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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) Daha Fazlası...
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Very good question. The best possible scenario would be hitting the horizontal stabilizer with the packed chute, which would have spread she force of the impact over the part of the body best equipped to bear a load. Hitting the stabilizer with the head / helmet would be just about the worst-case scenario and easily could have been fatal.
What he says in the video that "a piece of equipment" hit the horizontal stabilizer. Any idea what that could be?
Don't know if you guys got the updated version, but the auxiliary parachute of one of the jumpers inadvertently deployed which is what cause the damage on the tail. There are a lot of good pilots out there. My instructor started instructing at 18, and by 23 had 2000+ hours and hired as a Captain in a Citation XLS. At 21, this kid could have 4 years of flying experience which I believe to be sufficient for a Cessna 182. Sounds like he performed well under pressure.
I rarely chime in on these boards, but I have some first hand knowledge here so I'll give it go:
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.
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.
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.
[This poster has been suspended.]