Sunday, April 24, 2005

Fly Like an Eagle

I will NOT be skydiving anytime soon. How about you?
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1 comment:

  1. Uneasy Rider11:55 AM

    Actually I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. As you may recall, I'm a private pilot. There are a number of airports around here that have skydiving in the summer. They typically take a load of jumpers up to somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 feet (as far as I can tell), then they all jump. When they go, the pilot of the aircraft announces on the radio "jumpers away". So aircraft in the traffic pattern are aware of jumpers being up there... but you're typically a lot more focused on landing the airplane than on looking out for jumpers. The jumpers need to know where the traffic pattern is and know enough to avoid it.... by the time most pilots seem them, if they're close, it's going to be too late. But no matter how you cut it... at most airports where there's skydiving, there are also airplanes landing and taking off at the same time. And they can't really close the airport to airplanes to accommodate the jumpers, either... Oh... and here's another gripe.... the pilots of those ferry planes? They fly like maniacs. Seldom do they come down and actually enter the traffic pattern and land like everyone else. They're just flying up with a load of people, letting them jump, and making a beeline back down to get more. I don't know how many times I've been in the pattern and had one of those planes come down and just cut in the middle of the pattern - usually on final approach - and just jump in front of someone.

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