Bloom takes to the skies -- again

Mike Farran adjusts the microphone for Terri Bloom so they can communicate in the air. The noise makes it hard to hear anything without the equipment.--submitted photo

Terri Bloom was in the mood for some excitement. She hadn't jumped off of anything tethered only by a bungee cord or out of an airplane in a while so she was ready for something to do. But what? Friend Mike Farran came through on a long-delayed promise, to go powerchuting.

Farran read about Bloom's skydiving in a previous article that appeared in a September 2005 article in the Nevada Daily Mail and offered to take her up in his powerchute, also known as a paraglider.

"He had seen the article in the paper where I went sky-diving and he said, 'Terry, you're an adventurous person, would you like to go powerchuting.' It was in the fall and getting cold so we put it off."

They agreed to wait until spring, unfortunately the airport was undergoing renovations most of the time the next year and Farran got little flying in, and none with Broom. It wasn't until Sept. 25, 2008, that Bloom got her ride.

"We went up about 5:30 in the evening," Bloom said. "It's great, it's better than skydiving. I love to skydive and I would love to do it again but powerchuting was better because you get to see all around you and it lasts longer."

Farran's powerchute, a two-seater, has a tubular frame with an aircraft engine mounted on the rear. The parachute ram-air type also known as a parafoil.

"I sat behind Mike and I could see everything," Bloom said. "We got up to 1,300 feet but most of the time we were 300 to 500 feet up. Mike said he was licensed up to 10,000 feet but that it got really choppy higher up. The flight lasted about an hour, we took off at the airport and went north, then around west and back south."

Bloom said that they flew over the Twin Lakes sports complex.

"One of my granddaughters was playing soccer that night so we flew over the soccer field," Bloom said.

Farran doesn't normally take passengers, except for his wife, Shirley, but he made an exception for Bloom. When she was 26, Bloom's right arm started twitching and eventually became twisted behind her back. Her doctor told her she was an unusual patient because the stroke that caused the problem didn't have a ready explanation. "I wasn't in a car wreck or have any unusual fever or anything to cause it," Bloom said. "I've adapted to it, I can do anything I want to do, if I want to do it."

Bloom certainly has done a lot of unusual activities and it doesn't appear she is slowing down anytime soon.