I was 23,000 feet up which about four mi1es and did what I was not supposed to do I pulled the ripcord to open my chute.
"The Biography of a Rabbit"
Roy Benson, Jr.
Their last signals to each other had been: "Even if you're already dead, pull the ripcord ring of your chute!"
"Lords of the Stratosphere"
Arthur J. Burks
I would have forgone the dubious honor of being the first to land upon the grass, but the crew apparently had their orders; I was courteously tapped upon the shoulder-I presume the warders are polite when they enter the condemned cell at dawn-my chute was strapped upon me and the instructions I had already read in their printed form at least sixty times were repeated verbally, so much to my confusion that when I was finally in the air I do not know to this day whether I counted six, sixty, six hundred, or six thousand before jerking the ripcord.
"Greener Than You Think"
Ward Moore