Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thursday, 13 Aug 1992 18:26:57 CDT
From: <U50281@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Subject: Re: 14?
 <1992Aug13.025600.1696@zia.aoc.nrao.edu>

In article <1992Aug13.025600.1696@zia.aoc.nrao.edu>, dbriggs@zia.aoc.nrao.edu
(Daniel Briggs) says:
>
>In article <92225.195119U50281@uicvm.uic.edu>
>>BTW, that 727 was climbing at 4000 feet per minute.  No joke!  That's the
>>first load I've ever been on where the ride down is longer than up...
>>...yeah, well, I don't dump at 1500 either...
>
>Hey that's right.  Could somone who actually jumped the thing give us a
>blow-by-blow?  Jeff?
>
>--
>| Daniel Briggs  (dbriggs@nrao.edu)                      |        USPA B-14993

Well, you spend about a half hour loading 150 people in the thing.  We were put
into five rows, five very tight rows.  They packed us in so tight that I have
no trouble with those high notes anymore.  We loaded up using the cargo
entrance and a couple of ladders up to it.  After that is closed, the only
opening is at the back where the staircase was removed leaving only a few
steps that are actually built into the airplane.    After an eternity of
taxiing, it feels just like a 727 taking off.  You really feel that rotation.
Pretty soon, you are watching your altimeter move like you never thought
possible.  Then someone says "Mike Mullins, eat your heart out!"  (Honest, it
wasn't me). That got the whole plane hootin' and hollerin'.  On jump run, they
have one side of the plane stand up, and then single file as fast as you can
you just run out the door and try to guess who in the sky is part of your
formation.  A two minute go around later and the second pass lets out.

The end result is 150 skydivers spread out across ten miles of sky.  Jump
run is 155mph.  However, the pilot (who hasn't done this) screwed up on
the first pass of the first load and forgot to put down the gear and flaps
etc and did a 225mph jump run.  Even with 155mph you could still hear a
"whoosh" with each person's exit.  I can only imagine how loud it was at
225.  Also, a few people had some surprises on that first high-speed load.
One person had the prop, er, jet blast break an almost-gone closing loop and
held his hands behind his back for 10000 feet and another had his leg blown
into his face resulting in a torn hamstring.  Ouch!

A total of four loads had flown by 2pm Wednesday when I blew out of there.
They were on a weather hold at the time...

And of course, the spots were absolute trash.  That was just about the
biggest spotting cluster f*ck I've ever seen.  Mike even wanted to help
but they wouldn't let him.  Mike offered to fly formation with them and
use his LORAN.  I would love to have been on a load in Mike's plane and
watch this.  Then I could jump out and go swoop the 727 jumpers.  And
before you ask, no, the 727 didn't have anything like Mike's avionics.
The most they could do was work with a couple of VOR's.

The best strategy was trying to get yourself into the middle of the second
pass.  Then you stood the best chance of getting back and could dump high
if you wanted to.  Worked like a charm!

So, is that enough of a blow-by-blow?  Now I've got to go get everything
back into the car for a another trip down there tomorrow...

Jeff Hauser
Sky Knights SPC
East Troy, WI