diverdriver

Let's clarify something more......this was a PRACTICE jump. They are not putting fun jumpers on competition loads. And anyone who wants a go around can get one. Standing order from Roger Nelson the owner of the aircraft. No, Roger was not flying.

And I'd punch the guy in the nose too......this is BS. How disrespectful to an American Hero. People have taken this "conspiracy theory" lifestyle just way too far. Everything has to be a conspiracy. Nothing can ever be "just what it is." Chris

I bought one for the glasses too. Some say it makes me look like Darth Vader but I like the fit and the fact it's a full face helmet. It has pockets for Diters on both sides. I find that it has good visability with the shield down but would be wary of trying to fly under canopy with it open. Your field of vision is reduced with the shield up not to mention it could limit your range of motion of your head for looking around. Chris Schindler

Just a point of clarification.....I-80 is exactly 1.3 miles south of the center of the DZ. If you landed 3 miles out then you flew the wrong way 1.5 miles. LOL. Chris

Yes.....very nice HH. I know those of us in the airline industry appreciate it greatly. American 11 United 175 American 77 United 93 All United crews will have a red, white, and blue ribbon with four stars on it in rememberance on our flights today. Chris Schindler ORD RJ CA

Ok....after some sleep I see I totally left out the Award Ceremony! Man....it was way cool. Roger did a good job introducing the teams even if he kept giving the total points for the team as "their average score was 144!" Baahahhahah....it was funny in the moment. But what was really cool was the video presentation before each of the winners in Open class! Palika and a few others feverishly edited these short clips highlighting each team before their introduction. It wasn't an Award Ceremony....it was an Award PRESENTATION. Even people who had been to many more Nationals than I (2) said that it was really impressive. And then at the end, the Golden Knights Gold team stepped off to the side of the high podium and Roger talked about where we all had to start. At the bottom. It's the heart of competition that counts. Roger called up team Unexpected which had a snow balls chance in Hell of finishing anywhere but the bottom. But they did 10 rounds. Didn't quit. Didn't get frustrated. Kept smiling through the whole thing. If there was a God Frog award for 4-way they would have gotten it I think. But....Roger got them up on the stage before everyone. This may sound like just a chance to bash the last place team in Intermediate but the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams in OPEN presented a little something to the team of Unexpected in appreciation of their effort. This was WAY cool. Ok...I think I'm done babbling for awhile. Chris Oh yah......go to OMNISKORE! for all the latest results, team photos and of course the beloved "Tidbits". They've got the pulse of the Nationals. I'm just a squirl trying to get a nut in their world.

Imagine that! High end athletes keeping their bodies clear of polutants during competition. Chris

He lives down the street. I'll forward your message to him soon I hope. Nationals going on I don't know exactly when I can get it to him. Be patient. Chris Schindler

Ok.....Sunday....Lots of great stuff on Omniskore! Even some of my pics got used. Here are some that I don't think got used. It's amazing to see so many teams do so many jumps in a relatively short time. Much thanks to the SDC staff who had the "Can do attitude" to take care of the early SNAFUs. 8-way registration is going on. Don't know how much I'll be out here until 10-way starts. The grunt guys have done an excellent job keeping the place looking good. It would be very easy for it to get trashed up around here. Just very happy to see everything "clicking" so far.

Bill....if I went to rotate and encountered a greater than usual resistance I would abort immediately. There is nothing in flying that you have to force. If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't so don't force it. 3,000 feet to get to 5-10 feet? Come on. There is something going wrong way before. 5,000 foot runway....3,000 feet to 5-10 feet and 2,000 feet remaining. Plenty of time to abort and save EVERYONE. Remember, he never said the elevator got stuck. It was just a greater than normal force. This is an abort no questions asked. The saying goes....I'd rather run off the runway at 30 knots than hit the trees at 60 knots. Meaning...an abort with overunning is prefered to going airborne....losing an engine, flight control, etc......and coming down in the trees at the far end at full speed. Did he do a "box" movement of the controls before the takeoff for "free and correct" movement? That is recommended before every takeoff. Chris Schindler

I'm not sure. I believe it is an Intermediate team but don't quote me. Man, what a long day. Started out with me running around sanpping shots of everyone and everything. Some even made it on Omniskore in the "Tidbits" section. Then about mid day I started helping Roger with "Air Boss" duties. Keeping track of aircraft so that we didn't drop right on anyone else. Steve Stewart, Pat from Arizona, Airpez aka Monk, Kevin, and Chris from SDC all did a fantastic job. 148 loads by 5pm!!! Wow. I don't know what the final count was but after flying a full 7 rounds of competition the pace slowed to a screaching halt. The accuracy guys and gals got to do a little practicing out of the Caravan they brought so it was a very full day. Even an aircraft running off a runway at O'Hare only slowed the drops a bit. The controllers were very accomodating in getting us the altitude we needed for 4-way comp. even though it meant more work on their part. At 9pm the judges are still grinding away getting through the rounds. They got totally slammed with how many rounds we flew today. Tomorrow.......6:45 am 15 minute call.....7am takeoff! Oh man......I best get to bed. Got to meet Quade today too.....way cool guy. Hope we get to hang a bit in the coming days as 4-way will be done lickity split. That is all..... Chris

A few ground shots this morning. Hey....lots more going on over at Omniskore. www.Omniskore.com Chris

Ok.....break time.....Chef Tim be cooking up the good food..... One word.......droooooooooolllllllll.........Ribs, corn, and rice....mmmmmmmm

4Gasm Booty Surf A couple beers and I haven't got much shorterm mammory.......LOL Frog in a blendor Gang-green Pimp Daddy and the Hoesss

Boy some real interesting team names in intermediate. Good to see some humor in the intesity of competition. First 15 minute call with be 6:45....takeoff at 7am.....EEwwwwwwwwww.

Woooowhooo!!!!! It's starting. Right now the auditorium is packed with over 400 people! Man.....as someone who has put tons of sweat equity into this place I'm so happy to see everyone here. This is so cool...... Roger has given his welcome speach with a great thanks to the STAFF who make this place go. Thank you all! Mr. Thacker has given his welcome and Steve Stewart (chief pilot) has given his briefing. Everyone is happy. More to come.

So you would say that the final NTSB report is incorrect. At what point would a pilot with pitch control problems decide to continue into the air? Doesn't sound quite right to me. Ummm.....I don't think I would continue into the air with a pitch control problem at all. The report says that 3,000 feet down the runway is when he found the problem with 2,000 feet remaining. 2,000 feet in a 182 is a lot of distance to get it stopped again. This still doesn't sound right. This jumper who's a pilot....is he a pilot for the DZ? How much time does he have? The report doesn't say how much experience the accident pilot had. I wonder about that too. There definitely could have been more info. So the elevator came off the plane during the accident? And the pilot said they took 3,000 feet for takeoff roll......huh? A 182 with two people on board that takes 3,000 feet to accelerate to 5 to 10 feet above the runway has something seriously wrong. Chris Schindler

That is from the pilot statement. You mean to say that a jumper back to dash couldn't put a hand up and push the control yoke aft? I think they could very easily do it, if asked to do so. Chris

Ok....got my answer from my friend. There is no die-penetrant inspection at every EMMA (100 hour inspection). They are inspected by the number of cycles (he doesn't have the number yet) and they do have a life limit because I know SDCs legs just got replaced. Hope that helps this whole discussion. Chris Schindler

I have a call to my mechanic friend to find out what they look at on the gear on each 100 hour. I do know that the legs are life limited and have to be replaced no matter what after so many cycles or hours. I am trying to find that exact number. It may be that the cracks were invisible to the naked eye. No doubt. But these planes are built like tanks and are meant to be landed with people or cargo in them all the time. In skydiving ops you land empty all the time so there should be less stress, right? Just my observations. I have plenty of questions about this too. The statement of "rust run-off" from an eyewitness lends me to believe that there was something visible that could have been caught. We will see. I say again.....these landing gear on Twin Otters don't just snap in two randomly. They have to have help. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Seee.....I do know a few things. They were built until the mid 60s according to the "Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft". Single Otters were built until 1968. Chris Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Actually, the Otters were made by DeHavilland until 1988. From Flight Safety's Twin Otter Training Manual: "A total of 844 Twin Otter aircraft were manufactured in Toronto by de Havilland of Canada between 1965 and 1988." At the time of printing (1996) 625 remained in service worldwide. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20020326X00398&key=1 "The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident/incident as follows. the pilot's failure to properly recover from a bounced landing resulting in exceedance of the design limits and collapse of the nose gear assembly. A factor in the accident was the pilot's decision to continue flight with a known equipment deficiency." Full report: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20020326X00398&ntsbno=MIA02LA069&akey=1 On March 23, 2002, about 1722 central standard time, a Cessna 182F, N3486U, registered to Alabama Skydiving, Inc., operating as a Title 14 CFR Part 91 parachute jump flight, sustained a hard landing and a nose gear collapse at Pell City, Alabama. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane sustained substantial damage and the commercially-rated pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The flight originated about 10 minutes before the accident. According to the pilot, prior to the accident flight, the aircraft performed normally in all aspects. Beginning his fourth parachute drop flight of the day, after a takeoff roll of about 3,000 feet and 5 to 10 feet above the 5,002 foot runway, he detected less than normal elevator authority with two parachute jumpers aboard. He decided to continue the takeoff because he had confidence in the power of the engine, and because of the lack of available runway remaining for an abort. Having climbed to release altitude, (3,500 feet, agl) and releasing his jumpers, on return to the field, he decided his best alternative was to use power to control the nose attitude. During his landing flare, he added power to raise the nose and touch down on the main wheels, but the touchdown was hard and the aircraft started a porpoise. The third touchdown was hard enough to collapse the nose gear and cause an excursion off the left side of the runway. According to an FAA inspector, the pilot stated that he had to ask for help manipulating the yoke in pitch during the takeoff rotation. The inspector examined the flight controls for interference and found none. He found full flight control continuity and authority from stop to stop, and observed no damage to or malfunction of the flight control system. Chris Schindler www.diverdriver.com ATP/D-19012 FB #4125

Wow.....was it 1981 that Ministry put that out? Oh do I feel old now.

Right, and when you have a hard landing the pilot is to ask for a gear inspection so that die penetrant can be used. Chris Schindler