Parachute Mobile in 2010 VHF QSO Party

Another successful parachute mobile mission!

Skydiving is all about waiting, sometimes for hours, followed by perhaps a few minutes of a maxed out adrenaline rush. Weather, plane problems and the understandable priority given to high paying tandem jumpers makes it very difficult to schedule solo jumps precisely.

The Parachute Mobile team did more than their share of waiting on June 12, 2010, many hours in fact. The Dropzone team set up at the Byron CA DZ around noon and the Mission Control team set up atop Mt Diablo concurrently. About seven hours later we made our jump. We have a VERY patient, collegial and dedicated team.

First, the DZ's main jumpship, a King Air was down with major mechanical problems. A DZ about 80 miles away sent over their PAC 750 to help. The PAC 750 is a single engine turboprop designed specifically for skydiving.

Winds on the ground were as high as 26 kts and 56 kts at 18,000 ft, too high for parachute mobile ops which are HAHO (high alt high opening) jumps. HAHO jumps expose the jumper to winds aloft far longer than freefall HALO jumps. Further, I jump a big canopy (210 sq ft) for these ham radio jumps to give maximum hang time and it is not suited for landings in high winds. We waited for hours in 90+ degree weather but as the day wore on, the surface winds decreased. Then, just about as our PAC 750 load came up for boarding, the DZ delay demon struck. The DZ that owned the loaned the PAC 750 plane called it back as they had a group of lucrative tandem jumpers who had just showed up. We watched our jumpship fly away without us.

The Byron DZ called the Lodi DZ and secured a Twin Otter that would be ferried over, but that deal fell through. All we now had was a little Cessna 206 and a long line of tandem jumpers who pay about $200 to jump compared to the pittance experienced jumpers like me pay ($20). I managed to secure an empty spot on the last load of the day, last man out.

We flew over the beautiful Sacramento River Delta slowly climbing to jump altitude. I saw the river, sloughs, levees, boats, farms all lit up beautifully in the setting sun. I never get acclimated to the thrill of flight, it still takes my breath away. The air was warm and smooth and the ride was comfortable as I was sharing the plane with only a tandem jumpmaster and his student and a cameraman jumper. I gave altitude reports to the team on 146.46 FM as we climbed.

The turbine aircraft usually give me an exit alt of at least 14,000 ft but today I had to settle for 10,000 ft from the slow but steady piston powered non turbo Cessna 206. Exiting a Cessna is very different from just leaping out the door or tailgate of a larger aircraft. The Cessna jumpship right landing gear has a step on top of it. You exit by leaning out the open door, grabbing the right wing strut with your hands and swinging out to stand with one foot on the small step.

The prop blast and airstream wind is very powerful which caused me some concern about my stowed mic and trailing wire antenna coming loose, but my DZ crew had done a great job with gaffers tape and everything stayed put as I stood outside the airplane getting ready to push off the strut and fall away into the warm golden evening sky.

The winds aloft were still high but the ground winds were low enough for a safe landing so I exited upwind over the Altamont Pass windmills.

You can never depend on your main chute opening perfectly every time. Twice in my 42 years as a skydiver I've had to cut away from a malfuctioning main and deploy my reserve chute. I took note of the fact that there was a mountain below me and if I had an emergency and had to cut away, my barometric altimeter would not give me altitude above the ground. I also pondered the possibility of deploying my reserve over the spinning windmills, but concluded that I could easily fly downwind and clear them before I had to land.

I calculated that I could stay in partial brakes on my large main canopy and extend my hang time, yet still make it back to the DZ using the winds aloft to propel me. After pushing off from the Cessna, I gave myself a few seconds of freefall to get stable before tossing my pilot chute. I had a smooth soft opening, savored the spectacular sunset views, took a deep breath and set to work. I put on my fingertip pulse oximeter sensor, unstowed and dropped my trailing wire antenna, pulled out my mic and started comms. As I was doing all this I had to monitor my position, scan for traffic (gliders were aloft in the area), progress towards the DZ, altitude and course. I steered the chute by shifting my weight in the harness as I was using both hands to operate radios. I confirmed with Dropzone and Mission Control on 146.46 FM that post opening safety checks were complete, then switched to 2M SSB and started working stations using special event call sign K6J. I was using my newly purchased second hand Yaesu FT 817 QRP rig, which is really a great parachute mobile rig due to its internal battery and low vertical profile.

I encountered more acoustic wind noise than expected but still managed to work at least nine QRP SSB QSOs during my descent and approach to the Byron DZ. One ham who did not identify proceeded to "announce" on my working frequency that I was not a qualified contest contact because I was aeronautical mobile. I politely asked him to stop arguing the point and let me work stations, but he persisted for a bit. It was unfortunate because he prevented me from working weak callers and as I descended I lost the path to them. We were NOT an aeronautical mobile station, as confirmed by a pre jump consultation with the ARRL.
The FAA does not classify parachutes as aircraft and the applicable FCC rules defining aero stations refer to aircraft. A 7 year old child could legally fly a parachute solo, but not an aircraft (airplane, balloon, glider, etc). Besides, we were simply trying to have fun and provide entertainment to our fellow hams, not gain an unfair advantage in a contest. Self appointed (and in this case misinformed) "contest cops" should really lighten up a bit.

We learned a lot on this mission. An Ed Fong trailing wire J Pole was easily deployed after opening and worked fine which bodes well for an HF trailing wire antenna. The FT 817 worked perfectly and was easily operated using memory channels. APRS worked well, but the crowded conditions on the national APRS freq caused us to lose some telemetry packets. We will work on using an alternate freq and an I-Gate to port selected data to aprs.fi. My heart rate APRS telemetry data showed a peak in the 160s proving again that skydiving does scare me still, as it probably should. Complacency is a killer in skydiving.

Blood oxygen levels were unremarkable as I was only jumping from 10,000 ft. My speed, altitude, physio data and a tagline announcing: SPECIAL EVENT STATION K6J www.parachutemobile.org was all posted on aprs.fi (use search term AF6IM) through various APRS stations that received and relayed our data. Our customized Argent Data APRS gear performed flawlessly.

I stopped contest comms at about 1000 ft and went to a no brakes (no flaps) high speed flight mode as I set up for my final approach. I needed the speed to assure wind penetration and to get enough forward velocity for a successful landing flare. The Byron DZ landing field was awash in beautiful golden sunset light and I could smell the sun baked straw in the air. My dropzone crew was alert and warned me on 146.46 FM of an aircraft transiting the DZ area. I was monitoring 146.46 FM even during my SSB ops using a tiny Radio Shack HT. I heard the warning, saw the plane and avoided it without incident. At about 5 ft, remaining in high speed canopy flight until the last possible second, I did a full symmetrical brake deployment to flare the canopy which arrested my descent rate to near zero. I got a really nice standup landing on target as my dropzone team rushed out to greet me with whoops and high fives.

Everything worked, not one single gear failure of any kind. The integration of the radio gear with the parachute harness worked out perfectly. My team's careful planning really paid off.

I am deeply indebted to my ham team mates who give so generously of their time and resources to make these missions a success including : Jon K6OJ, Rob KC6TYD, Mike NE6RD, John KI6BEN, Ray W6RAR, Robert KF0G, Michael KF6WRW, Bernard AE6YN, Dan N6WN, Rita KI6SSQ and others.

We are planning a mission to coincide with Pacificon in October 2010 which may involve more SSB ops (perhaps HF?) and PSK 31 beaconing on 20M. Stay tuned and look up.

Parachute Mobile Project: Taking Ham Radio To New Heights
http://www.parachutemobile.org

73,

Mark, AF6IM

Jumper 1