Does anyone know what happened to the www.diverdriver.com website?

Are there any other good resources for jump pilots?

 

Hmmm...don't know. I think last time I looked at was a couple weeks ago. There's dropzone.com, but that's more for the jumpers. I don't know of another site for pilots. diverdriver.com was an excellent resource but it had become stagnant the last couple of years. Oh well, you can always ask us current and former diver drivers if you have questions.

 

I guess they took it down recently. Thats a shame..Very resourceful when I first started this year.

But as Averett posted, there's a few of us on here that will be more than willing to answer your questions. Feel free to ask away bud!

 

What is the term for a diver getting hung up on the seatbelt on his way our the door? If they end up hanging from the airplane in flight unable to get loose, what are the hand signals to cut the belt? What happens if they are unconscious? I,ve been told if they are unconscious the best option is to land the plane with them hanging out the door! .....Thoughts on this?

 

no term for this. Best way to prevent it is to keep an eye on your jumpers, best solution is to always have a hook knife attached to your work environment so you can cut them free within 5 seconds. If you land they prol will die. If you cut them loose passed out and they have no aad they are dead, if they have an aad they may live.

 

There was a video on Discovery a few years back about this very thing, not sure if it was seat belt or something esle but the pilot could not cut the diver away and had to return with him hanging from the right main. It wasn't as bad as it sounded, because other than getting dragged on grass at 50 mph for a few hundreds yards the jumper was fine. I worry more about jumpers destroying the tail as they jump out than hanging from a main.

Too bad about the website.

Here's a little advice for jump pilots in situations like this. If you have to bring a diver back for any reason, in or out of the plane, always use a gentle descent rate (~500 fpm). They have a pyrotechnic deployment device as a backup for the main that has a pretty sensitive descent gauge calibrated to assume the diver has lost the main (or passed out) if the altitude is less than about 1500 agl and the descent rate is more than about 700 fpm.