After obtaining my CPL I got a gig flying skydivers. It was regulation that we had to wear a parachute and the club had a very nice comfortable slim pack with a tiny 22' round canopy (I was told broken legs if I had to use it). I did a lot of thinking about an emergency and figured that in the Cherokee 6, with the door behind me on the left, in ideal circumstances, that it would need to be at 5,500' to enable a successful exit. An airfield I flew at had a Cessna 206, door behind and to the right of the pilot, had it's tailplane ripped off. It was level at 4,500', 80kts and it was estimated that the pilot got out at about 400' and was under canopy for 3 to 4 seconds. (The skydive club presented him with his First Jump certificate and then grounded him for opening low.
True! )
flying free.LEVC, skydive aircraft have an open door during drops so as Ebbie 2003 states, "
I do not think I would be able to get the door open due to the relative wind." the skydive pilot doesn't have that problem. In the 206 instance, the pilot only had to release his harness and climb his way to the open door. This still took
FOUR THOUSAND FEET of altitude. Now imagine trying to open the door against an ever increasing pressure against the door. In this case the ASI was recovered with the needle jammed at 220kts. Try pushing against that! Then you have any aerodynamic forces acting upon you. The pilot in the 206 described what it was like fighting his way out as the aircraft and if he had been just
ONE second slower, he would not have made it.
I just hope he applied for his Caterpillar Club membership. He did the hard work and really, really deserved it. Jeez, just realised that was 30 years ago in January.
Apart from dropping jumpers, I have never found a situation where I would have needed to use a parachute.