[conlimon]

Strange - no fault of the jumper? Couldn't he see and avoid the aircraft? Perhaps he was doing flips or something...

Very scary story.

i've seen a couple airplanes in freefall, and it happens quick. the deal is that before you hop out into the wild blue yonder, you need to REALLY scan for aircraft below you. current freefall disciplines include freeflying (which is what i do) that rarely have you in a belly to earth position. i mostly fly in a head to earth or feet to earth position. hard to see aircraft coming up below that way. the onus is really on the pilot of the jump plane, approach controllers, and pilots of other aircraft being aware of a parachute jumping area. on sunday, i was flying IFR in VFR conditions past my home dropzone, and the controller wanted me to overfly the DZ at 7000 even though both Otters were in the air! i let him know the situation, and he seemed not to get it. he said he'd vector me around, then 20 seconds later, he gave me a heading that would still overfly the DZ. i had to cancel IFR so i could go around. harrumph.

cj
#40410
www.perfectlygoodairplane.net
RV-10 wings/fuse

 

[conlimon]

hope there's no airplanes below us! (that's me facing the camera in the yellow)

cj
#40410
www.perfectlygoodairplane.net
RV-10 wings/fuse

 

[Frank Smidler]

The closest I came to a plane while in freefall was when a less expereinced jumper spoted for our 4-way relative work dive and he didn't see the plane going in the opposite direction at 5,000 feet. We dropped a hundered yards behind him which was WAY to close. The pilot of that plane had no idea we were lurking anywhere near.

What is much more fun than seeing a plane while in freefall is seeing a plane in freefall while you are in freefall. I have been in the base during exit from a turbine powered twin otter and had a great view watched as the pilot, when the last jumper left the door, roll the plane inverted and then pulled the nose vertical straight down. With his prop pulled to beta he dropped passed us like we were floating. The only reason he didn't make it to the ground before us was because he had to pull out of the dive and go around the pattern. It makes for quick turn-arounds on loads with that type of capability. And you wonder why someone would want a turbine on an RV.

 

[jarhead]

I jumped from a helicopter once WITHOUT a parachute!

OK, so it was hovering only a few feet high and I had to get out to manually extend a stuck landing gear. But I did jump from an airborne aircraft!

Sure wish those grounding straps were longer. A CH-53 generates a whopping punch of static electricity after flying for 6 hours. I don't know which is worse: becoming one with the ground as when landing a parachute or becoming the ground.

Jekyll

Musta been that 50,000 volts of static electricity that made me forget about having to perform this maneuver!
I got smart though - the second (and thankfully last) time I had a hung nose gear, I spooled out about 20ft. of utility hoist cable onto the ground before I hopped out the crew door. Made a nice grounding strap.