As an active jumper, jumpmaster, jump instructor, competitor, master
rigger, skydiver driver and drop zone employee at various times over
the last 30 years I can tell you that this was a tragic accident. For
one thing I have never seen a pilot spin a cessna 10,000 ft down and
pull out on downwind. Ever. I doubt it is even survivable in a Cessna.
I HAVE done as Stuart tells, a tight spiral that rolls out on downwind
to final that will beat a jumper to the ground. Every jump pilot
typically does a deadstick landing from the exit point to the ground.
Why? Time is money, ya gotta get the next load up. A jumper will
typically spend 30 sec to 1 minute in freefall and then spend 3 to 5
minutes under canopy, depending on his exit and pull altitudes. I have
also made many jumps at the Deland airport in the past. As I remember
it is about 2 miles to town, and presumably the hospital. Deland has a
big operation there. They have many jumpers going all the time. In
general gliders and jumpers like to approach any airport from upwind,
they drift into the field with the wind that way. That puts jumpers on
"approach" where we think of it as downwind or upwind near pattern
altitude. They turn and face the wind for an upwind landing during the
last few hundred feet of descent. Many times the jump pilots, jumpers
and local gliders are jockying in the same piece of the pattern.
Vigilence is required. This was a case of two people meeting by
accident, not by someone doing something erratic or out of the
ordinary. Uninformed and halfcocked statements and speculation about
jumpers are as big a disservice to them as the uninformed and
halfcocked statements about pilots that get us mad.
Justaguy