Between surgery, really lousy weather and the Holidays (Gwyn hates it
when
I jump around Christmas and I try to accomodate) it had been way too
long
since I'd made a jump, so when the skies opened up and the winds
settled
down it seemed like a sort of New Year's Eve Miracle. Not to be
confused with a Christmas Miracle, but I'm not complaining.
But it's not just a matter of deciding to go for it. I don't jump at a
DZ
but at a little airport in the middle of nowhere if and when I can
find a
willing pilot. Finding someone with enough experience to have their
own
airplane but still willing to let someone climb out of it, especially
with
the door on, takes some dancing. But miracle of miracles (did I call
it?)
Harry called back and said he was just pulling into the airport to
take one
of Tommy's planes to Bremen for him, then would get flown back so how
about
4:15? That's pushing it since I promised Gwyn dinner and a movie, with
the
movie starting at 7, but what the hey. Skies Call!
Route 93 is a state highway that, among other things, connects
McArthur and
Logan Ohio. It's not a major highway but not exactly dead either, but
about
halfway between McArthur itself and the airport road I saw a scene,
parked
cars with flashers going, sheriff and highway patrol with lights
flashing,
the whole bit. Oh, and an airplane. Along the highway. It might not be
Harry but it wouldn't exactly be a helluva coincidence if it was, and
it
was.
He'd lost power at climbout, is way too experienced to try a 180 to
get
back, did a 90, got a little power back, but not enough and put it
down
right on the highway. He said he tried to turn into the Creola
Restaurant
and Carry-Out but still had too much speed and went for a horse field
just
past it. And there he was. He told me he timed it and it was exactly
2.5
minutes until the Highway Patrol and Sheriff's cars came screaming up.
This part is theory, only a guess, but it fits. We think that these
law
officers assumed that their evening had just gone to hell. Here it is
New
Year's Eve afternoon and they've already got a plane crash with dead
bodies, burning semi-trucks and suvs full of dead families to fill out
paperwork on. So when they saw that no one was hurt they were so
relieved
that they said ok when Harry asked if he could just taxi the plane
back to
the airport. We're talking about five miles of a State Highway and a
few
more of wooded backroads. The deputy said he didn't mind in principal
but
he was worried about the wings clipping things. Harry assured him that
we'd
done this for the opening of an airshow or something, which I don't
remember and I don't think I would have forgotten but I didn't say
anything.
And that's what we did. One Highway Patrol car went ahead and forced
people
off the road and the other, plus the Deputy, trailed behind.
And it all went so smooth and quick that we then pulled another plane
out
of the hangar and I got my jump in.

All we need is some redneck singer doing "Convoy" for the slide show.
This is not something I'd expect people to just believe, so I got
photos.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~churchr/vcconvoy/

I love living in the hills.

Bob Church

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