mcdizzle

The interpretation of the green light has become skewed. All the green light means is the pilot has approval from ATC, has checked the area for traffic to the best of their ability, and as far as spotting goes, if you exit now, you'll most likely make it to the landing area. The majority of my experience has been flying jumpers in areas where weather is a factor more often than not. If jumpers are willing to buy a ticket and board the airplane on weather days, then I'm willing to go take a look if I can maintain my cloud clearances on the way to altitude. Before turning on jumprund, if it looks solid, I will typically do a pass with just the door open and then descend. If it looks broken, I'll give a green light. When I'm on jumprun, I can't see directly down over the dz. When I give a green light, its up to jumpers to decide if they can meet the criteria for a legal jump. If you can't, I expect you to either wait until you can which may require a go around or 2 or to close the door and ride it down. Getting out shows a total lack of respect for the pilot. I'm trusting you to make the right call, as you are trusting me to operate the aircraft in a safe manner. The regulations state: §105.17 Flight visibility and clearance from cloud requirements. No person may conduct a parachute operation, and no pilot in command of an aircraft may allow a parachute operation to be conducted from that aircraft -- (a) Into or through a cloud, or (b) When the flight visibility or the distance from any cloud is less than that prescribed in the following table: you all should know the "table" by now. Notice it doesn't say anything about being OK for tandems and experienced jumpers, but not for students. The rules apply to all jumpers and the pilot at all times. You can say its the pilots fault for even giving a light, but look at the reg. YOU are responsible too. Contrary to whoever said clouds don't move that fast, weather can change dramatically from the time you take off to the time you're about to exit. If you need to salvage your jump ticket that bad by getting out over solid clouds, you're a moron. I've landed plently of times with full loads. Not that I like to do it, and I won't takeoff unless I think there is a pretty good opportunity to get the load out but its the chance jumpers take when they board. Rules in aviation are usually in place because someone died or almost died. Like was said before, If you said yes, I hope you don't jump at a dropzone where I fly.

Are you a pilot? Just curious where you get your info from. The caravan is available with 2 versions of the same engine. A PT6A-114 (600 HP) or the PT6A-114A (675 HP). The better performing otters in skydiving have -27 or -34 engines on them. -27 are factory and are rated for 680 HP but derated to 620 HP. -34 engines are rated at 750 HP but when fitted to an otter, are still only allowed to produce 620 HP (wing structual limitation). The only advantage to this is that you have more available horsepower all the way up during the climb (available horsepower decreases with altitude in turbine engines). Bigger engine numbers have nothing to do with horsepower, as does placement of the exhaust "crippling" the performance.