I've spent a lot of time jumping out of King Air variants love that airframe. Used to jump one owned by a Fed Ex pilot named Mike Mullins. Super B90 with upgraded 750hp PT6's.....could get to 13,500 in ~ 6 minutes was hilarious. As you'd creep up on exit altitude you'd hear '13.5 exit exit exit' and he'd zero g you to standing up off the floor way too much fun.
I loved flying the king air. Got time in F90 200 and 350.
Damn small world. I jumped mullins quite a bit way back in the day. Was a fast as plane for sure. Both up and on the way down. Never took the ride down though but know a few that have and said it was insane. Supposedly he could keep up with a 727 on take off. N99hw i believe were the numbers. Was hank williams jr ‘s old plane. Hotel whiskey
I've been out of that airplane quite a few times as well! 15 minutes to 25,000, sucking oxygen on the way up and nearly 2 minutes of freefall.....screws with your internal clock..time to pull...NOPE, still at 14,500.....
I never saw the movie. But I will say this and that’s all I’ll say, I was on the ALPA accident investigation team.
This is a crazy small world North Florida.....ever jump Elberta? Flora Bama Lounge beach jump? One of my very best jumping buddies lived in Pensacola had some fun up there you may have known him depending on how far back you go.
Never jumped them places, mostly jumped palatka, deland, mullins wintered up this way at keystone heights airport. 10.00 jumps.
Ahh Quincy! I do miss it, but with my eyes and not being able to wear contacts any longer no way would I get back. Fogging glasses etc plus the best part of flying a high performance canopy is high speed approaches.....I don't have the acuity or reaction time for it any longer so even if my eyes were good I'd pass. Blue skies! Wonder where my Jedei 120 is these days I sold it to a local corporate jet pilot when I got out hope it's still ripping!
Jedi 120, I remember them. Not many folks up this way were jumping those when i was in it. Mainly saw stilletos up here. An occasional batwing . There were some though. I jumped a saber 170, then bought a 135 viper. It was way to fast for my liking. You could drive it just moving around in the harness. Plus i really didnt have the experience i should of had for such a wing. Its crazy what some of the folks are flying these days. Saw a video where a guy was under a (i think) 57 sqft canopy. Insane
The Jedei was made by Tony Uragallo who also makes Tony Suits. Really ahead of his time with canopy design the Jedei had baffles in it which made turbulence a nothing burger that wing would stay inflated through anything.....worst bumpy days, rotors coming off the hangar meh didn't matter thing was awesome. If I'm not mistaken PD bought his designs to incorporate into some of their canopies many years ago. Plus you could load the stink out of them. Now they have all kinds of crazy cross braced designs looks like guys jumping a slider vs a canopy.....approach speeds are just unreal.
Unfortunately it is standard. That’s why we have the unions who participate in the investigation. I’m know he felt like he was being attacked, anyone being looked at that closely under a microscope would feel that way. I personally never felt like the FAA or NTSB we’re trying to put fault on him or his copilot. But they were asking very hard questions and examining and re-examining every minute detail. There was a time where I could recite the CVR recordings verbatim as I had listened to them over and over and over and over and over and over.
I remember the pic, and orly king as well. i also heard the pilot from the pic lost his license but that was just rumor.Speaking of King Airs and sky divers, did any of you guys know Orly King? He operated in a lot of the same areas y'all mentioned. I got to be friends with him for a couple of years when he became a fellow C-120 owner and kept it at our local airport. We used to do a few fly-outs together. I knew he was way into sky diving and did instruction and competition, but I didn't realize he had quite a following in the sky diving community. He had the original of this photograph of him on the tail of a King Air framed on his wall. I think it was on the cover of a jump magazine one time. I saw him jump for fun at our airport a bunch, and everyone always stopped what they were doing to watch. I was always afraid he was going to dig a trench with his face on his approach but they were always perfect (and impressive)! Like the guy mentioned above, he survived all his jumping activities but died of cancer not long ago.
used to live to hit the boogies up this way. Always a good party afterwards and skydiver chicks were always willing to show their tits
Pretty amazing listen huh? I was surprised even the 2nd time I looked down at maybe 35 minutes I was riveted.
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Man. Been a lot longer for me. Think my last jump was in 98. Remember charlie was like 19 with several thousand skydives. Havent been in that circle of folks for a long time. When he wintered here that time he did a new years eve jump. Left the ground in iirc 97 landed in 98. I didnt do it. My old room mate did. It was blowing pretty good on the ground and hovering near freezing. No way i was going to altitude in that shit. I hate the cold anyways much less with a terminal wind chill.
Pffft forget the OP that guy is a dick keep focused on skydiving!
