Dear friends and family, I really thought I had come to the end of our exciting once in a life time trip. I was looking forward to a relaxing, nonevent full five days at the airfield. I should know by now that at no time is my life boring or nonevent full. How ever it is rich and full of blessings.
Our stay at the airfield started of rocky. The generator died on the first night about 2am. Now I was ready to rough it but not without AC. Chris managed to get a ride to town and get some oil which he hoped was the problem. Three hours later and 90 degrees hot---he arrived and we were back in AC. Our friends arrived on Thursday and the day was filled will watching flyers and swatting gnats. On Friday morning Chris took Jennifer for a ride and after landing the battery died so they had to push the plane along way in the 90 plus temperatures. When the door to the RV opened there was this very hot, sweaty, petite, woman that was very upset with her husband because she had been calling him to come help. Neither of us heard a phone ring. We decided to go to an afternoon movie to get out of the heat and to go get a new battery.
The Movie: we went to see the movie with Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, and Tina Fey. No one knew the name so while I went to the bathroom they bought tickets to the wrong movie. We should have gone to the wrong movie. This movie is so trashy and over my threshold for comfort. Since none of you should see it...here is your spoiler alert: Jane Fonda gets a boob job and lets them show throughout the movie, everyone is cheating on their spouses, Jane is grieving the death of her husband but turns into a lesbian at the end. That dysfunctional family made mine look good. Need I say more? I laughed hard and shed a lot of tears but I would not recommend it. I felt bad that I had taken everyone to something just short of R rated movie. We got the new battery and came back to fly some more. Chris flew and I decided I would fly after he landed. So I walked down to end of the runway to meet him but found that the engine had quit again. Oops, he had to be towed in. He came back and cleaned the carburetor and got it going again but by now it was dark so too late to fly.
After dinner we went to see the entertainment. There was a DJ and it was Karaoke night. The problem is the audience was the four of us plus the DJ's husband and one other person. We felt so bad for the DJ that we stayed. BIG MISTAKE. She harassed us until Chris and Bud finally went up and sang Barbara Ann by the beach boys. I tried to get Jennifer to sing My Guy but she wouldn't. However, the DJ's husband told her our names, plus another girl whose name was Cathy. Cathy and I finally got up to sing but Jennifer would not go. SO the DJ made a big deal calling her name and coming after her so Jen finally gave in. When we got ready to sing, Nancy did not know My Guy, so we sang Red Neck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. Jen had never heard of it. I wish we had been drinking so we could explain why we were so bad...but we were embarrassingly sober.
Saturday morning Chris got up to fly early. Asked me to go with him. I said you take a spin and be sure the plane is fixed. He did. By the time he had landed, our friends had arrived and I told Bud to go for another ride. All was well. by the time they landed the wind had picked up so we headed to town for the day to stay out of the heat.
Here is where it all went bad. It was early evening, the wind was calm and it was time to fly again. Bud went first and had a great flight. Jennifer and I sat by the runway taking pictures. At anyone time there were no less than 4 and at times 6-8 planes setting up on the runway at the same time. They just take there machine out, lay out their parachutes and look for an opening to take off. There is an Air Boss but the PPG (the guys that put their engines on their backs) don't use radios. THey are free spirits. Jennifer and I had been amazed that there had been no accidents. We spoke that out loud several times. But I looked around at all the flyers having so much fun and realized how silly I was to be afraid. All week, hundreds of flights, no problems. What was there to be afraid of. I decided it was time to fly and walked down to the end of the runway to where Chris would be landing.
He landed fine and was so excited to see me there. I hopped in, he straightened the parachute, Bud took our picture and Chris waited for the Air Boss to clear him. I could not believe all the stuff in front of us. I have only flown when we were the only ones on the runway. So we get cleared for takeoff and the rest happened in a matter of no more than a minute. he gave it power, the chute lifted and immediately a vehicle cut in front of us. Chris shifted to avoid it but then we were leaning too far so he corrected by shifting opposite and then right in front of us was a man sitting in his machine waiting to take off. When I saw him he was just a few feet in front of us. Chris pulled way back, we leaned way back and I thought we flew over him and landed just about 5 feet past him. I also saw a boy about 12 years old standing beside the machine, he looked in my eyes and finally dove out of the way. When I got out of the plane I saw the man in his machine, the whole machine lying on its back and he was laying there all strapped in. It was a miracle. Everyone seemed ok. Lots of people came out to help. Jennifer and Bud ran out to us. After Chris got his airplane together and packed up he went to the family to apologize. The man was Hispanic and spoke no English. He had a pacemaker so everyone was worried but no one took him to the hospital. They shook hands and all was good. we helped get everything back to the camp. We were all shook up but Chris started packing up the trailer and packing up our campground. He was just staying busy. Then the man, his interpreter, and two other pilots, drunk, came to our site and were cussing and hollering at Chris and saying all sorts of mean things. It was horrible and scary because I thought they came to beat him up. Jennifer put me in the RV and that little lady put those big cussing fellows in their place and they even apologized
After it was all over we have been told that the parachute got caught on a surveyor stick and that is what caused the parachute to go up wrong. We have liability insurance but right now it is listed as an accident but not Chris at fault. Everyone on the property signed a waiver that released anyone from any responsibility. Everyone that signed the release had an armband, all spectators and pilots, and if you did not have an armband you were asked to leave.
In the end I feel that Chris did an incredible job of not hitting the man directly and showed great skill. He wishes he had waited until he had a clear path to take off and I wish I had said lets wait when I saw all that was in front of me. I will not ever fly at a flyin. I know God lifted that plane over the man and we were given grace.
Powered parachutes are very safe....as long as you don't get hit by one. Love to all
Lord have mercy.
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