Show imad adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF battle in the void by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter H ELLO EVERYBODY 1 I now you know as well as I 1 do that an airplane is one doggoned easy thing to get in trouble with youve probably read a lot of stories of adventure in the air but boys and girls you aint am t heard euthin til youve grabbed yourself an eyeful of this yarn from distinguished adventurer jim collins of brooklyn N Y what happened to 1 0 jim was that he got hold of an airplane and know how to get rid d of lt it ordinarily that tie be such a serious problem matters maert but jims plane p was in m the elir air and that sort of complicated took up a girl Parac parachute hutc jumper it was down in miami fla in the summer of 1919 jim was taking flying lessons from the noted pilot cholmer stultz hed had two hours of instructions and he knew how to keep the plane going once it was up in in the air air he any too good at that either and he admits it furthermore he the slightest idea of how to take a plane off of the ground or to land it that was the status quo when one day stultz hired a girl to do parachute jumps off the wing of his plane the girl said she had made several jumps and stultz took her word for it they took off one hot july day in m an old 0 X waco to give an exhibition and jim collins went along well just for the ride jim and the girl sat in the front cockpit stultz in the rear cockpit was doing the flying they climbed to 0 3 feet and stultz signaled the girl to jump she climbed out on the wing and then things began to happen the girl got out to the end of the wing and there she lost her head she grabbed a strut and hung onto it for dear life stultz yelled IN the girl was hanging from the bottom of the plane to her to jump but instead she wrapped her legs around the strut too then stultz called to her to come back and after a lot of coaxing she started hanging by her chute on the plane she had only gone a few feet when suddenly she slipped and fell from the wing at the same time she pulled the ripcord of her chute the chute opened caught on the rigging of the plane and there was the girl hanging from the bottom of the wing unable to pull herself herse if up to land the plane would have meant certain death for the girl while i e jim gaped openmouthed open mouthed at the sight of her daneli dangling ng in the wind he heard stultz shout to him climb back here with me jim was scared out of his wits 1 I started to obey he says but halfway half way to the cockpit I 1 froze just as frightened as the girl was stultz grabbed me and pulled me in im going out there and get her he said you keep flying straight ahead terrible dilemma for jim well sir the next few minutes were a nightmare to jim everything went all right he says until stultz stepped out on the wing then due to the shifting weight the ship banked stultz yelled kick the right rudder I 1 did and the ship straightened but my knees were knocking together and try as I 1 won would I 1 keep the plane straight several times I 1 almost dumped damped him off and what would happen if he did dump stultz off about all jim could think of for with stultz gone land the ship not jim certainly he know the first thing about landing a plane meanwhile the big adventure was happening out on the wing of the plane plan where a brave man teetering over space e was fighting for the life of a fear crazed girl stultz was having his troubles he got her up says jim and then followed the wildest wrestling match I 1 ever saw the girl panic stricken grabbed cholmer around the neck she got a strangle hold on him and he began choking stultz had to knock her senseless lie he tried to break her grip but it was hard work ile he was blue in the face and getting desperate when finally he let go with a right hook that knocked tier her out for twenty minutes the girl was out still standing on that crazily teetering wing stultz began ripping the chute from her he wrapped it around the struts and then around the girl tying her hei down firmly to the wing then all but exhausted his face still blue from the throttling he had taken he began edging his way toward the cockpit jimmy collins says that nothing in the world ever looked so good to him as the sight of whilmer stultz climbing back into the cockpit again it began to look to him then as if well maybe h he t have to land that plane himself and get killed in the doing of it stultz tumbled over the rim of the cockpit into jims lap and still sitting in m jims lap he took the controls and headed the plane back toward good old miami terra firma once more they made the landing without any further trouble the girl came to again a few minutes later and then jim and cholmer stultz found out that she h had ad never made a parachute jump before she was only bluffing but my hat is off to a girl who bluff her way into a parachute jump i copyright service |