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The Crash of Teijin. |
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After the Sydney Royal Easter Show, the group decided to travel to Canowindra in western NSW to fly Teijin untethered. The airspace was officially classified as "uncontrolled" and considering that Teijin was almost uncontrollable, it made sense. Although crew members had worn emergency harnesses, and carried small reserve chutes stowed nearby, no one had ever actually jumped.
On the first flight, Ken Bath and I went up to parachute from it together. Teijin struggled but remained on the ground. Reluctantly I got out to reduce the load.
The balloon had numerous leaks and even with the burner running constantly, it struggled to reach 610m. (2,000ft.) Ken made his jump and the balloon landed without incident. |
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A trailer with its huge VW powered ground blower. |
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Ken Bath and Terry hook up the numerous cables. |
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Ken Bath wearing main chute and carrying his reserve. |
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All goes well on the first day, but Teijin struggles to reach 2,000 ft.. |
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Ken Bath jumps but drops dangerously close to the drag rope. |
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The 200ft. drag rope can be seen here dangling from the basket as Kens' main chute opens below. |
NEXT DAY, THE SECOND FLIGHT TAKES PLACE. |
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The hot air from the blower gets Teijin to a standing position. |
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As Teujin stands, the main burner is lit. |
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Terry sorts out the cables as the burner roars away. Note the primitive shield and its asbestos cover. |
At full blast Teijin still struggles to lift.
Don Joergens on left, Stan Grincivicius center, myself gold helmet.
As I was intending to
jump, by regulation wore not only a main parachute on my back, but also
a reserve at the front.
Unfortunately I decided not to carry my helmet camera. |
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Those on the ground had a long and heavy job to get us off the ground. The burner never stopped. Conversation
was impossible.
After 20 minutes of constant heating, we reached 4,500
ft. I climbed up and stood on the edge of the gondola, and could feel the
heat from the burner blasting away beside me. |
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Over a large ploughed paddock, after a nod to Don and Stan, I stepped off.
Stan photographed my departure before realising they had a problem.
Ten seconds
later, having dropped about 1,000ft, I opened the
parachute. |
Checking my canopy, I spotted
Teijin above. Teijin
was made from a red and white striped fabric, however, I could
see it turning silver.
This was a puzzle, until I realised that I
was seeing the inside of the envelope as it began to rip vertically
and slowly turn inside out. |
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As
I descended, Teijin was coming down even faster. It was awful,
hanging there as a spectator unable to help. Thankfully it wasn't long
before I saw someone jump and open their
canopy. Then another jumped and opened. Our parachutes are just visible as dots in this only photo of the drama.
The
balloon kept deflating and dropping faster. I remember sighing
with relief as it missed them both. It was falling ever faster, then
as it reached level with me, the top suddenly burst open and the last
bubble of air escaped.
There was a roar of flapping fabric as it
began diving straight down. It appeared to be heading for an
isolated farm house, but fortunately landed in a ploughed paddock nearby. |
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From above, I saw it impact, and
the three metal sides of the gondola were flung open like flower petals, then
immediately buried as the trailing fabric poured over it. One of the
100lb fuel tanks was dented on a rock, but luckily didn't explode,
as I was by then, not that far above it.
It
was strange landing there. Just over a fence on a gentle rise, was this
lonely pile of wreckage. It was quiet, not a soul was in sight and there was a sadness
with the fabric flapping gently in the breeze. It was quite some time
before anyone arrived.Then Don and Stan walked over a rise carrying their parachutes and with smiles of relief. |
Later, I had this conversation
with Stan Grincivicius. (Who now calls himself Stan Greene.)
" I still
have shivers about that. It could have dragged us both down. When you
stepped out, the balloon heaved up, but the air had nowhere to go, so
I believe it blew out the side ripping a hole there.
At that stage Don
and I decided to stay, with a decision to jump at 3000ft if it did not
look too safe. I put the camera back in the bag and got back on the rim
of the gondola. The decision was taken from us when we heard
the rip going horizontally along the crown tape. We did not wait
after that. People ask me if I had done parachute jumping before
- I reply no but all you got to do is pull the cord and then roll
forward on landing as we all have seen in the movies - ha, pretty
hard to roll forward when one is hanging backward supported by D
rings at the level of one's nipples. |
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I still bless Ken Bath for
getting reserve chutes with spring-loaded drag chutes & for packing them well.
Don nearly hit powerlines. As I was coming down I saw the barbed wire
fence stretching in direct line with the family jewels. I missed it by a
whisker. Despite knowing
Newtons third law on motion I still tried to throw myself to the left. |
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As the story goes I missed the fence, but good news -there was a ploughed field
next to the fence, but bad news- I missed the ploughed field and landed on the
hard strip next to the fence.
All I remember after that day, the
beer was the best beer that I ever tasted, the leak was the best leak of
my life." |
The occupants of
the farmhouse came out briefly, but decided there was far more excitement
on TV. We heard that a football game in Canowindra came to a halt
when they spotted Teijin crashing to the ground.
The home team lost,
and we were blamed. |

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Keith Wilcox examines the wreckage.
The propane tanks were almost full. One had a dent from a rock.
No one could have survived the impact had they remained on board.
Stans camera survived, although flung some distance away. |
Don Joergens, always cheerful and
unflustered, stands beside Teijins gondola. The heavy drag rope is visible.
He had no parachute training either, and was lucky to survive.
He now lives
in his native Holland. |
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Because both
he and Stan made emergency, unpremeditated jumps, (unlike my jump)
they became eligible to join the "Caterpillar Club." In WW2, parachutes were made
from silk, and a club was formed for those airmen whose lives were saved
in emergency jumps. Don and Stan, each have the club badge. A silkworm
with its silked thread. |

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Crash Sequence as a slide show. |
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