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Old 12th Mar 2008, 09:10
  #18 (permalink)  
kalavo
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: The Zoo
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Ahh skydivers, why didn't you say so!

Print out and give them the forecast. They'll pick a completely random run in direction and get out over the airfield +/- 0.5nm anyway.

While climbing mention the GPS seems to agree with the forecast.

From 10,000' they can usually get back from 1.5nm (some tandems and students can only manage 1nm). From 14,000' they can usually get back from 2nm out (again students and tandems sometimes don't notice where they are and find it harder more than 1.5nm).

After landing, one of them will put on their grumpy face and say that didn't work, we should try a run in of (another completely random direction) and get out at (another completely random distance no more than 0.5nm from the drop zone so they'd make it back even downwind. If the person is a senior jumper the others will agree, and they'll be happy for the rest of the day.

This works for speeds up to about 30kts. The only thing that changes above that is how grumpy they look after the first flight

Note: If they pick you as being someone who really understands how the GPS works, they'll also start asking if they can move the point you drop them out at 0.25nm to the N, S, E of W of the actual drop zone. Again it makes no difference, they'll all usually get back in any wind that doesn't exceed your crosswind limits. Just make sure you fly as accurately as you can... if you're a bare CPL holder, some of the skydivers will have more hours in aircraft than you do (6000 jumps = at least 1500hrs flight time and generally know how to read a GPS and will see when you dont do what you were asked
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