“Jumpers Away!” heard while in the clouds

NoHeat

NoHeat

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Today I took advantage of a stratus layer, just after a front had passed, to do some approaches in IMC. It was perfect for keeping current, with a ceiling of 1200’ pretty much everywhere nearby. I was the only traffic at my uncontrolled home field.

While I was descending through the clouds at 1500’ AGL, after I had changed to local advisory CTAF, there was something I’ve never heard before while I was in the clouds - a jumper plane announced on 122.8 to exercise caution, jumpers away. It sounded strong and clear, but I’m sure it was another airport at least 50 miles away. But it still surprised me. Anybody else had this experience?
 
Yeah, spooky as hell when you hear that and have no idea where those jumpers are.
 
Bob Noel said:
"exercise caution"... hmmm, exactly how does a bug smasher avoid meat bombs?
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Quite easily if you know their whereabouts. I recall jumpers away when I was just a few miles from THA once. Made a few 360’s for spacing and continued on my way. Not as easy if they’re IMC and you are too, but I don’t suspect that to be the case here. Odds are they were a good distance away.
 
They didn't say what airport they were at? Jump planes sometimes do sketchy stuff, but I doubt they'd drop through a solid overcast
 
'round these parts, the parachute launchers always announce something like, "Jumpers away at Orange, jumpers away, jumpers away." Or, "Jumpers away at Warrenton, jumpers away at Warrenton..." Point is, they always announce the location. Altitude, too maybe? Makes it easier to know where to look for pedestrians. Never had that happen in IMC, though. Aren't there rules against that?
 
Depending on the jump place they could be at 14,500 feet. They will sound pretty clear from a long ways away. Usually they will want to see the landing zone before jumping even if it’s just barely
 
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Yes, the jump plane said the name of the airport just once. I didn’t catch it. It wasn’t one of the two fields I’m familiar with around here, for jumping.

The approach controller who was talking to me, before I went to CTAF, hadn’t advised me of anything, and I saw nothing on my Skywatch traffic advisory, so I didn’t worry about it. It just seemed weird, with IFR conditions at most fields within 100 miles, and an unusual dead quiet on 122.8. Ceilings were about 4000’ at a few fields > 70 miles north of me, so maybe that’s where the jumpers were.
 
The jumpers may have been very far away. VHF can do strange things around frontal systems. I think it is called "ducting". I once drove from Ithaca, NY to Long Island, NY. I picked up a local Long Island FM station and listened to it clearly almost to New Jersey.
 
The scary thing at Orange is that the airport is the IAF for the runway 4 approach at CJR.

It's hard to spot jumpers in freefall even in VMC. I avoid flying over jumpzones if at all possible.
 
THA is Tullahouma right? I was there in 2014 and saw jumpers come through the clouds. I was amazed. At that event Jack Hooker of Hooker Harnesses was there. We were cluttering the lobby waiting for good weather and jumpers came in. They had no idea who Jack was and he asked if they had any way to tie off in the airplane before their jump. They said “yeah, we have a Hooker harness that we tie into and it saved our lives once. He asked them for an explanation and they had been involved in some sort of mishap on climbout and owed their lives to the harness system. He then told them that he had designed and built the harness. The guys came with their families to our event banquet. They introduced their kids who would never have been were it not for the harness. Jack presented them with a Hooker Harness TestPilot award.

Tullahouma is a good airport.
 
Nice Beech museum at THA. I was in the clouds one day doing the GPS to 6 at THA and they were flying gliders on the north side of the field in a small VFR patch. It can get a bit crazy there.
 
Since we're way off topic and talking about how great THA is... They were gracious enough to host the Skywagon Convention for a day and boy was it a highlight! I certainly recommend anyone that can... GO THERE you won't regret it!
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I don't know what you do in the clouds. Break off?

I had this happen the other day right after taking off, literally 10 seconds after my wheels left the ground At least I think it was my airport, the announcement was slurred because of the speed at which it was said. Choices were pull power and try to land...which I probably could have done, but maybe been locking up the brakes and risking running off the runway OR to fly out and get away from the airport before they got near. My choice was to go up to 1000 AGL, accelerate and get out of the airport environment.

I think it's just a matter of time before a plane mows through a flock of meat bombs.
 
I would occasionally get pressure to drop when we shouldn’t from jumpers. It did not bother me. Many of them did not understand the consequences of those decisions. No one has ever made me fly when I decided I wasn’t going.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Might be better to just leave the chute tucked nicely away to be honest...
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That happened to me once. Came out of the clouds and realized I was 2-3 miles over the ocean. I was able to pull the chute and glide back to close to the beach and land on the ground, but it was definitely a sinking feeling
 
We have to deal with meat bombs every weekend and some weekdays here at the Ocean City, MD airport KOXB. At least the pilot makes multiple calls to keep traffic advised on Patuxent approach and CTAF.
 
They also hosted the Cessna 120/140 international convention in 2014. Great people. Great facility.
 
I have no skydiving experience, nor do I know anything about the common gear used. For us, our gear was designed for water landings (or I should say overwater ejection), as is our survival training. Release the upper parachute fittings when you feel your boots hit the water. Is there not a way in civilian skydiving gear to quickly detach yourself from the parachute upon a water landing or otherwise?
 
35: They do, but not as easy as Capewells or shot and a half’s. Trying to swim a few miles in a skydiving jump suit would kinda be like trying to swim while still attached to your seat.... Thank goodness for SEWARs and MWARs these days.
 
I have a lot of hours flying a jump plane. We always had a NOTAM every weekend we had jumping operations and we ALWAYS contacted Center on every flight before dropping jumpers and after dropping jumpers. We NEVER let jumpers out when they would fall through clouds. That will cause you to lose your license if the FAA witnesses you doing it.
 
Note that the parachute symbol just means that skydiving is going on somewhere near there. On the stuff derived from the printed charts (sectionals, TACs), it's just dropped someplace cartographically convenient.
 
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