Skydiver, Cessna collision (Florida)

[Gnarly Gnu]

Amazing photos... and outcome.

 

 

 

 

[rdarby]

I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. There are skydivers where I fly and I often have to delay joining the circuit till they land, but what happens if someone doesn't see them?

 

 

[pmccarthy]

The pilot was 87 years old and his name was Mr Trembley!

 

 

[dazza 38]

What a waste of a good aeroplane.

 

 

[Keenaviator]

What a waste of a good aeroplane.

There's no reason the plane won't fly again. Dazzzza if you comment was directed at the pilot you may be forgetting that if you are lucky you may have a few flying years left in you. Laurie.

 

 

[skeptic36]

I spent some time flying around Zephyrhills recently. It's amazing how big skydiving is there, it's also amazing how fast they can go through a cycle of loading, getting them up there, then getting back down and loaded again, and they go all day.

 

 

[dazza 38]

There's no reason the plane won't fly again. Dazzzza if you comment was directed at the pilot you may be forgetting that if you are lucky you may have a few flying years left in you. Laurie.

It wasn't directed at the pilot or the parachutist, these things happen. I just hate seeing lovely old aircraft getting bent, I hope the pilot flies again .

 

 

[farri]

I did a tandem jump a while back and the first guy out was a young bloke with a vidio camera on his helmet. He simply slid out the door and hung on to the side, his body laying along the fuselage. He was waiting for the others to jump.

 

It was obvious he knew what he was doing because he made it look so simple but the first thought that went through my mind,was! "Lucky he didn`t slip! He could have taken the tail off."

 

Frank.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Bloody Wuffos! They come out with some real dumb ass comments.

 

I put the blame to this right on the jumper. Rule is here that you do not overfly the runway below 500ft. Don't have the height to cross then land on the other side and walk.

 

If everyone stays in there own airspace then this sort of thing won't happen. Shame about the Cessna, looks like a real pearl of a early type A model maybe. Have a look at the other photos of it hitting the ground. A close up look i think you will find the fuselage well and truly canned.

 

Z Hills is one of many large drop zones in the US. Most have several Twin Otters plus other types from Caravans, Skyvan, Porters and King Airs. You will see around 100 plus loads a day. Not unusual to be in freefall and see large commercial aircraft only mile or closer away, Spaceland DZ in Florida used to share airspace with the SST.

 

Meanwhile in Australia........

 

 

[astroman]

Beautiful old Cessna. Shame to lose another of the few tail draggers around :(

 

 

[kgwilson]

The Skydiver was a complete wally trying to land on an active runway. Most do the right thing but there is always that stupid minority stuffing things up for everyone. He was lucky that prop spinning at probably 2800 RPM didn't come into contact with any of his anatomy.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Looks even more spectacular when you see the full sequence...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ausadvance]

just be aware anyone ever flying into tyagrah, the skydivers cut low level over the runway all the time! so if you are coming into tyagrah and hear anything about the chutes away, orbit until they are down or at worst case, land short on 23

 

 

[metalman]

just be aware anyone ever flying into tyagrah, the skydivers cut low level over the runway all the time! so if you are coming into tyagrah and hear anything about the chutes away, orbit until they are down or at worst case, land short on 23

Contact CASA with an incident report every time they do that and get them shut down,,,,,I have nothing against meatbombers ,but I do have an issue with stupid people being airborne!

Matty

 

And agreed ,,,damn shame to see another old classic wrecked!

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

where they land is the marked approved landing area for high performance canopies. Tyags is a tight strip they need the space to run out the canopies, they can plane out over several hundred meters. after the drop complete call they have right of way . not like they can do a go around. reason why it is marked on your chart as a danger area. nice insult metaldude.

 

 

[metalman]

Not trying to insult anyone , I've had a guy under canopy drift across at 300agl on initials , if I hadn't taken evasive action we'd both be dead, I've also been around plenty of meat bomber ops and although they all spruik professional they often play pretty lax with the regs. Not every op is a bit loose but most that I've seen are, even down to not logging flight times in the MR to keep the plane flying longer, facts are facts and I'm sure all the skydivers will have a go at me but if you're honest with yourself there is a lot of rule breaking in the industry

 

Matty

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Very little rule breaking these days. All the shoddies have been sorted out. Just not worth it now. To many dollars in aircraft invested, Pilots won't play that game, they have to log hours to further there career. They won't work for owners that insist on them not logging hours. Not only do drop zones have to pass CASA audits they also have the APF audits to pass. So they get it from both directions.

 

If you are having problems then I do suggest that either you voice concerns to the DZ CI or contact the APF aircraft operations exec.

 

What drop zones do you have problems with?

 

 

[kgwilson]

Not trying to insult anyone , I've had a guy under canopy drift across at 300agl on initials , if I hadn't taken evasive action we'd both be dead, I've also been around plenty of meat bomber ops and although they all spruik professional they often play pretty lax with the regs. Not every op is a bit loose but most that I've seen are, even down to not logging flight times in the MR to keep the plane flying longer, facts are facts and I'm sure all the skydivers will have a go at me but if you're honest with yourself there is a lot of rule breaking in the industryMatty

I agree. There are some cowboys around that give all those who follow the rules a bad name. We had situations here where one landed & went under our clubhouse, another broke a leg & the clapped out old 182 they were using ran out of petrol twice & landed out, there were kids running around when the engine was running with a 200 litre drum of fuel under the wing & the refueling wand got knocked as the aircraft left. The parachuting mob had a run in with the aerodrome committee after complaints, could not produce any drop zone or management plan & then got a lawyer to threaten to sue for loss of income. This sort of attitude does the industry no good at all.

 

 

[KING]

Not sure if that was quick thinking of the P1 to unlatch the door following the collision (in case the frame bent and jammed the door), or maybe the rapid swing round un popping the latch/flinging an open door outwards. If deliberate then that's pretty quick reactions from the pilot.

 

Also right rudder into the turn - seems counter intuitive but maybe trying to avoid a stall, the jolt caused P1 to step on the right pedal or deliberately trying to shed the canopy from the wing.

 

Anyhow great to see both walked away from this. In the end we're all up there for pretty much the same reasons and too often these accidents don't end so well.

 

 

[metalman]

Very little rule breaking these days. All the shoddies have been sorted out. Just not worth it now. To many dollars in aircraft invested, Pilots won't play that game, they have to log hours to further there career. They won't work for owners that insist on them not logging hours. Not only do drop zones have to pass CASA audits they also have the APF audits to pass. So they get it from both directions.If you are having problems then I do suggest that either you voice concerns to the DZ CI or contact the APF aircraft operations exec.

What drop zones do you have problems with?

From the north to the south mate, the guys at Nagambie are good clean operators,,,,,other than that I've not seen anything to convince me they're interested in good ops,,,,and that's not old news!

"Don't wear the plane out on paper"

 

" circuits are for other pilots, just drop in on base and land"

 

Going into CTA over Melbourne with crap radios

 

A prop strike on a completely stuffed CSU, sent it to a LAME to replace the prop ,but never mentioned the strike,,,LAME had a fit when he found out he'd been tricked into signing out an engine that needed a bulk strip.

 

Taxiing along past hangars with the tail up in a taildragger.

 

Climbing and descending through cloud in non IFR aircraft with a PPL ( VFR rated)at the helm.

 

I know of three airfields that have kicked meatbombers out for dangerous behaviour ,

 

Just to name a few instances, I'm not trying to insult you Ozzie, but these are things that are happening NOW, the fact that there aren't more accidents( reported) is more due to good luck than good management ,I'm not going to say who and where, but to think the skydiving sector is all good boys n girls just isn't true,

 

Matty

 

 

[bexrbetter]

but to think the skydiving sector is all good boys n girls just isn't true,Matty

Idiots everywhere in all hobbies and sports, it's a given.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

If you see it happening then report it. All the good operators are tired of the idiots. just makes the game harder. I think you will find that most if not all of the shonkies are the tandem only type drop zones. big money to be made and the only way to make it is to push the limits. I really dislike tandem only drop zones.