Jump plane makes emergency landing near KWVI, pilot OK.

Why would you jump out of a perfectly good....bahahaha I can't say that with a straight face.


Which reminds me of a story from a friend of mine who worked at a DZ...one of their pilots had an engine failure at about 3000' AGL with a load of jumpers. After the initial "oh crap" moment, he turned back to the jumpers and said "I got this, you guys get out!"....just in time to see last guys foot leaving the aircraft. I guess they were just high enough to get everything opened, and the jumpers and pilot all walked away.
 
2,800' AGL used to be standard jump altitude for a hop & pop, but that was a few years before I earned my PPL and came to understand how airplanes work.

A group of us had been asked to do a demo jump into a friend's birthday party at an airport, so we took the twin Beech. The winds were around 20 knots, I couldn't collapse my canopy upon landing, and so I was dragged across a taxiway face down. The nylon webbing of a leg strap was almost completely burned through, so the rig wasn't safe to jump until repaired. The winds were even higher the next day, and we lost an engine on the return flight. Over the airport everyone bailed out and several were injured due to hard landings and being dragged. I was forced to stay with the aircraft, and knew that I was going to die - you know, with that dead engine and all.

If given the option today, I'd choose the airplane over the door.
 
tomokc said:
2,800' AGL used to be standard jump altitude for a hop & pop, but that was a few years before I earned my PPL and came to understand how airplanes work.

A group of us had been asked to do a demo jump into a friend's birthday party at an airport, so we took the twin Beech. The winds were around 20 knots, I couldn't collapse my canopy upon landing, and so I was dragged across a taxiway face down. The nylon webbing of a leg strap was almost completely burned through, so the rig wasn't safe to jump until repaired. The winds were even higher the next day, and we lost an engine on the return flight. Over the airport everyone bailed out and several were injured due to hard landings and being dragged. I was forced to stay with the aircraft, and knew that I was going to die - you know, with that dead engine and all.

If given the option today, I'd choose the airplane over the door.
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Was this back in the day of PCs and capewells?

I have had to exit a plane at 2,000 ft AGL in Hollister. I left on my main but had a pilot chute in tow malfunction. After a couple of seconds of wondering where my main was I pulled the reserve. I saddled out roughly at 700 ft, my main pilot chute floating behind me and that was my first reserve I had packed as a new certificated rigger. Talk about pucker factor.
 
You could write what I know about skydiving on a pinhead in capital letters, but doesn't it seem a little odd that a jump plane wouldn't be able to make it back to the runway? I always thought it was kind of a straight up straight down over the field sort of deal.
 
milleR said:
You could write what I know about skydiving on a pinhead in capital letters, but doesn't it seem a little odd that a jump plane wouldn't be able to make it back to the runway? I always thought it was kind of a straight up straight down over the field sort of deal.
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Sometimes. There are locations where the DZ is off of the airport several miles. However you are usually high enough to make the glide back to the airport in the event the engine fails. However there are several factors to consider. Sometimes approach has you descend in certain places for traffic sequencing, etc. I could keep on guessing, but there a zillion other possibilities of how come he did not make it back to the airport a short distanc away.
 
Huh... I know some people who work at the DZ... though not that particular pilot. Glad everyone is okay.
 
Inverted said:
KWVI has an offsite DZ from what I understand. I don't remember them ever dropping on the field.
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I hear them on CTAF all the time from Sacramento and they say something about jumping over the beach... so I'd say you are correct.
 
grkero said:
I hear them on CTAF all the time from Sacramento and they say something about jumping over the beach... so I'd say you are correct.
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Yup. As an aside, I occasionally hear the Lodi DZ from over Hollister. Vaguely terrifying when the location report is muffled.
 
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