10/04 Black October for Aviation....

[FN FAL]

206 crashes in Illinois...one dead, four escape serious injury by parachute...

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/metroeast/story/C856AFEECA427B2886256F39001532C9?OpenDocument&Headline=Tangled+chute+is+cited+in+crash

 

[Jump Pilot]

That sucks.

One of my concerns when flying jumpers. Always mentally briefed myself to kick right rudder if I saw a premature deployment while the meat was crawling on the wing.

 

[Pugh]

Do jumper pilots usually wear parachutes? I didn't know they do.

 

[Joseph II]

I always wore one... I had one incident where a static line jumper's chute opened while he was on the step. He flew off pretty quickly and to the amazement of the jump master. The jumpmaster looked over to me and said "man, you don't know how close that was" We were at 4000' agl...

 

[Jump Pilot]

I always wore one, too. Would probably break my legs if I had to use it but it beat the alternative.

I loved flying jumpers. Especially the topless skydives.

 

[FracCapt]

Do jumper pilots usually wear parachutes? I didn't know they do.

In the STC for the jump door on the Cessna series it states that anytime skydiving is in progress out of the aircraft, all occupants must wear an "approved harness/container system". This carries the legal weight of a FAR. I have never flown jumpers in ANYTHING with a side exit without wearing a bailout rig. The only one I didn't wear it in was the Casa(tailgate).

This incident PROVES that it is possible for the pilot to get out of the aircraft and USE his bailout rig. It was the jumper that exited first whose canopy got entangled with the tail, and he was the only fatality. The other 3 jumpers and the pilot got out safely. The story is that the guy hit his head on the tail as a result of the canopy deploying over the tail and pulling him into it...and gave him serious skull/brain injuries, which is the suspected cause of death right now. He was even wearing a helmet.

BSBD