Twin Bo bail out

[cloud9 0]

Well the 4th of July was interesting at our DZ It went something like this.
It started as a perfect skydiving day, blue skys all the way up and just enough wind to help out those landings. Everyone showed up a little late (a chance to sleep in rarely ever escapes us) so the first load was up around 10am. Eight folks aboard the Twin bo and all went well it looked like it was going to be a great day.
Then load 2 was called. Everyone loaded up with the thoughts of a great 8 way, and the Twin Bo rolled down the runway. A great take off and headed for 13,000. There was going to be a demo jump at a local church a little later and it was close to the DZ so the guys decided to do a fly over and check things out. It looked great from the air, so back toward the DZ and 13,000 ft. Suddenly there was a loud bang and everyone looked around, the pilot checked the guages looked around and said "it looks ok I think it just coughed". Yea right no one really said anything but everyone put their helmets and goggles on. A minute later there was another loud bang and the plane started to shutter. The pilot looked out the window and saw the right engine spewing oil all over the place. Also the prop had stopped. The pilot yelled every body out. It didn't take long to get eight people out but the spot was somewhat long. No one balked in the door. Anyway everyone got out ok and even made it back to the airport but still had a bit of a walk. This happened at 6000 ft. so plenty of altitude. The right engine had come apart pieces were inside of the cowling. The pilot made it back on one engine and even had a good landing. But the plane will be down for a month or so and everyone got an arobic work out cause the heart rate was up a bit. The first couple of guys out the door got oil on them and their rigs, the Twin Bo has the door on the right, the side the engine blew. The biggest pucker factor was thinking about it, what if it had been on take off? I was on load one and therefore not on two. So this came from the folks on the plane. They were still a little wide eyed when they got back.
Has anyone else had to bail out under emergency conditions?

[skymedic 0]

Them planes are dangerous...
Marc

[Michele 1]

Whuffo you jump out of perfectly good - wait - coughing - err - broken airplanes - uh, hunh?
Perfect story. Parachutes saved 8 lives that day. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!
ciel bleu-
Michele

[PalmettoTiger 1]

Whew - glad everything turned out OK. Last summer, when I was converting a friend who restores Corvettes as a hobby, he mentioned that he was really glad the DZ flew a twin-engined turbine aircraft "knowing what I do about piston engines" (his words).

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Yea right no one really said anything but everyone put their helmets and goggles on.

It didn't take long to get eight people out but the spot was somewhat long.

It might have come out of scary circumstances, but that's the funniest thing I've seen here in a long time!! [Wayne's World] "I laughed until I hurled."[/Wayne's World]
Blues, squares,
PTiger
"Beer: the OTHER other white meat."

[VivaHeadDown 0]

Once, we had to bail out of a twin otter a couple of years ago. The pilot got an error light, killed one engine, and as we were all trying to figure out why the prop stopped moving he turned around and forcefully said "get out." What a way to do my first hop and pop from 3K!

[Macaulay 0]

Damn! How many jumps did you have at the time? If you were a student... you had to get out near the end. That's some scary shit.
- Macaulay

[rainman 0]

One of my AFF instructors told me the story of when he was jumpmaster on a load of S/L students. At 3500 ft. the right engine of the plane (otter?) burst into flames. The J/M and his colleague managed to get all the students out of the plane safely, and both J/Ms also exited safely, although he still has the scars on his arms where he was burnt by the molten aluminum of the plane's skin! Fortunately the pilot managed to land the plane safely, although the plane was 'beyond economical repair'. At 23 jumps I am still very very novice, but the plane-ride to about 2000 ft is the scariest part of the skydive for me!
Rainman

[RemiAndKaren 0]

As I've always said: THERE ARE NO SUCH TINGS ARE PERFECTLY GOOD AIRPLANES!!! They're all smelly, unreliable things!
Good to see all was OK on that day!!
Remi

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

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Has anyone else had to bail out under emergency conditions?

Yes, more times than I can remember to count. Back in the "piston" days at Raeford, we had a fleet of at least three Twin Bonanzas; one of them a Super Bo. Let me give you a short list of the things I have personally been on the plane for:
-starbord propellor flying off the aircraft in flight at the "cut". we waited until we were back over the DZ and launched our 4-way anyway.
-port engine blowing up at 6k. we all bailed out over the airport.
-gear refusing to go up after take-off. We flew to altitude anyway and jumped. This was the occasion of the first skysurf in the state of NC (1990). I have a pic of me exiting at 12k and the gear in the down position.
-gear refusing to lower when the pilot was ready to land. It was manually pumped down after trying for 20 minutes.
-a Jordanian style competitor jumped up and out, bashed his head so hard off the tail that it bent and the plane was barely controllable. We bailed out.
-premature deployment went over the tail and ripped off the starbord side horizontal stabilizer (elevator). Bobby Friarson landed the plane that way at his grass strip.

Lastly, last year out of one of our Otters: I was last out, doing a tandem, with my wife shooting video. As soon as we hit the propblast the port-side lower engine cowling flew off and missed us by MAYBE six inches. As it tore off it took the flaps, bent the motor bracket, and made for a very interesting landing.
How's that for interesting?
Chuck

[DZBone 0]

Note to self: stop sending hallucinogenics to Raeford.

[Geoff 0]

Wow - I got an adrenalin buzz just reading that!

[cloud9 0]

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How's that for interesting

This is a good one for the whuffo's, by the way how many reserve rides do you have vs bail outs emergency style?
You sure have me wondering about twin bo's!
bleau skies

[axe96bam 0]

I have done one out of a King Air a couple of years ago at 3,800 ft. The left engine shut down during the climb to altitude. There were 8 of us, including a tandem pair. I let everyone and the tandem go in front of me. The tandem passenger was really scared, the JM was great - he kept his cool the whole time and the two of us were calming down the student in the plane in the short 30 sec before everyone bailed. I figured I can get out of the plane easier than a tandem could if the plane started getting funky. It was flying level though and landed OK.

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

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stop sending hallucinogenics to Raeford

You think that will stop the madness? LOL!

[PhreeZone 15]

Thats nothing... common story at my DZ... Boss thats One of the Beech 18's up on take off it lost an engine so he puts it down in the field across the road. Tells everyone on board to go get on the other one. He starts up the other one and is airborne less then 15 minutes after doing a gear down field landing on DZ property. 8 out of the 9 jumpers including a tandem got on the second beech 18 load.
Whoa... That was cool!

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

I would have got right on that second airplane

[GeekStreak 0]

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I would have got right on that second airplane

Me too. As Garp (as in The World According to...) would say, "It's pre-disastered". 1111,
GeekStreak

[Cacophony 0]

Gotta watch out for those Twin Bonanzas. I have only jumped one once but I know what they are capable of. Last year we had one visit our DZ for a day. It only flew 3 loads. On the last load the power managed to go out and the pilot had to land the plane almost in the dark with no lights. I happened to be on the load before that one.
Safe landings,
Alex D-23912