popsjumper 2 #26 June 24, 2011 The Caribou scares me...when landing empty. They are all over the place and there's no telling exactly where they are gonna touch down. At Ton Son Nhut air base, we congregated at the end of the runway every night to socialize. There were skid marks all over the place on the end of the runway and in the grass just prior. We'd be laying around letting the Phantoms and others land/take off over our heads getting heat blasted. BUT! When a Caribou came in empty, wobbling all over the place, we moved....and we moved quickly. You don't know how many times them bastards set down right in the middle of where we had been laying around. Gotta say, though...they seemed to be tough old birds bouncing in like they did and still keep on flying. My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tkhayes 348 #27 June 24, 2011 operating costs for the turbine caribou are quite high. No different proportionately that say a C-130. If you have 35-40 skydivers for every load, the Caribou could be flown probably economically. If you had 100-120 skydivers all the time for a C-130, then that could be flown economically. But the reality is that most DZ's do not have that kind of capacity/supply. So you scale you jump ship according to what you can keep flying, relatively full, at a fairly constant rate (few shut-downs) Big airplanes mean big operating costs, big load requirements, big maintenance costs, big fuel costs - most of all big risks. Great for a Boogie, not practical for day-to-day operations. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jonstark 8 #28 June 24, 2011 It seems as though fewer and fewer medium/large (16-20-36-40 ways) RW formations are flying nowadays. Whether they're head down, wing suit or belly fliers there are a lot more ones and twos or smallways getting out. With this in mind it also seems to me the most effective/safe way to use a Bou is larger formations not lots of separate exits as is more the norm of late. IAW, the turbine Caribou is more a specialty or boogie a/c. If your DZ specializes in larger group exits it might be a fit. jon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuckakers 425 #29 June 25, 2011 I couldn't begin to tell you what it would cost to run one, but I have several jumps out of a Caribou with the old engines on it. I don't recall the climb rate, but it's a fun plane to jump. Kind of feels like an over-sized Casa.Chuck Akers D-10855 Houston, TX Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
