Racine: Plane Clips Skydiver, crashes...

[FN FAL]

Looks like a PC-6 to me? I wonder who changed the pilot afterwards?

Don't confuse us with the facts Andre...

"To me, it looked like the pilot was trying to avoid the jumper and just missed," said Andre Peterson of Skydive Midwest.

http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news/4539671/detail.html#

Above link to story and photo of the doomed plane.

 

[sqwkvfr]

Do you know these guys, FN?

Say, did you ever get your jump in? I remember that you were sitting out a few weekends back because of the weather.

 

[FN FAL]

Do you know these guys, FN?

Say, did you ever get your jump in? I remember that you were sitting out a few weekends back because of the weather.

No, I never met Andre, not that I remember. In fact, today when my co-workers were discussing this incident, it was the first time I had ever heard of these guys.

As an ex-plane owner, I feel for the guy. That's a lot of nice plane to lose in an accident and it takes so much work to get something like that going...hopefully his insurance company can get him up and going again quickly.

Although I don't wish this on any jump pilot, based on the age, I'm hopping it's not my buddy Monty. He's a good stick, a corporate pilot and a hell of a guy...and he's about that age. My co-workers couldn't figure out how a jump plane could catch up with the jumpers, but they are just not up on what goes on in skydiving operations.

We do a lot of tandems at our drop zone and even with a 182, I have to watch very carefully that I don't catch up with them in the pattern...especially when doing a mid-field overfly to join the mid-field down wind. We use a pretty well thought out engine cooling process and even then, I can overtake tandems because they open so high. Plus, we usually only give them 9,000 AGL.

As as far as getting the first one of the season...I been meaning to get out and make that one, but the opportunity has eluded me. I have a warm fuzzy feeling that Sunday is going to be the big day. Since I have been a real slacker the last summer...it's going to really feel a lot like a first. I'm sure I'll have sweaty palms on the drive to the DZ.

I'll probably spend some time in our cut away simulator...yea, a simulator! You put this old rig on and they have you walk up a portable gantry. They hook you up to some rigging that is secured pretty good to a beam in the high point in the hanger.

Then he has you go through a normal wave off and deploy sequence, then you get the malfunction de jour...which normally means a cut away. You pull the cut away pad and off you go, swinging across the hanger and somebody usually spins you as you go by. Pretty disorienting when you are trying to find the silver reserve handle.

It sounds kind of silly, but it's a real confidence builder...about the same as when someone cuts an engine in an Aztec and you have dig out the old muscle memory and do the identify, fix or feather thing.

Just like that process, you take your time, look at the pad and peel velcro...extend full length until you see the lose ends. Then you look for the silver handle...pull and extend full length and a spring loaded pilot chute pops out! Maybe you do it a second time and check ride's over...now get your ass geared up...five minute call!

 

[FracCapt]

Just like that process, you take your time, look at the pad and peel velcro...extend full length until you see the lose ends. Then you look for the silver handle...pull and extend full length and a spring loaded pilot chute pops out! Maybe you do it a second time and check ride's over...now get your ass geared up...five minute call!

So I take it you use the 2 hand per handle method? I've always done the one hand per handle method. Look red, grab red, look silver, grab silver, peel and punch red, peel and punch silver. It's worked well for me many times. One time I had to use two hands to chop...jumping a friends rig without hard riser inserts. Velocity 103, 220lb exit weight, pack with(as best we could tell upon later review from my video camera) a step through. Quite a wild ride. Hard cutaway, coulding get it with one hand, but was able to get it with two. I just about killed my friend for NOT having hard riser inserts, after I had harped on him for years about it.

As for the plane in the article...yea, it's a Porter.

 

[GravityHater]

Tell us about this mid-field downwind thing. Not sure if we discussed it here, but in other places a conclusion wasn't arrived at, but I like the idea (but is a skydive situation the right place for it?). Are you a Canadian pilot? I think they teach it there.

 

[Metro752]

Thats what the meat missle gets for jumping north of the border behind the cheese curtain

 

[FN FAL]

So I take it you use the 2 hand per handle method?

No...I'm so rote with balancing out my body by putting my free hand on my head with the "salute"...kind of like an "s"...you know what I mean. Two hands on a handle would send you spinning.

I've always done the one hand per handle method. Look red, grab red, look silver, grab silver, peel and punch red, peel and punch silver. It's worked well for me many times. One time I had to use two hands to chop...jumping a friends rig without hard riser inserts. Velocity 103, 220lb exit weight, pack with(as best we could tell upon later review from my video camera) a step through. Quite a wild ride. Hard cutaway, coulding get it with one hand, but was able to get it with two. I just about killed my friend for NOT having hard riser inserts, after I had harped on him for years about it.

As for the plane in the article...yea, it's a Porter.

You had to chop a "step through"? I had one of those last spring...was using rental student gear for a rig.

When I saw the risers twisted, I thought, "now that's new and totally different!" Since I was at 2,500 feet, I checked it out with some turns and stalls and since it was flyable...I made shallow turns and landed it.

Under a 103...yea, I could see it being a bad thing to land it. I think I was under a 220, with zero p topskin...square corners, not elliptical. In fact, if you saw the movie "cut away", it's one of those exact rigs. We still have most of the movie "cut away" rigs for student rental gear.

Out of 600 jumps, I only have two cut aways...and both of those were on SOS rigs with FXC AAD. The cut aways were because of FXC tossing out a reserve after main deployment at 1,800 to 1,900 feet.

 

[FracCapt]

No...I'm so rote with balancing out my body by putting my free hand on my head with the "salute"...kind of like an "s"...you know what I mean.

Yea.....you're doing the "I'm a little tea-pot" thing.

You had to chop a "step through"? I had one of those last spring...was using rental student gear for a rig.

When I saw the risers twisted, I thought, "now that's new and totally different!" Since I was at 2,500 feet, I checked it out with some turns and stalls and since it was flyable...I made shallow turns and landed it.

Under a 103...yea, I could see it being a bad thing to land it. I think I was under a 220, with zero p topskin...square corners, not elliptical.

A step through on an elliptical is bad.....a step through on a highly loaded cross braced elliptical is really bad. I had no chance to even TRY flying it. It flew like a brake had come free(only one side) during deployment...but you can see clearly in the video both brakes are still set. It set me upright, I watched the slider come about halfway down, it bowtied, and we were off to the races. I was flat on my back in under 2 seconds. The risers were so twisted up under the forces that it line trapped the cutaway cable in the riser channel, causing a hard cutaway. It seemed like an eternity, but from the start of the spin to cutaway was only 6 seconds. 3 of it trying to cutaway with one hand. I was under reserve by 1500', after a 3 second delay to get stable after chopping. I knew I had plenty of altitude, plus I had a camera on my head....which is an invitation for an entanglement during an unstable deployment. I threw out my main at 3500'.

Out of 600 jumps, I only have two cut aways...and both of those were on SOS rigs with FXC AAD. The cut aways were because of FXC tossing out a reserve after main deployment at 1,800 to 1,900 feet.

I've had way more than my share of cutaways. Half of them were because I kept jumping a canopy that I had to chop many times. Stiletto 120, loaded about 1.9:1 at the time. I chopped that thing 4 times. I kept thinking it was something I was doing wrong(bad body position, poor packing, etc). After the second chop, I had the lines replaced. Still didn't tame it. 1 more chop. After jumping a friends ST120, I realized that mine was REALLY bad on openings, and it wasn't me that was causing it. The canopy had about 1800 jumps on it then, so I figured it was time to retire it. Last weekend I planned to jump it, I chopped it a 4th time. I wasn't even going to look for it...but it landed in the main landing area. I picked it up, threw it in a bag, and didn't jump it again.

One of my cutaways was on jump #1. Massive tension knots in the lines. Probably could've landed it, but I heard "cutaway, cutaway, cutaway!" on the radio....so, I did. The others were on highly loaded ellipticals and cross braced. Par for the course with those canopies, unfortunately. I know guys that have gone 1500 jumps on the same types of canopies without a chop...others that have them every 200 or so. I fall in the middle.

2k deployments are long past for this guy. I scared myself to death with a low pull/malfunction/even lower cutaway. Typical scenario....borrowed rig, somebody else packed it, highly loaded Stiletto. It was a miracle I didn't end up in the fatality reports. I didn't jump for many weeks.

 

[FN FAL]

Yea.....you're doing the "I'm a little tea-pot" thing.

Hahaha...

...A step through on an elliptical is bad.....a step through on a highly loaded cross braced elliptical is really bad. The others were on highly loaded ellipticals and cross braced. Par for the course with those canopies, unfortunately. I know guys that have gone 1500 jumps on the same types of canopies without a chop...others that have them every 200 or so. I fall in the middle.

2k deployments are long past for this guy. I scared myself to death with a low pull/malfunction/even lower cutaway. Typical scenario....borrowed rig, somebody else packed it, highly loaded Stiletto. It was a miracle I didn't end up in the fatality reports. I didn't jump for many weeks.

Borrowed gear kills. When I was a little less experienced, demo-ing a BOC mounted pilot chute didn't seem like that big of deal. Now, I would have to really dirt dive something out of the ordinary...I just don't jump as much as I used to.

Your comment on raising your deployment altitude don't surprise me. I have had some low encounters and never thought much of them, "back in the day". I'm sticking with container opening at 2,500 feet...unless it's unsafe to do so.

Both of my FXC reserve deployments with fully inflated mains occured while I was wearing SOS rigs. For a long time I worried that my earlier training habits would screw me if I had to pull a cutaway pad...so the simulator that my DZ uses is a great confidence builder. I also practice once or twice on the way up...I just take time to look to the right and see the pad, then just touch it. Then I think through what I'd do next then look at my reserve handle and touch it...then ensure both are secure while doing so. Kind of like a modified gear check.

After I deploy and when it's safe, I like to inventory my handles by touching them while looking at them, because they won't be in the same place when you're in the saddle, feet to earth. I don't do this untill I have inventoried where all the other jumpers are...we only have 182's, so as long as I can count to four, I'm good to go!

You can tell the season is about to get started again...thanks for chatting, it's been motivational! Be safe out there!