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Thank you for your support!

November 22, 2013 saw the official re-launch of DiverDriver.com. I want to thank Christy West for her unfailing dedication to helping me see this website flourish.  If it wasn’t for her I could not do what you see now.  Also, this December will be the 14th anniversary of the original launch of the website in 2000.

In the past year there have been 14,704 unique visitors from around the world. Obviously the highest number come from the United States and Canada. But many visitors are from UK, Australia, Germany, Brazil, France, Sweden, New Zealand and Finland.  All told there have been visitors from 151 different countries / territories. That is truly AWESOME!  This could only have happened with all of YOU supporting the site and promoting it among your friends and coworkers in the skydiving industry.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

-Chris Schindler

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Virginia Skydiving Center taking aircraft safety seriously.

VirginiaSkydivingCenterMore than likely your first skydive was an exciting adventure that was a seamless process, at least hopefully it was from your point of view. Behind the scenes, there were countless hours of preparation and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested to help ensure your experience was a great one. Naturally, our students are mostly interested in the skydiving instructors and want to make sure we are using properly trained instructors. And we do focus a lot of our attention on the skydiving staff. But, there is another very important member of the team that helped you make your skydive-the pilot of your plane!

We recently put our pilots through extensive emergency procedure training, in our actual King Air airplane, not a simulator. All three pilots were well prepared and handled each emergency like a pro. But, we will continue to periodically run the pilots through this very expensive, voluntary training in an effort to keep everyone as safe as possible. Very few of our first-time customers think about the pilot. But, we wanted you to know that we are doing everything possible training not only our instructors, but also the pilots, to ensure we are doing everything possible to keep a level of safety that is unsurpassed.

Below is a shot of Scott Paul flying with the left engine shut down and the propeller feathered and stopped.

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Cessna 206 Accident data updated.

I have gone through the Accident data section for the Cessna 206 and differentiated between P-206, U-206 and added a new aircraft category for Turbo-Charged 206 which will include both P-206 and U-206 turbo accidents.  I have also added a link for each of these differentiations to the 206 aircraft specific page at the bottom.

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Emergency!

How many of you would say that you had adequate, in depth training to be a DiverDriver? Did you come to that first 182 job already “checked out” in 182s or did the DZ train you?  When I was first hired that was the norm to already have time in type and then they would train you for the jump pilot part of the job.  Times do change though.  Are you getting training from a current jump pilot possibly with a CFI?  How in depth did they go into systems and performance (hey it’s just a jump plane not the Space Shuttle right)?  Ok, so you went over some FARs that pertain to skydiving.  You might have even referenced some website dedicated to flying jumpers.  Maybe you got told that a premature deployment could go over the tail and just kick some right rudder to see if you can get it to slide off.  Hey if you have an engine failure just glide down you’re starting out right over the airport most of the time anyway.

Is that the extent of abnormal procedures you discussed?  Well, that would be similar to my experience too.  Only through time and talking did I hear more stories and began to take in important points.  But what if that bad stuff happens in your first hour of flying skydivers?  What then?  Are you suddenly going to become Chuck Yeager and a test pilot to see exactly what your new operating envelope is?  That would be unlikely.

So what to do?  How do you handle emergencies?  I’m not talking about the emergency procedures of your POH.  Yes, you should know that and have it down cold.  I’m talking personal.  What happens to YOU in an emergency?  You will get tunnel thinking.  You might have heard the term tunnel vision which is certainly a possibility under great stress (actually having limited use of your eyes) but under stress our thinking becomes strained.  That’s why we practice emergency procedures over and over in ab initio training.  It is an effort in stress “inoculation”.  That’s why you’ll hear a pilot after a successful dead stick landing say something along the lines of “my training just kicked in and I did what I had to do.”  Great, that’s the point of the training.

But what if the emergency is something that’s not in the book?  Say damage to the aircraft from a premature deployment.  You must first BREATHE!  You need oxygen to the brain.  Talking aloud can help in forcing oxygen into the lungs.  “What happened!” “What does it look like now?”  “Where is everyone?!”  You are gathering information if anyone is still around to talk to you and you are helping yourself.  But the mind is a funny thing.

My guarantee: You will ALWAYS think of things after everything is said and done that you could have done better.  You should NOT let that play in your head over and over.  Granted you should never operate with willful negligence and some things have consequences but in an emergency not of your own making you will make choices that in hindsight you’ll rethink.  Are you alive?  Is everyone else alive?  Then good.  The rest can be sorted out.

First try to assess what is wrong.  DON’T TRY TO BE A MECHANIC IN FLIGHT!  Assessment is not fixing.  You are trying to determine if your operating envelope has been affected.  Is it?  In what way?  If you have aircraft damage and limited flight control availability you need to assess how and when you will have to land.  THIS IS WHY YOU CARRY RESERVE FUEL.  You will need to know how much time you have to make decisions.  If you have fuel you have time.  Is the engine running?  Take your time.  Do a controllability check like skydivers are taught from jump one.  Left, right, flare.  Ok, add in up and down since we have an elevator.  Well, we might have an elevator in a premature deployment.  Again, assess what control you do have.  Can you maintain altitude with power or are you in a slow descent no matter what you do?  Now your time option is going away.  Ok, left, right, up, down, configuration.  You need to assess the configuration you plan to land in.  If you have aircraft damage to flight control surfaces do NOT change the configuration you are in unless you know it will not effect aircraft control.  If you have altitude and time then maybe you should test whether adding flaps will effect your landing.  You DO NOT want to find out on short final that extending flaps will cause the remaining pitch control to go away and now you’re out of control rolling into the ground from 500 feet.

If you have an engine failure other than in the traffic pattern you should have some time to assess.  If it happens on jump run DO NOT fly your normal descent profile.  Get back to best glide.  Give yourself all the time you can.  Make sure you determine the wind direction so you land into the wind if at all possible or at least be aware if you need to land with a tailwind that you will be covering ground faster than normal.  Are you in a piston engine?  You’ll have more drag and glide shorter than you are used to because an engine at idle takes some pressure off the prop.  If the relative wind is the only thing driving the propeller (and in turn the engine) you will have a significant increase in drag.  DON’T FLY YOUR NORMAL PATTERN.  You’ll need to assess how it is effecting your glide distance.  Are you in a single engine turbine?  Did the prop feather?  You’re going to be committed to dead stick landing even from a high altitude.  The time needed to start a turbine, get it out of feather in flight and then restore power is significant.  Also, your glide distance will have INCREASED due to the feather prop so…you guessed it….DON’T FLY YOUR NORMAL PATTERN TO LANDING.  You could likely over shoot.

As jump pilots many of us have the option of wearing an emergency bailout rig.  Believe it or not this complicates decision making to a point.  If you have a plane that’s disintegrating around you (to use a skydiving term) that’s a high speed mal.  You have no time to assess anything.  It’s time to go.  However, if you have something that’s not falling out of the sky that’s a slow speed malfunction (again associating to skydiving terms) like line twists that you’re hanging under.  Is it time to go? I have altitude and gas? Continue to assess.  Determine your hard deck.  Hopefully you’ve thought about that before you took to the air.

Story time on how the brain works.  I had a slow speed malfunction of line twists.  But for some reason I could not kick out of them.  I was slowly gaining ground.  I did not check my altitude as I became totally engrossed in getting out of line twists by all accounts and learning up to that point EVERYONE ELSE has been able to get out of right?  Well, I rode it down below my hard deck of 1,500.  I did not have a steerable, landable canopy.  Now, I DID get out of the twists and landed safely.  The point is I did not follow what I thought I had settled on as a decision point.  Why?  Because we are human.  And I took away something that I can share with you.  How many pilots have taken seemingly small problems and ended up a fatality in smoking hole?  Many.

Another story about the power of the mind.  I was a new jumper and under a very large canopy.  The wind was equal to the forward flight of the canopy so I was essentially  coming straight down….over high voltage power lines!  And for a time, hard to admit as it may be, I was thinking my only course of action was to cutaway and use my reserve which was smaller and might give me forward progress to clear the power lines.  I can’t tell you what it was but it seemed to take up a lot of brain power to overcome that urge to take that action.  It most likely would have been fatal or at least very unnecessary. I took one more look behind me, spotted a cow field, turned and let the wind push me quit quickly over the open field and I landed safely.  Someone gave me a car ride.  Life was good.

Last one. I had an engine failure in a Twin Otter. A jumper reported that I had an engine fire also.  I could not see it so my impression was that I was about to lose the right wing as it burned through.  I first turned on the door light. I emphatically stated for people to get ready to jump immediately.  I simultaneously took the steps to secure the engine according to the manufacturer’s AFM.  I then stared at the fire handle wondering why it wasn’t lighting up.  I just had a jumper report that I had a fire.  But this system seemed to be failing.  Should I pull it just in case?  Hmmm, I wonder why it’s not lighting up.  I dunno.  Is everyone ready to get out?  I don’t want them all dying here too.  I just had five friends die four months ago in an engine fire.  I don’t want 19 plus me to die.  Oh, I hope they start going.  “THE FIRE’S OUT!”  pheeewwww.  Relief.  Hey, where are we?  I should turn back for the DZ now.  I hope I can drop them over the top.  Hey, we’re still climbing!  “Chicago Center we’re declaring an emergency dropping now.”  “Roger, two minutes to drop.”  “No, we’ve had an engine failure, we’re dropping now.”  “Say again?”  “WE’VE HAD AN ENGINE FAILURE WE’RE DROPPING RIGHT NOW CLEAR THE AIRSPACE!”  “Roger, do you need any assistance?” <pause> “No.” Ok, green light, everyone is going, things are looking better, my legs are shaking, damn that better stop I won’t look cool, Ok everyone out “manifest let me know when everyone is on the ground”, ok, alright I better not screw this up I’ve come this far I don’t want to ball it up now, ok everyone down I’m going to make a long straight in, nice and easy, nothing to rush now. <Errrr> I’m down.  Oh relief, wait what’s that next to the runway! OMG someone has to film it.  Great.

Now, afterwards.  DON’T get back on the horse if you’ve had something catastrophic happen like this.  You’re not proving how macho you are.  If you’re hands or legs shake THIS IS NORMAL.  You just had an adrenaline dump.  There is nothing you can control about it so do not feel embarrassed about it.  It will subside and then likely you will feel really tired.  You will need time to decompress.  Your natural instinct will be to start analyzing what happened.  This is normal.  You’re memory is not like a digital recorder or as we used to say it’s not Memorex. This is why you should not talk to FAA for a couple of days.  You’re not hiding anything.  You need time to let your brain catch up.  But it is our natural instinct to want to tell our story if we feel we have done nothing wrong.  That’s not the point.  You will miss things.  You will interpret things incorrectly.  And going back to correct things later will seem like you are just changing your story.  So tell one story and tell it correctly later.

And then the press, hey you’ve got to make that decision for yourself.  But if it were me I would not talk to the press if I was directly involved in an incident or accident.  When we stand around the bonfire and tell our “No shit, there I was.  Thought I was about to die.” stories we tell it in a light hearted manner often.  On TV this can come across as flippant and not caring for the gravity of the situation.  Not what you intended but that is how it can be perceived. Basically don’t make matters worse.  Sort out one thing at a time.  Deal with the incident, take time to deal with FAA/NTSB and give yourself time to decompress.  Then later, much later if you want to talk/write about it get some advice from someone else who has “been there, done that.”

 

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Observers. Are they worth it?

From the Des Moines Register [box] The widow of a Brooklyn man killed last year in an unlikely airplane accident has filed a lawsuit claiming that negligence by a skydiving company and pilot caused her husband’s death.

Wayne Kidrowski, 56, fell to his death on Aug. 16 after he was sucked out of an open door of an airplane owned by Brooklyn-based Skydive Iowa. The parachute he was told to wear deployed in the plane without warning, according to the lawsuit.

Kidrowski’s parachute got caught on the plane’s tail before he fell 600 to 700 feet to the ground, the lawsuit said.

Attorneys for Kidrowski’s wife, who was named administrator of his estate, believe the plane’s pilot and owners weren’t in compliance with federal safety regulations, according to the lawsuit sent to Poweshiek County on Tuesday. The lawsuit names Skydive Iowa and its owner, Bruce Kennedy, as well as the pilot, Andrew Arthur, as plaintiffs.

Kennedy declined to speak with a reporter, citing the litigation. Kennedy said the skydiving business remains open. Arthur could not be reached for comment.

During the August flight, Kidrowski had agreed to ride with Arthur in the Cessna 206 from Brooklyn to the Grinnell Regional Airport so that the airplane could undergo maintenance, according to the lawsuit. The plane had no seat for Kidrowski with a safety belt, because all seats except for the pilot’s had been removed, the lawsuit said.

An employee of the skydiving company who is also named in the lawsuit, Brent Rhomberg, gave Kidrowski a parachute to wear during the flight even though Kidrowski had no intention of skydiving, according to the lawsuit. Rhomberg acted negligently in requiring the parachute, the lawsuit said.

“Wayne Kidrowski would not have been pulled from the aircraft and killed if he had not been required to wear a parachute,” the lawsuit said.

The plane’s right-side door had been removed, and a “roll-up style door” on the airplane was not used during the flight, leaving the door open, according to the lawsuit.

Under federal law, planes can be flown without doors specifically for skydiving, the lawsuit said.

Further, the pilot failed to provide a pre-flight briefing, which could have included safety equipment information, the lawsuit said.

Kidrowski’s parachute deployed when the plane was flying at an altitude of more than 1,000 feet, according to the lawsuit. The wind dragged the parachute and Kidrowski out of the plane, and then the parachute got caught on the plane’s tail, the lawsuit said.

The parachute, stuck on the tail, caused the plane to stall and descend about 300 feet, according to the lawsuit. When Arthur got control of the aircraft again, Kidrowski’s parachute came off the tail, and the pilot believed Kidrowski “had control” of the parachute, the lawsuit said.

Kidrowski was a father of two adult daughters and had two granddaughters and worked at the Brooklyn Elevator, his widow, Cindy Kidrowski, confirmed for The Des Moines Register through an attorney.

The lawsuit asks for damages for “loss of spousal support” as well as “loss of enjoyment of life” and “pre-impact terror.” The lawsuit also asks for punitive damages, levied to punish plaintiffs for negligent or reckless behavior.

An average of 21 people die each year in skydiving accidents, said Jim Crouch, director of safety and training for the United States Parachute Association. Such deaths are commonly caused by human error, such as opening a parachute once a skydiver is too low to the ground, or by two divers colliding mid-air, he said.

Crouch said the association was aware of Kidrowski’s death, but did not include the death in its count because he wasn’t on a skydiving flight. Crouch declined to comment on the specific actions leading to Kidrowski’s death, but said all skydive operators are responsible for ensuring they are complying with all laws and Federal Aviation Administration regulations. [/box]   Be aware.  Be advised. Are people who have not gone through a first jump course worth taking for a ride?  Do they really know their own equipment?  Know how to ingress and egress?

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Money Shot! **WARNING, GRAPHIC**

Caravan Swoops a Tandem Skydiving Descent
My understanding of this picture is the pilot signed a paper saying he would not do rollover descents after last jumper out.  This picture was posted on Facebook.  The FAA got involved and the aircraft owner fired the pilot.

For many decades as DiverDrivers, we have known of “the Money Shot.”  You know the one–the last jumper exits and the plane rolls and dives to stay in view of the camera as the tandem goes into drogue fall.  Great WOW! factor and neat-o souvenir for the lucky-enough-to-be-last tandem passenger.

But is it worth it?  I submit it is not worth it ever.  We are not part of the show.  If you will, we operate the ski lift to the top of the mountain and let the skiers out.  That’s it. If you want to jump with your buddies, then go get a rig.  The plane does not count.

Reason #1

You may have seen this video before.  It’s a collision of a Cessna Caravan with the videographer of the tandem pair it dropped last over Boituva, Brazil, and reportedly the videographer then struck the tandem pair. The videographer died and both the instructor and student were injured but survived.

You may think “Hey, it’s so rare.  That pilot just messed up.” or “I would never do what he did.”  While you may be right in that you won’t have an actual collision with the jumpers, are you sure they won’t have a premature deployment right out of the door and be in a position you’re not expecting?

I want you to watch this video.  Watch twice.  Then, after watching the video I want you to follow the link to a LiveLeak.com article.  In it, you will see what a collision with a plane diving and a jumper in free fall will do to someone’s face.  The camera became disconnected in the collision and actually captured the jumper’s image as it tumbled away.  I WARN YOU AGAIN it is graphic, but if you can’t take the reality of what you risk by doing a rollover dive, then stop doing rollover dives after the last jumper exits!

And here is the link to the physical results of this collision.  I again put a WARNING GRAPHIC on this link.  At the end of the photo series the poster comments that this is common in South America.  Well, I know here in the USA, I’ve seen plenty of video of it too.  Please stop doing this!

caravancollision1
Screen grab from the moment of collision between Caravan and Videographer.

Reason #2

Now, for the second part of why not to do rollovers.  Because it’s hard on the equipment. YES! Bob Hoover used to do an aerobatic routine with a Twin Commander. Neat.  Your name is not Bob Hoover.  And Bob Hoover made way more money than you and could keep his Twin Commander repaired.  Can you afford a gear reduction box on a PT-6 that failed due to repeated oil starvation rollovers?

“Well Chris, it’s just a 1 G maneuver.  No big deal.”

It may be one G where you are sitting on the centerline of the aircraft.  But what is happening to those engines hanging out many feet away from you?  Think they are experiencing one G?  Rolling left will give how many negative Gs to the descending left engine?

So what should you do after last jumper out? No more than 30° bank.  And on previous descents at normal speed, you should identify the pitch attitude on the attitude indicator. You will pitch down to that angle and no further.  Let the speed build up to your normal descent speed.

Don’t be “that guy.”  You have a long flying career ahead of you.  Is it worth it? Can you really risk your job, the aircraft, and last but definitely not least the lives of your passengers just for the possibility of a single cool photo? If you can, you need to find another job before you kill someone.

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PAC 750XL Non-Fatal Warrenton, VA May 09, 2014

On May 9, 2014, about 1400 eastern daylight time, a Pacific Aerospace Corp 750XL, N750SS, experienced a left main landing gear separation following a hard landing and subsequent go-around at Warrenton Air Park

Read the NTSB report.

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Give me your best rate.

The topic of what is best rate of climb speed for a particular aircraft came up recently.  I saw quite a conversation of “what she likes best” that differed from what the manufacturer and its engineers through precise mathematical computation know the aircraft will do given a properly functioning engine and airframe.  Granted, the numbers computed were usually for an aircraft that did not have its door removed or extra bars and steps attached to manage the activity of flying skydivers.  This topic is of great importance given that 95% of our flight is in the climb!

The efficiency of how you perform your job directly affects the bottom line of the dropzone owner who pays your wages. While doing some internet searching on the topic of Vy and how the INDICATED airspeed changes as you climb, I came across an article by world-renowned flight instructor Rod Machado.  His article on Vy and Vx gives a clear and concise explanation and is a great refresher of the topic.  Even as a seasoned 13K hour ATP I learned something.  Rod has graciously granted permission to add this article to DiverDriver.com and to be added to the Training section of this website.  Please check out Rod’s new book: Rod Machado’s How to Fly an Airplane Handbook.  You may think this topic is elementary, but it is fundamentally vital to understand and reviewing it is essential. More loads per day, less fuel burned per load, less wear on the aircraft means a happy DZO and greater pay for you.

Click on each picture to get a better view.MachadoPg1crop MachadoPg2crop MachadoPg3crop

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The Horizontal Flight Problem By Bryan Burke

DD.com: This article appears on Dropzone.com and the first time I saw it I sent a message to Bryan Burke to copy it for this site.  As a new jump pilot this may seem over your head in that you do not understand the different disciplines of skydiving and how they mix.  However, you NEED to put effort into understanding this.  You may be the last line of defense in preventing a tragic collision that you could be interviewed for by FAA if it doesn’t turn out well.  What caught my eye most was when the pilot called down with a possible loading conflict.  If something doesn’t sit right with you question it.  DZOs and safety staff, if the pilot calls down with any question other than 2 minutes prior to jump make sure all parties are clear on what is about to happen.

Many thanks to Bryan for letting me copy his article and the great people out at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, AZ

 

The Horizontal Flight Problem By Bryan Burke on 2013-09-16

By Bryan Burke, S&TA at Skydive Arizona

Skydiving Article Image1_largest

 

Identifying the Problem

All of the following events took place during our spring 2013 season here at Skydive Arizona. Some have been repeated several times. Since I started to look into this subject and inquire as to what other drop zones are seeing, several similar incidents have been brought to my attention. In addition, there are several reports of serious freefall collisions that have resulted from tracking, angle, and wingsuit dives around the world.

Example One Angle flying dives, also known as atmonauti or tracing dives, are recording fall rates comparable to freeflyers. They not only fall faster than true trackers, they do not cover nearly the horizontal distance that true tracking dives do. (Inexperienced trackers, especially on their backs, often have essentially the same flight characteristics, much faster down than experienced trackers and not much horizontal travel.) In one case, a group of very experienced angle fliers insisted on exiting first, saying they were trackers. They fell at freefly speeds, about 170 miles per hour. The dive was planned to go roughly 90 degrees to the line of flight, but they didn’t go very far, covering less than half the distance a real tracking dive would. This type of dive tends to include a lot of highly experienced freeflyers experimenting with new stuff, so they were jumping very fast canopies and opening between 3,000 and 3,500.

A conventional belly flying group followed them out. They had a long climb-out, about 15 seconds, broke off at 4,500 feet, tracked, and deployed between 3,000 and 2,500. All of them were experienced and competent trackers in the conventional sense of the word.

There was nothing unusual about the conditions. Up on the jump run, the airplane was covering ground at 150 feet per second (about 90 knots) and the horizontal distance between Group 1 and Group 2 at exit would be about 2,250 feet. Because of the longer freefall time for the second group, about 500 feet of that was lost to freefall drift in the winds aloft. This leaves their hypothetical center points at opening about 1,750 horizontal feet apart, still adequate separation for two conventional belly flying groups opening within a few seconds of each other.

However, because of their fast freefall speed, followed by the climb-out time for the second group, the angle fliers deployed their parachutes nearly thirty seconds before the second group, but also 500 to 1,000 feet higher. They immediately turned towards the landing area under canopy; otherwise they would not get back, at least not with enough altitude for a big swoop. During that thirty seconds, they only dropped about 700 – 1,000 feet or so vertically, but they covered between 1,500 and 1,800 horizontal feet in that time. This does not even take into account the ground covered by tracking at break-off from either group.

Canopy winds were light. In thirty seconds, a modern fast canopy in normal straight flight will do 60 feet per second horizontally. That puts them 1,800 feet back towards the DZ and line of flight. Mentally, skydivers tend to think freefall separation is an exit problem, not a canopy problem. Once they have a good canopy, they are conditioned to think about canopy traffic and their landing – not about what might be in freefall overhead, because in the past this has not been a problem since we figured out that fast fallers should follow slow fallers out in the exit sequence.

So, at about 2,500 feet the two groups effectively merged into a single large mix of deploying freefallers and people already under very fast parachutes. The only reason there were no collisions was blind luck. Mind you, every one of these jumpers was experienced, current, and well trained within the existing paradigm.

Example Two A very experienced jumper with a cutting edge wingsuit was logging freefalls of over three minutes and opening at about 3,500. We had three aircraft flying. Our procedure is to leave a minimum of two minutes between drops for conventional freefall loads, three with wing suits or students, and four after a load with tandems. The wingsuit jumper exited. The plane behind started a three minute clock. Although the wingsuiter opened about half a mile away from the jump run, he then made a riser turn towards the landing area and left the brakes stowed as he fiddled with his suit. A minute later, he was just under 2,500 when canopies were opening around him.

Example Three Taxiing out from the loading area, the pilot called me to ask which way trackers should go. This piqued my curiosity, trackers are supposed to know this when they manifest. I told him “east” and asked if he could tell where they were in the exit order. Meanwhile I checked with the manifest to see if anyone on that load had reported they were planning to track or asked for information about which way to go. None had. A bit later the pilot replied that they would be exiting first. I got out my binoculars to watch.

The three-way tracking group exited and flew straight up the line of flight, opening between the next two groups in the exit order. Naturally I noted their canopies and rounded the three up in the landing area for a discussion. Initially they were confused about what the problem was, although they did acknowledge that there were other canopies in the sky closer than they had expected.

The leader of the dive had seventy jumps. It was his first tracking dive, and he was leading it on his back. He had planned to turn off jump run and fly east and was completely unaware of his failure to do so. The other two had about 150 and 200 jumps, not enough to be aware that he had failed to turn. Even if they had been, there was no plan on how to signal course corrections to the leader, and they were not close enough to do so in any case, due to the lack of experience. Two of the three, including the one with 70 jumps, had GoPros on, which no doubt distracted them from the navigation problem as they tried to video each other. It was a de-briefing nightmare as I learned more and more about how much they did not know. It was their first time at a large, busy drop zone. They had never received any coaching or advice on tracking. They had no idea about USPA’s recommendations for jumping with a camera.

This episode made me realized that the manifest in-briefing that had served us well for years, with minor modifications now and then, was no longer adequate. In the past we never felt the need to screen for camera use or horizontal flying, merely informing them that if they were planning to track or wingsuit they would need to get a daily update from the safety officer.

Example Four A total of twelve wingsuit jumpers landed out, the nearest almost half a mile from our normal landing area, the farthest over a mile out. After I rounded up the entire group (not one of them local jumpers) I made it plain that this was unacceptable, not just from a safety point of view, but also because many of them landed on private property or public roads, not a good thing in terms of our relations with the community. Questioning them about their flight planning, I learned some very interesting things. First, it was two groups, not one. The less experienced group was planning to take an “inside track” while the second, more experienced group was planning to fly a wider course, both of the tracks parallel to the original jump run. (This is a fairly common practice at DZs with a lot of wingsuit activity.)

To make this easier, the individual who had taken charge of planning asked the pilot to turn 90 left at the end of the regular skydiver jump run. In theory the two wing suit groups would then simply exit and turn 90 left, paralleling the normal jump run back to the DZ and gaining horizontal separation from the climb-out time on jump run.

Unfortunately this plan did not take into account that the winds aloft were about 30 knots out of the west, and the standard jump run was south. Thus, a left turn gave the plane a ground speed of about 130 knots, and each group took quite a while to climb out. Once in flight, they were already well down wind of the planned flight area and would have more cross-wind push the entire flight.

Clearly this plan was doomed from the start, and anyone who had the slightest idea what the winds aloft were doing would know this. Winds aloft are very easy to find on line these days, or someone could have simply asked the Safety Officer what his observations were. Not one of those twelve wingsuiters questioned the incredibly bad plan the group leader had come up with, which was based on completely wrong assumptions. Even if anyone had looked down, they were already committed and had no Plan B.

Example Five I picked up a wingsuit jumper who landed over a mile off the dz. (Nearly 1.5 statute miles, in fact.) The only reason I even knew about him was a bystander saw his canopy in the distance and pointed him out. I never would have seen him, his opening point was well beyond our first exit group on the normal jump run! His story? With very little experience on his new high performance suit, he was jumping a new helmet and camera set-up for the first time. He reported that he had problems with the helmet throughout the flight (shifting and vibrating) and forgot to pay attention to where he was going, flying downwind and away from the DZ the entire time.

Example Six Trackers landed out, on the approach to the runway. When I inquired about the flight plan they said that when they got to the airplane, there was another tracking dive. The two groups decided to exit first and second, each going 90 degrees to the jump run in opposite directions. This put the out-landing group exiting at the extreme early end of the jump run, tracking downwind, then faced with penetrating back into the canopy winds. They had no chance to make it to the normal landing area and their opening position put them in a canopy descent to a clear area directly on the extended centerline of the runway.

These are real world examples at one drop zone over the course of a mere couple of months. Along with similar problems reported from other drop zones and the incidents of actual and near-miss collisions associated with horizontal dives, it seems clear that training in these fields is completely inadequate.

Before Freeflying came along in the early 90s, the skydiving environment was very simple. Everyone fell almost straight down and parachutes flew about 25 miles per hour. In the 90s, we had to figure out how to deal with a new, much faster fall rate in some groups, and canopies almost doubled in horizontal speed. In the last decade, even more variations in skydiving have popped up. These didn’t really show up much on DZO’s radar because so few people were doing them, but now they are increasingly common.

Approximate Speeds of Various Forms of Skydiving Activity*

Activity  Vertical Speed Range  Horizontal Speed Range  Freefall time (13,000)
FS 120 – 130 mph 0 – 20 mph** 00:60 – 65
Freefly 150 – 180 0 – 20** 00:40 – 50
Tracking 120 – 140 30 – 60*** 00:55 – 65
Angle 140 – 160 20 – 40*** 00:45 – 50
Wingsuit 40 – 70 50 – 80*** 01:30 – 3:00

*Approximations derived from videos and recording altimeters. **Random drift due to things like backsliding, one side of the formation low, etc. ***Best guess, based on distance covered in freefall time.

Thus, on a single load there might be freefall times from exit at 13,000’ to opening at 3,000’ as little as :40 seconds and as much as three minutes. Horizontal speeds will range from zero to 80, with distances of up to a mile on tracking dives and flights of several miles possible for expert wingsuit jumpers. Note that these speeds will vary considerably. For example, experimenting with tracking myself and observing tracking contests, I could get well over a mile in 60 seconds and many people can out-track me by a significant margin. However, actual tracking dives are usually not done in a max track position because it doesn’t lend itself to maneuvering with others. On a calm day, a tracking dive going 90 off the line of flight usually only covers about half a mile.

Identifying the Risks

Collisions within Groups Within groups, tracking, wingsuit, and angle dives are showing a disproportionately high rate of collision injuries. Even the best planned dives can still involve high closing speeds as the group forms and breaks up. And, as Bill von Novak has pointed out:

On a tracking dive there is no focal point; no base you can dock on or, failing that, at least keep in sight for break-off. Everyone tracks in effectively a random direction at the end of the dive and hopes for clear air. In some cases they even barrel roll just to add some more randomness to their directions. To a newbie a tracking dive sounds lower pressure than a big-way; you don’t have to dock, you just have to go in a similar direction as the leader. This tends to attract lower experienced jumpers, and those jumpers often shed the jumpsuit they are used to for a freefly suit or no suit at all – resulting in new and hard to predict fall rates/forward speeds.

To that I have to add the potential for huge closing speeds, sometimes due to lack of skill but often due to poor organizing. Tracking dives in particular have a history of being “loose” or “pick-up” loads. Many times I have seen people “organizing” a tracking dive by making a general announcement to give a ticket to manifest if you want to come along. There is often very little screening for experience and ability.

Then, it is common to group the more experienced people close to the leader, and that person is often in a floater position on exit. Anyone who can remember learning to do larger formations knows that novice divers tend to dive too long, even if they have been forewarned about the problem. (If you dive out two or three seconds after the base, that base is way ahead of you on the acceleration curve, so they appear to be getting further away – which they are. You dive more aggressively, something you don’t have much practice at. Then, when the base hits terminal velocity, they suddenly rush up at you because you are now going much, much faster than the base. You then go low, or collide.)

Now add to that the significant horizontal movement, burbles that aren’t directly above the lower jumper, multiple vertical levels, and huge blind spots since you are looking ahead, not around. The potential for collisions is incredibly obvious once you think about it, but apparently few people doing tracking dives are thinking about it.

Collisions Between Groups Although these are still rarely found in the accident record, I have seen many near misses, which suggests that it is only a matter of time. This is particularly disturbing to me because in a group-to-group collision, it means someone was exposed to an extreme hazard that they had no knowledge of, expectation of, or control over. Skydiving is risky enough with the known hazards. As drop zone operators and safety professionals it is morally wrong to expose our customers to a risk where their only real control would be to look at who else is on the load, and  pull off it.

Landing Out Out landings have two problems, one a risk to the jumper and the other, to the drop zone itself. The record shows that out landings have a high risk of landing injuries, especially from low turns to avoid obstacles or turn into the wind. This risk is exacerbated by the fact that the drop zone staff might not even know of an injury, and if they do, the response can be complicated.

The second risk is aggravating the neighbors or airport authorities. Every drop zone has at least some neighbors or authorities who are opposed to skydiving. As long as these are a small minority a DZ can usually get by. Once skydivers start dropping into neighborhoods, landing on runways, and otherwise drawing unwelcome attention, the political balance can change. A classic example of this is the tracker landing on the roof of a two-story house 1.3 miles south of the DZ at Longmont, Colorado early in July of 2013. He not only broke his leg, he damaged the roof and required a complex rescue. At the time of the incident, he had 64 jumps in over a year in the sport. The wind was blowing from the north, but he tracked south, towards a heavily developed suburban area. In his own remarks, he accepts no responsibility for the incident, blaming it entirely on the winds rather than his extremely poor planning.

Changing the Paradigm What do these activities all have in common, from the standpoint of skydiving culture? There is very little expectation, or even definition, of quality. Success is defined as mere participation and survival. Near collisions, actual col

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NTSB final report Cessna 206 Sturgeon Bay, WI

A blocked fuel vent caused an engine failure on a 206 while climbing with jumpers. But when the pilot selected from left to right tank the engine regained power.  Instead of aborting the load and landing with power the pilot elected to continue climb, dropped the jumpers and prepared the plane to land back at the airport.  While descending he RESELECTED the tank that had caused the engine failure during the climb.  The engine failed and he landed short of the runway.

  1. Preflight!
  2. Engine failures should not be taken lightly just because you got it going again.  If you change fuel tanks in a 206 to restore power you can consider that tank to have unusable fuel.  If you don’t feel the remaining fuel can complete the mission and land with reserve then you must land immediately.
  3. Know your systems.  This pilot did not know that the fuel system only fed off one tank at a time.
  4. Pilot time in make and model: 5 hours.

Read the NTSB final report.

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C-206 Fatal Australia

Sad news from Australia.  A Cessna 206 has crashed during the takeoff phase with a pilot and four jumpers.  More information as it becomes available.

Link to ABC news report.

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DiverDriver.com has a Caravan section!

Thanks to Chris Rosenfelt of CaravanPilot.com for the contribution to our aircraft section! Check it out.

Cessna 208 Caravan 

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Safety Day… For Pilots!

USPA is once again entertaining Safety Day March 8, 2014 for skydivers. It’s a day designed to refresh everyone on managing the threats associated with skydiving. Often dropzones will have their pilot or visiting pilot give talks on aircraft safety to the local skydivers. Discussions on loading and exiting, weight and balance, proper use of restraints on the aircraft, preparing for jumprun, communication with pilots during emergencies and the grand daddy of them all… how low can I bail in an emergency?

But who talks to the pilots?  What is the Diver Driver safety day?  Well, let’s have one here.  Take a day and stand down.  Your job today is to go through the training syllabus on this website and apply it to your operation.

  • Verify your weight and balance computations.  Are your loading tables realistic to the jumpers you actually carry? (using 1980s skinny minny weights or middle U.S. corn fed boys weights?)
  • Determine how much fuel you need for a load or multiple loads to any given altitude.  Do you truly have reserve fuel on board? (or are you still using SWAG? Scientific Wild Ass Guess)
  • Review the FARs pertaining to skydiving operations Have you read the latest revised Advisory Circular 105-2e on skydiving?
  • What are your procedures for mixing with local traffic?
  • Review your POH/AFM on systems and procedures.
  • Go to the Accident Section of this site and choose your aircraft type from the list.  Read reports there for at LEAST the last five years. (I know, there are more 182 accidents than any other.  Just take the time.)
  • Go to the Accident Section by year and read ALL reports even if preliminary for the past two years.

Now, utilize the Jump Pilot written test on this site.  Answer all the questions as they pertain to your operation.  I would expect people to score high on the test.  It’s what you do all the time.  However, you may come across that one item in your self evaluation that you become thankful for down the road.

Let’s make 2014 the BEST year for jump plane accidents.

Safety, is NO accident.

Blue skies and safe loads.
DD.com

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DiverDriver.com Hats and Shirts!!

Order up! You can now order a DiverDriver.com hat or shirt or both!
Gray baseball cap with adjustable fabric strap in back and DiverDriver logo embroidered on the front. One size, $20 each.
Dark heather gray 50% cotton/50% poly ringspun pique polo shirt with DiverDriver logo embroidered on the left chest area. Details:…
•Double needle stitched bottom hem
•Taped welt collar and cuffs
•Three button, clean finished placket
•Wood tone buttons
Shirts are $25.00 for large and X-large.  $29.00 for XX-large.  Plus $6 shipping and handling.
Or if you want both then use the third option for shirt size and hat. I didn’t want to charge you twice for the shipping and handling.
Order page
Safe loads and wear it with pride!
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Want to take your jump plane somewhere?

Let’s face it.  We build up time in our planes pretty quick.  We become confident in our control and satisfied with our precision.  However, at some point you may be asked to ferry your aircraft to another location to fly jumpers.  This may seem like no big deal as we’ve all done cross country flights to attain our licenses.  Right?  Well from time to time some of our diver driver brethren end up in an accident report and it’s usually not just scraped paint.

So here are some things to consider when asked to move a plane away from your home base:

  • How do you feel?  Have you been flying jumpers all day and then plan to fly late into the evening/night to move the plane? How long have you been awake already? Consider that 16 hours “on duty” can be equivalent cognitive impairment equal to or greater than blood alcohol content of 0.08.
  • What whether conditions will be encountered during your flight? GET AN OFFICIAL WEATHER BRIEFING.
  • What weather are you certified/current for? Are you night landing current for carrying passengers that want to tag along? Are you instrument current if encountering marginal VFR or IFR condition?
  • How much fuel will your aircraft need for the flight?  You’re experienced in flying loads with standard fueling.  But just topping off the tanks may not guarantee you reach your destination.  Do you know how your engine performs in cruise as opposed to just full power in max rate climb?
  • Have you considered night reserve is 45 minutes and not the 30 you’re used to carrying during day jump ops. (you do carry 30 minutes reserve during day jump ops.  Right?)
  • Does your aircraft have seats in order to carry passengers?  Yes, your skydiving buddies sit on the floor just fine during jump ops however you ARE NOT LEGAL when flying to another airport unless they have a seat with seatbelt.  Does not matter if they wear their rig and belt in normal.  You are not conducting skydiving ops within 25 miles of the departure airport most likely.
  • And for the love of God don’t do what I did when trying to determine if the pitot heat worked on the Twin Otter and grab it!  And when I say grabbed it I mean full hand wrapped the dang thing.  That sucker heated up fast!

With these things in mind please take time to read these highlighted accident reports.  Each has a unique factor leading to the accident.  Remember ferrying a jump plane is not the same as going up and down over the same airport.  And likely is not something you’ve done lately so cross country considerations may not be fresh in your mind.

Ferry flight accidents.

Safe loads.
DD.com

 

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Think your fly-by is the best?

Observe this YouTube video of a Caravan.

 

Now, observe this low pass.


Let’s talk accelerated stall.  All pilots should know what accelerated stalls are and commercial pilots should be WELL aware.  However, as you can see it is a very fine line between yahoo and disaster.

Please, you are a professional pilot.  Passing a wing within mere feet of someone’s head is just not cool.  You don’t know what they’re going to do.  And if anyone wants to point out that the King Air crash was not a jump plane I give you this report:

Marine City, MI 1999

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Cessna 205 Non-Fatal Puruguay January 14, 2014

Flipped over during forced landing following loss of engine power.

Spanish article.

 

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2014 Blog C-205 Non-Fatal Non-Fatal Single-Engine Undetermined

Cessna 205 non-fatal Uruguay January 14, 2014

Flipped over during forced landing following loss of engine power.

Spanish article.

 

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Your preflight…is your responsibility.

Witbank,South Africa,c2001:  During a normal day’s flying our C205A,someone assisted me with a refuel. I ,stupidly,neglected to check the fuel caps. All was normal on the climb to 9000ft,dispached the load and started the descent where upon fuel started to flow into the cabin through my door and window and through the airvent,soaking the dash and me. I was supposed to call FAJS approach by now,decided not to touch anything at all! After a flap-less landing,I pulled the big red knob and walked away. Left everything switched on until,maybe an hour later,I returned in fresh attire to kill all the electrics! Had to make a call to FAJS to explain my silence!

DD.com comments:

Many operations do use “fuelers”.  But they MUST be fully checked out on how to safely do it.  From the sounds of the description here it may not have been a regular occurrence having someone else fuel the aircraft.

I once had something similar happen after a fueling in a Twin Otter.  Jet-A was streaming out of the aft tank fueler port.  Fortunately at a safe altitude a jumper was actually able to reach the cap and stow it.  A long debrief and refueling followed.

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“Fly your pattern close” he said.

From a reader:

2012 was my first season as a jump pilot. Previously I had never flown a 182. So I did the proper thing and read the POH. Unfortunately, the publishing of these books in early models didn’t have reliable or much information at all really. The person training me had flown numerous jumps and has prior military experience. So I was helping him AND learning from him. Finally we had a few loads that had just one tandem on board. So it was decided I would fly after the next fueling. So the person training me started fueling and telling me what jump run was. When he finished filling the plane he said something along the lines of the plane was just sipping gas it’s performing unusually well today. This seems suspicious to me but it was cold and I trusted him. I foolishly justified him putting in so little gas thinking hey it’s cold so it’s performing well and he will be in the plane with me and has flown many jumpers so why would he risk himself. So putting my suspicions aside I flew the first load. It went great.  His only complaint was that I flew a standard pattern and jump planes need to fly a tighter pattern. So we loaded the next single tandem and took off. Now I’m flying my second jump run ever. I’m thinking this is the coolest job ever!! So the next load gets out but the lock mechanism is jammed in open position on the door. So now I’m taking my time coming down since speed is limited by an open door. As we flew the pattern I slowed down to pattern speed and flew a tighter pattern. But this time I noticed I suddenly needed some power and it wasn’t there. End result plane wouldn’t make the runway and I made a ditching in a lake. Both I and my teacher were uninsured.   A jump door definitely made it easier to get out when underwater.  A rather unexpected swim to shore and the plane went into the water so smoothly the only thing damaged was the bottom of the front cowling and electronics. Following the FAA investigation they sumped only 8 gallons of fuel out of the tanks. Only thing that went on my record was a retest of my commercial license.

So what did I learn the hard way? First, every landing gets done at flight idle and gets treated like it’s engine out. Second, if you’re suspicious about something investigate it.  Don’t justify something that seems wrong. Third, no matter how much you trust someone else remember you’re the one responsible. Part of my job as PIC is assuring a proper amount of fuel and I neglected that job because I placed trust in someone training me. It’s safe to say that I am a better pilot now not in flying skill but in judgment.

DD.com comments:

ALWAYS remember that we must have 30 minutes of normal cruise fuel in addition to unusable fuel and fuel intended to fly the load(s).  These old Cessna 182s can have as much as 10 gallons (5 gallons per side) of UNUSABLE fuel.  The FAA drained 8 gallons of fuel out of the plane.

Something that strikes me about jump operations is the pervasive “fly your pattern close, always fly it like it is an engine out” teaching.  You should not expect an engine failure more than any other aspect of flying.  A friend of mine flew jumpers two days and quit because of this “teaching”.  She did not feel it was a safe attitude to have towards the operation.  It is as though the people teaching this know they are cutting it extremely close.  Skydiving operations do not defy the laws of good airmanship.

I want to thank the writer for their candid account of this incident.  I hope everyone can learn something from it.

Blue skies and safe loads.

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Added accidents 12/29/2013

It is always amazing to me how the NTSB really has zero standard for tracking jump plane accidents.  A search on key words is necessary to attempt to come up with a list.  Even in the 2008 NTSB Special Investigative Report (SIR) on skydiving their own people did not come up with a complete list (allow me to pat myself on the back).  I have literally spent thousands of hours since 2000 scouring the NTSB website for accident reports.  And yet, as complete as my list is I still find some reports that haven’t been included on DiverDriver.com.

So here it is.  The terms I search on in case anyone wanted to reproduce, verify or scrutinize the list I have created.  Go to the NTSB website and search on these terms: “parachute*” or “skydive*” or “jump*” or “air drop” or “airdrop” or “sky*div*”.  The “*” is a wild card character.  The site searches the synopsis and main body of any report in the date range specified.  Leave the date range blank to search back to 1982.  The final term “sky*div*” is what produced the latest group of missing reports.

I really have pulled my hair out some times with how the NTSB can use such a wide variety of terms to describe sky diving.  After my latest efforts I have found reports for years I thought were amazingly low in number of jump plane accidents.  My hunch was right and the reports were there.  I just hadn’t found them yet.

If you are looking for a particular accident and it does not appear in my list do NOT assume there is no report.  Send me a message and I would be happy to do a search with your help.  Maybe there is a report and I would be very happy to add it to my list.  Here are five accidents I just added.

  1. King Air 90 Non-Fatal DeKalb, IL March 2, 2010
  2. C-182 Fatal (1) Poestenkill, NY July 26, 1987
  3. C-182 Non-Fatal McKinney, TX November 3, 1984
  4. PA-32 Non-Fatal Ogden, UT August 4, 1984
  5. C-185 Non-Fatal Mound Valley, KS July 4, 1983

Blue skies and safe loads.
DD.com

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Old 182s and fuel planning a ferry flight.

Submitted by a reader:

After a day of flying jumpers in my 1959 C-182 at a drop zone that was 1.5 hours flight time away from my home base, it was time to head back home about 30 minutes before sunset. I always like to start any ferry flight with full tanks, but they had just run out of 100LL and when I stuck my tanks it looked like I had 32 gallons total remaining. From previous trips to this DZ I knew I would burn 18-20 gallons. The plane was equipped with an ECI fuel totalizer that was pretty accurate. Rather than making a short hop to a nearby airport to top off, I decided to get in the air and monitor the fuel burn, knowing that I would be below night VFR minimums and pushing the limits of total usable fuel by making the entire trip without adding fuel.  This 182 had fiberglass fuel tanks and I had always considered 5 gallons per side as unusable.

I decided to stay at 11,500 feet because I knew I was pushing the fuel limits and I wanted a lot of altitude for gliding should I run out of fuel. My final check point was 30 minutes prior to reaching my destination.  I told myself if I had at least 16 gallons on the ECI I would continue.  If it was less than 16 I would land at an airport I was passing over exactly 30 minutes prior. Sure enough, I was at exactly 16 gallons so I pressed on.  Just after I cancelled flight following on a high, straight in final approach to the destination the engine got real quiet. I was probably 3 miles away and had been descending in a way that I would always be high enough to make the runway. It’s as if I knew I had set myself up to run out of fuel and I was expecting it! I pitched up to 65 mph and wagged the wings as I continued towards the runway.  No luck. Once I was sure I had the runway made, I pushed the nose over to increase the airspeed and the engine fired back up.  After I touched down, the engine stayed running for the taxi to the hangar and I shut down uneventfully. When I measured the tanks I had 2 gallons in the right wing and 5 gallons in the left.

So, I knew I was pushing it, but decided to go without stopping to add fuel. I was very familiar with the issues of 182s and minimum fuel, but stubbornly pushed ahead past my personal comfort level. It was a stupid decision, but I was at least smart enough to stay high and keep the runway well within gliding range which saved my stupid ass! I have always made it a point to fly power off landings, so I am very familiar with the gliding sight picture for landings with no power from 1,000 feet all the way to touch down.

Lesson learned, and regardless of the inconvenience or how close it is to the calculated limits, from that point on I have never pushed the fuel limits for cross country flights or regular jump ops. It was a dumb decision and I knew it when I made it. Looking back on it now, it is hard to believe I still let myself make such an idiotic decision.

 

DD.com notes:

I want to highlight and stress again the fuel issue.  During day operations we are to have 30 minutes reserve ALWAYS.  The writer said they considered 10 gallons as unusable as they should have.  However, at the 30 minutes out point they had 16 gallons.  16-10=6.  Normal cruise on a 182 is about 12 gallons per hour.  30 minutes reserve is 6.  So, with exactly 30 minutes to go this writer ONLY had reserve fuel on board.  What if he had arrived at the destination and the runway was blocked due to some other incident?  Reserve is not to get you to your destination.  It’s for AFTER you get to your destination and something goes wrong extending your flying time.

I want to thank the writer for the humble submission.  This is the type of institutional knowledge we need to be passed on to new Diver Drivers.

Blue skies and safe loads.

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New FAA Advisory Circular for Skydiving out.

Just released and posted on USPA’s website, here is a link to the new Advisory Circular for Skydiving Operations 105-2E.

I will get it put in place of the last AC on this site as time permits.  Just wanted you all to have the link to get started.

Blue Skies and safe loads.
DD.com

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Observations and Trends in Jump Plane Accidents

As I worked hard on updating, categorizing and tallying the accident files (links) I have on jump planes accidents I was amazed at some things I noticed and not surprised by others.  The ubiquitous Cessna 182 runs out of gas crashing short of the runway, not a surprise.  Really just dang frustrating.  But I noticed how many prop strikes of people occurred with Twin Otters.  In fact, in the list on this site back to 1982 it has more prop strikes on people than any other jump plane (4 of 8).  I find that amazing and understandable at the same time.  The very high wing easily walked under and the position of the engines NOT being in front of the nose sets up a situation that if not controlled precisely tragedy can occur.

I personally have almost had a prop strike with a jumper walking to my aircraft.  I travelled to a DZ that did not normally run a plane like the Twin Otter although it was no stranger.  The loading area was in a grassy area but the mockup used by jumpers to practice exits was IN FRONT of the plane relative to the “boarding area.”  There were no ropes, barriers or guides.  Skydivers should know not to walk into props.  Right?  Well guess what they do because they are human too and can make mistakes.

Read these reports and think about your operation.  Have you done all you can to set up a staging area that funnels jumpers/observers to the loading door? Do you use a loader with a hawkeye keen on jumpers wanting to give the pilot a special message (using smoke, long climb out, lost something in the right seat)?

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Aircraft Strikes data break down.

I have just finished modifying the Accident section again (again).All “Aircraft Strikes” have now been broken down into three sections.

  • Tail Strikes
  • Prop Strikes
  • Collisions Other

More updates to breaking down the Accident data will be coming. Updates here and on the DiverDriver.com Home page.