Butler Skydiving crash By Juan Browne

[Hohn]

When I was skydiving at Jonesboro Mo we flew up in a Cessna 185 series and we all set on the floor since all other cabin internals had been removed. No more than 4 divers and one instructor were in the plane at once. Our pilot was a trusted friend who worked at the same company, MDC.

The first three jumps were static line jumps at 5,000 feet. Further jumps were at 10,000 feet and were freefall ripcord jumps. All jumps used the Army canopy chutes. At the fifth jump and beyond, you had to purchase your own jump insurance.

There were other skydiving groups at the same airport who jumped using the ram air type chutes. One group had Flintstones outfits and another group had clown outfits. In the evening after all jumps, we set around the campfire and discussed......skydiving.

Skydiving is not for the faint hearted.

I got my jump wings at the zoo and never put a chute on again. The box is checked for me, I guess.

We had these huge ~270sq ft squares that you could steer, but they had a nice leisurely descent rate for most human weights.

My roommate was a Wings of Blue (google it) demo jumper and had worked UL the these tiny squares well under 100sq ft that were as close to a paraglider as to a chute, you could get some serious ground speed from those, putting a premium on flare timing. “High winds, flare low, low winds flare high.” Flare too early on a tiny fast canopy and the fall from height can be pretty damaging.

There was also the time our commandant of cadets managed to run the Twin Otter off the runway.

 

[MrJayhawk]

The plot thickens:

— There were “no indications” of any mechanical malfunctions or failures of the engine on a skydiving plane that crashed last month in Missouri, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released on Thursday.

The morning of the accident, the plane had gone up for two skydiving jumps with no problems reported, the report noted. Just before the final flight, the plane was filled with 60 gallons of Jet A aircraft fuel. A post-accident sample from the fuel truck found no sediment or debris present, the NTSB said.

When the plane took off for the last time, it gradually turned to the left, but continued to turn until both wings eventually became perpendicular to the ground. The plane crashed nose-first into a field about 300 yards from the runway and caught fire.

The post-accident review also showed the plane was not overweight when it crashed and met the balance limitations, investigators said.

The company that operated the flight reported to the NTSB that it did not have any previous concerns with the pilot, calling him “safety oriented” and “conservative with his decision making as a jump pilot.”