There may not be much chance of meeting a parachutist outside the designated drop zone but there can be a real possibility of meeting the aircraft that dropped them. I have experienced two close encounters with these as they often seem hell bent on getting back on the ground to pick up the next lot.

Time is money. We are not sightseeing for a burger.......

A paramotor also flew through the Weston DZ on Sunday afternoon while glider winch launching was taking place. It was about 500m to the north of the airfield at no more than 700 feet.

Currently no drop activity at weekends so not really an issue.

Or, at DZs popular for FS team training, the same lot!

I've encountered paramotors at 2,000' so very likely to meet one in the cruise. When we finally get mandated ADS-B I think they should ALL be made to carry one.

TOO

Currently no drop activity at weekends so not really an issue.

No, but they could encounter a glider or a winch cable - 6mm steel cable doing 60mph + will cut through a paraglider very well.....

Thanks for this salutary tale for all flyers. Have you filed an airprox?

After a fairly recent airprox and subsequent form filling, speaking to some mil types and civvy radar people, I have not a lot of faith in the boards analysis/reporting following their report. The only thing accurate was the Category "A" risk assessment with a passing distance about 25-30'

This is just for me, but others may have had "better" experiences.

My experience was better. Very happy with Airprox guys. It was with a paraglider, over the Glencoe hills.

We have regular airproxes up this way. Usually acknowledged with a mutual wing wag. Or rude gesture.

If talking to Oxford or Brize GA aircraft can be routed through D129 when not activated as both have Letters Of Agreement that allow that. When gliding at Weston is taking place you can be routed through above the cable launch height with a general warning of levels gliding up to (generally cloud base).

D129 DA status for parachuting at Weston is believed to be a legacy throwback to when they used to Barrage Balloon jump; it is the only drop zone in uk with dedicated DA status.

Hope this helps.

Let's say this is an imagined story to protect all the guilty parties .... in the story it happened quite some decades ago.

Two ship civil jump from a near major city regional DZ. Pilots one ex-, one current airline chaps.

Wx plenty of cloud at all levels .. more or less VMC at any level ... but not much in the way of glimpses of the ground. Wind fairly strongish away from the city area.

Dropping from within CTA with a clearance along the lines of "remain within 3 nm of XYZ DZ". Level around 12,000 ft.

Two ship in battle form. One had an ADF with two only basic instrumentation. (The ADF, with no local aids, proved pretty useless for keeping position reference the ground but the pilot, being an old airline checkie, knew it all).

They spent the next 30-40 minutes going around in a nominal holding pattern trying to get enough of a ground sighting for the jumpmaster to give the nod.

ATC folks, on radar, must have been shaking their heads and chuckling away .. fortunately the airspace the two ship was in was not near any busy activity .. the air routes were around 15-20 nm, upwind and closer to the city area.

To cut a long story short, a gap came up, the jumpmaster became confident of his spotting, two moved into close form, and the bunch departed. Both ships separated as briefed and descended through the cloud cover .... you guessed it ... popped out visual with NO idea where they were .. quick check of the chart and they worked out they were around 40 nm SE of the DZ ... once the jumpers got on the ground and found a phone a pickup was organised and they got back to the DZ several hours after the jump.

Was is silly ? .. of course it was.

Messages to take away ..

(a) if you are DZ local transit flying in strong wind and significant cloud cover conditions (especially), make sure you have comms with the DZ/ drop planes to organise self separation. It isn't all that hard to do your homework to make sure you have phone and frequency info.

(b) forget sighting the jumpers in freefall ... and be very wary of the jump plane on descent .. max rate and, generally, reasonable IAS.

(b) playing I/F with no aids and no useful ground contact is not real bright in the overall scheme of things


.. and, having done my good share of glider towing as well as jump flying ... the same comments apply if you are transit through/near gliding activity.

We are foot perfect these days with GPS but I know of many old school horror stories of massive misses!

I recall a story of Father Christmas being dropped into a school Christmas party from a Puma helicopter. The jump master was certain the aircraft was in the correct place but the pilot not so. However, the drop went ahead.

Cue one very sweaty, heavy breathing and partly undressed Santa arriving at the party late after running a couple of miles to the school.....

Sorry for not responding to this sooner, I hadn't noticed the thread had been updated.

I haven't filed an airprox report - I am concerned that my memory of the details is somewhat sketchy due to my being focused on whether or not I had drifted and infringed into a DZ.

I do now have a GPS receiver and SkyDemon to use with my smartphone, but at the moment I am only using it as a post-flight debrief tool (to compare my actual track with the one I planned and think I've flown) and for emergencies when I am absolutely desperately lost. I have it running but don't normally refer to in flight. Even in cases where I am uncertain of position I'd rather get into the habit of putting the airplane into an orbit and getting a fix from nav-aids, asking ATC for help etc. I am hour building to prepare for CPL and I'm assuming that on the skills test the examiner won't accept my Android device as evidence I know how to employ the proper lost procedure!

Many thanks to those who have shared details of previous incidents involving drops, it's definitely eye-opening.