Fielding's Friends

"I will have been jumping with Steve Fielding for 31 years, 6 months and 8 days when we make his 4000th jump together. It has always been for the love of the sport and without a cross-word between us the entire time. It's been an honor to call him friend for all these years..." - Al Krueger

"One thing I could always count on with Steve Fielding. He made it easy for me to identify myself in a star because his very tall body helped to emphasize my small 5'1 frame. Case in point, he was directly across the star from me on the Night 16-way, and on the first ever day time 27-way, I entered the star on Steve's left.

Thank you Steve for being there, and for sharing your dreams with me. As Jonathan Livingston Seagull would say, 'your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too......' (Richard Bach) We were so privileged to have been able to discover the joy of body flight, and I treasure every one of those incredible memories."
Love, your sister in flight, Purusha (Purple Patty)

"The first time I jumped with Steve was in 1979. He had organized a 12-way quadra-wedge. My group of 4 newbies asked if we could join them. He put us out behind them figuring that we would never get there. So he went out 12th. All four of us got in, as diamond closers. It was my first 16-way. Steve then organized another 16-way quadra-diamond and moved my 3 friends up to docking on the base. He then looked at me (the only female in the group) and said "You, I want to see do it again because the first time might have just been a fluke!" So I got to be a diamond closer again (although he did go out last on this one). I've been jumping with him ever since. It was the beginning of our 22+years love/hate relationship!!!!" - Sharron Fielding

"In 1977, Steve asked me if I wanted to jump with his group to get my SCR. Dirty Ed overheard his offer. Dirty Ed told me not to jump with Steve because the only reason he asked was to get me to buy beer. I wanted my SCR so I jumped with Steve and bought the beer." - Bette Klett

"When Steve was on Visions he didn't go out last and because he wore his old Bell full face helmet the called them 'Tunnel Visions.' He was a visionary. I hope you will have the good taste to not tell anyone where you heard this. (I will deny everything)" - ahhh Geronimo cannot say who said this

"One time up in Snohomish, WA he was late for a dirt dive. We were trying to get the record for a 55 way up there that time. As punishment, we made him get out first of the Otter. He was not pleased at all and thought we were kidding. But he did it and we let him go back to his old slot for the rest of the day." - JuneBug

Also from JuneBug, "And another time - at Elsinore. Mike Quasnik brought over some Jell-O one Sunday night. Steve hadn't heard about the 'special Jell-O'. He must have been hungry and wasn't paying too much attention when we told him to slow down because the Jell-O had alcohol in it. He just kept eating one after another. Sharron said they got about two or three miles down the road before he had to pull over and have Sharron drive home. He was stoned !!!"

"I watched Steve exit FIRST one time at Costerisans. Ray has it on film. It was the last jump of the weekend and he'd invited everyone there on the last load. I was kind of nervous, this being my first time jumping with Steve, and not having 1000's of jumps like everyone else.

At about 3,000 feet there was a giant pop. We thought Janet's champagne cork had popped. Steve was sitting by the door across from me. He had his frap hat on in less than a nanosecond. Skip set us up on jump run. We lost an engine on the DC-3 (another first for me). Lo, and behold, Steve exited first! Everyone landed safely including the DC3 and another round of beer was handed out." - Marie Winther

"MY favorite story about Steve was years ago (don't ask me exactly when, cause I doubt if it is even in the log book) at Costerisan, out of the DC3. Steve was spotting on a somewhat cloudy day. I will never forget Steve standing in the door, grimacing slightly, occasionally shaking his head, and finally turning to the assembled and expectant multitude in the plane and yelling, 'What the hell, you all have square reserves. CUT!' We all landed, oh, a couple of miles from the Farm? It IS my favorite Steve quote, with 'Shut UP, Sharron!' running a close second..." - Leigh Webb

"Some time ago I was programming my cell phone with Steve's number out at the DZ. It also has voice activation. So I voiced in 'Steve Cell' for his weekday phone and 'Steve Weekend' for his weekend cell. (his suggestions, of course). Recently I told him I didn't like saying 'Steve Weekend' into my phone, because it sounded too much like 'Steve Weakened', and asked if he had another suggestion. He laughed, thought for a second and said, with all seriousness, 'How about-- Party Animal?'" - Mary Pat Avery