Most Dangerous Aviation Tomfoolery

jrh said:
I wonder a couple things about this...

How well the jump was planned in advance.
How much experience the pilot had flying jumpers.

It seems as though the answer to both questions is, "Not much." To me, that's what makes it more dangerous than anything else.

I think jumping a Cherokee can be done safely, but this wasn't an example of how to do it.
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I think the panic in the pilot's voice is a good indication of how well planned it was.
 
I have had some interesting variations of jumpers hanging off of a strut, wing and main landing gear in a 206.

I remember one AFF student in particular with video, the camera flyer worked his way out the where the strut meets the bottom portion of the wing, the first AFF instructor was on the strut, student on the strut in the door and the second AFF instructor in the door.

To compensate for all this weight hanging off of the right side of the aircraft wasn't terribly hard, keep your speed, max for the jumpers is about 90-100MPH IAS in this case, right aileron and rudder, I also kept the left wing full of gas, only used the right wing for my reserve. Once that formation left, make sure you ease off on the rudder and aileron quickly otherwise your going to roll left hard.
 
Lots of things wrong. Obviously as the jumper moves out on the wing, the pilot is losing authority to keep the airplane blue side up. Lift being killed. Aileron authority compromised. Just seems like a really stupid thing to do but then.. there it probably seemed like a 'fun thing' to do when conjured up. Right up there with, 'Hey... WATCH THIS!!!"
 
trafficinsight said:
I think the panic in the pilot's voice is a good indication of how well planned it was.
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I thought that was more an indication of the pilot's lack of experience flying jumpers than the lack of planning. The panic in his tone, as well as the fact that he was trying to yell at a jumper outside the plane indicates he hadn't done it much. I found out that lesson pretty quick flying jumpers--once the door comes open, it's tough to communicate with anyone verbally *inside* the plane. A jumper *outside* the plane has a zero chance of hearing anything the pilot yells. Don't even bother trying.

As the jumper slid further out on the wing, he didn't seem particularly intent on moving outboard for safety reasons, to miss the tail. He was looking back at the cockpit grinning, like he was goofing off. That's why I wonder if the pilot and jumper had briefed that exit together, or if it was a spur of the moment thing on the jumper's part. Even if they had briefed the exit, the pilot obviously wasn't aware of the possibility of rolling. Had I been flying, I would have told the jumper in advance that if we start rolling, get the heck off. In this case, the jumper was very obviously trying to hang on, even during the roll.

I think they could have done this safely if they'd just kept it simple. Have the jumper put a foot on the step behind the flap, hang on to the handle on the fuselage and/or the door frame, and launch from there. Simple, stable, not much time outside the plane. But that wouldn't have made a cool YouTube video. :rolleyes:
 
Just like one of the first posters on this thread said. This video wouldn't have ended up good at all if his left arm had got caught in the door while he was outside, then he slipped. The pilot would be sitting there with his buddies arm hanging in the door......
 
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