Hello and sorry for the delay in answering this question from a previous news-letter. This month I would like to touch on an area of flight that may not be receiving the attention that it should. It is called the PRE- flight. This area needs to be reviewed because of some recent accidents with sailplanes in the soaring community and by us powered pilots who have that big fan up front to
keep us cool! (Capt. Dave Domeier has elected to installed his fan in the rear of his machine).

When I breakdown the thoughts before a flight (PRE), I come up with these little reminders:
P- is for PREPARING myself for what to expect from the weather, myself, and the airship. I check the weather the night before and I ensure myself a good nights sleep. I may know from the last flight what condition the airship is in for this flight. (clean, oiled, fueled, everything working?)
R- is for the day of the flight. It is a REVIEW of the P things. Is the weather as they forecasted it? Was it a good nights sleep? Am I up for the task today? Is the airship top notch?
E - is for EVALUATION. I look at this as the FINAL EVALUATION before flight. We as pilots sometimes rush through this moment of our PREFLIGHT AND THIS IS THE ONE THAT GETS US IN TROUBLE.

It has happened to us all at one time or another and we have survived to tell about it. This fact alone should and usually does make us better PRE flighters. One time during my night freight hauling days I watched this Learjet taxi in after flying from Des Moines to Chicago. We on the ramp snickered at seeing the left fuel cap for the 386 gallon tip tank dangling by its chain. When we told
the captain that his cap was a dangling he immediately ripped into his co-pilot. This past April 15, a Cessna 404 pilot ordered 25 gallons of fuel for each wing of his airship. The receipt he signed said 50 gallons of JET A, not the 50 gallons of 100LL he ordered. Yes, shortly after take-off the engines quit. Already this year there have been two highly experienced soaring pilots crash during take-off because their tail surfaces flew off the sailplane. For some reason the pilots were distracted and did not PRE-flight and check their airship. What can be done? Follow a checklist. After I pre-flight the airplane I will walk around a second time to assure that: 1) I closed the oil access door after pouring in that quart of oil, 2) assure that I pulled those chocks or removed all the tie downs, 3) check that I did not leave that Jeppesen book on the wing of the Piper Cherokee 4) or that suit garment bag that this Cessna 177 Cardinal Pilot placed on the horizontal stabilizer and left there for take off!!! “What a sight to see” (he wrote in Flying Magazine) “when I pulled back to take off it felt like I had a ton of bricks back there. I looked out the back window and there it was. My garment bag lying across the stabilizer. The landing was a little tricky but all ended well.” I bet you he had to change his underwear after that flight. I have found that a quick second walk around the airship to visually & physically check the fuel caps, oil access door, baggage door, and the tie down & chocks location, can save a lot of embarrassment and bent aluminum. Knowledge is gained from experiences. In the British Soaring Magazines they write a mini review of all the accidents that occur in that country the previous month because we gain knowledge from others' experience. (There is usually about 25-30 reports each month.) In this country we tend to shy away from this area so as not to scare the individual from the sport.

The first parachute jump from an airplane took place in what year and where????

Is that your final answer? The year was 1912 and it took place at Jefferson Barracks - St. Louis.