Almost the impossible turn?? I actually started jumping about two years ago, I have a little over 600 jumps.. I'm always surprised how many people are afraid to land in the plain. I always tell them the most dangerous time is shortly after rotation.

Looks like a great job by the pilot!! You could hear the stall horn bleeping intermittently, and he seemed to be milking it to the open field. I'm sure he's eyeballed that spot many times in the ole' "where would I go if the donkey quit" question we all ask ourselves from time to time!!

Those divers seemed to be in good spirits, wonder if they got a few free jumps outta that one?!?!

Wonder what caused the loss of power

Every time skydiving comes into a conversation, I'll say something like, "That violates my basic rule, not to get out of a perfectly good airplane until it's on the ground and stopped." Invariably, someone else says, "But they're not perfectly good airplanes!" That sure seems to be what I've observed, is that skydiving airplanes are often flying junk heaps, where maintenance is an after-thought. Additionally, even if reasonably well maintained, they are put through a lot of tough use: full power climbs to altitude, then no power descents, all done as quickly as possible to minimize the transit time. None of that's very good on engines.

Cary

I have seen the same at Kingsley Field, where a Skydive outfit operates now. The Cessna's replace engines a lot more often than the Pawnees. And they only jump on weekends.

Good forced landing.

Jump pilots of piston powered aircraft never pull the power and dive as fast as possible. It would only take a couple of jump operation flights to crack the cylinders. There are many ways to bring a jump plane down with out damaging the cylinders. Keeping manifold pressure up and pulling the RPM back so that the engine is pulling is one method. You never want the prop to spin the engine.

My father flew Thousands of hours of skydivers during his 30 years as a jump pilot, owner operator, in many different piston powered airplanes and only replaced a hand full of cylinders.

I will agree that there are some DZ's that have substandard maitenance, but it is way better today than it was in the past. The FAA is on them harder than ever in the past 10 to 15 years.

Damn, another 205 gone!

I was surprised at how calm the jumpers were, granted not a lot of time to start worrying. The NTSB report link said both intake valve springs on one cylinder (I think it was number 2) were broken. You could hear the popping noises start in video, I'm guessing that would be a misfire due to valve hanging open?

Looked like pilot did a good job of flying it all the way to the end. Cranked around for a field, got the wings level and going straight ahead at touchdown.

Man... Just glad they are all ok.

Nice job by the bus driver. I'm glad to see everyone had their helmets on their heads and not in their laps as is pretty common in jump planes. Its a shame to see no shoulder harness of any type for the pilot though, and the single point seatbelt through the leg strap didn't seem to be particularly effective.

Tom wrote:Wonder what caused the loss of power

On one of the other forums they said it had several broken valve springs.

A 182 jump plane crashed at a nearby airport (KOKH) last summer. Engine quit & it came up short of runway 25, but luckily didn't do a deck strike on the 200' high bank at the waterfront. But unluckily it got wrapped around a tree at the top of the bank and was pretty much ripped in half at the forward door posts. Not much being said but I believe their problem was fuel tanks contaminated with too much air. They had climbed up, but had to do some loitering before jumpers away-- there's usually a thin margin on fuel so that might've made the difference. Unfortunately there was a jumper on board that didn't like the winds aloft or something so he elected to ride back down in the jump plane. Pilot & passenger survived, beat up some but not as badly as I would have thought.