SkyDive Taupo, New Zealand--Plane Smoking Forces Early Tandem Exit

[ltdiver 3]

Okay, perhaps someone could clear this up. Does Australia/New Zealand have a higher rate of unusual happenings per their skydiving population...or are their news agencies just more apt to report them? ;^)

Here's another one from Down Under.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3524088a11,00.html

Skydivers bale out from smoking plane


WEDNESDAY, 28 DECEMBER 2005

By CHALPAT SONTI
Nine skydivers had the flight of their lives when they had to make a hasty leap from a plane with a smoking engine in the skies above Taupo.

The skydivers - five SkyDive Taupo employees and four clients - were on a routine commercial skydive south of Taupo when the pilot of the twin-engined Cessna 402 aeroplane saw smoke coming from the right-side engine about 3pm yesterday.

The plane was about halfway to its planned altitude of 12,000 feet (3657 metres) when the pilot immediately shut the smoking engine down as a precaution.

Company co-owner Roy Clements - one of those on board - said the next move was simple.

"We just thought we'd better get the hell out of there, so we did. Real fast."

Which was easier said than done. The plane was travelling at 225kmh and it took a minute or two to get the divers - four tandem and one solo - out of the plane.

Two of the tandems and the solo diver landed in a forestry area near Hatepe, about 15km south of Taupo Airport. The other tandems landed a short distance away. None of the divers - seven men and two women - were injured.

Meanwhile, the pilot landed the plane at the airport without incident, aided by the suddenly lighter load. It appeared an oil leak was to blame for the smoke. The plane would be checked thoroughly before returning to the skies again, Mr Clements said.

And the company's clients? They didn't have to pay the normal $150 fee for their hair-raising flight. Most were "happily socialising" with staff last night, reliving the adventure.

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[Samurai136 0]

Naw, it's just kiwi sensibility

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_New_Zealand

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Attitudes: The remoteness of many parts of New Zealand and the distance of the country from much of the developed world meant that things that were easily obtainable in other parts of the world were often not readily available locally. New Zealand has only recently experienced economic development outside farming, so traditionally, Kiwis are jacks-of-all-trades to some extent, willing to roll up their sleeves and have a go. Most highly industrialised countries produce experts trained in narrow fields of specialisation, but New Zealand professionals are often generalists as well. This reputation often makes New Zealanders uniquely valued employees in overseas organisations.

This has given rise to the attitudes "She'll be right, mate" as well as "Kiwi ingenuity

"She'll be right, mate": This is an attitude that the situation, repairs, or whatever has been done is adequate or sufficient for what is needed. This is often perceived as carelessness, especially when a failure occurs.

Ken

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[ltdiver 3]

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traditionally, Kiwis are jacks-of-all-trades to some extent, willing to roll up their sleeves and have a go.

Oh, I get it! Their 'farmers' are also their reporters!

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[FrogNog 1]

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Okay, perhaps someone could clear this up. Does Australia/New Zealand have a higher rate of unusual happenings per their skydiving population...or are their news agencies just more apt to report them? ;^)

I think for efficiency they save all their aircraft emergencies up for the end of the year, then they break / crash / set alight everything at once.

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[Reginald 0]

Interesting thought though. In an emergency how long does it take to hook the tandems up and bail out? My gear is ready to go before I get on the plane. The TI’s and their students are another matter.

"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

[FreeflyGoat 0]

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In an emergency how long does it take to hook the tandems up and bail out? My gear is ready to go before I get on the plane. The TI’s and their students are another matter.

Depends if you hook up one connector or two :-)

_________________________
goat
derka jerka bukkake jihad

[mark 107]

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In an emergency how long does it take to hook the tandems up and bail out?

That's an interesting question, and since this is posted in S&T instead of Incidents, I'm going to take a chance and speculate.

Depending on the altitude, an engine problem may be a serious problem (on the way to becoming an emergency), or it may be a full-blown emergency from the get-go.

If you were two miles from the spot, at 11K climbing to jump altitude when the engine quit, would that be an emergency requiring an immediate exit? In most cases, I would think not. My preference would be to stay in the glider until I was closer to the spot. I'd accept a lower altitude in exchange for landing on the dz.

Think about what happened in this case. The report is "about halfway to jump altitude" is where one of the two engines was shut down. If I were a tandem instructor on that aircraft, I'd be interested in getting out if we were at 5000 feet; if I were at 6000 feet I might want to stay with the aircraft (which should be able to hold altitude, at worst descend slowly), so I wouldn't have to land in a "forestry area."

Mark

[FrogNog 1]

Have you ever been in a plane with tandems when things got a little nervous and watched them? From what I saw it looks like it takes about 10 seconds for a good TM to wake up (), roll from his back onto his knees, and get the top two clips on and be working on the side clips. (It might take a couple more seconds to get the side clips; I don't know how adrenaline affects clipping up what is harder to see.)

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[JohnMitchell 16]

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Interesting thought though. In an emergency how long does it take to hook the tandems up and bail out?

Depends on how bad the emergency.



I'm serious.

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[ScottyInAus 0]

I believe APF regs state that the tandem passenger/student has to have the legs hooked up for the ride to hieght so in the case of an emergency the TM only needs to do up 2 clips.

The hardest part of the exit would obviously be the climb out. I would guess between 10 to 30 seconds

Cheers,
Jason.

[riggerrob 643]

Hee!
Hee!
Reminds me of one time our Cessna 205 missed a beat on the way to altitude. Our videographer said: "I was dozing on the way to altitude when the engine skipped a beat. I glanced over and you guys (TIs) were wide awake and had those hooks done up in record time!"
Trust me, when an engine starts running rough, it does not require a conscious effort for a TI to hook onto his student!

Note: the engine problem was fixed by adjusting the mixture control.

[riggerrob 643]

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Okay, perhaps someone could clear this up. Does Australia/New Zealand have a higher rate of unusual happenings per their skydiving population...or are their news agencies just more apt to report them? ;^)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

DZs in Australia, New Zealand, Guam, etc. pump out hundreds of tandem students per day. They do way more tandems that most North American or European DZs. Even with the best instructors, packers, riggers, packers, pilots, mechanics, etc. they are bound to have a few accidents, incidents and malfunctions.

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[riggerrob 643]

The hardest part of the exit would obviously be the climb out. I would guess between 10 to 30 seconds