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Broadwick - 2

Q: How high were the balloons when you jumped?

Broadwick: We used to get up to about 2000 feet, and sometimes it was higher. If we were going to make three parachute drops from one balloon, we'd go up about 3000 feet, and that was a great big balloon: there was 1111 yards in that, and it stood 92 feet high and about 56 feet through.

Q: Were the balloons safe at that time or were there accidents with them?

Broadwick: There were still accidents with hot air balloons. It would depend on how careful a person was in inflating a hot air balloon, because it was inflated with coal oil, and fire was always dangerous, and there was always danger for the people who were holding onto the balloon, before you left the ground. We had an automatic ground support that eliminated anybody holding onto the ballon. I was only one around and Dad Broadwick, to help me with my heavy bundle, with the parachutes to go up, and the announcer that announced how many parachutes I had and just about how high the balloon went and the different kinds of drops, that we'd do that day.

Q; Can you remember incidents when the balloon failed?

Broadwick: Oh, I can remember many of those, but we don't like to talk about those!

I started up one day and the balloon busted, and of course that was because it was scorched on the outside, and when my weight and the parachute's weight got on that, it split. I was up about 200 feet. I didn't have quite time enough to cut loose, but the balloon left me down close enough to the tent, the carnival tent, that I hit on the ropes that ran past there, and by that time I had help to