kilgore cant tell ya the name of the lake or id have to kill ya. its up in the misty fjords. it was a sweet day.

this was and still is my favorite skydive hauling plane. little hairy taking off with 16 meatballs crammed in it but what a rocket ship. one of those airplanes u feel like u strap on........http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/...8a0919ff_o.jpg

Ya thats what we use, about top of green till u cant hold it on MP and 2450RPM, descent close cowls, 15-17ish mp, and bot green rpm, i keep the head temps at 220 the entire descent which is pretty darn good. For those who dont know can you cover the 7ps, and I am not jumping a round. Used a hook knife once to cut a jumper who got stuck on a belt, like my 8th load of jumpers ever non the less, very important part of being a jumper dumper.

I may spend the upcoming season in a KA90 getting some training for 2011

the 7 p's

Proper
prior
preparation
prevents
****
poor
performance

some of the boulder crewhttp://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/...07b1c913_b.jpg

I fly a C182 in Wichita, KS at the local drop zone. It is a nice plane, it has wing extensions, a 310 hp motor, and it is meticulously maintained. I have posted pictures from it at APC before. For safety discussions I recommend this website:

Diver Driver He only covers a few airplanes, but it is good advice.

The worst threat facing the skydiving pilot in my view, is the turn-and-burn atmosphere of the typical drop zone. The DZ owner and all the jumpers want fast turnarounds, and they vastly outnumber the pilot at any given time. The pilot absolutely must require that they be allowed to do a thorough preflight before beginning the day, that they have time for a short break whenever fatigue dictates, they follow a rigid cockpit flow on each and every flight. Also, to protect their tickets they need to review rules, regs, and procedures in their time off to be sure they are ready for a surprise ramp check. It is also advisable for them to ask for a short test flight before loading up when out of the cockpit for a while.

Skydiver flying is a lot of fun, it offers a different type of flying than what most pilots are familiar with.

Much agreed! Diver Driver is getting a bit slow, esp the forum, I asked APC to create a section for lowtime/skydive/survey/etc pilots, but got no reply! I hope they look into it, they do not have a section for the everything else pilots!

last skydivehttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3406/...28f317dc_o.jpg

if anyone lives in NORCAL and is looking for a jumper dumper gig, PM me, I might be heading back East late March, dont message me though, unless you have exp. dumpin jumpers, and live in Norcal

I had my first chop/reserve ride today at jump 39, bad line twists, once they would not stop and hit the risers I chopped and landed on the reserve no fuss no muss....fun day

I'll bet.........Glad all turned out OK.

USMCFLYR

thanks man =), first parachute tried to kill me, but I got rid of it and the 2nd one didnt so I am still here! I will tell you flying a reserve is like going from a Cessna 150 to a Cessna 206, its a boat, slow, and takes 10 seconds to respond.....All worked out, I did not even drop my handles! Worst part is I packed the darn main! Not sure what caused it, but I watched it come out of the bag and open and it just wanted to keep twisting, I even had good body position and all. It just twisted, I tried to stop it, but when it hit the risers I got rid of it before things got worst, was weird having to chop, never had before, 39 jumps..1 chop, as of today!

Not a record that you want to keep going! Be careful out there - in the plane and under the chute.

USMCFLYR

Nah, but they happen, I cant help a pile of poop over my head, I am still alive so I did something right, everyone has one after awhile, I just got hit early

fun stuff huh, i remember my first reserve ride fondly. good work. have a beer on me. reserve ride are up ther on my [....] cool meter. adrenaline is a sweet sweet drug. 7 cells do respond a little sluggish but at that point you cant be pick. i can get sub 100 reserves. they are quite zippy, specially if ya weight 230 like me. BSBD

YouTube - Line Twists looked like that, except I couldnt pull it out, I was pulling and kicking and it very slowly kept getting worst, next time I will be altitude aware, I most likely had more time to keep fighting it, but I am glad I did what I was taught!

Used to work there full time, still go to help out from time to time.

KANQ- C182 (1956 straight tail)
$5 per load (In other words, terrible)

it might be time you ask for a raise

who jumps?? Anyone going to be in Norcal before late march or NJ after? I would love to jump with another pilot!

today on the radio:

"Norcal 876, Jumpers away" "876 Roger" 15 seconds later "American 291 turn left heading 210, descend 3,0000" "Out of 6,000 for 3,000 left 210 AA 291" "AA 291 WAIT WAIT TURN RIGHT ANYTHING AWAY FROM WHAT I JUST GAVE YOU!! ACTIVE PARACHUTE DROP, YOUR 10 O'CLOCK AND 1 MILE PLEASE TURN AWAY FROM IT NOW, but please descend 3,000" "SWING IT RIGHT away from those birds that are shaped like humans and down to 3,000 AA 291"

Well nothing on the news so everything must have worked out OK for all involved. :eek:

USMCFLYR

I did... with my feet. I only go down there now when they are swamped, and I have nothing to do and feel like hanging out at the DZ. ;)

One of the best places to hang out =), im gonna be sad when I gotta move on

just went to the dz at snohomish today for kicks man it sucked no rig nothing to fly. boo hoo hoo. i have to remedy this

why not jump the student gear? If you see any good deals let me know I need like a 170ish full system-

Definitely a fun flying job. I flew jumpers from this past April to October outside of Lansing, MI on the weekends. Flew a few different 182's and a 206. Made $150/wk + $10/load. I always talked to LAN approach on the way up and down, giving them 5 min, 1 min, and jumpers away calls. Did the same calls on the CTAF as well. The owner of the DZ has 5 other dropzones in MI, FL, AZ, and CA. This gave me the opportunity to ferry the 206 from FL up to MI, and then out to AZ at the end of the season. Then took a 182 from Phoenix to San Diego then on to LA. Really some awesome flying. Absolutely loved the people I worked with, and was able to rack up about 220-240 hours over the summer. It was a great way for me to stay current while trying to cope with the horrible job market. Just interviewed at American Eagle and now I'm waiting for my background and drug tests to go through so I can get back to flying jets. I'll always have fond memories of flying jumpers, and would love to get to do it again sometime....what a great way to get experience.

Good luck with Eagle! I think there are only 4 of us who flew jumpers, I agree- it was a great experience!

Must be nice being around them college girls too

broncobird

what is the dzo's name and what dropzones? i just moved to mi and want to get back into the dropzone scene?

ya rick i should have but, just to cheap to rent a rig when i own my rigs and just to lazy or cheap to get them repacked. i need to get back around the moutains base jumping is way cheaper. u just have to hike to altitude.....

PM me for details.

There is a jumpre operator in Newport RI. Good set up and it think he has some older 182 and maybe a few 172s. Airport is tiny but i went in there a couple times this summer with the 402 and Cherokee 6. For anyone really involved in the jumping industry what can you tell me aobut the actual flying? IS it mainly jsut climb to altitude and then mback down or do you do a little more than that.

And for whoever went out to snohomish i would suggest going to Shelton. THey seem to have their crap together,.

You do a ton more than that, checkout diverdriver.com for some good info, I have only seen one place with a 172, so most likely it is 182's. The huge part is having 4 people hanging off your plane, and safely exiting it. It is not as simple as drive to 10k, let them out and descent, there are a ton of things that can go wrong. You have a constantly changing CG, your RIGHT AT mgw most of the time, and your landing a nose heavy plane with no aft weight (esp a 206). Checkout diverdriver for great info on how to fly jumpers, and if you get the gig congrats, its some amazingly awesome flying, its very hard to get bored. You might even get to see some boobs!

There's a lot more to it than that. Sometimes I felt like a babysitter... some of the guys that jump at DZ's are pretty wild. I had one guy that would, because the interior of the aircraft is stripped out, pull on the aileron cross cables in the ceiling of the aircraft during climbout to mess with me. Guys would climb and hang all over the aircraft when they exited... talk about parasitic drag!

One time I had a jumper sitting in the 'slot' and when he turned to get out of the aircraft, his pilot chute got loose and pulled his main chute out while he was kneeling in the door. I had to slam down the right rudder to keep the chute from getting caught on the horizontal stab. The jumper got yanked out of the aircraft and he missed my horiz. stab. by about 1 foot... thank goodness, because I would have had to jump if he ripped it off.

It is a dangerous job... and if you decide to do it, always make sure you wear a chute when you are flying jumpers... it could save your life.

Nice save, I watch my jumpers as they exit, I have a good feel for the plane and can cross check every few seconds to make sure things esp airspeed are where they feel and sound. Pilot rig is a MUST and reg, but saving the plane is huge, if you have to jump because someone ripped off the tail your going to have paperwork but a good story, jumping because the engine quit and your going to be the biggest butt head in history lol.

I had a tandem get snagged on a seatbelt on the way out once, that sucked, im huge on hookknifes now for the pilot, and more than 1 they break, the only one I had was the one in the tandem harness, had to work with the instructor to get it up to me, otherwise things could have went downhill fast. This ended fairly uneventful in retrospect, didnt feel like it at the time.

I have seen the monkeys climb all over, had one guy basically go over the wing, had to say please dont do that again. Its a very high pace job, you will be rushed alot refueling so watch your caps. You will be rushed and have to deal with boneheads on the radio doing patterns that take you halfway across the state, thinking if my engine quits im screwed and the DZ is out of a plane. Most jump planes dont have hull insurance either. Dont expect to have much glide if you lose an engine on takeoff since your at MGW. Also be ready to occasionally be near VFR mins in a plane that most likely is the furthest thing ever from being MVFR friendly, let alone a joke if someone ever took the thing ifr. Also you hope to god manifest is checking repack cards, and your basically fully responsible for your jumpers and what they do.

Check out this video diver driver
YouTube - naggas

Wow, incredible video and story. Thanks for sharing it; that's what I always feared most when flying jumpers.

I was smiling for the people throughout the video. What a great show of friendship among the guys.

USMCFLYR

just got my rig!! flying to Cleveland and back NRSA tomorrow on UAL!!!

Picasa Web Albums - likestojump - Javelin-Odyss... for pics!!