>An 'interesting' (in a macabre sense) statistic to understand would > be whether there is any significant incidence of collision between > skydivers and powered aircraft. >
I had an interesting "near miss" with a power plane when I was in free fall one day. I was at about 2500' moving away from the other parachutists with my head down, when I heard a noise. Freefall is noisy, so it was unusual to hear a noise. I looked up and saw a Twin Beech about 150' away, I was headed straight for it. I still remember the look on the passengers faces as I went by the window. Having seen it, it was no problem to avoid it. I (of course) got the registration, and had to fill out an official "near miss" report. It had interesting questions like "Did you file a flight plan?. Were you carrying a transponder. What radio frequencies were you monitoring etc." What came out in the investigation was that the (Commercial) pilot did not understand that parachutists exit upwind of the landing area (Drop Zone) to allow for drift. He knew that he was near a parachuting operation, but thought he was clear of us. I do not know if I would have heard a glider in a similar situation, I doubt it. Mandy Temple (Wilson) VH-WUZ -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
