mitirino

I was browsing Google results searching for regulations around parachute jumping and came across this article. There are some very wild people on this Earth... MASTER CORPORAL KEITH PAUL MITCHELL, C.V., C.D. MASTER CORPORAL BRYAN KEITH PIERCE, C.V., C.D. On November 12, 1996, Search and Rescue Technicians Mitchell and Pierce carried out an unprecedented night parachute jump into freezing Arctic waters to provide medical aid to a critically ill fisherman onboard a Danish trawler near Resolution Island, Northwest Territories. Tasked initially as back-up to another air rescue team, the Hercules aircraft with Master Corporals Mitchell and Pierce on board arrived first on the scene only to learn that the stricken seaman had taken a turn for the worse. There was no time to waste so they elected to attempt a risky parachute descent. With inadequate flare illumination and the promised Zodiac boat not yet launched from the Danish trawler, they jumped in extremely strong winds that carried them away from the vessel. As they entered the three-metre waves, MCpl Mitchell became entangled in the shroud lines under his partially collapsed chute canopy, while MCpl Pierce’s chute remained inflated and dragged him face down through the water farther away from the ship. Although equipped with dinghies, they could not paddle nor swim to the trawler because of heavy seas and severe icing. Struggling to stay afloat, they battled the onset of hypothermia for 15 minutes before the crew of an iceencrusted Zodiac picked them up and delivered them to the ship where they carried out medical procedures that saved the patient’s life. (copied from here: http://gazette.gc.ca/archives/p1/1998/1998-05-09/pdf/g1-13219.pdf)

Thanks. I was able to read the old posts for 5 days before it went dark and it was very useful. I hope the old information does indeed move here somehow... or at least maybe a new forum is opened here for the same stuff and with time (and pain) gets filled with useful information as well.

Thank you for the advice and concern. I am very "service oriented" :-) ... as they say. So the last thing will be no problem at all as this is all I am there for. The other thing... mmm... I don't know how I'm going to handle emergency either. Emergencies are tough, but I wish to think I'll do ok. When I had my "emergency" with my paraglider 15 years ago I was too calm and didn't perceive it as an emergency until too late... so that lesson is learned and hopefully I'm not too easy going on things that are happening around me... including not-well-behaving skydivers. But there are so many other "lessons" and most of them you can't practice too much... in a real way anyway. I'm trying not to be a bozo as much as possible but even this is not so easy... and even with a relatively simple airplane such as C182. I read some articles on engines the other day and realized I know next to nothing about engines for example... Tomorrow I'm going to read something about airspace and will find out the same thing. Places like this forum help as there is real life experience shared here. That's how I found this site... when searching for what happened to a similar place but only for jump pilots. It had tons of useful advice and now the site is down... hopefully it springs back in life soon. Thanks again. I really want this to happen and will learn as fast as I can while doing it so as to be a bozo for as little time as possible.

I'll take this for what I think it's worth coming from someone with 5000!!! jumps... Thanks much! I'll watch for those Me109s (I love them by the way but know what you are telling me.)

Ha-ha... nice article. I can see the old ladies pushing themselves on their bums :) Yes, I have my Commercial and Class I medical. I really hope it works out... if not I'll have to keep flying on my own money for a while or maybe start jumping again. I liked the free fall very much and it is a challenge for me... because the muscles in my ass are gone it is very difficult for me to make a proper arch. Have to be much more precise with my hands.

Yes, I've passed flight tests with inspectors from FAA and TC (Transport Canada). That's the only way to get a medical as the doctors would only sign that my medical condition is stable, but then a flight inspector has to fly with me to make sure I can do what is needed to fly an airplane. So I'm good and have enough strength... I can push about 200lb or more with my legs (got lucky as some key muscles were not affected). Strength is no problem, and through proper positioning of my feet I am doing ok with the brakes as well.

Thanks skymama and jersy! The training week is in one week so I'll know pretty soon.

Hi. I'm new to this forum and kind of new to everything. Here is a question for you: Would you feel ok going in the plane if your pilot is walking with crutches? I broke my spine some 15 years ago paragliding. Then I got all my pilot licenses including instructor and have about 400h now. I also did some 16 skydives last year and the last two were 15 seconds free fall each... almost kept it stable except for 5-6 seconds when it all went blurry. Anyway... I'm going to try for a jump pilot job now and was thinking would you feel any different if I'm your pilot? If you are an owner of a DZ would you feel I will be scaring off your customers, etc.? Needless to say if it works out and I start flying skydivers I'll be ecstatic. I actually think I'll be able to bring in a lot of new people but I am fearful that it may not work because of the shity crutches. Thanks. Blue skies and fun!

I started reading the diverdriver old forum posts and some articles but the site is now unreachable. Do you know if this is permanent? Also do you know of other places with information for skydive pilots? Thanks