AT 500 M.P.H.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 47, 7 February 1928, Page 9

AT 500 M.P.H.

Q’VILLER COULD PARACHUTE THRILLS FOR SYDNEY Sydney. January 23. What would it have felt like to spring with a parachute from the 'plane of Lieut. Webster when he won the Schneider Cup at 281 miles an hour? _ Lieut. Haakon Q’viller, the Norwegian parachute expert, who is now in Sydney, claims that with his Norwegian parachute he could drop from a ’plane travelling at 200 miles an hour, and reach earth safely. Most of the 68 descents made by Q’Viller have been from 'planes moving at the rate of 80 or 90 miles an hour. But he says that speed does not make very much difference to the skilled parachutist. His parachute, a huge umbrella of silk, opens automatically whether he is falling from the 'plane head first or feet first. Once lie dropped 1500 feet before he was able to get a parachute case between his knees and haul out the globe of silk. Q’viller who declares he has no nerves when he is in the air. will drop 400 feet at Sydney. To drop 400 feet is a more dangerous stunt than to drop 4000 feet. That sickening fall before the parachute opens must necessarily be shorter. There is not the slightest margin for a mistake or an error of judgment. In cominir down from 10.000 feet Q’viller in Norway drop ped 1000 or more like a plummet before a parachute opened His outside margin in a 100 feet descent would be 100 feet. He will need the other 300 feet to regain equilibrium and come to rest safelv instead of being hurled on to the earth and perhaps dragged along. Q’viller hones to drop 22.000 feet at Bondi on Saturday. His fall, he says, will be dependent on hnw high a ’plane in Sydney can climb.