LEAP OF 3000 FEET

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 79, 27 December 1937, Page 11

LEAP OF 3000 FEET

Our Own CorrespondcnH

Ex-Clerk's Parachute Descent LANDED WITH A THUD

(Fiom

LONDON, Nov. 25. Three thousand feet up in the darkness over the a-irport at Bournemouth to-night a tiny shape detached itself from an airplane, fell headlong earthwards, fioated for an instant like a giant white bird, then landed with e thud on the centre of the flying field. Members of the flying club who ran to assist Gwynne Johns, twenty-seven-year-old clerk-parachute jumper, found hira sitting in tho folds of his parachute grimacing with pain after the iirst successful delayed drop parachute descent at night. He had injured his right ankle and left knee. "It was marvellous," he told them as they unstrapped the heavy parachute gear from his shoulders. "The most thrilling sensation I'va ever had," he told a reporter. "Thrilling because I had to rely almost wholely on my watch during the drop, waiting for the moment to pull the rip cord. It was terribly cold. L could see the lights of Bournemouth and, the moon spinning round as I turned at least a dozen somersaults. "In the palm of my hand I held cn illuminated stop-watch. I counted the soconds as well as watching them on the watch. The -vague shape of tho earth seemed rushing up to meet ma. Thirty seconds, forty seconds — then I pulled the cord. "But I had left it a bit late, and ;1 hit the ground with a wallop. I haven('t hurt myself much — just strained a few muscles. With the two parachutes on — one for emergencies — Johns could not get into the cockpit of the 'plane which took him up. So he had to sit astride the fuselage as if he were riding a horse. AUA., ,;U Aiiit.. must do it agaaxn." lu August this year Johns, once a 30s. a week clerk, broke every world J record by falling 18,000ft. before opening his parachute. For months he had saved 7/6 from his Friday night wage to pay his expenses. He has broken a leg and an ankle during his jumps. \