A pilot was hailed for his bravery after he left his controls to rescue a parachutist caught in the plane’s undercarriage at 3,000ft.
The pilot left his seat for 30 seconds to cut the man free and then rushed back to the controls of the light aircraft, allowing the parachutist to make a safe landing.
The incident took place 3,000 ft above the Joint Service Parachute Centre at Bad Lippspringe in Germany where six British soldiers were taking part in a military parachuting competition. Five jumped successfully from the twin propeller engine Islander but their instructor got into trouble when the rigging of his chute became caught in the plane’s undercarriage…
The Briton, a former soldier based at the centre near Paderborn, has asked for his identity to be kept secret, insisting he was only doing his job and that any other pilot would have done the same.
The chutist was apparently caught hanging upside down and couldn’t reach the tangled gear above him. And, yes, ain’t it a good thing his reserve chute worked?
This is just another reason you should keep your tray up and your seat back in the upright position.
Small aircraft even without an autopilot will “tend to” fly straight and level with slight oscillations back and forth OR go into a death spiral that takes 2-3 minutes to form.
The pilot was correct: any pilot would have done it. Risk==near zero.
#2 uhm not when there is a larg floppy thing hanging off the plane that shouldnt be there………
nothing like extra drag to alter the flight characteristics of an aircraft…
Bobbo, once again you are right and wrong at the same time. While a small aircraft will be very stable when trimmed properly. One that (a) has a guy hanging under it who is going to be cut loose and (b) the pilot moving around isn’t going be trimmed.
I’d say the chance that the plane would have gone out of control and the pilot would not have been able to make it back to the controls were about 50/50. The chance of him landing with out killing the guy hung underneath the plane were zero. But there was very little danger in that option for the pilot so I say the guy had balls.
GigG@4:
You seem to know more about it than I do, so let me ask. What are the chances the thing had some sort of “auto-pilot?”
I mean something that would keep the plane straight and level while the pilot stepped away.
Thanks