With future husband Vernon Omlie at the controls, Phoebe Fairgrave hooked her toes under a wire on the upper wing and braced for a series of stunts. (From a series of photos taken by P.W. Hamilton, Minneapolis Tribune photographer)
18-year-old St. Paul Girl Sets World Record
By 15,200-foot Parachute Jump From Plane
Phoebe Fairgrave, an 18-year-old St. Paul high school girl, who had not ridden in an airplane six months ago, yesterday broke all existing records for women parachute jumpers, when she leaped from a plane at a height of 15,200 feet over North Minneapolis, and landed safely 20 minutes later in a field about a mile from New Brighton. The jump was made shortly after 6 p.m. and was observed by hundreds of city residents.
The record-making jump, 4,200 feet higher than any made before by a woman, came after the Curtiss Oriole plane, piloted by V.C. Omlie, had climbed steadily for 65 minutes, from its starting point at Curtiss field, Snelling and Larpenteur avenues, St. Paul.
At 10,000 feet the girl and her pilot began to feel the cold. As they still climbed upward, out of sight of the ground, the cold intensified, and they were both [numbed] when the time came to jump.
Vernon Omlie and Phoebe Fairgrave before a jump. A partly inflated inner tube was wrapped around her chest in case she landed in a lake. (Omlie Collection, Memphis Public Library) "I wasn't afraid to jump," said the girl after she had landed safely, "but my hands were so cold that I hated to walk out on the wings. But I got out all right and fastened on my chute. Then I just let go and the wind carried me off.
"For the first 100 feet, I fell like a flash. Then the chute opened out and I began to swing back and forth through the air, as if I were in a swing. The motion, and the rapid change from icy cold to heat, sickened me at first. But at 12,000 feet I began to feel better.
"At 9,000 feet I struck an air pocket and dropped quickly again, but was soon out of it. The planes kept circling around me and made me feel less lonesome.
