Body From the Sky

by Bill Whidden

Desperately wanting to get some good photos of skydivers from the balloon, we decided that we’d take Terry up with our next couple of passengers, to jump out of the basket. Whoever they would be, those passengers would certainly get a charge out of all this; I mean, after all, no extra charge to see a spectacular jump from a balloon along with all the other thrills of a first balloon flight. Well, Jean and Tom thought it would be great. They were just a little apprehensive though, especially because they had to hold the long extension pole with a $750 camera on the end of it and a cable remote activator to click at the right moment.

It was a gray morning with light fog on the deck and another pretty thick layer of fog-like clouds at 3000 feet. But the winds were just right: out of the East, calm on the deck, and at 3000 feet only 8 knots; so we had plenty of time to choreograph the photos we needed.

Terry enjoyed the first 30 minutes of the flight, then carefully checked his equipment, which was a switch for a guy with over 2,500 jumps and 24 hours of free-fall who, in his early days, used to jump from a plane with his chute in one hand, strap it on in mid-air and pull the rip cord at 1,000 feet. As he’s gotten older, no such nonsense for Terry. Now, it’s a careful check, a clean exit, and a free-fall to no less than 2,500 AGL. Then pop the main, hoping there’d be no need to cut away and go to a reserve.

Now it’s time, there’s a nice big field to shoot at, close to the road so the chase vehicle could pick him up and continue on to assist us in our final landing. The countryside below was spotted with large oaks among the rolling hills with acres and acres of pine spaced evenly between the oaks, cypress and sweetgum.

"3,000 feet only gives me 500 feet to fall; but that’s no problem, we only need photos of the exit. G-E-R-O-N-I-M-O!" Click, click, click... then, Faf-f-f SNAP!-the canopy opens, seemingly much lower than he anticipated; but the unmistakable circling and soaring of his canopy indicates that all was well. We fly on.

A "tippy-toe" landing and we’re in the van in minutes-the chase crew is right under us as we land. Champagne for all and endless accounts of the flight, jump and landing from Jean and Tom-a job well done!

....It had been three weeks since the flight. My phone rang. It scared me when the caller identified himself as Fred Broom, the local sheriff, even though he had been my friend for some 20 years and my ex-next-door neighbor.

"Bill," he drawled, "this is Fred." Quickly he got to the point. "You weren’t flying over eastern Vicks County about three weeks ago on a Saturday morning and throw something out of your balloon, did you?"

ME???... throw something out of my balloon? I know you can’t legally do that. "No!" I said, "Of course not!"

"Think again," Fred said. "It was over John Brown’s pasture near Willis Road by the big oak grove... are you sure?"

"Hang on, let me look at my calendar," I replied. After two flights a day for weeks on end, they all run together. "Hm-m-m...The only flight I did on Saturday was Jean and Tom and, oh yes... Terry. He did a jump from the balloon. Why, what’s the problem?"

"A jump?!? You mean he jumped with a parachute?" asked Fred.

"Yeah...at 3,000 feet-perfectly legal. He filed a NOTAM and..."

Fred cut me off, laughing. "No problem! I’m glad that’s what happened!"

"Why?...What was the problem?" I asked.

Fred explained, "Well, there’s a family that lives down in the low area behind the oak grove. They called and reported that someone threw a body or a bale of marijuana out of a balloon, and we’ve had 10 deputies searching the woods in that area for the last three weeks!"