Skydiving

[megan]

Seeing as there is some angst about the manner in which operations are conducted I thought I'd start this thread in an effort to elicit any problems seen as germane.

Any problems please elucidate why you see it as a problem and make suggestions as to how the issue may be addressed.

Keep it civil and no slagging.

[Eaglerocker]

Simple, it needs to be properly regulated. The poor excuse that is the "oversight" from CASA and the APF just does not cut it anymore. Its not a small club with a single Cessna 182 doing the occasional drop on some weekends anymore, these are multi million publicly listed companies operating huge fleets of turbines being able to cut corners and pay at the expense of safety due to the pure incompetence from CASA and the complete lack of knowledge the APF has when it comes to anything on the aviation side of skydiving.

[dejapoo]

From my experience:

you leave flying school. Safety safety safety then you start working with muppet skydivers who from my experience:

*Dollars over safety
*poor maintenance.
*’You a pussy?’ Attitude
*Lots of drug use, even saw in flight. Not regulated…CASA don’t care. They are passengers.
*I had a fire skydiving, got scolded by owner for using the BCF
*Pilot chute disintegrated on repack
*Expected to IMC in VFR… when I challenged tandem master he said ‘I don’t give a fk, I have a parachute to get down’
*Cloud manual approval should be a massive red flag


If you’re gonna do it, be safe, don’t be afraid to tell any sky monkeys to ‘get fkd’. The worst job you can find. Thank god there was a pilot shortage when I did it.

UMV used to be owned by the absolute worst excrement in Australian aviation….

[megan]

A broad brush there Eagle without saying what the exact nature of the problems you see are. Proper regulation can mean anything, I flew many a year for an Oz operation funded by a company with extremely deep pockets on what amounted to a private airline operation, yet we paid absolutely no attention to the ops manual, or indeed any CASA directive, operation never had an accident which the company used as evidence they were doing every thing right. Because it's overseen or regulated by CASA means absolutely nothing I'm afraid.

You suggest they cut corners and safety is problematic, please give examples.

[Aussie Bob]

I flew drop ops on and off for years in 182 and 206 aircraft and for two different operators. Both operators were strict professionals. Highest praise goes to both who each always put safety first and maintained charter quality aircraft. Thousands of happy customers both as tandem drops and accelerated free fall students. No accidents, no injuries whatsoever. Did a dozen jumps myself. Went to the Nationals with them twice, enjoyed the party atmosphere after most days. Was always great fun flying with happy customers.

From my very limited experience all i can say is “great industry”.

[Cloudee]

From my observation over the last ten years, lots of poor circuit procedures and an expectation of priority to save them time. Lots of dubious VFR flying and no consideration for neighbours when climbing out in very noisey aircraft. When approached, couldn’t give a stuff. CASA informed, nothing happened. APF rep informed, nothing happened. Had a good conversation with a jump pilot who operated at a field owned by a parachute club (fly in visitors not welcome). He said whatever you’ve heard about parachute ops, it’s all true.

How it’s not mandated to be a charter operation for the tandem jumps is beyond me.

[421dog]

Over here, flew jumpers back in the late ‘80s in a 182. The only maintenance that the club paid much attention to is whether the hotwired car stereo and zip tied speakers in the gutted cabin (without seatbelts/tie downs) were sort of intact. I had to wear a chute, (no cushion on the seat pan, no reserve), but nobody ever told me when/who repacked it.
My checkout (briefing) was to climb at maximum rate to the prescribed altitude, keep things level until all of the jumpers exited, and then do my best to beat them to the ground…

It was fun, but I didn’t know better