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King Air Jump Plane Stall Captured by Skydiver
A Beechcraft C90 King Air stalled and entered a spin at 16,000' AGL while skydivers were preparing to jump. (www.youtube.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
As a retired Airborne paratrooper with several hundred static line and freefall jumps, I can sort of see why these jumpers wanted to congregate outside the aircraft and discuss the cloud formations, but the jump brief really should have precluded it. We never had such throttling back maneuvering just to give us a slower airspeed for exit. You exit on the jumpmaster’s word of command and carry out the jump as per orders. Slightly different drill for relative work but closely coordinated nonetheless. I am glad to see that they modified their procedures following this incident. PK
Still would rather fly the jump plane than jump out of it.
I was visiting a jump field near Valencia Spain some years ago. Watched the guy in the Pilatus jump plain consistently beat the jumpers to the ground. I talked to him and he put the prop into beta in the near vertical descent and flared at the last possible moment. Squeezed my rectum a few times and I was just watching.
what contributed to the stall and spins was the dumb skydivers hanging on the the fusalage for an excessive time, contributing to low airspeed and a stall, which made a spin almost automatic. The spin recovery was quick once the airspeed came back- a few spin turns only, then a predictable recovery. I once had a 225 pound skydiver hand walk to the tip of the wing after departing through the door using the abrasive tape along the trailing edge. He got out to the wing tip and held on, and the aircraft starting descending to the side he was hanging on. He laughed at my predicament and i threw all the other jumpers out the door- unassing the now unstable aircraft. I could not maintain straight and level or hold a heading, and did a slow spiral down hill at about 8,000 feet. Not safe. Not funny John Hurhilhey, you fat bastard.
Flew the C90 as a drop pilot in Florida and Georgia back in the 90's as well. The maneuver was a Vmca demo just waiting for the airplane to roll over on its back in the same manner. Left engine to idle, partial flaps, cg all out of whack and way aft, airflow over the horizontal stab partially blocked from a half dozen jumpers hanging out the door, everything shaking and the stall horn blaring. I still have the logbook somewhere of page after page of coveted turbine time with entries of .9,.9,.9,.9.
Even a normal drop was a blast, everyone out - split ess hanging in the straps, try not to come out of idle all the way to the grass, beat the last jumper to the ground all day long.
Twotter was good fun as well, open the window at 12.5 and stick your head out, you'll be awake no coffee needed on the first morning run.
Z hills, hotlanta, so many good times, happy to have survived.
AHP ER BN
Even a normal drop was a blast, everyone out - split ess hanging in the straps, try not to come out of idle all the way to the grass, beat the last jumper to the ground all day long.
Twotter was good fun as well, open the window at 12.5 and stick your head out, you'll be awake no coffee needed on the first morning run.
Z hills, hotlanta, so many good times, happy to have survived.
AHP ER BN
jumped turkey chute at z-hills once out of dc-3's. They had maybe 10 dc-3's on the field for the weekend. Zowssa.....a jumper had a horseshoe in the door of a dc-3, and exited the door way with a partial horseshoe flapping all the way down. The crowd knew a jumper was about to die right then, and half turned away and the other half watched. The jumper knew his dilemma, so he got flat, undulated like doing dutch rolls on the horizon, then made the biggest, wide swing, and pulled the reserve. THe reserve deployed through the horseshoe semicircle attatched to his back(wonderhog) and it opened about 400 feet, deployed and he plf-ed alive. Folks were screaming at him to pull, pull- what else could they do? THe relieved jumper picked his shit up and walked over to bill booth at the relative workshop table, threw the hog down, and got a three-ring circus, packed it up and went up again within the half-hour. Never liked wonderhogs before or after.