Tiddy

Yea, I am. That would be another site that i would have to frequent, among all the others that are in my daily pass.. be nice to have it all under one roof..

Been on the site for a while. Figured now was a time to sign up. I fly for a living, not as a jump pilot though... no money in that. Never thought I would ever skydive until I started dropping them as a weekend hobby. Yea, that changed... Its good to be here!

Just a place where the pilots can connect and chat about related topics to dropping them...

I drop divers out of a 205. Same thing as a 206 pretty much. I am reading this discussion on winds aloft and looking at a gps to figure out the winds. (IAS vs GS). Does anyone not know where to get your winds aloft forecast? Let me help... http://www.aviationweather.gov/adds/winds/ First 2 numbers are direction, and second 2 are speed. If it says 9900, this means calm. Temp follows. If you see numbers that don't make any since, dont worry, your not jumping that day... bookmark that, select your region, find the closest airport in the list to your DZ and look at 3/6/9/12 winds! Temps are there too! You can get in the airplane having the highest SA of anyone. Jumpers need to be familiar with the weather just as much as pilots do. As far as the 206.... Fly the plane, like some of the others responded, drop the nose a little as they climb out, you don't need a stall with 3 on the strut and one in the door. Get some vortex gen's if you overly concerned. That will shorten up that stall speed, but do not rely on it. I have had jumpers take their sweat time on the strut. Mainly inexperienced jumpers. Slow climb out, long counts, etc.... as they come to the airplane, brief with them on what they are going to do. That way your not surprised...

First post here, but I guess now is better than ever. If the aircraft was designed without a door and has no door, than by all means, knock yourself, but if the door was removed, (any Cessna for example) I would wave'em off... Structurally speaking, the door on Cessna's is a must. Something ridged needs to be there for airframe flex. As far as the door popping open on take off, the dz/pilot needs to brief the procedure. I know at the DZ that I fly/jump at, I have told them that I will get around to closing the door in a timely manner. If it pops open just as you leave the ground, the last thing I need is someone in the door trying to close it. With an aft door, before anyone does anything, they should know what they are doing. Door pops open, hand on your pilot chute, look for instruction....