Cessna Skymaster Jump?

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Hey All! I know a pilot who flies a Cessna Skymaster, and like every other pilot I've ever met, he seems to be quite keen on having me jump out of his plane. I've found a couple threads here that seem to indicate that it might be possible to do it safe(ish)ly. Does anyone have any direct experience with jumping out of that particular plane? Naturally my main concern is the back prop -- the plane has both a back and a front prop. If he can cut the rear one independently of the front one, I'd feel a lot more confident about doing a jump from it. Actually the least safe thing about flying with him might be getting IN to the plane, not out (just gotta remember to come from the side...)

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[riggerrob 558]

Cessna approved 337 s for flight without the door.

Not much chance of hitting the rear propeller because you fall away at a 45 degree angle.
However, for caution's sake, many would want to stop the rear engine before jump run.

Few civilians have jumped from 337s, And the soldiers who jumped 337s are the quiet, sneaky-leaky, special forces types who do not brag about their exploits. A few pilots who flew Cessna 0-2s (military version of 337) mentioned dropping special forces types, on "the wrong side of the border" but they did not go into detail.

As for the details: follow the 337 manual for removing the right-hand door and co-pilot's seat. Remove anything laying loose in the cabin, coffee cups, tools, charts, logbooks, etc. Do a couple of dirt dives with the pilot. Probably best to retract the gear before jump-run, making for one less thing to whack. If it makes you feel safer, ask him to stop the rear engine before jump-run.

Finally, hang a half-dozen GoPro cameras off the airframe and share the footage with your buddies on dz.com!

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Cool, next time I run into him, I'll talk to him about it. I should be able to manage at least a couple of gopros!

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[kawisixer01 0]

I'd suggest your pilot have a short conversation with a jump pilot with Cessna experience, just to talk about jump run configuration of the plane mostly. (cut speed, tail high, etc.)

[JohnMitchell 14]

Wow. Make sure he's super slow, lots of flaps, and roll out low. Not a good time to try your new wingsuit.

Story I heard from a former coworker. He said it was true.

Middle of the night in the Albuquerque Center radar control room, two bored controllers are watching a Cessna 337 drone its way across their radar scope. The two controllers start arguing back and forth as to whether or not you could skydive from that type of aircraft. Finally one of the controllers decided to ask the pilot.

ATC - "Skymaster 337, Albuquerque Center, can you parachute jump from your aircraft?"

Long pause . . . .

Pilot - "Uh, Skymaster 337, negative, Center. Du-do we need to???"

[jumpwally 0]

45 degree's,,,huh

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[Chris-Ottawa 0]

I spent an entire summer and hundreds of hours flying those damn birds doing aerial fire detection in Northern Ontario (that's in Canada for those that don't know, haha). I was hired to be the spotter, but 99% of the time, the pilots took that time to take a nap or casually enjoy their lunch. As the summer went on, I was flying more and more, doing all the radio calls for the plane, as well as the fire detection calls etc. Near the end of the summer, I was landing the plane on my own. If only I had taken a pilots training course, I could have counted all those hours and been well on my was to my commercial ticket. Alas, still no formal pilot training, but I've lost interest now that I can jump out. Random fact, but one of the planes in the pictures (i believe it was the red one) was previously owned by Johnny Cash. The ignition switch was moved into the pilot's ash tray for security. Fun fact of the day and probably my favorite job ever...paid for college in a single summer.

Anyways, this was 10+ years before I was a jumper, but I was still obsessed with planes.

That being said, I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable jumping from one as that rear prop is pretty ominous. The passenger doors would certainly need to be removed as they would be flapping up and down and likely cause a tonne of damage. If someone ever asked me to jump one though...I'd do it in a second.


*Pictures were taken in July'ish 2004.

"When once you have tasted flight..."

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Ok, NEAT! Yeah, back prop looks scary but it looks like it'd be easy enough to clear it. I'll talk to the guy next time I see him. I'm not sure if he really wants to be taking the door off his plane, but it'd be a fun novelty jump. I'd also need to assemble a ground crew and find a decent spot I could land. There's a field we've launched balloon jumps from a couple times that would do nicely for that. It's not too hard to file a NOTAM, so it sounds pretty do-able.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[councilman24 36]

The real danger of the rear prop is probably an early deployment. It's one thing for a canopy to clear a tail. Another to clear a spinning prop. Would probably take down airplane.

Real impediment to jumping out of "your buddies" airplane is usually the insurance company. Insurance usually say no skydiving and most pilots don't want to fly with void insurance. Keeps me from jumping out of the T-6's I pack for.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[obelixtim 100]

councilman24

The real danger of the rear prop is probably an early deployment. It's one thing for a canopy to clear a tail. Another to clear a spinning prop. Would probably take down airplane.

Real impediment to jumping out of "your buddies" airplane is usually the insurance company. Insurance usually say no skydiving and most pilots don't want to fly with void insurance. Keeps me from jumping out of the T-6's I pack for.

Not known as a "mixer" for nothing.

Not sure if shutting down a hot engine is that good for it either.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[jimmytavino 16]

Bat Twenty One !!!!!!

[JohnMitchell 14]

obelixtim

Not sure if shutting down a hot engine is that good for it either.

That's the one way I would jump from one. I'm sure you could cool the engine down some in flight before you shut it down. Planes are shut down on the ground all the time.

[obelixtim 100]

Yeah, but on the ground the engine can cool down slowly. A rapid cooling after a climb (plane at altitude) can ping cylinders. (Not sure how the rear mounted engine is cooled, but a cold airflow in flight might do damage)

Its not like there is a lot of jumping done out of them.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[riggerrob 558]

Far more difficult to remove the door from a civilian 337 versus a military-surplus O-2.
With an O-2, you just pull one lever and the door falls off.

However, civilian 337 door hinge bolts are hidden deep under layers of upholstery and structure.

[dzswoop717 5]

Total thread drift but, There was a picture on the cover of parachutist in the late sixties or early seventies of jumpers exiting from the rear of a stretched single engine Cessna Skymaster. It had a turbine engine on the front and an exit in the rear like a skyvan. There was only ever one modified to this configuration if I remember correctly.

[Rickendiver 6]

Engines on light twins are routinely shut down during training. With centerline thrust, there aren't the usual single-engine controllability issues normally associated with conventional twins due to assymetrical thrust/drag. As long as judicial use of cowl flaps, power and mixture settings are used it shouldn't be too detrimental to the engine.
Besides, the air baffling on the rear engine of a Mixmaster is so poorly designed, it rarely makes it to TBO anyway

[gunsmokex 1]

Very interesting plane. What exactly are the advantages and disadvantages to having that rear prop?

dzswoop717

Total thread drift but, There was a picture on the cover of parachutist in the late sixties or early seventies of jumpers exiting from the rear of a stretched single engine Cessna Skymaster. It had a turbine engine on the front and an exit in the rear like a skyvan. There was only ever one modified to this configuration if I remember correctly.

Damn that sounds like a fun plane!

[dzswoop717 5]

I googled it, it was called the Conroy Stolifter. It was N1414G. The Conroy company was better known for their turbine DC3 conversions. If you google the images of it the black and white picture is the picture I remember from my childhood. There is a guy with gutter gear that has exited and feet of the next guy hanging out of the back.

[wolfriverjoe 1,340]

gunsmokex

Very interesting plane. What exactly are the advantages and disadvantages to having that rear prop?

The key idea is "centerline thrust."

In a normal twin engine layout, losing an engine means all the thrust will be coming from one side. It makes the plane handle rather badly.
Badly enough that the majority of training for a multi rating is on dealing with engine out situations.

So Cessna designed the 337 to eliminate those problems. If you lose an engine, you simply lose half the power (which is a problem, but not as difficult of one).

It was a very effective solution. Effective enough that there were crashes due to pilots getting their multi rating in a 337, then going and crashing a "conventional" twin because they had an engine failure and couldn't handle it.

Enough crashes that the FAA decided that pilots who took their mulit check ride in a 337 had a "limited to center line thrust only" on their license.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Yeah I'm drifting in my own thread. Bob doesn't seem to have a problem with one engine out. Or two, for that matter.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[jimp 1]

Not a problem - in slow flight, both engines throttled back, the 45 degree rule "should" apply. As long as your pilot friend can fly straight and level. Maybe the same probability as hitting the tail of a King Air B90, follow similar procedures and cautions.

I made a couple of no suiters, just a pair of shorts, from Ed O'Brien's (D1123) 337 N2617F (at Morningstar Beach USVI) back in '83. You may have seen a previous post of mine on the same subject.

Have fun, you'll love it.