Close calls with other aircraft

[cocheese 0]

How many close calls, near miss/collisions,etc have you had in freefall or under canopy with other aircraft?

[mrwrong 0]

Define "close calls"... Are we talking a distance of no more than 1000ft (300 meters) or no more than 100ft (30 meters) here?

“The sum of intelligence on the planet is a constant; the population is growing.” - George Bernard Shaw
He who dies with the most toys, wins.....
dudeist skydiver # 19515
Buy quality and cry once!

[cocheese 0]

1000 feet? Less than 5 seconds of travel time/exit timing etc.

other criteria: did it scare you, piss you off, too close for safety.

[mrwrong 0]

Mmmmkay.....

Then I have 3 close calls where I actually have been deploying directly above a gliders heading.

Some times they lay their landing pattern across our jump run... After a few phone calls they usally cange it.
Actually have a video where a glider can be seen below me after deployment.

“The sum of intelligence on the planet is a constant; the population is growing.” - George Bernard Shaw
He who dies with the most toys, wins.....
dudeist skydiver # 19515
Buy quality and cry once!

[piisfish 140]

Quote

other criteria: did it scare you, piss you off, too close for safety.

I had 1
it didn't scare me or piss me off, but it sure did all that to the pilot. I thought he was buzzing me, actually he did not see me before VERY close.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[VerticalRush 0]

We have a hang glider problem at our DZ, too. I hate to put it that way. Those guys typically don't understand the danger they put themselves in when they overfly our drop zone, and usually get defensive when approached. They have communication with each other via small consumer grade handheld radios, but we never know what frequencies they're on. They do not make any attempt to communicate with any other aviation. I can usually pick them out from the plane, but I've missed them, too. I watched a tandem open less than 500' from a hang glider a few months back. He never saw the guy until he was under canopy. It's a big sky but sooner or later someone will get bit.

[iambeav2 0]

And it's not like the TI could track away if he spotted the glider in freefall. The only option would be to pull higher...or if he saw it before exit, either take the risk and jump or just do a go around.

...it's not the fact that you don't appreciate what you have until it's gone...it's the fact that you don't appreciate what you have until someone appreciates it for you!

[maxmadmax 8]

Got buzzed by King Air a couple of years ago.

It was a high pull load.
I was at 8 grand under canopy.

Of course you never hear them until they pass by.
I estimated it was about 100 feet away, damn close.

Did the pilot buzz me on purpose?
Don't know.

Don't go away mad....just go away!

[gemini 0]

Trent and I were doing a two-way belly/freefly jump and upon deployment the belly of a v tail bonanza crosses in front of me, from left to right at 100 0r so feet. Luckily the pilot saw me deploying and turned away. Unfortunately for him, he turned toward Trent and as he leveled his wings they both made eye contact.

It is surprising how many rivets are in the belly skin of an aircraft!

Blue skies,

Jim

[flyboy62000 0]

Back in '02 I briefly tried skysurfing. I was on an intermediate board and exited last from a Beech 18. While flying inverted, I looked down and saw a Piper Warrior flying directly toward a collision point with me. I stood up and dumped immediately, missing the tail of the aircraft with my canopy sniveling by about 50-100 ft.

The interesting part of this story is that in 2007 a coworker of mine and I, in Texas, were sharing aviation stories and I mentioned this close call. He mentioned having a close call with a skydiver...in the same place, in the same time frame, in the same type aircraft. I can't remember any other close calls at the DZ that year, so we are convinced that we nearly met 5 years earlier at 5000ft over Ohio. Wierd.

Blue Skies,
Adam
I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things . . . — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[VideoFly 0]

Several years ago, following an uneventful video jump with a tandem pair, I headed back to the LZ with the tandem above and behind me. At the base of the airport I noticed a helicopter hovering to the side of a field as I began to pass by at a safe distance. At that point, the helicopter rose to my level and positioned himself behind me. I dove left and the helicopter followed close behind me and dropped below me and once again hovered. At that point I was directly above the helicopter and descending. It was at that time that I ever first noted that chopper blades have broad yellow stripes on top, which when turning, appear as a target from less than 100 feet above them. In a state of concern and disbelief that the chopper pilot knew I was above him and while losing altitude fast, I dove in front of his windshield and carved right to avoid him while letting him know that we were sharing airspace. As I dove right, the helicopter closed in behind and dove with me. All I could hear was a loud pulsating ba-ba-ba-ba-ba and I got a little scared that I was going to be chopped up like a salad in a food processor. I dove left and so did the chopper right behind me. The sick thing is that while in that dive I was terrified, but at the same time I remember thinking that I was James Bond and how cool the whole event was. With the ground getting close and the LZ a good distance away, I carved right and he followed. I landed on a field on the other end of the airport as the helicopter hovered low to the ground to my left. After getting a ride back to the DZ, the tandem instructor ran up to me and asked if I was okay. He said that he and his student watched the chase from above in disbelief. He said his student, a nurse, was screaming that the helicopter was going to kill me. A little later on, I traveled to the hangers and had a talk with the helicopter pilot, who said that he saw me and made sure that he maintained enough distance so he would not hit me. He thought it was exciting and I explained how important it was that a similar incident would never happen again.

[azureriders 0]

1) GA pilot was on the runway and told that jump run was under way, he thought he had time and was not directly told to hold so he took off anyway. I was not one of the two canopies that he went between, but I was still with in the 1000ft range.

2) Filming an 8way, something catches my eye to the left at about 8,000ft. First thought was a canopy and turned my head to check it out. As I followed the Civil Air Patrol plane going up jump run on level with us, I actually got a few frames of video with him and the 8 way, at the same time.

3) 2000' deployment directly over a glider in tow at around 1000'. A malfunction would have been BAD.

[strop45 0]

At about 2000' above the DZ a cessna flew past me close enough to see the look of shock on the pilots face (maybe 50'). It was a private pilot showing a friend the airfield and while he claimed the jumpplane didn't give any radio warnings, others heard them so it was more likely his radio was on the wrong frequency (for zone he had exited) or volume low....

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." -- Albert Einstein