Skydiving at N10 in PA

Nav8tor

Nav8tor

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Nav8tor
For those of you who fly in the Philadelphia area be aware that skydiving operations started today at N10 (Perkiomen Valley). This is the outfit that used to be at Kutztown until the airport closed and the operation has been moved to Perk Valley permanently. I was there today and they already seemed pretty busy.
 
Yea, my former instructor mentioned it a few weeks ago that they would be starting up there. Good for Perkiomen Airport though.

Thanks for the heads up, I just posted a memo on the Wings on-line Bulletin Board as well.
 
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Perhaps a jumpin' dude or dudette can give us a brief about what they train their jumpers to do while descending into the airport area so we'll know what they are doing too.

Any jumpers here, or just drivers? Me? Heck no! I'm not leaving an airplane unless the floor falls out and even then, I'm taking some of it with me (whatever I'm holding on too at the time)!

Maybe they can "present" at the Wings Fly-B-Q.
 
they will jump out upwind of the airport. thats one of the most important thing for power pilots to keep in mind. my experience (and i think its partly regulatory) is that the jump plane notifies the local ATC as well as CTAF of jumpers away and jumpers on the ground.

one time i flew my glider past Fort Dodge regional during the beginning of their Labor Day boogie. There was a helicopter and king air going up and down, jumpers under canopy, me (downwind of the airport), and a mesaba Saab 340 inbound. busy airspace.
 
Maybe they'll land in the housing development that was practically built ON the runway. :mad3:
 
AdamZ said:
:incazzato:Great
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Adam,

Doesn't it stand to reason that the MORE businesses of any variety that rely on the airport, the better chances we have of keeping that airport open? Let's be good neighbors to the neighbors and the other neighbors and keep from closing another one. :yes:

Signed,

A resident of the Good Neighbor City. :goofy:
 
tonycondon said:
they will jump out upwind of the airport. thats one of the most important thing for power pilots to keep in mind. my experience (and i think its partly regulatory) is that the jump plane notifies the local ATC as well as CTAF of jumpers away and jumpers on the ground.

one time i flew my glider past Fort Dodge regional during the beginning of their Labor Day boogie. There was a helicopter and king air going up and down, jumpers under canopy, me (downwind of the airport), and a mesaba Saab 340 inbound. busy airspace.
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I have dropped a few skydivers before, its pretty much what Tony says, They are required to notify ATC when they are dropping. Typically they will give at least a 1 minute warning prior to the jump. It can be a bit busy on the radio just before the jump as the pilot is switching between ATC and CTAF. I don't recall what altitude they normally open the canopy at but they generally are alway under canopy by 1500ft AGL. If you are flying in the area it is best to be 1500 AGL or lower. Once under Canopy they are easy to see and they can hear you (unless your in the glider) and maneuver pretty well.

Brian
 
I don't like sky divers on an airport. How do you know everyone will here the radio calls. ATC here is Approach Control for jumping on an uncontrolled field, just outside the Class B.

We have two runways with with left and right traffic in either direction. So keeping all the traffic patterns to one side of the airport does not work. We also have a two soaring operations based at the airport.

So, if using the airport for an LZ and a "jumpers away" call is made, I'm in a glider running out of lift I have to chance entering the LZ for my dash to the runway.

No dice... the jump zone is 4 miles south. They run shuttle vans to pick up the meatballs.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Adam,

Doesn't it stand to reason that the MORE businesses of any variety that rely on the airport, the better chances we have of keeping that airport open? Let's be good neighbors to the neighbors and the other neighbors and keep from closing another one. :yes:

Signed,

A resident of the Good Neighbor City. :goofy:
Click to expand...

Kent, I do agree with you especially for a field like Perkiomen (N10) which is a breath away from closing. And I am happy that it will hopefully infuse some needed money into the airport.

It just happens to be in an area that I do a lot of practice approaches and in the past I have had to break off approaches due to jumpers away calls. Its just a bit of a pain thats all and perhaps cost some more hobbs hours for me.

But I do agree that the Money will be a good thing for the field and i am happy for them.

I do wonder if the jump plane gave the jumpers in 1 minute call and I advised that I was on the VOR approach for runway X if they would hold the jumpers till I was done the approach. Or What would happen if I called on CTAF in response to a Jumpers in one minute call and said something to the effect of " aircraft on GPS X approach at XYZ field not safe for jumpers" what they would do.

I mean if they called jumpers in X minutes before I began the approach I'd wait but If I was on the approach first would that require they hold the jumpers? I dunno.
 
There is an airport down here in Florida I was at last weekend that had jumping operations ongoing (KDED). They seemed to all land to one side of the runway, while a whole bunch of planes occupied the traffic pattern on the other side of the airport. Seemed to work out ok, until somebody landed on the wrong side of the airport (Jumper). Never could figure out how he was going to get back across the runway.

It was really cool to take off with jumpers under canopy landing off to the side of the runway. However, I did have a passenger who was watching them all, and he was told to alert me to anything that looked like it was coming our way.
 
AdamZ said:
I do wonder if the jump plane gave the jumpers in 1 minute call and I advised that I was on the VOR approach for runway X if they would hold the jumpers till I was done the approach. Or What would happen if I called on CTAF in response to a Jumpers in one minute call and said something to the effect of " aircraft on GPS X approach at XYZ field not safe for jumpers" what they would do.

I mean if they called jumpers in X minutes before I began the approach I'd wait but If I was on the approach first would that require they hold the jumpers? I dunno.
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The jump pilot, if he stayed on frequency long enought to hear your call, they or normally boucing two frequencies with ATC on one radio, would tell you the jump zone is hot and that you are the one that needs to vacate HIS jump zone. :ihih:
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
There is an airport down here in Florida I was at last weekend that had jumping operations ongoing (KDED). They seemed to all land to one side of the runway, while a whole bunch of planes occupied the traffic pattern on the other side of the airport. Seemed to work out ok, until somebody landed on the wrong side of the airport (Jumper). Never could figure out how he was going to get back across the runway.

It was really cool to take off with jumpers under canopy landing off to the side of the runway. However, I did have a passenger who was watching them all, and he was told to alert me to anything that looked like it was coming our way.
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There is always going to be one parachutist that misses the drop zone, lands on the runway, or an active taxi way, or maybe on top of the airplane waiting for departure with his engine running.

Sure having "jumpers on one side" and aircraft on the other side for downwind, may work for a while. But eventually someone is going to mix sides, or the transient comes in that does not read the AF/D.

Then somone gets hurt.

For airshow openings, our FSDO requires all staged aircraft ready to depart to shut down in place, no spinning props, until the airshow opening parachutist with the flag for opening ceremonies.. is on the ground.
 
AdamZ said:
It just happens to be in an area that I do a lot of practice approaches and in the past I have had to break off approaches due to jumpers away calls. Its just a bit of a pain thats all and perhaps cost some more hobbs hours for me.

But I do agree that the Money will be a good thing for the field and i am happy for them.

I do wonder if the jump plane gave the jumpers in 1 minute call and I advised that I was on the VOR approach for runway X if they would hold the jumpers till I was done the approach. Or What would happen if I called on CTAF in response to a Jumpers in one minute call and said something to the effect of " aircraft on GPS X approach at XYZ field not safe for jumpers" what they would do.

I mean if they called jumpers in X minutes before I began the approach I'd wait but If I was on the approach first would that require they hold the jumpers? I dunno.
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Someone who was a jump pilot at KANQ posted a "how to get along with jumpers" thing a long time ago (on the old Yellow board prior to PoA's existence, IIRC) and the basic conclusion at the end was "don't do anything different." KANQ also had pamphlets in the terminal on the same subject. I probably still have one somewhere, but I sure don't know where! :dunno:
 
What's not to like about wild women, beer, and bonfires?
 
AdamZ said:
Kent, I do agree with you especially for a field like Perkiomen (N10) which is a breath away from closing. And I am happy that it will hopefully infuse some needed money into the airport.

It just happens to be in an area that I do a lot of practice approaches and in the past I have had to break off approaches due to jumpers away calls. Its just a bit of a pain thats all and perhaps cost some more hobbs hours for me.

But I do agree that the Money will be a good thing for the field and i am happy for them.

I do wonder if the jump plane gave the jumpers in 1 minute call and I advised that I was on the VOR approach for runway X if they would hold the jumpers till I was done the approach. Or What would happen if I called on CTAF in response to a Jumpers in one minute call and said something to the effect of " aircraft on GPS X approach at XYZ field not safe for jumpers" what they would do.

I mean if they called jumpers in X minutes before I began the approach I'd wait but If I was on the approach first would that require they hold the jumpers? I dunno.
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In my experience?

That jump plane is climbing to drop altitude and you all had better get outta the way.

That jump plane is dropping its meatbombs and you all had better get outta the way.

That jump plane is coming back in to land and you all had better get outta the way.

Looks like we are going to have to be MUCH more vigilant in that neck of the woods.

What happens when they drop a meatbomb on Graterford? :ihih::ihih:
 
flyersfan31 said:
In my experience?

That jump plane is climbing to drop altitude and you all had better get outta the way.

That jump plane is dropping its meatbombs and you all had better get outta the way.

That jump plane is coming back in to land and you all had better get outta the way.

Looks like we are going to have to be MUCH more vigilant in that neck of the woods.

What happens when they drop a meatbomb on Graterford? :ihih::ihih:
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The one instance I was flying in a jump zone- a couple of weeks ago at Crete, the pilot gave his warning. I asked where I should be to avoid conflict, went there, and had the rare experience of watching parachutes below me. They jumped at 10,000' and they came down fast- only a couple of minutes!

A little communication made this a non-issue.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
A little communication made this a non-issue.
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When the CTAF frequency is so busy with 4-5 or more aircraft in the traffic pattern to parallel runways and the jump plane is boucing between CTAF and Class B TRACON for approval to jump. Three jump planes making their position calls to avoid each other on climb out.

You may not get an answer... what then?

Can not always default and stay away from the airport, the landing zone is not always on the airport, and dependent on winds, they could be jumping within a 2nm radius of the jump zone, and you did not check the AF/D before approaching the airport so you don't know where the jump zone really is.
 
BillTIZ said:
When the CTAF frequency is so busy with 4-5 or more aircraft in the traffic pattern to parallel runways and the jump plane is boucing between CTAF and Class B TRACON for approval to jump. Three jump planes making their position calls to avoid each other on climb out.

You may not get an answer... what then?

Can not always default and stay away from the airport, the landing zone is not always on the airport, and dependent on winds, they could be jumping within a 2nm radius of the jump zone, and you did not check the AF/D before approaching the airport so you don't know where the jump zone really is.
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You have made a contrived situation. The AFD only mentions parachute jumping- see:

CRETE MUNI​
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(CEK) 2 E UTC6(5DT) N40°37.10 W96°55.54 OMAHA​

1500 B S4​
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FUEL 100LL, JET A, MOGAS L–10I
RWY 17–35: H4201X75 (CONC) S–28, D–48 MIRL 0.5% up N IAP
RWY 17: VASI(V2L)—GA 3.0° TCH 26. Road.​

RWY 35:​
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VASI(V2L)—GA 3.0° TCH 35. Tree.​

RWY 13–31:​
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3370X150 (TURF)​

RWY 13:​
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Tree.​

AIRPORT REMARKS:​
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Attended 1400–0000Z‡. For svc after hrs 402–
826–3912. Parachute Jumping. Rwy 13–31 CLOSED indef due to
construction.​

COMMUNICATIONS: CTAF/UNICOM​
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122.8​

COLUMBUS FSS​
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(OLU) TF 1–800–WX–BRIEF. NOTAM FILE OLU.​

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R LINCOLN APP/DEP CON 124.0 (1130–0600Z‡).​

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R MINNEAPOLIS CENTER APP/DEP CON 128.75 (0600–1130Z‡).​

RADIO AIDS TO NAVIGATION:​
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NOTAM FILE LNK.​

LINCOLN (H) VORTACW​
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116.1 LNK Chan 108 N40°55.43
W96°44.52 196° 20.2 NM to fld. 1370/9E.​
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It doesn't say where the drop zone or landing zone is located. I do check the AFD before flight. If I'm just passing over an airport with parachute activity, they do have a little parachute symbol. That gives me a bit of warning that I should monitor the CTAF for that activity.

In my real-life situation, it all worked out fine.
 
Now that I am back in the area I'm going on a strafing run over there. Will report back soon. What do I do if I accidentally hit the housing development? :devil:
 
Cap'n Jack said:
You have made a contrived situation. The AFD only mentions parachute jumping- see:


It doesn't say where the drop zone or landing zone is located. I do check the AFD before flight. If I'm just passing over an airport with parachute activity, they do have a little parachute symbol. That gives me a bit of warning that I should monitor the CTAF for that activity.

In my real-life situation, it all worked out fine.
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Congratulations, you checked the directory before you went.
If it only mentions "parachute jumping", presume but do not assume it is on field. Our AF/D entry states that it is 4 miles south.

But you would be surprised, but maybe not, by the number of people that arrive without checking the AF/D. They don't even know the runway numbers, let alone that there are two parrallel runways or that there are even jumpers around, or an acrobatic box, or glider operations.

A contrived situtuation? Not really, it happens all the time.
 
BillTIZ said:
What.. your flight club doesn't have wild women, beer and bonfires? :cryin:
We do.. :wink2:
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I've yet to see a glider club that parties like a dropzone, but I'm glad they are out there:yesnod:
 
BillTIZ said:
<SNIP>
But you would be surprised, but maybe not, by the number of people that arrive without checking the AF/D. They don't even know the runway numbers, let alone that there are two parrallel runways or that there are even jumpers around, or an acrobatic box, or glider operations.

A contrived situtuation? Not really, it happens all the time.
Click to expand...

Which airport are you describing?
 
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