Emir wrote:
Plum? Or some other fruit?
It’s a secret :) Only gypsies know what’s in it :)
GA_Pete wrote:
Hi Mooney, I look forward to the introduction to Ziganka.
I’ll have to organise some then :)
Peter wrote:
This is a very old one
Let me add a true one:
- Eastbound on a Swissair A330 over the NATL, Labrador. We get moderate chop, strap in the FA’s (Pax were strapped in for a while) and reported it as such: “SR129, moderate chop at FL370”. A few minutes later, an American airline pipes up behind us over that position: “Holy smokes, what are you thinking Swissair, we have severe turb and request descent to FL330 now!” Turned out, they had heard our message but thought they could get away with it, did not strap anyone in, consequently they had their cabin in a mess…. (and I’ve cleaned the radio call for public consumption, the original included a good compilation of popular southern abuse. Wish LIVEATC would have existed back then. )
Excellent Peter.
Hi Mooney, I look forward to the introduction to Ziganka.
This is a very old one
Mooney_Driver wrote:
I’ll have to introduce you to “Ziganka” at some stage I think
Plum? Or some other fruit?
Peter wrote:
One guy who used to do these flights told me that it is difficult to control what the jumpers do.
I’ve done them with an AN2. There thankfully you don’t have a step. One jumpmaster at the door, all sat on the folding chairs. On the sign, the jumpmaster opens the door and they file out one by one. They are usually out in a few seconds.
Hardly any trim change at all, just felt the massively reduced weight. With that engine we did not do stunts such as trying to land before the parashutists (shock cooling) but we usually landed within a few minutes of them.
GA_Pete wrote:
Well I’d have needed a few mins and a cup of tea after that.
LOL! I love that typical British answer! Most of us would need something a tad stronger after this kind of unexpected aerobatics…..
sumewat distilled xxx-years ago or so.
I’ll have to introduce you to “Ziganka” at some stage I think
Peter wrote:
One guy who used to do these flights told me that it is difficult to control what the jumpers do.
Maybe if they are not briefed precisely. I believe they are aware of risks in any stage of flight and if supplied with detailed instructions (like they get for the jump), they will act accordingly.
One guy who used to do these flights told me that it is difficult to control what the jumpers do.
Some details from Reddit, I am not sure I understand the physics of para jumps from KingAir (I jumped from C130 few times it was doing 140kias, the door side engines were blazing low of wind )
Can’t they drop parachute jumpers with low power shallow descents with nose pointing down? say -500fpm?
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/qm1952/an_absolutely_astounding_video_of_a_jump_ship/
PILOT’s PERSPECTIVE:
The aircraft was inspected and is undamaged.
The jump run procedure entails setting flaps 60-80 and bringing back the left engine to flight idle. We also bring the left prop back to full coarse to minimize disking of the prop. This is to enable the jumpers to egress onto the outside step, which would otherwise be difficult due to the prop & thrust blast from the left engine. There is also the added danger of the blast pushing jumpers into the left elevator. Power is kept on the right engine to maintain altitude during the jump run, which typically takes 60 seconds. A fair amount of right rudder is required to fly a straight line in this configuration. Pilot to maintain 95-90 kts IAS.
The stall and subsequent spin happened when we allowed too many jumpers on the outside step, causing an aft center of gravity and excessive blocking of the airflow to the left horizontal stabilizer. The nose then pitched up beyond the controllability of the elevator.
I anticipated the stall when I hit the elevator stop. As the wing came over, I moved the right engine power and prop levers back to the flight idle position, thereby neutralizing the engine effect from both engines, centralized the ailerons and applied full right rudder (rudder was already in quite deep in at this point). The aircraft behaved very well, and the recovery was surprisingly easy. I pulled out as gently as possible as I did not want to stress the airframe. There was some additional instability when I pulled out of the dive and pushed the throttles forward to power up, as the one engine spooled up much quicker than the other and caused another asymmetrical moment. The flaps may have inadvertently helped to keep the airspeed low. AIS showed 140kts when I pulled out.
The incident was reported to CAA within 24 hours. They investigated (including a visit to our hangar) and they seem to be happy that the aircraft was operated and flown within its STC.
In future, no more than 5 jumpers will be allowed on the outside step. We will also brief the big formations to be wary of a pitch moment of the nose of the aircraft, so they can let go should this ever happen. This will also be placarded inside the aircraft and included in our King Air briefing for new jumpers.
I am sharing the above information because skydive ops is very different from normal operations and leave people wondering why we fly certain configurations during the climb, jump run and descent.
The aircraft landed safely with the skydivers that did not exit.
The incident was promptly reported to the South African CAA and PASA national safety and training officer. The next day the jump team made adjustments to their exit procedure following discussion with the pilot and no further incidents or near-incidents were experienced.
the pilot is required to wear a chute
It does come handy sometimes…
