Please don't hit skydivers

[iwannarv]

I see a lot of push/pull here on many opinions. As pointed out earlier, I guess I would qualify as a 'nut job' who currently flies for a universty skydiving club.

Skydivers watch out for airplanes, airplanes watch out for skydivers. But please also think of the pilot who is flying that jump plane, and the liability that we face by letting the jumpers exit. I try to communicate best I can, and if you fly near a DZ, it should not be difficult to do the same. We all like to see other pilots drop in and visit our club. Communication to do so doesn't have to be difficult.

It is much more relieving to me when a plane is in the area, we can talk on local freq. We know where each other are, what we are doing, and when things are going to happen. Everything goes smooth.

But, when ATC tells me I have a plane at a low altitude headed directly over the airport just 'flying through', it gets irritating that I can't raise him on the local freq to let him know what's going on for the safety of both of us. (If you are going directly over an airport at low altitude, why not monitor the local freq?). Then I'm holding skydivers in untill I can spot the plane and figure out what he's doing.

I not only have to think of safety for me and other pilots, but the safety of the skydivers I fly for. If anything were to happen to them, whether caused by other traffic or not, FAA will point fingers at the pilot. Not something I want happening to me being 21 years old and flying for food. While this is not the case for all DZ pilots, it definitely eases our minds if you simply communicate with us, we greatly appreciate it.

 

[Ron Lee]

Brad, I don't monitor local frequencies because I am using ATC flight following. On one trip ATC advised me of parachute ops somewhere and I believe that I just stayed away.

 

[tkhayes]

Skydivers & Sun n Fun

I am the dropzone operator at Zephyrhills Airport and have been here for 15 years. Seen a lot of Sun n Fun 'near misses' but also seen plenty of other near misses.

As far as following the rules - we are much more likely to stick strictly to FARs than many skydiving operations since we are under the watchful eye of Tampa ATC on every flight. Our letter of agreement with them says that we will maintain radio contact and they will provide radar service for us on every flight. And we do.

Lots of aircraft come through Zephyrhills airspace unannounced. More come through during Sun n Fun so the odds of a 'confrontation' increases. We have had PLENTY of near misses in the years I have been here both during and outside of the Sun n Fun calendar. Even with the radar service from Tampa, they are not perfect and neither are we. Even the military, who seem to fly on 'their own rules' sometimes breach the area unannounced, but again, all these things are rare when you look at the big picture.

I expect that odds of collisions are higher with us simply due to the volume of flights we do, (some 4000 operations per year). Some days we have a Twin Otter departing every 6-8 mnutes and skydivers dropping at the same pace, up to 1000 or more jumps in a day sometimes.

Having said all that - we are a VFR operation. There is plenty of space up there. Sun n Fun simply adds more traffic to the pattern. What I do not understand is the pilot who departs Sun n Fun, knowing full well that the sky around Tampa is filled with aircraft generally all the time, sets their GPS for Alabama and simply flys in a straight line without any radio or radar contact except during their departure.

Flight following and for that matter IFR flight, is there to keep you alive a lot longer than flying solo. Once to get out in the 'boonies', sure, listen to some music, but it mysteries me how anyone can get 10 miles north of Lakeland, leaving Sun n Fun and then think they are in the clear when so much is going on in the area ALL the time.

But we are not perfect either. I have had plenty of days where storms are over Tampa and everything is being diverted over us. Plenty of days where there are targets all around us and I can only see or find some of them. But we all have a right to be here and we all have a responsibility to watch, see, and be seen, making effective use of the radios, the radar service, navigation lights, landing lights, whatever it takes to be visible - and reporting stuff back to them when it gets out of hand.

We sometimes get frustrated because we want to drop and fuel costs money, and other customers are waiting, but we also have never knowingly dropped anyone without being certain that targets are not underneath us or inbound. And thanks to Tampa for most of that help.

Only once did we have a C210 so close in freefall that we actually got the N number while in freefall. I called the guy after looking it up, and his response was "Yes, I knew you were there and I saw and heard you". Yet he still flew a wrong pattern to the airport and directly through the skydivers in freefall.

So having the information is only part of the equation. We assume that a pilot knows what "2 minutes to drop" means and that they understand where to fly. Having the information ad then acting on that information are two different things.

my $0.02

It is a big sky. We have lots of room. I would never shut down for something like Sun n Fun, even if I was asked to do so. I have never asked any other operation to shut down for some big event that we might host. For the simple reason that then I would be obligated to shut down for some other event - which I am not willing to do.

We have pretty good procedures in place and it is our job to work with them and use them. Skydiving has been going on at this airport since 1960 or so and there has yet to be a collision of any aircraft here. I think it all works pretty well overall given the volume of traffic that we see.

 

[rocketbob]

One of the easiest things one can do to avoid flying into a "meat missle" at airports with skydiving activity is to avoid the midfield crosswind entry to the pattern.

Last year while cruising along at 5500ft I saw a red blur in my peripheral vision and when I looked back and down to see what it was, it was a spinning Pitts. Couldn't have missed him by more than 500ft.

 

[pierre smith]

Welcome to VAF, David...

...and this discussion. Your input is very welcome and appreciated....I was just at SnF as well..

Thanks,