Monday, June 30, 2014

Good Corporate Citizen?


You be the judge.

(reprint)
Fact: In 2008 R&L Carriers, a major Clinton County, Ohio trucking company, decided to transfer its vehicle registration from Ohio to Indiana. Among the reasons given by the company for the change was that Ohio did not provide either competitive pricing or electronic registration for its commercial vehicles. A price comparison research by this poster at the time indicated that, for most vehicle categories, Indiana’s registration costs were more or less the same as Ohio’s.
One result of this change was that the Wilmington street maintenance fund that had been completely financed by vehicle registration dollars. For example in the 2007 and 2008 city budgets, no city taxpayer money was allocated to the street fund. After the 2008 R&L action, the 2009 budget required nearly $700,000 of taxpayer money to be transferred to the Streets fund. The county took an even greater hit on its Roads and Bridges budget. Does this information indicate a cause and effect relationship?
A statement issued by R&L on July 3, 2008 rightly claimed that most of the fees collected by Indiana were returned to Ohio but what they did not say was that, according to the BMV, this money was divided into 2,300 Ohio political subdivision shares.
This conclusion was also included in the statement: “If Ohio is someday able to provide the same ease of use [electronic filing] and cost savings as Indiana, R&L is happy to return it’s truck registration to the State of Ohio.
Fast forward to March 30, 2011: “Kasich Signs House Bill 114…..Simplifies the commercial vehicle registration process and increases commerce by allowing companies to renew registration online with a credit card rather than spending a day at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV).”
The bill became effective in January of 2012 and was implemented in July of that year.
To date there has not been any notification to local government officials indicating that R&L is changing registration back to Ohio.
Note: Due to past BMV errors Wilmington was not a legal recipient of R&L fees and will not benefit from the return of registration to Ohio if and when it occurs. The funds the city had received would now go to the county.

Paul Hunter

Friday, June 27, 2014

Our Man in Columbus

News concerning our man in Columbus who is working hard for? 


What, Me Worry? I have no opposition at home.


COLUMBUS The presumed Republican frontrunners to be Ohio's next House speaker -- a young lawmaker from Southwest Ohio and a Northeast Ohio veteran -- plan to meet Monday to determine who has enough support to become one of Ohio's three most powerful officials. Rep. Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, and Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, have spent a year jockeying for the lead in the race to head the Republican caucus.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/24/gop-leaders-set-monday-for-ohio-speaker-negotiation/11339877/
Meanwhile back at the legislative ranch.
While the new state budget increases the General Revenue Fund by $4.5 billion over two years, it did not restore key investments to 2010-11 levels. The budget also cut taxes by $1.9 billion, shifting taxation from the affluent to those with less income and making it harder to adequately fund critical services.

The state's local government funding for Clinton County and subdivisions has declined by$4,500,000. Local schools have been put on starvation diets and are being forced to go to the voters to replace funds normally supplied from our state sales and income tax payments.
Paul Hunter


Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Clinton County Air Force Base History

UFO Story 
On 07 January 1948 newspapers across the U.S. carried headlines similar to theLouisville Courier: "F-51 and Capt. Mantell Destroyed Chasing Flying Saucer." The "Mantell Incident" was the most thoroughly investigated sighting of that time. Captain Thomas Mantell died trying to reach a Skyhook balloon, launched from Clinton County AFB. He didn't know that he was chasing a balloon because he had never heard of the huge, 100-foot-diameter skyhook balloons, let alone seen one. Mantell's death was ultimately caused by the hype over UFOs, which no doubt caused him to chase after it at all costs.









Sunday, June 22, 2014

Kids Killing Kids Again

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2014/06/17/frazeysburg-shooting-investigation-west-first-street.html

FRAZEYSBURG, Ohio - A 11-year-old was shot and killed in Frazeysburg on Tuesday afternoon on West 1st Street.
Family identified the victim as Lucas Templin.  They said he was at a friend's house when he was shot.
Lucas Templin's bicycle still leans against the porch of his best friend's home.
"He just had a birthday. He's been wanting a bike forever ever and he finally got it," said Templin's grandmother Cindy Swartz.
It was a summer day like any other for the 11-year-olds.  Templin had just come home from his grandmother's and headed down the street to this familiar house.
"If he's not up here then he's down at his house.  That's how good of friends they was.  Just play, play, then this happens," said Swartz.
The other boy's mother was out mowing the lawn.  The kids were inside playing.  Then suddenly, a single gunshot ended Templin's life.................



In the meantime Wayne LaPierre, Mr. NRA gun selling shill, is quoted as saying “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.,”

Considering the results of the above story I would paraphrase ole Wayne by saying, “the only way to stop a good child with a gun is with a good child with a gun. That'l teach'm.
Paul Hunter

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Clinton County Air Force Base History

GET HOMEITUS?


On a damp and cloudy Thursday morning in December of 1964 an Ohio Air National Guard KC-97G tanker 52-2920, of the 160 ARG [Air Refueling Group], departed Clinton County Air Force Base on what was planned as a routine local training mission.------




Several active-duty, enlisted crew members from the locally based navigation training unit were riding along in order to log flying hours to qualify for flight pay.
Prior to departure a request was made from the Governor’s office that the flight itinerary include a quick stop at Miami airport to pick up some civilian passenger seats for Governor Rhoads’C-47. The crew chief of the gooney bird accompanied us on the flight,
For reasons lost to time, the crew was augmented with additional crewmembers. The crew consisted of an air tech [civilian] Instructor pilot (IP), a Guardsman pilot who worked for the state highway department, a Guardsman co-pilot who was employed by Sears, a Guardsman navigator, an active duty air advisor boom operator and two air technician flight engineers.
The narrator of this report dead-headed on the Clinton County to Miami leg that ended with an uneventful landing, and take off for home base. As I recall we did not pick up any seats. The contact at Miami airport knew nothing about passenger seats, so are trip to Miami was in vain.

With the narrator at the engineers panel, the return leg was uneventful up to the point when, crossing the Ohio River, the crew contacted home base. Clinton County reported low cloud cover, fog, rain and 0/0 visibility. After confirming that there was no chance of the weather changing that day the IP decided to divert and spend the night in Memphis and try to return the following day.
After spending a long night in the transit quarters without even basic toiletries or a change of clothes the crew gathered at Base operations and checked the Clinton County weather. The forecast was for only a slight change of conditions from the previous day but some clearing was expected as the day progressed, however there was no guarantees. The IP decided to give it a try and see if we could get in. The rest of the crew, being anxious to get home, supported his decision.
The narrator, having flown the previous days leg became a passenger for the home bound flight. We passengers were engaged in a heated game of hearts as we crossed the Ohio River. The game was momentarily interrupted by the information from the cockpit that the weather at Clinton County was still marginal. The Control tower was reporting 200 feet and one half mile visibility, the legal limit for landing

With the IP in the pilots seat for the expected low visibility approach and landing Ground Control Approach (GCA) was contacted for a radar-controlled approach to landing. At this time another tanker crew on the ground, who was monitoring our approach on radio informed the IP that they were waiting for him to get on the ground so that he could go to Bermuda with them.
On the first approach attempt GCA informed the pilot that he was at GCA minimum altitude and if he did not have the runway in sight to initiate a missed approach and go around for another attempt.
On the second approach, again at GCA minimum altitude, the co-pilot shouted that he had the runway in sight and the pilot continued the approach to landing. As the aircraft broke out of the fog cover the pilot saw that he was misaligned with the runway and the plane was heading directly toward a C-119 on the right that was awaiting take off clearance from the control tower. The pilot then made a violent left bank just a few feet above the ground that resulted in the left wing contacting the ground. The pilot then over corrected and the aircraft veered off the right side of the runway missing the 119. The plane plowed through the soft turf between the runway and the adjoining taxiway and headed toward the hangar and control tower area. To the narrator the plane appeared to be following its own uncontrolled course.
During this wild ride the narrator was in the rear compartment of the aircraft crouching behind the left scanners seat. Aware that escape hatches tend to get stuck in the airframe the narrator, with the boom operator’s assistance managed to remove the left rear hatch prior to impact.
The aircraft next struck the taxiway and as a result veered away toward the fuel and oil truck parking area.
The plane was going so fast that when the left external wing tank impacted and sheared off in an oil truck it was hardy noticeable. Next the number one engine smashed into the side of a 10,000 gallon fuel truck and we still rolled on for a bit. The aircraft finally rolled to a stop a few feet short of the rapidly vacating control tower.
The narrator and the boom operator were preparing to exit the left rear escape hatch using the escape rope when but when we looked out we saw a stream of fire coming from behind number two engine and like a liquid fuse heading for the destroyed fuel truck. Going to plan B we noticed that the right over wing hatch had been opened by some one coming from the cockpit and since the wing flaps were partially down several people made a sliding departure from the now burning aircraft. One of the passengers attempting to exit at the right rear escape hatch panicked and froze in the opening only to be kicked in the back by another passenger and he fell about 20 feet to the ground, injuring his back.
After counting heads and dragging the injured passenger clear we all got away from the burning plane as fast as we could.
Image of a similar accident

Fortunately the rain had washed the fuel fuse away before it could reach the leaking fuel truck and a major explosion and secondary fire was avoided. The aircraft was consumed in flames but fire and rescue personnel were finally able to extinguish the flames but not before the aft section burned off and fell to the ground.
The only injuries were to the passenger and to a couple of crew who received rope burns on their hands due to not wearing gloves.
The narrative was written 43 years after the incident and memory fades a little in that time span. If readers find factual errors please feel free to send in correction or additions. This story is being published with the permission of the IP involved.

Paul Hunter

Monday, June 16, 2014

Wealth Distribution Matters


What do the proponents of Laissez-faire (" "let them do as they will," or "leave it alone.") economics expect from the system regarding the widening wealth distribution gap?
If they don't see the, now decades old, trend as a political/social problem there is no point in continuing.

On the other hand when one looks at the history of tectonic shifts in nations that have failed to attend to the wealth distribution problem it is replete with violent revolution.

The French, and Russian upheavals are but two samples of what desperate people can be persuaded to do in the face of extreme hardship.

A cause of the French Revolution: The economic crisis was compounded by years of bad harvests and resulted in urban and rural resentment of the wealth and privilege enjoyed by the nobility and clergy. In due course, the crisis led to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789 and, subsequently, as the revolution unfolded.

Inequality in Pre-Revolutionary Russia

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/12/27/prerevolutionary_russian_income_inequality_russia_in_1904_was_less_unequal.html
Is the United States primed for Bolshevik revolution? Probably not. But Steven Nafziger and Peter Lindert report that the contemporary United States has a less egalitarian distribution of income than did Russia on the brink of the revolution of 1905.

In the U. S. today
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dalearcher/2013/09/04/could-americas-wealth-gap-lead-to-a-revolt/
The disparity between the nation’s top earners and the bottom 80 percent has grown exponentially over the past three decades, and it’s been exacerbated by the Great Recession.
For all the employment growth and claims by many that our economy is in recovery, most of those new jobs – six out of ten according to the Labor Department – are on the low end of the pay scale, which is already much lower than other first world countries. Meanwhile, the top executives of the fast food companies at the center of this storm are among the highest paid in the nation.

Paul Hunter

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Wilmington Air Park

Wilmington Air Park

The Port Authority will have to rely on ATSG/Airborne and other traditional businesses to grow the airpark because the drone center appears to be concentrating in the Clark County/ Springfield area.
Paul Hunter

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/business/economy/clark-county-looks-to-lead-uav-industry/ngKYc/

Clark County looks to lead UAV industry

Local businesses and institutions will push ahead with their attempts to make Clark County a leader in the emerging commercial drone industry, despite losing out on a bid to be one of six national test sites.
That includes launching the state’s first precision agriculture program at Clark State Community College and building $500,000 hangars at the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport to house unmanned aerial vehicles.
Other assets, like the Ohio/Indiana UAS Center and Test Complex on U.S. 40, put Clark County in a good position to attract businesses in manufacturing and research, even without the Federal Aviation Administration test site designation, said Frank Beafore, executive director of SelectTech Geospatial.
The unmanned aircraft industry could generate as much as $339 million for Ohio’s economy — and $13.6 billion nationwide — in the first three years after drones are integrated into U.S. airspace, experts have said, and precision agriculture is expected to play a significant role.
Just last week, the FAA approved the first commercial use of a drone in the U.S. and at the end of last month, the UAS center in Springfield participated in its first series of test flights.............

Frank Beafore, executive director of SelectTech Geospatial, talks about the 3D printer, at right, that his company uses on many of their projects. Bill Lackey/Staff

SelectTech’s Ann Conrad, a UAV technician and Nathan Gertz, a design engineer, show the new Clark State UAV to Jane Cape, dean of business and applied technologies, and Amit Singh, vice president of academic affairs. The UAV, designed and built by SelectTech in Springfield, will be used in Clark State’s new precision ag program

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Playing Gasoline Price Yo Yo


Free Market In Wilmington (NOT)
The manager of a Wilmington station, whom shall remain anonymous, describes the method of local gasoline price setting. “Each day I am required to check prices at other stations and report them to corporate headquarters who, in turn, tell me the price for the day.
In my opinion a competitive market means that one station would lower prices in order to increase volume of sales and entice customers to spend on convenience store purchases. But that is seldom the case in our city.

There is a name for this pricing system although no one in the industry appears to want to talk about it.

Price Cycling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgeworth_price_cycle
This constant up-and-down movement is a phenomenon called price cycling, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com.
Price cycling, also referred to as the “follow the leader” approach, is common among gas stations in the Midwest, he said. One station raises its prices, and the others follow quickly.
Then it is followed by a number of price decreases until the price is close to marginal cost, according to a Federal Trade Commission report. This in turn triggers another large price increase, causing a roller-coaster effect.
Gas stations in similar geographic areas tend to price match, so the cost of gas appears to go up or down at the same time, according to the Attorney General’s Office. If stations explicitly agree together to raise or lower prices (also called “price fixing”), that is illegal under state and federal antitrust law.
However, without proof of an actual, explicit agreement, stations matching each other’s price increases is not illegal, the office says.
Maybe Ohio should look to Michigan for guidance.


Michigan-Successfully-Prosecutes
Congratulations are in order for the Michigan Attorney General's office, which earlier this year successfully prosecuted five cases of retail gasoline price fixing. 
Stations investigated and prosecuted for price-fixing were all located within two miles of each other in Madison Heights. An investigation by District Attorney Bill Schuette's office determined that five stations were setting their prices at an artificial level, within a penny or two of each other. The scheme, which violates Michigan's antitrust law, was an attempt to increase profits from gasoline sales by eliminating competition in the Madison Heights area.
Schuette's office began the investigation after a tip from another gas staton owner revealed that he was pressured to participate in the price-fixing operation. The investigation showed that the stations all set their prices in relation to each other on five occasions last February and March. Michigan's Antitrust Reform Act (MARA) prohibits price-fixing agreements because they undermine competitive market forces and cause artificially higher prices for consumers. 
Here are the gas stations that pleaded guilty in the 6th Circuit Court to violating Michigan's Antitrust Act: 
Read more at
http://blog.gasbuddy.com/posts/Michigan-Successfully-Prosecutes-Gasoline-Price-Fixing/1715-486180-837.aspx#TEu7LBEUq7ktDDP5.99


Paul Hunter

Monday, June 9, 2014

Clinton County Air Force Base Crash



August 10,1968:
C-119 crash kills six. Plane crashes in a field south of the base when attempting to return to the base after losing power on one of the two engines.
Incomplete report from the Ellenburg, WA Daily Record.

Six Reservists Killed In Crash

Wilmington, Ohio AP - Six reservists were killed Friday when a C-119 Flying Boxcar on a routine training mission crash-landed in a pasture near here.
The crew of four and 21 Reservists survived the flaming crash which occurred shortly after the plane left Clinton County Air Force Base for Otis A.F.B. Mass. for an overnight flight [stay].
Air Force Sources said the pilot of the big plane, knew he was losing flying capability and elected to crash land.
Why the aircraft lost power probably won’t be known until a military investigation team reconstructs the aircraft from pieces strewn over a one quarter mile area of rolling pasture land just north [south] of Wilmington and questions the crew, sources said.
Maj. Edward Hillman, Clinton County [Air Force Base] information officer, said witnesses told him the plane lost power shortly after takeoff and was making a turn – apparently to return to the Clinton [AFB] Field – when it went down and burst into flames.
The 27 passengers, reservists from southern Ohio, were members of the 907 AL refueling squadron. [907 Airlift] based at Clinton and were midway through their summer training program Hillman said.
Firefighters used trucks and chains to pull the twin tail section from the burning aircraft to reach survivors and remove the dead.

Notes: The crash site was across SR 134 south in the Berlin Rd. area.
I was a flight engineer on a KC-97 that was making practice landings at the base that day and I recall from radio traffic with the tower that the C-119 aborted the first takeoff because of a backfire on one of the two engines. The second attempt ended in the crash when the pilot turned in the direction of the dead engine.
If anyone who reads this has any corrections or comments about the crash, please email me and I will post the comments/corrections on the blog.

Paul Hunter

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Can't Fight City Hall

Why Fight?

There’s an old saying that you can’t fight City Hall, and win anyway, but It’s just an old saying. I prefer the term, “help” city hall, not fight it. Helping the City to help itself is not a job for the timid or the apathetic citizen. It requires skin thick enough to repel institutional resistance and personal insults as well as endurance to see actions through to completion.
In single party dominated local politics our vote has little effect on the law making and enforcement process. Incumbent and newly elected officials have little cause to say, when faced with a legislative choice, “this is why I was elected”. In fact they were elected almost always because they were selected by their party and run unopposed in the general election.
With the above in mind the residents fact based free expression is the primary means of relating their concerns to the local legislators, be they school boards, city councils or county commissioners.
An example of helping is the perseverance and fact finding required to persuade the city and county governments to institute the electric aggregation program that is saving residents of those jurisdictions more than $2,000,000, and local governments tens of thousands per year in electricity charges.
I am currently working with the city fathers, to begin the process of aggregating natural gas service for city residents. [hat action is now complete.]
Over the past 20 years I have learned a lot about local politics and I have had some success in gaining cooperation from the legislators. Don't complain, put the act in activism!
Local media is another tool in the kit of local activism and can play a significant role in airing issues.
.Paul Hunter


Thursday, June 5, 2014

Clinton County Base/Airpark History


Originally Published 6/26/13
Multiple Faults
I will attempt to explain what occurred during this flight.
A part of a test flight consists of determining the exact air speed at which the wings start to lose enough lift to maintain flight (stall speed). The stall is indicated to the pilot by what is called a stick (control column) shaker oscillating rapidly. Maintenance on the aircraft surfaces could alter this critical point and is tested prior to returning the aircraft to regular service. The procedure is similar to driving a car up a steep incline and taking your foot off the accelerator to determine the point when the car stops forward motion and begins to roll back down the incline.
Paul Hunter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 15, 1997 SB 97-18

PILOT MISTAKES, INADEQUATE AIRBORNE EXPRESS TRAINING
AND PROCEDURES LED TO FATAL CRASH OF DC-8 CARGO PLANE
Washington, DC - A combination of pilot mistakes during a special aircraft maneuver, coupled with inadequate flight crew training and procedures by Airborne Express, led to a fatal accident when one of the company's newly retrofitted DC-8 cargo planes crashed into mountains, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined.

The accident occurred on December 22, 1996, at 6:10 p.m. in the vicinity of Narrows, Virginia, while a team of pilots and technicians were conducting a post-modification functional evaluation flight to check out the aircraft, which had received a major overhaul and upgrades. The functional evaluation flight originated from Piedmont Triad International Airport, Greensboro, North Carolina.

The three flight crew members and three maintenance-avionics technicians on board were killed. The airplane was destroyed by the impact and a post crash fire.
At a public meeting, the NTSB determined that the probable causes of the accident were inappropriate control inputs by the flying pilot during a stall recovery attempt; the failure of the non-flying pilot-in-command to recognize, address and correct these inappropriate control inputs; and the failure of Airborne Express to establish a formal, functional evaluation flight program that included adequate program guidelines, requirements and pilot training for performance of these flights.

Contributing to the cause of the accident, the NTSB said, were an inoperative stick shaker stall warning system and the DC-8 flight training simulator's inadequate fidelity in reproducing the airplane's stall characteristics.

This accident might have been prevented, the NTSB said, if the flight crew had been provided a clear, direct indication of the airplane's angle of attack. The Safety Board also said the accident could have been prevented if Airborne Express had institutionalized -- and the flight crew had used -- a revised evaluation flight stall recovery procedure agreed upon by Airborne Express and the FAA in 1991 after a similar, but non-fatal incident.
Among its accident conclusions, the NTSB said Airborne Express should have required completion of a functional evaluation flight by sundown or should have established adequate night and weather limitations. Because of delays earlier in the day, the flight crew conducted these maneuvers when it was dark without a visible natural horizon, depriving them of an important flight attitude reference that would have aided in their recovery from a full stall.

As a result of the accident investigation, the NTSB issued a series of recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration urging it to:

Ensure that Airborne Express explicitly incorporates the 1991 revised functional evaluation flight stall recovery procedure, or an equivalent procedure, in its DC-8 functional evaluation flight program.
 Require Douglas Aircraft Company to review and amend the stall warning test procedures in the DC-8 maintenance manual to include regular calibration and functional checks of the complete stall warning system.
Evaluate available data on stall characteristics of airplanes used in air carrier service and, if appropriate, require the manufacturers and operators of flight simulators to improve them by reproducing airplane stall characteristics to the maximum extent that is practical; then add training in recovery from stalls with pitch attitudes at or below the horizon to the special events training programs.
Provide guidance to air carriers on the appropriate conditions, limitations and tolerances for the performance of functional evaluation flights and the specific maneuvers performed during these flights, including approach to stalls.
Add specific operational guidance, flight crew training and qualification requirements to federal aviation regulations on training programs for non-routine operations including functional evaluation flights.
Undertake an appropriate level of surveillance of the functional evaluation flight programs of all air carriers, following implementation of NTSB's suggested changes to functional evaluation flight and other non-routine operations.
Modify the operating and airworthiness regulations or issue appropriate guidance material to clarify airworthiness and operational procedural requirements for conducting functional evaluation flights in transport category aircraft.
In addition, the NTSB reiterated a safety recommendation it made in 1996 following the crash of an American Airlines 757 near Cali, Colombia. It again
urged the FAA to require that all transport-category aircraft give pilots angle of attack information in a visual format, and train pilots to use the information to obtain maximum possible climb performance.

The NTSB's complete report, PB97-910405, may be purchased from the National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22162, (703) 487-4650.



Posted by Paul Hunter 

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Clinton County A.F.B. Hstory

Re-print 5/13

A mid air collision by two C-119 aircraft near Clinton County A.F.B. took the lives of 17. Two survive

Nine C-119s with their Green Berets and other passengers were returning to [Clinton County Air Force Base] base in close formation at 8:53 p.m. when things went wrong.
Seventeen men were killed and two C-119 transport planes destroyed near the Warren [Clinton] County hamlet of Melvin, 10 miles from the Wilmington base.
Among the dead was Lt. Donald B. Becker, brother of Mrs. Robert B. Smith of Miracle Mile in Springfield.
The news reports said that S.Sgt. Zugelder, then 37, was in fair condition at Clinton Memorial Hospital “with two broken shoulder blades, a broken nose, fractured clavicle, along with cuts and bruises.”
The other survivor, Sgt. 1st Class William Kremer, “a 32-year-old Columbus fireman in civilian life, was found wandering about a plowed field in a dazed condition,” a story added. Kremer “later reported that he was sitting on the left side of the plane near the exit door when ‘all at once, I was sitting outside in the darkness with the feeling of falling, the wind going past my ears.’”
Zugelder recalled that as it entered clouds, his plane was in a three-plane formation.
Once inside the clouds, the plane in front “lost reference,” went to instrument flight and leveled off, he said. “That took us right into their wing. From that point on, for the next minute, maybe, I don’t remember what happened.”
In the accident report, Zugelder learned the windshield of his plane struck the outboard flap of the plane in front, peeling off the top of his aircraft.
That apparently catapulted Zugelder and Kremer into thin air, as Kremer described in the newspaper story.
The next thing I knew,” Zugelder said, “I could feel pressure from my legs from the parachute, and I could see my parachute collapse on the ground.”
Just as he has forgotten everything else in those moments, he doesn’t remember pulling the D-ring to open his parachute. His survival suggests he must have.
Grunting pigs
From where I was on the ground, I could see the other wreckage burning,” Zugelder said. He also could hear pigs “rooting in their feeders” nearby.
A field ambulance took Zugelder to a civilian ambulance parked on a nearby road, and he was whisked to the hospital. There followed a 12-week recovery.