I'm intrigued, if not surprised, by the assertion that a bungy cord will come back through the rotors
Also fascinated by 205jack's dissertation, that's certainly one video clip that I've yet to see
The elastic doesn't come even half way back up its length, let alone all the way and far enough to hit the helicopter!!!!!
Whilst AJ intends doing his jump with a new breed of bungy cord, which is tapered to reduce the chance of breakage over such a huge length, I'd like to know the comparative weight of the new style vs. the old. The one that we used, which was about <400ft fully extended, was 40kg, so extrapolating that to a 5,000ft cord would be approaching 500kg of cord on the hook, plus jumper. Half of that would need to be supported at the jumper's end before dispatch from the helicopter, a not inconsiderable task!
Whilst there was absolutely no impact on the helicopter at all when the jumper left my BK, nor when the cord fully extended, I'm not sure that would be the case with half a tonne on the hook; although the stretching of the elastic would minimise the effect, IMHO. Our South African bungy crew did things slightly different to AJ's procedures, and one important flying requirement was to move the helicopter after the jumper left, thus moving the suspension point and inducing a swing when the jumper got to the bottom of the cord. The effect on the helicopter's hover is minimal, but it creates a better "bounce", which dampens out quicker than if it were straight up and down.
When we did the drops that I was flying, I was very impressed at how smooth the effect was on the jumpers, and how little impact it had on the helicopter. If I'd had another approved pilot with me, I'd have had a jump myself
