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Pilot makes first skydive -- of necessity -- after another jumper damages plane
(CNN) -- Although Shawn Kinmartin flies planes for a skydiving service, he hadn't done any skydiving himself -- that is until he had to make an emergency jump on Saturday. On his fourth flight of the day taking jumpers up, Kinmartin was cruising at 11,500 feet over eastern Missouri and southern Illinois when he realized that his final skydiving client had damaged a key piece of gear while jumping out of the plane. During the jump, the skydiver struck the elevator of the aircraft, a part of… (www.cnn.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Couple of things.
When I took jump lessons one of the things they told you was guard your reserve chute so it did not deploy in the plane inadvertently. If yours did you were to get out the plane ASAP.
Not all jump planes are missing the door. A lot of them have doors that can be opened and closed inflight.
Even if you get out, the local airflow may not cause you to drop as fast as you might think. Maybe not as likely in a small plane, but on a transport plane it can make a big difference.
When I took jump lessons one of the things they told you was guard your reserve chute so it did not deploy in the plane inadvertently. If yours did you were to get out the plane ASAP.
Not all jump planes are missing the door. A lot of them have doors that can be opened and closed inflight.
Even if you get out, the local airflow may not cause you to drop as fast as you might think. Maybe not as likely in a small plane, but on a transport plane it can make a big difference.
I think the pilot behaved well, and kept his nerves. Also taking care of others rather than thinking only to himself, when others might have panicked and jump without aiming the plane to a scarsely populated area.
Question....
He was not a jumper, Had never jumped, So why was he wearing a parachute?
Only Pilots I have ever seen wearing parachutes were military pilots and even then only the ones flying fighters.
He was not a jumper, Had never jumped, So why was he wearing a parachute?
Only Pilots I have ever seen wearing parachutes were military pilots and even then only the ones flying fighters.
you have never been skydiving either...
I believe all pilots flying jumpers wear a parachute too, just in case!
In the early 80s I flew skydivers in a C182 and was required to wear a 'rig' when I was flying. After several loads of skydivers over several weekends I decided to ask the jump zone operator why the pilots were required to wear a parachute. He explained that it was not uncommon for a pilot chute to deploy inadvertently inside the airplane. The pilot chute is the small chute that deploys and inflates in order to extract the main or reserve parachute from the pack or bag. He went on to explain that if this happened with the door open there is a good chance the pilot chute would go out the door taking a skydiver or cutaway parachute with it and subsequently wrapping around the tail of the airplane and disabling or crippling the ship. Thus the requirement for the pilot to wear a rig.
After that question was answered I asked if it wouldn't be a good idea for the pilot to know how to use the rig. He concurred and put me through his first jump course free of charge. I made three static line jumps that summer and had a hoot doing it but haven't been back since.
I now have the privilege of flying a B757 for a living. It pays better but is not near as much fun as throwing a load of party animals out of that Skylane then trying to beat them back to the hangar.
There's my $0.02 FWIW.