lakehouse

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!

Diver Driver

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.

lakehouse

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

Diver Driver

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

USMCFLYR

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

USMCFLYR

lakehouse

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

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