the Australian Championships in Western Australia.   His photograph appeared on the front page of a Melbourne newspaper reaching for the disc on landing.   He got a telegram from the boss; "Congratulations on your success in the competition, don't bother reporting upon your return".

On another occasion he went AWL from work to jump at the Melbourne Show.    The newspapers published a picture of him in their coverage of the show and he was in deep strife at the building site.

A building worker and crane driver, wherever possible Bill would jump into whatever site he was working on.  On at least one occasion that was onto the top of a high rise building in the CBD. 

Billy was true blue Aussie and a staunch unionist.   He jumped every year at the Builders Labourer's Annual Picnic and never missed a skydiving event or a party.

Guest Jumper: Ian was a keen competition jumper and Australian Accuracy Champion in 19??, 19?? etc.   He had his own parachuting display act that he performed at the Sydney Agricultural show.   He was a one man show that started off as a straight jump, then he introduced a moving target and landed on the pillion seat of a motor cycle with bike in motion.  This developed to a landing in the back of a Utility (Small truck) and later on the top of a double-decker bus.    A true entrepreneurial showman.

The Golden Eagles always recognised talent and invited Ian on some of its bigger displays.   His performance was always flawless.

Ian earned the name "Which Foot" from his accuracy training technique.  When approaching the target disc on accuracy training jumps he would call out to the ground crew "Which Foot?".    He would get a reply "Left" or "Right" and he would then strike at the disc with that foot.   Such a technique requires absolute self-confidence

After Ian gave up competing, he was asked by a cheeky jumper "What's it like to be a has-been?".   Ian replied without hesitation "Better than being a never-was".

Ian was a member of the 1972 Australian Parachute Team and competed at the 11th World Parachuting Championships hosted in Tahlequah, North Carolina, USA.    

Guest Jumper: Geelong Show  17/10/1974

Tony was a regular guest jumper with the Eagles.  Particularly at country regional shows.    

Guest Jumper: David was a guest jumper with Eagle Skydivers and particularly enjoyed jumping at the Melbourne Agricultural Show.  

His real love was competition jumping and he represented Australia at World as a competitor and as a Meet Director.  He took part in many competitions at all levels. 

On one occasion, David stole the limelight at a Melbourne Show. He was approaching the arena at about 500 feet using a classic accuracy technique and as he turned his five cell ram air parachute towards the arena, one side of the canopy rolled under and David was back in free fall for a brief period until the canopy opened again at about 250 feet.  This left him with barely enough height to make it back into the arena and he had to lift his legs to avoid touching the edge of the grandstand roof as he flew his canopy straight for the target and made a last second hook turn to stand up in the centre of the target square.

The spectators in the north stand had a clear view of all of this and when the parachute collapsed, there was an audible gasp from the crowd.   When the parachute opened again there was another loud gasp from the crowd and as David landed the crowd burst into wild applause.    As the Eaglemobile took the team on the "Drive By" around the trotting track, the north stand spectators showed lots of appreciation for a good show.   Most of them believed that it was all part of the act.    David showed no sign of being perturbed by the incident, which in fact had been a close shave.