MORON HITS PARACHUTE with RC PLANE

[Al Lewis]

Yeah, Craven agreed with Judge on 9/10/09 and then came 9-11.

[Craven]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Al Lewis
	Yeah, Craven agreed with Judge on 9/10/09 and then came 9-11.

You tell em Al!!!

[Mithrandir]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Judge
	Clearly no neophyte. And clearly flying from the airport itself.

almost seems like some of the crazy stuff done in other countries... other countries where human life is less valued!!!

Wow... incredible.....

irresponsible is an understatemnt...

[Al Lewis]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Mithrandir
	almost seems like some of the crazy stuff done in other countries... other countries where human life is less valued!!! Wow... incredible..... irresponsible is an understatemnt...

Oh I can assure you that interfering with airfield operations in England results in life imprisonment.

[Mithrandir]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Oilsands
	.........Now in defence of the pilot, he may have been flying were he is aloud too and the jumper came into thier area (which the pilot was unaware had happened). ............. Can't blame one or the other since no one knows the who story......

I have to disagree..... the pilot should have had a spotter.... and at the very least... seen the big fluffy floaty thing in his peripheral vision and not flown there....

Even if it was a "May Day" situation for the model... he should have stayed away or dirt-napped the plane before he got within 1000 feet of the chuters.....

Clearly... the modeler was engaged in unsanctioned activity!

Though... I would not be surprised to learn the RC pilot is a jumper his'self and was up horsing around with his buddies under the chute and it just went too far....

[66stang]

DO we know for sure that it's not a bogus video? Could be some bull crap too!

[Judge]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Al Lewis
	Yeah, Craven agreed with Judge on 9/10/09 and then came 9-11.

Truly signs of the Apocalypse!!!

[cliff600]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Mithrandir
	I have to disagree..... the pilot should have had a spotter.... and at the very least... seen the big fluffy floaty thing in his peripheral vision and not flown there.... Even if it was a "May Day" situation for the model... he should have stayed away or dirt-napped the plane before he got within 1000 feet of the chuters..... Clearly... the modeler was engaged in unsanctioned activity! Though... I would not be surprised to learn the RC pilot is a jumper his'self and was up horsing around with his buddies under the chute and it just went too far....

From what I know about the place, I could see this being a sure possibility.

[Oilsands]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Mithrandir
	I have to disagree..... the pilot should have had a spotter.... and at the very least... seen the big fluffy floaty thing in his peripheral vision and not flown there.... Even if it was a "May Day" situation for the model... he should have stayed away or dirt-napped the plane before he got within 1000 feet of the chuters..... Clearly... the modeler was engaged in unsanctioned activity! Though... I would not be surprised to learn the RC pilot is a jumper his'self and was up horsing around with his buddies under the chute and it just went too far....

Sorry, my mistake. I had tunnel vision and was thinking of the pilot only and did not think about the spotter that may have been with him. The spotter or others flying with the pilot should have made him away of the jumpers or if he knew about them stayed away from that area of landed till they were clear. So the pilot and if there were others around him, are to blame as well.

[Lowkey3D]

Ahh, Let's just lynch them all..

[Judge]

Two posts on RCG sheds some light:

	Quote:
	Comm69: Happened at Skydive Orange in Virginia. They have had a handful of other incidents the past several years. The RC pilot has been duly punished and is extremely down on himself for his act of stupidity. What is sad is that it was not a kid doing the flying but a senior member of the club with many ratings and a number of years in the sport. For what it is worth, he did have written permission to fly the RC planes at the airport, unfortunately, he made a very poor decision to fly when there were canopies in the air. Extreme act of stupidity on his part. This did not go over well at SDO and the RC pilot will pay a personal price for his act of stupidty for a very long time. Yep, I was once a skydiver, but was getting too old to respond to emergency situations; so I got out of the sport.

	Quote:
	Comm69: This was a one off incident. No need for a banning. Besides, as there were not fatalities the police are not involved. This leaves it to the Airport management, the club, the FAA and to the USPA as to the proper course of action. As for the FAA, first a FAR has to have been violated. I am rusty on the FAR's but I doubt that he violated the FAR's for a skydive operation, especially as he had permission from the airport to fly his RC planes there. This leaves the airport management, the club and the USPA. From what I have read, they have extracted a price from him that has been costly in pride and prestige to him and to the club. Rest assured, this incident was not taken lightly by the USPA. However, as there was no fatality, no one will be going out to lynch him, nor should they. He has paid quite dearly for his act of stupidity. It is a tight community and a lot goes on behind the scenes to make sure there is appropriate punishment and learned lessons.

I am curious how the pilot was "punished" and by whom. But it appears he is a sky diver who is known at the site and had permission to be flying there. But he exercised extremely poor judgment in doing so.

[ABD]

Here is what the skydivers are saying. I think we all would like to see this guy grounded..

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/foru...;so=ASC;mh=25;


It looks like this was a "senior" skydive instructor.

[SofaKing]

	Quote: Originally Posted by ABD
	Here is what the skydivers are saying. I think we all would like to see this guy grounded.. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/foru...;so=ASC;mh=25; It looks like this was a "senior" skydive instructor.

Can't read above article, it requires login membership

[ABD]

From dropzone.com

On the weekend prior to Memorial day, a "senior" Instructor at Skydive Orange flew his remote control airplane into a Tandem canopy (carrying a passenger) that was preparing for landing. This could have very easily resulted in a double fatality had the airplane damaged a canopy cell or struck the Tandem Master. While this was not technically a "skydiving issue" as seen by USPA, people have to take a greater roll in the general safety at their dropzones.

[xed]

More from dropzone.com:

	Quote:
	This incident was very serious, and was taken extremely seriously by the Board of Directors and S&TAs at Skydive Orange. The USPA Regional Director also conducted an investigation regarding this incident. Everyone involved, most especially the very experienced instructor who was flying the RC plane, knows this was a highly stupid and avoidable accident. Luckily no one was injured, and the tandem pair managed to make a good, stand-up landing. The RC pilot, who I'll not name to avoid the lynching that usually goes on here, had written permission to fly his RC craft at the airport from the airport manager. In the past he and other RC pilots have always been very careful to make sure they were not flying when canopies were in the air. I have no idea why he was in the air when canopies were landing on that day. It was stupid, and it will never happen again. Skydive Orange has banned all RC activity during any phase of skydiving operations. We hadn't taken this step before because the RC pilots had always made sure not to fly during operations, but obviously that was not enough. The instructor/RC pilot has also been grounded for a period of time determined by the Skydive Orange Board and acceptable to the RD. In addition, his punishment includes safety seminars to the instructional staff at the next staff meeting, and to everyone at Safety Day on tandem safety. He will be responsible for the repairs to the tandem canopy (which was damaged). I'm sure many people here will call for his head, but there is no question in my mind that he understands the seriousness of what he did. This man has been jumping about as long as I've been alive, and has never demonstrated anything other than excellent judgement in the past. He is still deciding whether or not to hang up his rigs for good because he feels so badly about what happened. I don't know anything about RC planes, so I can't tell you what type of plane it was. Needless to say, any size plane hitting a skydiver or his equipment is unacceptable, and very dangerous.

	Quote:
	Please don't judge Skydive Orange on the words of an annonymous poster (fallinhard) and a former instructor who left in a huff a couple years ago (pcollins). There was some ugly DZ politics about three years ago, and ever since the people who left the DZ have done nothing but try to shut Orange down. Unfortunately, we have given them some fodder in the form of a stupid accident like this one that they obviously are trying to take advantage of. As I said above, this incident was dealt with swiftly and to the satisfaction of the Regional Director. We admit it was senseless, stupid, and avoidable. We have taken steps to prevent something like this happening again. We have also taken steps (above and beyond what most DZs do) to create the safest atmosphere possible. In reference to the comment above, turns over 90 degrees for tandems (and regular jumpers for that matter) are not allowed in the pattern. How many DZs have yet to take that step? To insinuate that people get away with things at Orange that they wouldn't somewhere else is to show ignorance of our DZ. I'm the club President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. When I made a low turn to land a couple weeks ago, I heard about it from one of our three S&TAs. No one is exempt from discipline. I'm afraid this thread is going to devolve into a "bash the DZ" thread like so often happens on dropzone.com. If you want to know what safety is like at Orange, listen to the people who jump there, not people who hide behind annonymous profiles, and who haven't been there for years.

	Quote:
	This was not an intentional buzz job. The RC pilot was not trying to buzz the tandem, he was trying to clear the area. My personal belief is that he misjudged the perspective and thought he would pass well behind the tandem, but I was not a witness to the incident. The cameraman was a local who just happened to be hanging out videoing jumping from the ground. He is not a skydiver. If you need to point fingers, feel free to point them squarely at me. I've spent the last year trying to figure out how I could have prevented some of these incidents, and in cases where prevention looked possible, Skydive Orange (under my leadership) has taken swift action. I do not take this **** lightly at all. If it makes people over the internet feel better, then begin the virtual tar and feathering. I am really trying my best, as is everyone else at Skydive Orange. I believe these incidents (and I concur that there have been too many) have had unrelated causes. We've done what we can to prevent the predictable stuff: AADs required, no turns greater than 90 degrees except in a designated area with a separate pattern (or on hop and pops), instructor standards that would prevent a lot of people from working at Skydive Orange, very strict landing patterns and directions, very strict wind limits for students, experienced jumpers, and tandems (yes, we have a stand-down wind limit for tandems), no problems with go-arounds if needed for safety, strict adherance to the ISP, and very well-maintained and regularly replaced rental gear. If people have productive suggestions on other things we can do, feel free to PM me. PMs from annonymous posters accusing me of murdering students, however, will no longer be replied to.