Friend wants to drop me from his plane

My grandparents have land out in the country and my friend has his own plane (PIPER ARCHER III) and wants to drop me out of it can I jump out of that and clear the tail? Any precautions before jumping out of private aircraft? 

Cheers,

Get some flaps to make opening the door a bit easier.

Dont step on the flaps on the way out. 

Have fun! When you land go buy your pilot a bottle

Go review USPAs guidelines for jump-planes.

The Australian Parachute Federation and British Parachute Association have also published guidelines.

Piper Cherokees and Archers have been jumped before, but it is not straight-forward. I learned to fly in a Cherokee 140. The biggest hassle with an Archer is that the sole cabin door is forward and on top of the wing. If you leave the door installed, you will need the pilot's help - on rudder pedals - when opening the door. Removing the door requires a review of the pilot operating handbook and maybe an STC. STCs are expensive and complicated and not worth it for a single jump.

The second hassle is avoiding hitting the horizontal tail, which is low. Asking the pilot to lower flaps will help raise the tail. I would lay on the wing root and roll or slide off to minimize my height. In comparison, look at the numbers of jumpers who have hit the tails of King Airs when they exited while the airplane was still in climb configuration.  

Consider that the earlier - and larger - Cherokee Six has been used routinely as a jump-plane at a few DZs. I made a couple of jumps from a Cherokee Six leased by the Saint John Skydivers (New Brunswick, Canada). The key difference is the large cargo door, just aft of the port (left side) wing. Since Cherokee Six still has a low horizontal stabilizer, you must remember to stay low while exiting. Nothing fancy, no poised exits, just tumble out the door. Hint: if you plan to jump a Cherokee Six on a regular basis, install a temporary sub-floor level with the bottom edge of the cargo door.

The only low-winged, single-engined Piper that I would seriously consider jumping is the PA-32 Lance with a T-tail. Mind you, T-tailed Lances were only built in 1978 and 1979 and the model was discontinued because too many Lance pilots complained about poor pitch authority. Combine that poor pitch authority with too many skydivers cramming towards the tail and you could have "too much fun" on jump-run.

17 hours ago, 69Buzzy said:

My grandparents have land out in the country and my friend has his own plane (PIPER ARCHER III) and wants to drop me out of it can I jump out of that and clear the tail? Any precautions before jumping out of private aircraft? 

 

Cheers,

Your profile doesn't say what your experience is, but if you have even the slightest need to ask about it in a forum like this, then you're not ready to do it. Best advice - don't.

don't forget the go-pro

don't forget to file the notam, and do lots of practice on the exit on the ground.  also, make sure you have permission to land rather than just dropping in.

This is a bad idea.

On 10/6/2022 at 5:47 AM, 69Buzzy said:

My grandparents have land out in the country and my friend has his own plane (PIPER ARCHER III) and wants to drop me out of it can I jump out of that and clear the tail? Any precautions before jumping out of private aircraft? 

 

Cheers,

Bad idea. This isn't the 80's anymore. Go get enough experience to know how to do it legally and safely. Helpful hint: the internet isn't the place for that knowledge.

where could one go to find all of this fatality information in a searchable form?  i'd love to have a chance at figuring out some trends.  also, i forgot to mention wind drift indicators.  either that or someone on the ground with smoke of some flags so you can setup the landing properly.   also, just thought that a ground crew with a vehicle in case of emergency would be a great idea.  we always had an ambulance at the dz for airborne ops.  that may be overkill for one jumper, but a car for sure, just in case.

edit:  and start at the dz to set the altimeter to zero.

9 hours ago, billvon said:

1) Get a PRO rating.
2) Talk to a jump pilot who has flown that aircraft for jumpers.
3) Get a good mechanic to make any alterations to the aircraft needed for the jump.  You may need a form 337 for this work; the A+P will have a better idea.
3) File the NOTAMs and ensure the pilot knows how to do the pre-jump ATC callouts.
4) When you jump, jump with someone who has done similar demos before.

^This. Big time.

If you don't know what you are doing, find a mentor. From the way you are asking, you don't really know what you are doing (this is an observation, not a criticism). 

If the pilot hasn't done this before, find a mentor.

It can be done safely. 

But there are a lot of pitfalls. If you don't know what those are, they can easily kill you.

Sorry but you don't know what you don't know and you should not proceed with this.  Such a jump can be made by someone that is highly experienced, knows the FAA and USPA rules, with a pilot that has jump experience.  It does not appear that any of these things apply in this case.

2 hours ago, michaelmullins said:

Sorry but you don't know what you don't know and you should not proceed with this.  Such a jump can be made by someone that is highly experienced, knows the FAA and USPA rules, with a pilot that has jump experience.  It does not appear that any of these things apply in this case.

 

Just a casual observation from an outside party but 69 Buzzy joins Thursday at 8:38 am, posts this thread at 8:47 the same day and now is MIA on his own thread. Has a smell about it. Has this type of jump been attempted recently and resulted in a poor outcome? Is this a scouting patrol to gather information for use in a different venue? Just wondering.

35 minutes ago, TampaPete said:

" .,.? Is this a scouting patrol to gather information for use in a different venue? Just wondering. ... "

If this is a lawyer on a scouting mission, he can take a long hard suck on my ... hot knife.

2 hours ago, TampaPete said:

69 Buzzy joins Thursday at 8:38 am, posts this thread at 8:47 the same day and now is MIA on his own thread.

I don't find this that suspicious. People sometimes lurk on forums before joining, and if he wanted to post a question, he had to join, so join then post isn't so unusual. And although he seems to be visiting this thread regularly, he liked a few of the early responses, and last visit to forum was logged a few hours ago. 

I can see him not feeling like arguing any points. He got some advice, we probably will never know what he decided to do. I for one am glad he asked, and hope he takes a long hard look at the idea. 

50 minutes ago, SethInMI said:

I don't find this that suspicious. People sometimes lurk on forums before joining, and if he wanted to post a question, he had to join, so join then post isn't so unusual. And although he seems to be visiting this thread regularly, he liked a few of the early responses, and last visit to forum was logged a few hours ago. 

I can see him not feeling like arguing any points. He got some advice, we probably will never know what he decided to do. I for one am glad he asked, and hope he takes a long hard look at the idea. 

Agreed. 

There are some very seasoned veterans saying "yeah hah". I hope he listens.

There is the possibility that the jump may void the aircraft owners insurance. 

another good reason for the new account

Perhaps he suspects that his jump might "bust" a few Federal Air Regulations, so he posts under a pseudonym. No need to post your naughtiness where everyone - including police - can read it.

1 hour ago, riggerrob said:

Perhaps he suspects that his jump might "bust" a few Federal Air Regulations, so he posts under a pseudonym. No need to post your naughtiness where everyone - including police - can read it.

It can be done legally. 
If can be done safely.

But for a jumper who's never done this before (assumption on my part), and a pilot who's never done this before (another assumption on my part), out of a plane that isn't really properly configured for jump operations...

Probably not. 

On 10/8/2022 at 3:53 AM, wmw999 said:

And understand that people jumping on non-standard (demo and informal demo, like into picnics) jumps have a higher fatality rate, at least as of 10-15 years ago. I went through them looking for common causes and to try to crunch some numbers (too many conflating variables, and I’m not good enough using statistical tools), and the only thing that looked really clear was that about 5% (I think) of the fatalities were on demo-like jumps, and far fewer than 5% of jumps are likely demos.

Wendy P. 

With respect, this is bad information. The implication being that if variables are fully considered and deemed within personal limits then a rational actor might consider the event a go. But what the OP is considering is not a happy place decision. Frankly, any opinions on this not offered by someone with deep experience managing jump operations out of a variety of aircraft, like Mike Mullins has done in this instance, are probably best withheld. 

8 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

With respect, this is bad information. The implication being that if variables are fully considered and deemed within personal limits then a rational actor might consider the event a go. But what the OP is considering is not a happy place decision. Frankly, any opinions on this not offered by someone with deep experience managing jump operations out of a variety of aircraft, like Mike Mullins has done in this instance, are probably best withheld. 

sure, that's gonna stop the person.  maybe accurate information such as this would rather than saying "you're gonna die" because they don't have experience doing it.  my thought is that it's gonna happen so we may as well make sure they know what they need to know to survive.  i would much rather read about someone who got shot than someone who jumped from an airplane and died.  we're getting way too many of those for some reason.  speaking of things going wrong, i saw a video once of a jump from a cessna with a door that opened like that that fell off in flight.  something else to consider since a pilot losing the door of their plane can be dangerous and expensive.  it could crash the plane if it hit the right spot.

On 10/8/2022 at 1:56 PM, TampaPete said:

Just a casual observation from an outside party but 69 Buzzy joins Thursday at 8:38 am, posts this thread at 8:47 the same day and now is MIA on his own thread. Has a smell about it. Has this type of jump been attempted recently and resulted in a poor outcome? Is this a scouting patrol to gather information for use in a different venue? Just wondering.

Has not been attempted lol I was just curious but I do appreciate everyones advice probably wont be doing it though