SA lipstick pass makes the headlines

SA’s Cathy Williamson, one of the pioneering parachutists who kicked the sport off in 1961, made the first ever lipstick pass in the British Commonwealth only months after her first jump.

The freefall kiss, recorded in July 1962 at 5,000 feet over Aldinga with Victorian jumper Bill Molloy, caught the attention of the national media and generated some great publicity for the fledgling sport.
A couple of months later Cathy did it all again – this time for the benefit of national pictorial magazine Everybody’s, which ran a 4-page feature spread on the jump.

All the action – once again over Aldinga – was captured on camera by SA sport parachuting founder, Ted Harrison, who was also a journalist.
Cathy’s partner for the lipstick pass this second time was another visitor from Victoria, Hans Magnusson.

Here's the full story
(including some dubious stuff about the magazine's own photographer positioning himself in another aircraft below the jumpers to catch the freefall action on  the way past.)

From Everybody’s magazine
October 10 1962


10 seconds too long 
and it would be
THEIR LAST KISS

Like most young couples in love, Cathy Williamson and Hans Magnusson like to go out together, to hold hands, and, naturally enough, to kiss.
Unlike other young couples, however, their idea of going out together is to leap from an aeroplane at 8,500 feet and kiss as they plummet earthwards – before opening their parachutes.

This is not easy, even when you have the nerve. In fact, it is so difficult that Cathy, an Adelaide girl, was the first skydiver in the British Commonwealth to accomplish recently the difficult “free-fall” kiss or “lipstick” pass.
Everybody’s, anxious to obtain pictures of the pass – never before photographed because of the score of problems involved – asked Cathy if she would try it again.

Her partner for the jump was handsome Swedish-born Hans Magnusson, of Fairfield, Victoria – Australia’s most experienced skydiver. Hans holds the record for the highest free-fall-from 23,600 feet above Virginia, S.A.
Cathy was delighted to attempt the pass with Hans for two reasons: if anyone could do it, she was sure he could; and, most important of all, romance was blossoming between them.

Cathy telephoned Hans in Melbourne, and the following weekend he came to Adelaide to attempt the difficult jump.
To get the pictures of the jump, even if it could be accomplished, posed many difficulties.

To photograph the fall, Everybody's needed to be in a plane below the one from which the couple would jump. The plane would need to be a low-wing monoplane; to allow the camera to get an unobstructed view of the sky above. Perspex from the canopy of the aircraft – a South Australian Aero Club Chipmunk – had to be re-moved to avoid the danger of reflection on the camera lens.

We asked Ted Harrison, the president of the S.A. School of Parachuting, if he would jump with them and try to photograph them as he dropped.

There was no knowing exactly at what height Cathy and Hans – who would jump one after the other – would be able to come together. If the Everybody's plane were too close there would be danger that the trio might strike it on the way down. If it were too far away, the camera would not be able to pick them up.

The Chipmunk and the parachutists' Cessna 172, with the door removed, met at 8,500 feet over Aldinga. There were few clouds and conditions were ideal for the jump. For a few moments the two planes flew wing-tip to wing-tip, while the man from Everybody's, his hands blue from the icy, 100 m.p.h. slipstream, took pictures. A few minutes later, Cathy climbed out on to the wheel of the plane. The temperature, at freezing point, stung her face and the wind sent her plaits streaming behind her.

Hans climbed out on to a wheel strut. Ted squatted in the doorway of the plane.
Then Everybody's plane screamed in a vertical, 200 m.p.h. dive to 6,000 feet the approximate height where "the kiss" might be attempted.
As it straightened out, the three skydivers above jumped, one after the other  – Cathy, Hans, Ted.

As each jumped, they faced the direction the aircraft was travelling.
The three figures moved hands, legs and bodies to control their speed and angles of flight. Rapidly, Hans gained on Cathy. As he neared her he flared out his arms and legs, using them as brakes.

Then, as both rushed towards the ground at a speed between 120 and 160 m.p.h., Cathy flipped over – she, like Hans, had been facing the ground – and they kissed.

Ted, only about 16 feet behind them, clicked. the shutter of his automatic camera a fraction of a second before Cathy flipped over. A second later he pressed the shutter release again – this time to get a chance-in-a-million picture of the kiss, taken under conditions that could not have been more difficult. Scots-born Cathy Williamson is a 21-year-old teacher at the Vermont Girls' Technical High School.
She teaches English, social studies, and physical education. She is studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Hans Magnusson, 24, of Stockholm, is working his way around the world. He, too, is interested in social studies. Soon, he will return home.
And Cathy?
"She may not be able to come travelling with me  – but she will be coming to Sweden."

It was obvious that Cathy and Hans, who like the high life, had it all arranged.
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