How do your SL students exit?

[speedy 0]

I am interested on comments relating to a Cessna Caravan.

I would be interested to hear how your static line students exit the aircraft. No, I don't want answers like "unstable"

Do they leave standing or sitting?

We are using a Caravan 208B and have found that the students end up getting blown to the back of the door when sitting. The rig then sort of jams on the door frame as they jump preventing a clean exit.

Exiting AFF style seems to an option and did work with one student.

How do you do it?

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl

[USPA 0]

Hi,

We've been using the C208B for 7 years now. We let our students sit. Adaptations from a C206: We let them sit in the middle of the door. That way the ussually end up about 2/3. Also we are briefed for the FJC an onward to firmly grip the door before letting their leggs go out. Also we changed their exit position from box to delta to prevent them from flipping backward.

Personnally when I'm dropping students I ussually place my knee behind them, that way they can't slide backwards and still have a change of a stable exit, even if they let themselves blown to the back.

The trouble with skydiving; If you stink at it and continue to jump, you'll die. If you're good at it and continue to jump, you'll see a lot of friends die...

[peek 21]

Speedy:
I am interested on comments relating to a Cessna Caravan. I would be interested to hear how your static line students exit the aircraft.

Peek:
Since the local DZ's C182 has been unavailable, we have used the Caravan, and it has been an interesting learning experience for all.

We decided on "AFF style", (if refering to facing forward holding onto the front edge of the door or bar above.)

Exits range from poor to excellent depending on how much energy the student is willing to use putting themselves into the proper body position.

Those who are weak are blown to the left as soon as the left part of their body gets into the prop blast. These are often, but not always, ugly.

Those who are strong fair much better.

Those who are confident and are really ** taught what is going on with the prop blast*** can do an almost perfect head high exit facing forward. (Those are a joy to see.)

Some students get rolled to the left into what is essentially a head down position which looks like a diving exit. Sometimes this is fine because their torso is into the relative wind, and the deployment is normal. It is just that it is disturbing to them to see things from that angle. They think they have done a tumbling exit and need a little confidence building when debriefed.

Interesting note: Telling the student to "lean forward" right before exiting seems to help them quite a bit. Because of the body angle, it seems the prop blast doesn't throw them back quite as bad.

[thelem 0]

I'm not an instructor, but my DZ uses a 'pivot exit' from both the Grand Caravan and Islander.

By pivot exit, I mean left foot in the back corner of the door, right knee near the front of the door with the foot hanging outside, left hand halfway up the back of the door, and right hand near the front of the door. Students are always told to look up into the aircraft.

I'm sure someone else can explain the relative merits of this approach.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

I IAD'd a few students from a BEECH-18 a few years ago. We used a C206 type of sitting/dynamic exit and, aside from the wrong side of plane exit, the big challenge was to keep them from being blown back into the rather narrow door in the big prop blast. What I did was grab their main lift web with my right (non pilot chute) hand. Once I felt the student commit to leaving I pushed hard, helping them clear the door. This worked quite well but did have the potential to rotate the student outward until I got the hang of it. This rotation was not a great hazard as the path from my left hand (the pilot chute) to the pin was not obscured, but it didn't teach well. I am not sure whether a static line would allow a large enough rotation to become a hazard to deployment. The problem was solved rather quickly by anticipating the backwards moving centre of gravity of the student during the exit. You might want to try a practice load if the owner will.

[WolfPilot 0]

Dave, I have been putting students out of planes for 20 years. I also have 1850 hours of flying Cessna Caravans (short and grand), 5900 hrs TT. The sitting position is OUT. Having them stand with their pelvis pushed up against the forward door jamb, hands sandwhiching the inside and out of the aircraft(no railing grips of any kind) Exit count and STEP LEFT with the ARCH.....works great. It's all about the training and ground prep. Call me for more advice. I have 7699 jumps, most in student training. Stewart D-6752

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[speedy 0]

So it's three years later after my original post and we have looked at the merits of a standing (AFF) style exit for SL students.
It appears that this style of exit is much more likely to produce what we call a "flamingo" (legs getting tangled in the suspension lines). If the student makes a poor exit and goes head low, when the canopy deploys it tends to flip the student bringing their legs up into the lines. In a sitting exit the students are much less likely to go head low.

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl