FIELD DAY AT AERODROME

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21464, 4 May 1935, Page 19

FIELD DAY AT AERODROME

I'AUACIII T T I JLMP TO BE MADE The scries of field clays held by the Canterbury Aero Club at Wigram Aerodrome will be continued to-mor-row afternoon. An unusual attraction wi' be a parachute jump from one of the club's aeroplanes by Mr, Bernard Skinner, who recently returned from the Antarctic, where he had been tor two years as a member of the Byrd expedition. One of the club's leading pilots is to give an exhibition of aerobatics, or stunting. Mr W. Dini's Phoenix aeroplane, the smallest machine in the Southern Hemisphere, will be flown by its owner during the afternoon. There will be a height-estimating competition, the prize for which will be a free flight over the city. Loudspeakers have been msl 'led to assist with the organisation, and there will be facilities for afternoon tea. A collection will be taken up at the gates to defray the cost of the parachute display, but otherwise there will be no charge for admission. Arrangements have been made for the parking of cars.

PARACHUTE JUMPER'S CAREER Mi- Bernard W. Skinner, the American parachute jumper, who will give an exhibition at Wigram Aerodrome to-morrow afternoon during .he Canterbury Aero Club's field day programme, has been practising his dangerous occupation for seven years. During that time he has made many hundreds of jumps, and. in fact, seems to be addicted to doing things with a spice of danger in them. Since he was a boy Mr Skinner has been doing dangerous tilings with aeroplanes and parachutes. He has toured the United States with air "circuses," has held the record for a delayed drop by parachute, and was a member of the Byrd expedition to the Antarctic. He is only 24 years t age but into tho:e 24 years he has packed more excitement than the average man could ever hope to have in a lifetime. Mr Skinner, who was interviewed yesterday on his arrival in the city, speaks very interestingly of his parachute jumping. When he jumps he carries a stop-watch and times his jump carefully, calculating by his known falling speed when he has to pull the cord, , , On November 23, 1930, he was taken tc a neight of 15,000 feet above an American airport. For nearly half a minute he took a headlong dive through the air, breaking all records bv making a delayed drop of more than SOOO feet.