How high should our Turbine 207 go?

[brettpobastad 0]

The DZ is 375 feet above the ocean. The Tubine 207 burns jet fuel and carries a load of 7 jumpers plus pilot to 13k in 18 1/2 minutes

"It's only arrogance if you can't back it up"

[ccowden 0]

A turbine 207? Do you mean a turbo 207?

[AggieDave 6]

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A turbine 207? Do you mean a turbo 207?

Naw, there's a conversion for 207s for a small turbine engine. There's a couple of them floating around the US at various DZs as well.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[IanHarrop 42]

Depends on how high AGL is ASL

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[rjoseph14k 0]

>>To wherever the DZO feels comfortable with (even if he is wrong)<<

Are all DZO's men. Or are the only DZO's who would do something stupid be of the masculine gender.

How about only as high as the most inexperienced jumper on the plane is allowed to go.

[brettpobastad 0]

near sea level

"It's only arrogance if you can't back it up"

[brettpobastad 0]

It's the wife or girlfriend behind the DZO that really runs the show. Christ, everyone knows that.

"It's only arrogance if you can't back it up"

[billvon 3,070]

> How high should our Turbine 207 go?

All other things being equal? 13,500 (i.e. 14,000 MSL.) That seems to be the most reasonable compromise between hypoxia and freefall time. Of course that doesn't take into account cycle time, fuel cost, number of tandems etc.

[riggerrob 643]

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The DZ is 375 feet above the ocean. The Turbine 207 burns jet fuel and carries a load of 7 jumpers plus pilot to 13k in 18 1/2 minutes

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Was that 18 minutes to 13k, or 18 minutes total time?

Deciding jump altitude depends upon rate of climb and service ceiling. For example, since a Cessna 172 does not want to climb above 5,000' on a hot summer day, there is not point in trying to go any higher. And the best you will get on a cold day is not much above 7,500', so quit wasting your time and jump out.
On the other hand, Cessna 182s get sluggish above 8,500' so you lose money if you sell jump tickets for anything above 10,000.'
Now I understand that small Rolls Royce turbines get sluggish above 10,000' so that may be your limiting altitude.
Not much point to competing with a vastly different airplane (i.e King Air which will cheerfully climb to hypoxic flight levels) if you lose money.
In other words, just because an altitude is fashionable at the "big DZs down south" does not mean that you have to compete directly with them.

[brettpobastad 0]

RR

I didn't intend for this to turn into a disscusion on maketing and competing drobzones. Even if we had the exact same jump planes as the bigger area DZ's we still coudn't compete directly with them because we don't have any bathrooms! But the big boys don't have our attitude or our miles and miles of open fields or our great nieghbors, etc. Shoobi Knutson told me a long time ago at a Halloween boogie we were were having (we had a Porter) that if we could just get a turbine of some kind on a regular basis that the jumpers from xxx and xxx would flock to our DZ (OK, fuck it...it's Toledo) because of the good times and the location, and the naked chicks etc.

The point he was making. The point I'm making here is that there is an invisible line so to speak, that jumpers subconciously use to choose where to jump. This turbine 207 puts us just on the good side of that line. We are seeing a slow but steady trickle of curious jumpers from other DZ's trickle in. Only to find out that...."Whaaat!? It only goes to 11,5?? For 21 bucks!? Our turbine goes to 13,5 and we got bathrooms!"

There's more to it than that, of course, so don't waste your time in explaining things I already know. I'm just trying to get our DZO to use the 207 more effeciently and he's not doing that.

"It's only arrogance if you can't back it up"

[JumpShipGypsy 0]

I miss Gonzo! I used to fly that plane for WPS. I've got 300+ hours in it. For those that are still confused it is a Soloy conversion 207. It has an Allison/Rolls Royce 250 engine. 385 hp max continious/420 takeoff. Excellent short field performance, decent is like any other turbine, FAST! and its jungle gym out side with all kinds of rails and steps.


In Spokane, with a field elevation of 2500 ft, we would climb to 14000 msl/11.500 AGL. When I flew it in Texas on contract, the field was about 500 ft and we climbed to 13000 MSLish as I recall.

I would recommend 12000 agl as a good compromise between climb performance/economics and attracting jumpers.

But it’s been more than 2 years since I flew that plane so my memory may be fuzzy.

Take good care of gonzo, I hope to come jump from it someday now that I’m a jumper too.

Ben

[EricTheRed 0]

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I hope to come jump from it someday now that I’m a jumper too

Please do, we'd love to have you drop by.

We do like the "jungle gym"

illegible usually

[Squeak 17]

we take a 182 up to 14000 feet so why not take the 207 to 13500

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[JohnMitchell 16]

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we take a 182 up to 14000 feet so why not take the 207 to 13500

Do you pack a lunch or do they have meal service on that flight?

[Amazon 7]

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Do you pack a lunch or do they have meal service on that flight?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Squeak 17]

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we take a 182 up to 14000 feet so why not take the 207 to 13500

Do you pack a lunch or do they have meal service on that flight?

It only takes about 30 mins

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[Jonsmann 0]

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The DZ is 375 feet above the ocean. The Tubine 207 burns jet fuel and carries a load of 7 jumpers plus pilot to 13k in 18 1/2 minutes

My DZ has a 206 with the same engine. It goes to 13000 ft in 15 minutes with 6 skydivers, so your 18.5 minutes sound about right. Going to less than 13000 ft is silly for a turbine Cessna.
We have been in 20000 ft with ours, and it took 25-30 minutes.

Jacques

[brettpobastad 0]

Thanks for the info, J-man! Now if I could just get the DZO at Toledo to buy into it.

"It's only arrogance if you can't back it up"