Posted on 02/02/2009 3:09:32 PM PST by george76
He learned to steer a chute – fast.
Hanging from a parachute thousands of feet above the ground, Daniel Pharr needed to find a way to land safely.
He was on his first sky-diving jump, and he and his instructor were strapped together on the same parachute. But shortly after they leaped from the airplane at 13,500 feet, the instructor wasn't responding to Pharr's questions.
George “Chip” Steele had had a medical emergency.
Pharr was on his own.
Pharr said he didn't panic. It would do him no good, he thought.
Instead, he reached above his head for the toggles on the parachute to try to steer it toward the ground. He'd seen enough on television shows to know the toggles could help, but wasn't quite sure how they worked.
Minutes later, both men were on the ground. Pharr wrestled himself out of his harness, and performed CPR on Steele, 49.
But it was too late. Steele had died.
Later, Pharr learned how lucky his landing was. Officials on the ground told him that, had he pulled on the toggle too hard, it would have sent the men crashing to the ground. He, too, could have been killed.
Pharr, 25, is on active duty with the U.S. Army and is stationed at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Ga...
“The Army training kicked in,” Pharr said. “I knew I needed to get down.”
Skydive Carolina said that witnesses below didn't notice anything unusual about the landing, but saw that Steele and Pharr landed outside the main strip.
(Excerpt) Read more at charlotteobserver.com ...
The Army training kicked in
Oh, getting down wasn't the problem. ;^)
Seriously, good job.
Is there something you do not understand about parachutes, April?
Thank God he fiddled with the toggles or they might STILL be up there. :{)
Im almost positive that the parachute goes towards the ground right off the bat. (snort)
Umm, getting down wasn’t really the problem as gravity was working on it already. It was getting down - just not too quickly.
It sounds like the instructor was with it enough to deploy the chute. That was fortunate.
This has been a strange day. First I hear that a friend of mine died last week in a military parachute accident, then hear of this man dying in mid air. Last March, I had a cardiac arrest and died on an airplane over Texas. I am alive only because there was an AED on the plane.
THIS is what passes for "Journalism" these days...
Where in hell did April think the jumpers would end up if he hadn't grabbed the "toggles"??????
I once witness a Marine "reach the ground" -- even after falling unconscious the instant his chute opened...
The poor guy -- he was a BIG dude - and to sit comfortably on the plane taking us to the jump zone -- he loosened up the harness straps that passed on both side of his crotch and tried to catch some sleep... At the command to "Stand Up' , Hook Up, He forgot to tighten his harness straps before jumping through the hatch on a chute static line... When the chute opened the straps snapped tight on his family jewels with fearsome force, knocking the poor bastard out cold..
When we got to him on the ground, he was still unconscious - but with no broken bones or damage beyond that done to his crotch..... For the rest of his Marine Career, he was know as "Black Balls".......in a play on Black Bart.
Now you know the "Rest of the Story"....
Instead, his incident served as a great practical demonstration of conservative principles. He recognized and acknowledged the nature of the problem (rather than pretending it didn't exist) and took personal responsibility for getting himself out of the predicament. Quite different approach and outcome from those, oh let's say, at the Superdome, who were a short walk from transportation but instead decided to wait for the government to come get them. Didn't turn out too well as I recall.
Glad that you are still with us.
No more airplanes ?
Wowzo. Thanks geo. Got himself safely to Earth, then performed CPR. Well done.
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered Her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him; an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.”
She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be a Republican.”
“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”
The man smiled and; responded, “You must be a Democrat.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”
“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You’ve risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it’s my fault.”
Sounds like this guy’s missed his calling at Fort Gordon. He needs to apply to Airborne school.
C-130 rollin’ down the strip...
}:-)4
Yes, still don’t have all the details. He and I were stationed together in 3rd Army and played golf together.
The local paper reported two guys in a canoe watched him land in the water and were only a few yards from him, got to him quickly, but he slipped under. They entered the water and tried for several minutes to find him. The water was quite cold and there was hope that the cold water would extend the time they had to locate him and begin working with him. I think the two fishermen were firefighters. They did not recover him for an hour or more and it was the divers that located him.
How very sad. My heart and prayers go out to his family and friends. There was an Army jumper killed here a few years ago practicing for a jump into Tampa Stadium. He was caught by a gust of wind as he entered the stadium and his canopy collapsed. He died on impact as I recall.
My condolences to you for the loss of a friend.
A: You don't. You get down from a duck.
-PJ
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