Evening star., 1927-10-02
First Was Lift Off,"

| of it,. 1t was a success, and his ap-
petite for jumping was whetted i'm
mediately.
| First Was Lift or"
In reality, the first descent was not
a jump, but lift off" Standing on
| the wing of an F-5-L seaplane. at
1000 feet, and on a cold February
afternoon, he held fast to one of the
wing struts and pulled the rip cord.
The parachute unwrapped and Clark
| let go his grip. It lifted him from
the wing and brought him down to
earth.
| Clark lived on memories of that
experience for month. and then he
definitely decided to make a live drop.
This all but put an end to his aspira.
| tions as a parachute authority. Tie
admits he knew nothing about jump.
| ing at the time, and was contented
| to trust everything to chance. From
the same F-5.L he took off with
ground breeze blowing at seven miles
an hour At 1000 feet it was SIS miles
| an hour.
Over the side of the ship he went
head foremost, he pulled the cord.
there was the usual sharp jerk and
he began gliding into the field. The
wind, however, blew him away from
the place he had thought he would
land. At the east and southern end
of the field there are high.tension
wires. Clark was headed right for
ing the chute in those days, and help.
lessly he landed among the $4,000
volts.
Got Tangled in Wires.
His body brushed the wires, but the
chute got tangled up in them. This
| tangling arced the wires and the silk.
en- umbrella burned up on the spot.
Clark dropped few feet safely to the
ground. The contact with the wires
blew everything out between Boiling
Field and Alexandria for five hours"
he said.
| "It was then I thought I'd better
go to the Parachute School at Lake.
hurst, N. j.. and learn something
about jumping. The course is II
weeks in length, but I finished 1t in
six weeks. The course included in
struction in packing and. maintenance,
drop"
= Clark then returned to Anacostia, a
parachute expert, and was put in
charge Of the parachute locker at the
station. From then on up until the
|
jump of nine men from a Navy plane
he has gone up in airplanes and
jumped "for the fascination and the
kick I get out of it,
All Clark learned at the Parachute
School and through experience in
jumping, however, was not calculated
to get him out of a tight squeeze in
which he found himself just a short
time ago. He had agreed to give a
| jumping demonstration at a nearby
city as part of his privately-waged
campaign to show the safety Of para
chutes. With Chief Photographer Ell.
| more c. Brauer Of the Air Station in
the front cockpit. equipped with a mo-.
ton picture camera to record the
jump. Clark and the pilot took off in
an Eaglerock commercial plane.
Plane Did Spin.
| II had given institutions to the pilot
before taking off to fly down the cen.
ter Of the field, over which I would
jump" Clark said. '"The pilot evi.
IDENTIFY misunderstood me, for he came
down the edge Of the field. Had I
Jumped over that place. would have
landed in a graveyard. Subsequently
I thought I should have jumped any
way.
However. yelled to him to turn
over into the center Of the field and he
gave hard left rudder. was stand
ing on the wing at a point where 1t
joins on to the fuselage and holding
onto the cowling Of the cockpit. I'm.
mediately the plane went into a
tight spin. couldn't get into the
plane because centrifugal force pre-.
vented me. We made three turns and
lost aabout 400 feet. Brauer, in the
| front seat. was Mortified. I'll never
forget that expression. His eyes were
as big as saucers.
AS we were spinning, I thought of
Lieut.. Barksdale, who was killed
while trying to get out of his plane
which was in a fiat spin. So 1 de.
cided to leave the ship. In that mo.
ment Of hesitation before the plane
began its fourth turn I showed off
free
But this was not the end Of it. ]
was falling downward and the plane
was spinning down directly on top OF
me. l was afraid to pull the cord be-
cause my descent would be checked
and the plane would land on top OF
me. So / continued to fall free. II
was one mad race. / kept WATCHING
the ground and then the ship.
The ground kept coming UP faster
and faster, and at what thought was
about $50 feet, / decided I'd have to
90 something. So I pulled the cord
The chute unfurled and at that mo
ment old John Eaglerock came out OF
the spin, about 100 feet on top of me
My only thoughts on the way down
were to get the chute open and keen
clear Of the plane thought was going
to spin into the ground. This stuff
about your past, present and future
coming UP before you is all bunk.
} didn't realize what a close call II was
until l landed and had time to think
1t over.
Looked Like Good Show.
|. THE people on the ground thought
it was wonderful show. They were
all enthusiastic, and no doubt would
nave liked to see it done again. Bu-
there were few pilots there and the,
were white and scared stiff. The,
didn't tell the other people, though
,, Just what good show they did see.
Clark is 81 years old and has chest
nut-brown hair. After the foregoing
experience the hair was chestnut
brown and still is-not a gray one IL
. sight.
The air stations champion nara