Aircraft & Pilot in Northern KY

Started by NIN, February 25, 2009, 07:04:28 PM

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NIN

I have the need for a bit of a mission (non-CAP, unfortunately, for reasons which will become clear in a moment) in Northern Kentucky on Saturday, 25 APR 09 at a time to be precisely determined at a later point. 

The aircraft must conform with the requirements  found in AC 105-2C, Appendix 2, and in particular the requirement to operate (legally!) with one door removed.

The flight will be conducted under the provisions of 14CFR Parts 91 and 105, especially Parts 91.15, 91.307, 105.21, and operating with an FAA Form 7711-2 certificate of authorization to waive portions of FAR 105.21. 

Operations would be conducted from either OI8 or 27K, and intended flight duration would be less than 1.0.

If you're a pilot in that area, and have a plane that meets, or can meet, these requirements and want to help out another cadet program, please feel free to drop me a line at darin.l.ninness@armycadets.org

Thanks!

EDIT: BTW, if I was not clear, I'm looking for a plane & pilot. You may not be that pilot, or have that plane, but perhaps you know someone in that area who does. That would be great.  Also, as this would be a non-CAP flight,  I don't mind if the pilot is an 18 year old cadet. ;)
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

brasda91

I'll help by passing this around the Wing.
Wade Dillworth, Maj.
Paducah Composite Squadron
www.kywgcap.org/ky011

NIN

Quote from: brasda91 on February 25, 2009, 11:17:30 PM
I'll help by passing this around the Wing.

FYI, KY Wing Staff got the buzzer a couple weeks ago via Colonel Cooper, but I was putting feelers out in a different way (ie. "My brother in law lives in Louisville and owns a 182 with an STC...  lemme give him a call" kind of thing)


Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

brasda91

#3
Quote from: NIN on February 25, 2009, 11:25:55 PM
Quote from: brasda91 on February 25, 2009, 11:17:30 PM
I'll help by passing this around the Wing.

FYI, KY Wing Staff got the buzzer a couple weeks ago via Colonel Cooper, but I was putting feelers out in a different way (ie. "My brother in law lives in Louisville and owns a 182 with an STC...  lemme give him a call" kind of thing)

Yeah, I saw it, but thought I would offer to help again.
Wade Dillworth, Maj.
Paducah Composite Squadron
www.kywgcap.org/ky011

flyguy06

Why not just say you're looking for an airplane that is configured to carry jumpers and a jump pilot instead of all the FAR references and "secret" talk?

NIN

Quote from: flyguy06 on February 27, 2009, 03:10:11 AM
Why not just say you're looking for an airplane that is configured to carry jumpers and a jump pilot instead of all the FAR references and "secret" talk?

Because I don't need an airplane that's configured to carry jumpers, or a jump pilot.   I need a plane that conforms to the AC 105-2C requirements and a pilot.   

If I said I needed a plane that was configured to carry jumpers and a jump pilot, the number of planes and pilots available/qualified is considerably less.  Both of the demo jumps I have out of fixed-wing aircraft were from non-jump planes being flown by non-jump pilots.

And it wasn't very "secret talk" if you figured out what I was saying. I'll promise to do better next time.

Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

KyCAP

He must have a secret decoder ring, quick turn on "Secret Squirrel Mode".

Maj. Russ Hensley, CAP
IC-2 plus all the rest. :)
Kentucky Wing

NIN

Hey, BTW, guys, just a follow up to this post:

Managed to find a plane & pilot in Southern OH.  A T-34A, even.

And the jump went well.  (well, except for the AH-64D that showed up 20 minutes early for a "recon" and flew right under us)

Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

desertengineer1

Great pic.  Just one question.  You wrote T-34A.  How did you jump from a T-34A? 


NIN

Quote from: desertengineer1 on May 03, 2009, 03:46:00 PM
Great pic.  Just one question.  You wrote T-34A.  How did you jump from a T-34A?

Very, very carefully. :)
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

maverik

I always wondered how do you jump with the flag?
KC9SFU
Fresh from the Mint C/LT
"Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking." Ferdinand Foch at the Battle of the Marne

Gunner C

Quote from: NIN on May 03, 2009, 05:01:49 PM
Quote from: desertengineer1 on May 03, 2009, 03:46:00 PM
Great pic.  Just one question.  You wrote T-34A.  How did you jump from a T-34A?

Very, very carefully. :)
Did you climb out on the wing?  I always wondered about inverting the aircraft and letting gravity take its course.  You've got the horizontal stabilizer back there - always gave me the heebie jeebies.

Great pic, BTW.

desertengineer1

When I went through Primary in Pensacola for the T-34C the common thread with respect to bailout was you don't want to do it.  It was extremely dangerous and limited to side exit. 

I remember an instructor saying going out the top will slam you into the tail (assuming laminar airflow / semi level flight).  Going to the wing can stick you to it due to airflow.  Target was an angle behind the wing.  Bailout altitude was MINIMAL 2400 ft AGL.

Sadly, not too many people involved in accidents have sucessfully gotten out.

So...  Only going on my minimal student days, my reaction here is...  WHY?

SJFedor

I'm gonna take a stab at this one....


why? cuz a) it was the aircraft available, and b) Lt Col Ninness is the bomb, and is only a cool haircut away from being chuck norris.

i've seen jumps from the 34's before. as long as you know what you're doing, it's as safe as jumping from any other plane.

Steven Fedor, NREMT-P
Master Ambulance Driver
Former Capt, MP, MCPE, MO, MS, GTL, and various other 3-and-4 letter combinations
NESA MAS Instructor, 2008-2010 (#479)

desertengineer1

Quote from: SJFedor on May 04, 2009, 02:58:07 PM
I'm gonna take a stab at this one....


why? cuz a) it was the aircraft available, and b) Lt Col Ninness is the bomb, and is only a cool haircut away from being chuck norris.

i've seen jumps from the 34's before. as long as you know what you're doing, it's as safe as jumping from any other plane.

Maybe..  I'm just sayin they had the crap scared out of us with respect to the T-34 airframe and bailouts. 

While our class was working through the last two months of flights, a crew at another VT base was lost in a formation flight accident.  Didn't sit too well with us on this subject.

Loved the airframe and the capabilities, but I could think of better alternatives for jumping.

Just my opinion...


NIN

There are *way* better alternatives for jumping. None were available to us at that time, or they cost a lot more than we were budgeted for.

Believe you me, a T-34 would not be my first choice. That said, I'd jump it again.  But not often.

Pertaining to bailouts: Getting out of that plane would be tough no matter what.  If the plane is suffering from some kind of mishap that requires you to stop thinking like a pilot and start thinking like a skydiver, my guess is that:  a) you're low.  A lot lower than you want to be; b) You're not flying straight, level & 75 kts with the gear and flaps extended; c) your ability to climb out is going to be limited to "straps off and hope for the best." 

There are a lot of NATOPS and other military aviation ops guidance that I swear is more designed to give aircrew piece of mind about certain emergencies and malfunctions rather than a realistic "here's how you survive this one."  I know the CH-47 used to have a checklist item for "Driveshaft failure" that was "Land Immediately."  Well, the more fatalistic of us knew that a failure of the primary rotor driveline in anything but a hover would result in a bold-face action item of "Die Immediately" and our checklists were pen-and-ink changed to reflect that.

As far as exiting that T-34:

Many (uninformed) folks suggested the whole "Roll inverted and fall out" exit.  That kind of uncontrolled departure from the plane is definitely not safe and not what I would ever do.  That vertical stab is just too tall back there to get clear.  No matter what.

The horizontal stab is there, too, but if you look at the rear cargo door on a C-206 and measure how far it is from the door to the stab, I bet you will find that is a LOT closer than from the trailing edge of the wing to the stab on a T-34.  We jump a C-206 a lot and never bother with the tail.   

On exit, the jumper is moving (momentarily) as fast as the plane, and only drag is slowing him or her down in the horizontal plane. And gravity is pulling as well vertically.

So for the first few seconds of an exit, you're going as fast as or just slightly slower than the plane horizontally as you accelerate downward toward the earth.  Unless I had jumped straight up in the air from the wing root and got as big as possible, its really a physical impossibility for me to hit the horizontal stab. By the time it passes over me (ie. I've slowed down and the plane has passed me), I'm probably 8-10 ft below it.

In addition, the plane was trimmed for 75kts or so, gear extended, and in a very slight descent, placing the tail a lot higher in the exit frame and relative wind than it would be, say, in a power-on climb.  All I had to do was relax and let the relative wind take me off the plane. I bet I cleared the trailing edge of the flap by no more than 6-8".

The climbout was a complete pain, however.  I neglected to brief the pilot on what jumper dumpers call a "cut" (throttle back to idle to reduce propblast), and while the airspeed might have been 75kts, the relative wind was a lot closer to 100.  The expected hand and foot placements that I had tried while on the ramp didn't work quite as expected in the slipstream.  I thought 2-3 times that I was going to get yanked off the plane in a less-than-optimal way.

I did manage to get the aft canopy closed prior to exit so the pilot could fly home straightaway without stopping.

Clearly, I need to work out more.
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

NIN

Quote from: SJFedor on May 04, 2009, 02:58:07 PM
I'm gonna take a stab at this one....

why? cuz a) it was the aircraft available, and b) Lt Col Ninness is the bomb, and is only a cool haircut away from being chuck norris.

i've seen jumps from the 34's before. as long as you know what you're doing, it's as safe as jumping from any other plane.

a) You're correct;
b) Thanks, but its not the haircut, its the beard that makes Chuck cool. And we all know that I prefer the military-style uniform, and thus, no beard.
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.