Photos from power parachuting

My very first time to power parachute was in 2004, at age 49.  At the time, I was living only a couple of miles from Skyview.  In the evening hours, I'd sit outside my house and watch the parachutes going overhead.  I'd dream about what it would be like to be up there, way above the ground.  It looked so peaceful and inviting but I lacked the courage to give it a try.


  Common sense and good reasoning told me that I'd be crazy to get into a "contraption" like that!  What if the engine failed?  What if the parachute didn't work?  Hey, what about that crazy pilot?  Did I want to risk my life for a 30-minute ride in a flying car?  Did I have a death wish or something?  


One night in mid-August, right before school was to begin, I made the "last minute" decision that it was now or never.  I was going to power-parachute and it was going to be that very night.  No matter how scary the prospect of going up in the air would be, Peggy Miller was going.  It was one of those times in my life (and I guess we all have those times) when being afraid didn't matter anymore.  1,500 feet in the air was no more scary than some of the other things I had been experiencing in my life at that time.  Perhaps that very knowledge was my "shot of courage".


The photos below are from my first time going in 2004.  I went a second time, October 26, 2005, on the occasion of my 50th birthday.  

 This is me in the co-pilot seat.  I can't even imagine what I was thinking at the time!  Grahame had driven me over there and I think he waited until I was in the air before he called my mom at the nursing home to tell her what I was doing.  Pretty sure that I heard her screaming at me to get myself out of that thing and get home!

 This is the pilot, my friend Morris Yoder.  He assured me that I was not the first person he had ever taken up in the air.  We are just now getting ready to head down the runway-a grass strip adjacent to his home.  Helmets are a must, although I'm not exactly sure what good they would do.  Each helmet is equipped with a microphone so that you can talk back and forth with one another.  I felt kind of bad during my first flight.  I'm just about positive that I screamed bloody murder at a range that could deafen half of Hutchinson.  I apologized to him when we landed and he just laughed and said that he never even turns his headset on until about 3 minutes into the flight.  Smart man!!

 This is what we looked like taking off into the most beautiful sunset that evening.  It was like being in heaven up there.  No noise, no traffic, only the wind.  My initial fear was gone within a couple of minutes and sadly, the 30 minute flight went oh so very quickly.  Perhaps you will never wish to try power parachuting and that's ok.  I encourage you, however, to try something at least once in life that you are very afraid to do.   You might be surprised at the courage and strength you have inside!  


From the words of the angel Tess:  "God gives everyone a purpose in this life."