In article ,
"Dennis O'Connor" wrote:
Jumpers are a major problem... The jump plane is talking to ATC until close
to unloading, then switches to Unicom and makes a quick, " . . . jumpers in
two minutes", BLIND CALL, that is almost always stepped on... The next call
is ". . . . jumpers away", also done in a hurry and in the blind...
Do you want the jump pilot to personally call you? A blind call is all
he can do. I admit tho, some guys took speaking lessons from JFK and
really do need to slow down and be understood.
Then, when I realize that 'maybe' I heard the word jumpers in amongst all
the squeals, I call for the jump plane to repeat, but he has turned down the
volume so he can bull**** with the jumpers, or he has gone back to ATC...
You're at pattern altitude and hearing radio calls from people fairly
close in. The jump pilot is at 10-12K hearing radio calls from 1/2 way
around the world. G You wanna talk squeal? The pilot simply may not
be able to hear your call due to other radio traffic stepping on you.
(Jumpers don't have radios so the pilot probably isn't BSing with them.
G)
So, now 'maybe' I have uncontrolled bombs coming down from above, where I
can't see well, and if I roll into a tight 360 away from the pattern what
about the nordo out there in the haze not expecting me to do that...
The jumpers will be open usually no lower than 1800 AGL unless they have
a problem. Are they opening on the downwind? Or over the runway? Talk
to the jump operation, maybe something can be worked out to ease your
concerns. I've been hauling jumpers quite a while, there are idiot jump
pilots just as there are idiot pilots in all aspects of aviation. The
only "problems" I've encountered with other pilots have been people
who've made incorrect assumptions about skydivers, skydiving and jump
pilots. Skydivers don't want to die anymore than any other person. We
also realize that we suffer from "bad PR" and the vast majority work to
correct that.
After 40 years of operating my airplanes out of a field with jumpers, I gotta tell
ya it got really old a long time ago...
You should go make a jump. G
--
Dale L. Falk
There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.
http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html