Wilton Ops
Grahem Hill owned 4 or 5 Islanders during the early '80s. Fixed & Rotary out of camden did a lot of work on them.
I jumped all of them. Thankfully i just missed a slot on ISI when it lost the right engine at about 100' after take off. was climbing and doing OK until the pilot turned back. Written off and only minor injuries to jumpers.
Pilot was ejected thru the door about 20 meters and a statlic line student followed and went between the collasping gear leg and fuse as canopy was deploying. Made for an exciting afternoon. At a later date one failed to become airborne and sailed off the end of the strip and over a dirt road and taking the nose gear off. I later found the parking break still on.
Another sad incident was when the DZ caretaker walked into the prop.
For the day they where a great jumpship. just don't stall them at height with everyone packed up in the door. They will do three or four turns and lose a couple thousand feet before they start to recover. had a chance to do a little flying in them. Liked the 65kts for everything bit. Filled a couple of pages for my SOE.
FH