PARACHUTE-JUMPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

PARACHUTE-JUMPING.

FROM AN AEROPLANE. FLOATING IN MID-AIR. *THi. '"I' : 1 -! ' 1 F AI.T. THP.ILLS M.-.\ '•?.!> ■ FT" ' >M BE |r: • ' r.'iw po.-siMe. probs> r T '•? # ;-rrr' ■■-. an aeroplane primp or !••••. -•••!-•.n™ to the 1 " ' : -r.-.T- • ; a huge bur flimsy t.ik— ri other w. i~, 8 ti.a • v.--!j havr riir- '-nerve'' v let us t • - a r - ir an ••• .anc f>-t up. by man who made the Lieut Ti-: bert Cramer: — X. I : .ft >:;:>• . moved my dry 1"- .n a word.---- : ire we'd. ; , n d f■ >: ■••d a e" — a rath-r r-a-kiy one. I a::, a:-a: i. l'- r. I F^i my rlsrht le~ • •vrr T iie e'.J 1 - of The balanced th<T<- for 8. rr.~v..,.r:-. then with all mv might I t ed myself away from th« f= i'.ios of *:><• aeroplane. The next instant 1 found iryjf'.f -i<liniz across the a;r liko a bird. ];• .r.2 fa™ downward with my hand.- and t rxr.'ii.lcd. ! •"• r rii'. space of several second* it F- n:"da= if I were smply fh.tat ;ng tin-re jr. it :c!-a t. I he 1 " n -m ; ie-an-hour int-T-'us the 'j'ianc had given me shot me 3- "ward 'nirh it. instead of downward: 2 -raveuied directly under the wine r: the 'plane, and about 30ft below it, f<■ - what seemed an extremely long time. 3 had been prepared for a breathlpss decent, bur iu-tead 1 was cxitting the a: - like a project iie! Before my body Twisted in the air I was looking downward on to the flying field. Even in that brief interval I saw again the upturned face? of my friends. flat, red roof of the hospital, and The ambulance, in motion now, rushing down the field to pet under me. That ambulance —would it pick me up alive <yr dead? Then my head dropped forward ever so slightly, my body instantly followed it, and I began turning a peries <n" violent somersaults. I was falling 53' w! There was no longer any doubt ebout thar ! Terrifying Speed. bach time 1 Turned over so that I ia-ed the earth I could see the ground lurehing up toward me at a hideous, -terrifying .-peed. I found myself speculating in sheer panic how many seconds it would take to drop the whole distance. Should I "have time to reach the pull ring and yar.k the rip cord free? And. if I did. would the parachute have time to open and check my descent? Three thousand feet wasn't such a great height alter all. 1 began regret - Tinp that I had Trot gone higher—."ititiQ fe.'T, perhaps. It would have given the •parachute neater lime to spread out its * "en f p ids, n ;i-: iia\ • been then that T groped f: -• ;t ,e.-i: v. uiii.:.* . fur the ring, found it end yanked it i.-e. Perhaps I threw it off into the air with the force of the pull; I can't remember. All that I recall is that a»- 1 twisted and turned over in the ail', with my arms and long leps fi\ In" v i'diy. I caugiit a glimpse of the a-r"plaiie humming overhead. I was amazed to discover tiiat I had already dropped several hundred feet, and yet the parachute had n-'t opened!* < jreat heavens, had the thins failed? "Was it defective? Was 1 going to continue on downward until 1 struck the earth with crushing loree —to rebound into tha air again, a twisted and horr;bly distorted thing? There was the emergent- parachute ;■ niind leaped ea?erl"v to that. Perhaps my hand leaped" for The ring. Too. I do not know, but at That in.-Taut There came ir.-.m Overhead the whistling shriek and .-liapp;ng flutter of a 'chute unfilled by a breeze. Then —w-li-a-m! With the booming report of a gun €lie paraehute opened, and my de.-cent ■tras checked vviiii ,-ueh startlinp riiddenthat the webbed harness yanked xi.v left arm al'ove my head; I thought had V>een dislc'K-ated. Next instant I found mvself sittincr comfortably in a si:)]", svvavinp from side to side a? tile t>i:r silken envelope oscillated softly and the shrouds al>ove my head whistled ' pieM -ant, cheerful song. I he parachute tatl worked! There wa-s I, smiling Serenely, safe and unharmed, more than i fe<>t above the tlyincr field, vvhiie the ambulance iu-1 below me followed jr:v uncertain cour-e. Tight As a Drumhead. T looked up at that wonderful envelope of silk, that mapnificent big canopy bulging taut as a drumhead with th■ 1 air beneath it; and if ever I feii fateful toward anyone <jr anything I ■feU trulv prateful to that inanimate •contrivance of silk and cord that had Vheeked my downward plunaa. With the gun shining through it, it looked doublv •beautiful to me. The compiler has before linn an acfcnunt written by ( olonel Lindberg. t.ie "*rorld-fanious trans-Atlantic airman. *hen lie wa- a cadet, of a forced pararhute desceir • h-n nearly a nr.le above the earth It is more matter c-t tact than the de-criprion just quoted, and cri\e- an interesting glini|»e into the p- \ rhologv of the lone eagle ot t ). A' hi lit ic." , cadet Lindberg became an ex-para-hute-jumper, and tor reason hi- description is of special si: • eif-t. The adventure occurred on ■\j c,. 102."». when two student pilot-. I.e-i::. iI). McAllister and Cadet Charles .A. Lindberg. after colliding in mid-air, ii',;:- tied from their unmanageable Pl a " pi.d floated down to safety. Cadet 1 ill be re's report is as follows: — \ nine-ship SK-." formation, comr mded bv Lieut. Blackburn, was atT : k t: a' T)e Hm viilanil 48. tlnwn by ] .-it Rus-elI Maughan f da j. at about a .VtOOft altitude, and f.. era! hundred feel ai.ove The clouds, j » a - flvinff on the top of the left in Lieut. MeA!li-ter on my right, and ( „det Love leading. When we nosed ri. Un on the DH. T attacked from the ]. :r and Lieut. .MeAlli-ter from the r-> T \ f • r ;• Cadet Love pulled up, T cont'e• ie,d to dive on the DH for a r-hort T.-i" before j'lilling up to the left. T Srf u 110 other -hip near by. T passed a• e rhe DH. and a moment later felt s -light jolt, t'<dlowed by a cra-h. My n I was thrown forward apain-t the r . utr and mv 'plane seemed to turn * . : and hang nearly motionless for a- " ---nut. T .dosed the throttle and FH« a. sT with l.ient. McAllister in T (kpit. a few feet on rnv left. He t appa'-entiy i.nhurt and getting T> i ■■ -o jump. . i'v -hips were Rocked together, with jfl;.. T ■ I - e | a g e - approximately parallel- • edit *\ing was damaged and hfl'l ■; b.i k .-ligh'tly, covering tliv f" l '

ward right-hand corner of the cockpit. 1 Then the »hips started to mill round! and the iviivj began whistling. j ihe right wing commenced vibrating.\ striking inv head at the bottom of each' "--dilation. 1 removed the rubber baud) .-aferying the belt, unbuckled it. and I '■.m."Ui t ••• trailing edge ..f the damag-d wins:. With n:v' fevt ou the, cwlaig on the right side of the cock-; p:t. which was then in a npar!v vertical' 'iM:, 1 jupci backward a.- far from ' 1 had ik> difti'-ulty in locatins: the pull- ! ring, and experienced no sensation of I f idling. The wreckage was falling nvarlv i straight down. 1 fell in line with :r? I path. Fearing the wreckage might hit 1 mo. I did n f 't pull tin- rip-cord until I had dropped several hundred feet and . ■ 11" the clouds. Purine this time I had turned one-half revolution and. was filling Hat. fare downward. The parachute fnricti"ned perfectly; almost . a> sc.i'ii as 1 p'i ""'d the rip-cord. th<- ' ris< rs jerked on my shoulders, the legstraps tightened, my head went down, and the 'chute was fully opened. 1 saw Lieut. McAllister floating j above me and the wrecked ships pass j about a hundred yards to one pith . c mtmuing to spin to the right and j leaving a trail of lighter fragments i along their path. I watched them until.: still locked together, they crashed in \ the niesquite about two thousand feet below, bursting into flames several seconds after impact. . Locating a Landing Place. Next I turned my attention to locating a landing-place. I was over niesquite and drifting in the gemr;:! direction of a ploughed field, which 1 reached by slipping the 'chute. .Shortly before striking the ground I was drifting backward, but was able to swing around in the harness just as 1 landed on the side of a ditch less than a hundred feet from the edge of the mesquite. Although the impact of the landing w . s too great for me to remain standing. 1 was hot injured in any way. The parachute was still held open by tlie wind, and did not collapse until I pulled in one group of the shroud-lines. During my descent I lost my goggles, a vest p<K-kt't camera, whi'h titieu tightly in my hip-pocket, and the ripcord of the parachute. One of the narrowest escapes in the records of parachute jumps from aeroplanes was that of an airman named Ralph Bottreil. With a couple of 'chutes strapped to him. he began to climb, at twenty thousand feet, from the observer's seat. In some way the hand-ring of the rip-cord of his main parachute caught on the 'plane. The 'chute was promptly blown open by the terrific blast from the propeller, and as the giant umbrella jerked Bottreil backward. his left arm struck the rudd- r. He reef ived a bad gash, and some of the muscles of his arm were torn: and to make matters worse a strap of his harness caught in the rudder and ripped the control of the tail The parachute was torn right across and several of the supporting shroud-lines broken. Bottreil, half-dazed from shock and pain, fell earthward, while the pilot found himself four miles up in an aeroplane that would not steer. Experimenting rapidly, he discovered that by throttling down and tipping slightly with the ailerons he could keep a straight course. He glided down very cautiously to about eight thousand feet"; then, juggling with the throttle and ailerons, he contrived to make a wide, wavering turn, straighten out. head in'o the wind, and glide safely to the ground. Meanwhile. Bottreil, although he had lost a lot of blood, did not lose conScious >iess. At about a thousand feet he ]et •-<■> his emergency parachute and landed safely in a ploughed field. Medical attention, luckily, was not long delayed. Delayed Jumps. Surely ii" greater thrill can be experienced by the adventurous than a d'-layed .lump by parachute from a pwit'fly-m'.vdug 'plane—-that is. to wait ilelii,<-raie]until a fall of several hundred feet has been experienced before pulling the rip-cord of the parachute. Another, and only slightly milder, experiment for those in search of excitement is to climb on to a wing of an aeroplane, pull the rip-cord of the "chute, and be jerked off into nothingness by the wind. These delayed jumps are not mere "stunting": they are often essential in order that a man may be well clear of the 'plane before his parachute "pens cut. Parachute iumpinsr now i"im- an important part of an airman'? eour-e of instruction, and photographs are of service in that they help in teachinn the i«irrcot handling and technique of the parachute. A, scheme for ' shooting"' pilots clear of the machine from the cockpit will be demonstrated at the Internationa] AirTraffic Exhibition to be held at Cologne. This invention is intended to assist aviators in cases where the falling 'plane prevents the pilot jumping (dear. His seat, with a parachute attached, is placed oil a compressed-air chamber, and it is claimed that the power from this is sufficient to "shoot"' an average man a distance of twenty to thirty feet. The air is released by the pulling of a lever. The inventor got his idea from the gun used by "human cannon-balls" at music halls and circuses. An automatic parachute—one so constructed that it will open of itself and prevent a damaged aeroplane nose-diving to earth—has aI~o been patented. The 'chute in this case is permanently fastened to the machine, and if the 'plane gets into a "spin," ''stall." or any other manoeuvre from which the pilot cannot recover a normal position, the parachute can be opened by a lock and will then lower the aeroplane safely to the ground.