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[[underlined]] XIV [[/underlined]]

shot out of the cabin. I could not get into the proper position. I was not sitting at all but hanging by the seat belt and it was impossible to shorten the belt with all the forces against it. All of this took a long time it seemed to me. I was getting worried.

I remember talking to a friend of mine once several years  before. He had had to bail out of a plane and was having trouble. He told me that he had to make himself stop fighting to get out and just think. He stopped everything and went over in his mind and decided to try another way and it worked.

Well, that is what I did: I knew I had to get out soon and I knew I wasn't making any progress, so I just stopped to think. I remember looking at the altimeter which was unwinding very fast. I was passing through thirty four thousand feet as near as I could tell. It was then that I thought that I didn't