NOTHING FOR NOTHING

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 1, Issue 24, 20 January 1933, Page 8

NOTHING FOR NOTHING

Parachute Descent CROWD CHEERS BUT DOES NOT PAY. * l l’ll admit it is not playing the game, but you’ll also admit that it is the same on both sides,” said Pilot Officer “Scotty” Frazer at the conclusion of his jump at Rangiora on Sunday. He referred to his refusal to take on the second jump as scheduled since he had not collected enough money to risk one jump. It is certainly the case that a parachutist needs an ample “ gate ” as insurance for his jump, and those who saw “Scotty” tumbling over and over for more than two hundred feet before his parachute opened seven hundred feet np will realise how true this is. The Real Objection. But “ Scotty’s ” main objection was slightly different: If the crowd chose to stay outside on the Oxford Road rather than pay threepence to help a man who was risking his life, and others deliberately walked in without offering to pay, he was not going to play up to them. Besides, he came down hard, too, and is to be commended for jumping at all. The jump took place in Musson’s paddock, Rangiora, on Sunday afternoon, when two Canterbury Aero Club planes piloted by Bush ap.d J. Selby formed the supports for Frazer’s parachute descent. The first jump was scheduled for 3 p.m., but long before that time Rangiora residents were startled out of their after-dinner coma by the drone of planes circling overhead and turned out to see ZK-AAH and ZK-AAW wheeling above in the blue sky, with the first instalment of passengers on board. By two o’clock a gaily clad procession was filing along the road, following a trail of motorcars and cycles; many doubtful about the exact location of Musson’s Paddock but all turning in eventually, where black crowds round two glittering planes in a nearby paddock put an end to their doubts and their exertions. Passenger Flights. Bush and Selby, the pilots, did a thriving trade with passenger flights, and most of those who were fortunate enough to have 10/6 and were up-to-date enough to risk the air, expressed themselves well satisfied with their adventure. The descent was delayed owing to the pressure of passengers for these trial flights, hut Scotty •Frazer had his parachute on his hack by a quarter past three, and at twenty to four Jack S.elby took him aboard and piloted him up into the blue. As the plane circled above the crowd in full view, at an elevation of 900 feet, the noise of .the engine suddenly ceased, a tiny white figure appeared above the wings, and spun earthwards. For fully two hundred feet it spun over and over and round and round like a blown white feather, but suddenly staggered in mid air, stopped dead, as many feet above it a graceful white umbrella hurst out like an enormous mushroom. Earthwards. Then the parachute began to swing earthwards far more rapidly than most of us expected, and the waving aviator dangled below like a marionette. He was rushing down with a light breeze blowing him westward, and the crowd was rushing thoughtlessly towards him. There was a faint noise coming from the air but no one heard it in the yelling crowd till he was only a stone’s throw above. He was shouting “ Stand clear! ” in his broad Scotch, and as the crowd scattered he hurtled down yiot too lightly into the hastily vacated circle. The jump was over.