Shut Up and Listen to the Otter

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The wonderful thing about having a podcast is that you’re often producer, host, editor, engineer, and janitor. It also means that you can put any darned thing you want in the feed.

I normally record flights by plugging the MP3 recorder into a headset jack. There are only two in the Otter that I flew with Dave Schwartz of Skydive Chicago at Midwest Freefall at Kunstman Field in Ray, Michigan on Sunday, so I normally use a “Y” adapter to split the signal with one lead going to my headset and the other going to the MP3 recorder. I didn’t have the right adapter for the flight on Sunday, so I though that, rather than getting no audio at all, I’d plug in the microphone, set the sensitivity as low as it would go, and just get the ambient sounds of the cockpit.

What I got was about 24 minutes of noise, but it’s my favorite kind of noise. On the chance that it’s the kind of noise that you like, too, I thought that I’d just post the audio here in the feed. If you like it, that’s great. If not, just tune in to the next episode or download some back episodes to tide you over.

I’m flying from about 1,000 AGL to downwind abeam with the exception of the very end of the jump run and the start of the descent, when I was taking pictures that you can see on the website.

I’ve posted a rough time-indexed description of what’s going on the website at http://www.airspeedonline.com/ and it’ll be a part of the notes in the RSS feed so you can probably pick it up right there on the screen of your MP3 player, too.

The sound levels were just below maximum for the takeoff, climb, and jump run, so the audio is pretty good. Things get a little noisy and max out the recorder when the door opens in back and then it’s cacophonous during the descent (which, by the way, happens with an initial pitch down of 30 degrees and roll to 60 degrees of bank and then a descent at 160 KIAS, which is Vne for the Otter. So it’s noisy as heck and maybe even a little unpleasant to listen to during the descent.

But, overall, I think it’s a cool little piece of audio in the tradition of last year’s episode “Shut Up and Listen to the Airplanes.” (http://airspeedonline.blogspot.com/2007/04/airspeed-shut-up-and-listen-to.html).

This one’s for London Area Control Centre air traffic controller Andy Amor and for anyone else who loves the Twin Otter and/or airplane noise.

3:30 Startup

6:30 Takeoff

7:30 Throttle back

9:30 Synching the props

18:45 Door opens

20:15 Begin descent

24:30 Level-off downwind

25:15 Landing

26:00 Taxi (right engine shutdown and taxi on left engine)

27:00 Shutdown

Around the Drop Zone – A Sunday Afternoon at Midwest Freefall


This is a regular blog post. Show notes and links to episode audio appear in the other entries.

I spent Sunday afternoon at Midwest Freefall, a drop zone in Ray, Michigan between Romeo State Airport (D98) and Ray Community Airport (57D).

Dave Schwartz of Skydive Chicago was in town flying skydivers while the drop zone is between aircraft. Midwest had been using a Cessna Caravan or similar aircraft and is in the process of obtaining another one. In the meantime, the Otter is filling in.

Really nice, laid back DZ. Here’s the observation line right near the loading point for the jumpers. A pretty good group of family and friends watching the departures and landings. A guy had a grill going with steaks, burgers, and dogs and even delivered a couple to the cockpit after the second load that I flew. I’m the first to admit that I’m still a bit of a pretender in the cockpit of aircraft like the Otter, but it was really cool to be respected (and fed) as a pilot.

Here’s a load shortly before takeoff. More folks in the aircraft than we flew at Skydive Chicago (mainly due to the fact that we were flying on a Monday morning then and it was understandably slow) and there were more definite and pronounced changes in CG as jumpers moved back and departed the aircraft. Definitely had to pull and re-trim.

Here’s the last jumper of the second load. Wingsuit flyer. It’s kind of hard to get a picture that captures the fact that the jumper is heading out the door while still getting the jumper in the shot.


Here’s the view out the front window right after the wingsuited jumper left. You pitch 30 degrees nose-down, bank over 60 degrees, throttle back, pitch for Vne of 160, and get the airplane down as quickly as possible. Lots of planet in the window, as you can see.
On a busy day, you night save enough time to be able to get another couple of loads of jumpers up in a day.

That’s Romeo State Airport down there. Kunstman Airfield is between Romeo and Ray, and you announce on the CTAFs of both airports (122.8 and 122.7, respectively) before you greenlight the jumpers. You’re also talking to Selfridge ANGB (KMTC) approach, so you have good eyes on you.

If you’re interested in checking out Midwest Freefall, the contact information is below.

Midwest Freefall Sport Parachute Club
62912 Kunstman Road
Ray, Michigan 48096
586.75 2 JUMP (586.752.5867)
http://www.midwestfreefall.com/
skydive@midwestfreefall.com

Midwest accommodates first-timers, experienced jumpers, and everyone in between. Tandems are available.

The DZ runs a United States Parachute Association‘s Accelerated Freefall (AFF) program.

You start with an extensive ground school session (6 – 8 hours). The club provides special student equipment that includes industry standard safety features and ground-to-air radio. You exit from more than 12,000 feet AGL and you and your two freefall instructors fly for approximately 60 seconds. You deploy your own parachute and descend to the landing area with the assistance of ground-to-air radio instruction.

Really nice DZ with really nice people.

A Couple of Loads at Midwest Freefall at Kunstman Airfield in Ray, Michigan

This is a regular blog post. Show notes and links to episode audio appear in the other entries.

Flew another couple of loads of skydivers yesterday with Skydive Radio co-founder and co-host Dave Schwartz in a Skydive Chicago Twin Otter at Kunstman Airfield, home of Midwest Freefall Sport Parachute Club.

I arrived around noon, about 10 minutes before Dave returned from Romeo after having picked up fuel. This is a shot of the Otter on approach to the field. The wind was fairly light, so landing direction on the 18-36 grass runway was pretty arbitrary.

There’s Dave. Great guy. Always willing to give you the right seat so long as operations, safety, and other circumstances allow. He’s the first guy to tell you how much he appreciated it when people gave him the right seat during his early flying career and he gives back by returning that favor down the line to the next generation (which, as a new multi driver with only about 200 hours TT, includes me).

In case you thought that Dave’s patter on the two loads that appeared in episodes earlier this year was a one-time prepared thing, it’s not. Same checklists, same procedures, and same safety culture. Really neat to fly with him.

Here’s yours truly in the left seat with Dave behind the camera.

The takeoff run with 20 or so people in the back. Yoke in your lap, full power, release the brakes, and keep get up as soon as possible. The treeline does come at you rather menacingly, but there’s never any real doubt by the time you get close. The Otter climbs very well and you’re to 13,000 feet or more before you know it.


Here’s the approach to landing, coming the other way. Like I said, the wind wasn’t really a factor, so we landed on 36, the better to roll out the loading area at the north end of the field. This really showed off the Otter’s short field landing characteristics.

Another post coming soon covering the drop zone.

Load 2 – Flying Skydivers at Skydive Chicago with Dave Schwartz in the Otter


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Today we return to Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois for the second jump run with Dave Schwartz.

Just to remind everyone, Skydive Chicago is a 230-acre complex. The hangar has about 15,000 square feet of shade and shelter and the adjoining building contains more than 22,000 square feet of classrooms, common areas, a recreation center, a pro shop, a video department, and a deli that serves food and beverages of both the soft and adult varieties. Just to the east is a full hook-up campground that has a large pond that’s surrounded by decks and highlighted by an island. On the north shore is a white sand beach that adjoins a large pavilion with showers, laundry facilities, and volleyball court. The entire complex is surrounded by acres of pastures near the banks of the Fox River. You can canoe, hike, bike, and ride horses on the property.

It has its own runway, arranged 3/21, and it’s paved, 4,522 feet long and 50 feet wide. There’s automated weather 16 nm west and 16 nm east and six navaids within 40 miles, of which the Ottawa NDB is the closest at 3.5 miles.

We’re flying one of Skydive Chicago’s two DeHavilland DCH-6 Otters. It’s powered by two Pratt & Whitney PT6A SER engines, which produce 750 horsepower each. It weighs 8,000 to 9,000 pounds empty, and has a max gross takeoff weight of 12,500 pounds. It carries up to 23 people at a time.

I flew two loads with Dave in September and this is the audio from the second. If you missed the first load, please go back and download it. It posted in early January.

This load is a little different. As you’ll hear Dave explain at the beginning, we have a student getting out at 5,000 and then we’re taking the remaining jumpers the rest of the way up. So there are two jump runs in this one. The flight is about 23 minutes from wheels-up to wheels-down (as opposed to about 18 minutes last time) because Dave was kind enough to show me some more of the flight characteristics of the airplane. Just like last time, Dave is an excellent commentator and I didn’t have to do much editing. Mostly, it’s getting rid of the longer breaks in cockpit audio, most of which ware between 15 and 30 seconds. I cut about a minute and a half max.

The audio starts on the ground at the loading point just after the jumpers have settled in. The runway is only a few hundred feet from the loading point, so we’re airborne very quickly.

We maneuver to let the first jumper out at 5,000 and then it’s upstairs for the remainder of the load. I got to fly a bit more on this one. There’s one place where you’ll hear me comment about the instruments. I had been training hot and heavy for the instrument rating in Cessna 172s just before going over to Skydive Chicago and my mentality was seriously in the single-engine rut. I found myself flying on Dave’s instruments across the cockpit because it continued to evade me that I might have a full set of gages right there in front of me.. I managed to fix that halfway through the flight.

After the jumpers exited, we took a few minutes to explore the envelope of the airplane a little more. You’ll hear a power-off stall and some single-engine work before the Vne descent and then Dave will take the controls for a steep descent and short field landing. It’s a Bob-Hoover-esque demonstration of energy management with no brakes required until we rolled to the loading point.

The Otter is my favorite airplane to fly so far. It’s a solid performer and smooth as can be. Even though this was my first time flying from the right seat, it became pretty natural after I got used to the sight picture. And started using the right-seat gages.

In any case, rest assured that Dave, as pilot in command, was right there at the controls the whole time – authoritative, attentive, and the obvious master of the aircraft. Listen to the guy. Crisp and solid procedures. Checklists run with precision. Oozing safety culture. Can you imagine being in the cockpit with him and not having a great time?

So set the wayback machine for late September on the prairie outside of Ottawa, Illinois just short of the runway with a load of skydivers in the back.

[Audio.]


Thanks again to Dave Schwartz and Skydive Chicago for the chance to check out a great aviation operation. You can find out more information about Skydive Chicago at www.skydivechicago.com or by calling them at 800 SKY-DIVE in the Chicago area and 815-433-0000 from everywhere else.

You can get your first tandem for about $200 and there are programs and pricing for every level of jumper. I believe that they start up operations for the season in late March or early April.

I once saw a website for a drop zone where the pilot profiles included interesting questions and the pilots’ answers. In response to the question, “Why do you fly skydivers?” one pilot had two answers: 1. Someone has to bring the airplane back. It’s too expensive the other way. 2. Nobody complains about my landings. In fact, it’s pretty quiet back there.

I can attest to both. Although Dave deserves an audience back there. I can tell you that it was pretty impressive from the right seat!

Flying Skydivers in the DHC-6-200 Twin Otter

Subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your favorits other podcatcher. Or listen online right here by clicking: http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedOtter1.mp3. It’s all free!

Thanks, everyone, for bearing with me through the end of the year! It should come as a surprise to no one who’s been with Airspeed through the last couple of years that November and December is usually awful for me because, as a technology and aviation lawyer, I have lots of clients who want to get deals done before year end. And that translates to some really busy days in the closing months of the year.

I should also say that it’s partly on me because I did a lot of training between July and October. Between July 14 and October 23, I did seven training flights for 12.8 hours and 21 instrument approaches, plus about 12 hours of simulator time with 60+ approaches, all in preparation for the instrument checkride. I know that it doesn’t sound like a lot, but, with everything that goes into getting to the airport, preflight, postflight, briefings, and getting my head back to my desk, that translates to about a week off work by the time you count the three rescheduled times for the checkride, the paperwork, and lots of other stuff.

By the time you’re out of the office that much, you need to make up some of that time later in the year. And that’s what I’ve been doing since October.

Thanks for the wonderful response to Fingers in the Airport Fence Entwined! Thanks for all the great e-mails and blog comments and an especially big thank-you to all of you who have bought the book. I should mention that, shortly after the last episode, I posted a version of Fingers in the Airport Fence Entwined that has only the music and the reading of the piece. I know that there was a lot of commentary surrounding the pierce in the episode itself and figured that some might want just the piece. Check out the website at www.airspeedonline.com and look for the blog entry right after Fingers episode. There’s a link to that special MP3 file there.

Anyway, I’ve been telling you that I have good stuff in the can and it’s going to be coming out of the can and into your ears starting now.

I first became acquainted with Dave Schwartz in 2006 after he wrote in to comment on my ride with the US Army Golden Knights. Dave is a talented pilot and skydiver and is one of the co-founders and hosts of Skydive Radio, the first all-skydiving podcast. Incidentally, Skydive Radio just hit its 100th episode. I invited Dave onto the show and he was a great guest – Helping us to understand skydiving as a sport and giving general aviation pilots some pointers about, among other things, how best to share airspace with skydiving operations. (Listen at http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedSkydive.mp3.)

Dave has since been a great resource and he even helped with some of the background research on the Twin Otter that came in very handy for the episode on icing with the NASA Glenn team. (Listen at http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedIcingGlenn1.mp3.)

Not long ago, Dave invited me out to Skydive Chicago to sit right seat for a few jump runs in the Twin Otter. I have a few clients in the Chicago area and I need to go visit them every once in awhile, so I planned a trip in late September that included a first stop at Skydive Chicago, a little more than an hour west of Chicago proper in Ottawa, Illinois.

I arrived a little after 8:00 a.m. and met Dave. We loaded up into an all-terrain vehicle and toured the grounds. The place is pretty cool. For one thing, it’s designed from the ground up to efficiently function as a skydiving training and recreation center.

It’s a 230-acre complex. The hangar that provides 15,000 square feet of shade and shelter adjoining 22,500 square feet of classrooms, common areas with satellite feed, recreation centers with pool tables and video games, a pro shop, a video department, and deli that serves food and beverages of both the soft and adult varieties. At night, you can enjoy movies or a club-type party in a two-level auditorium theatre, featuring a 30,000-watt sound and projection system.

Just to the East is a full hook-up campground that has a large pond that¹s surrounded by sprawling decks and highlighted by an island. On the north shore is a white sand beach that adjoins a large pavilion with showers, laundry facilities, and volleyball court. The entire complex is surrounded by acres of pastures near the banks of the Fox River. You can canoe, hike, bike, and ride horses on the property.

It has its own runway, arranged 3/21, and it’s paved, 4,522 feet long and 50 feet wide. There’s automated weather 16 nm west and 16 nm east and six navaids within 40 miles, of which the Ottawa NDB is the closest at 3.5 miles.

It’s a Monday and they’re running a special for first-time tandem jumps. As Dave and I ride around taking in the sights, the new skydiving students are in the building receiving the training that will allow them to make their first tandem skydives safely.

Then Dave and I go to preflight the aircraft. Skydive Chicago has two DeHavilland DCH-6 Otters and one Cessna 182. The aircraft we’re flying today is a DHC-6-200, serial no. 199 certificated in 1997. It’s powered by two Pratt & Whitney PT6A SER engines, which produce 750 horsepower each. It’s 51’9” long, has a wingspan of 65 feet, stands 19’6” at the tail, weighs 8,000 to 9,000 pounds empty, and has a max gross takeoff weight of 12,500 pounds. These birds will accommodate 23 people at a time. We’re going to be flying five on the first load.

Just before we go preflight, Dave gets the winds aloft. We need to be able to fly a course that will allow us to drop skydivers at an altitude and place over the Earth such that they can make it back to the drop zone, considering the prevailing wind.

It’s not like a skydiver can’t find somewhere safe to land other than the smooth area provided near the runway, but there are the small matters of trees, power lines, getting a ride back to the drop zone . . . you get the picture. Plus, if I’m off my course a little in a C-172, I just correct by the time I get to the field or to the initial approach fix. Dave, on the other hand, has to get the jump run right or he’ll be scattering actual people all over hither and yon. People who, at the very least, will not be buying him any beverages.

We complete a very comprehensive preflight inspection and then Dave gets in the tug and pulls the plane around to the loading area. I’m flying right seat today and I plug the MP3 recorder into the headset jack with a Y-adapter.

The first run lasts about 18 minutes. And that includes the 24-hour check that you’re going to hear. It seems longer. But the Otter climbs beautifully and Dave is an expert at getting the aircraft back on the ground quickly and efficiently to pick up the next load.

Dave is a regular John King. He’s constantly talking, describing what he’s doing and why. For that reason, among others, I’m pretty much running the audio for this load exactly as it was recorded. You can hear the engines and some of the voices in the back before Dave adjusts the squelch. It’s reasonably short and, although there are some slow spots, it’s worth listening in realtime.

We’re going to start the cockpit audio about a minute after engine start, once the avionics come up. Then you’ll hear the 24-hour check. It’s essentially the runup that you do for the first flight of the day.

Then there’s takeoff and climb. Dave gives me the controls for most of the climb and I fly an indicated airspeed and heading. I let it drift a little, as you’ll hear, but by and large picked up the instrumentation and flight characteristics of the airplane pretty quickly.

Make no mistake. Dave is right there at the controls the entire time and is very vigilant. He follows me on the controls for the jump run and has the controls himself for the initial part of the descent and for the landing. Yeah, I get to fly the Otter, but Dave is right there the whole time. That made it a very comfortable introduction for me.

I thought about trying some shooter pilot comments to impress upon the folks in back my Chuck-Yeagerness and hardass competence in the right seat, but it’s pretty clear that the vets trust Dave and that the first-time tandem students are a little tense and wouldn’t care if Karl Pilkington was in the right seat. So I keep my mouth shut and concentrate on assisting Dave in any way I can – scanning for traffic and being as gracious a guest as I can.

As we climb, Dave points out the approaches for Midway and O’Hare and explains the fairly narrow piece of airspace into which we have to confine our operations. I’m not sure of this, but it appears that Dave has two PTT switches on the yoke. I’m pretty sure that he has the CTAF of 122.725 on one channel and Chicago Approach on 119.0 on the other. We call up Chicago shortly after takeoff and let them know that we’re around.

We’ve set up the GPS to give us a 230 course line. We’ll fly a downwind and then come back upwind on that line with the idea being to give the jumpers the green light a little upwind of the drop zone. I’m pretty much flying a pitch attitude and vectors called out by Dave.

Yeah, that’s the view out the front window right after the jumpers exit.

Once the jumpers exit, we chop the power, bank 60 degrees left and go 30 degrees nose-down to get the aircraft down as quickly as possible and while burning as little fuel and brake pads as possible. If you get the feeling that it’s all about safety and efficiency at Skydive Chicago, you’re right on. But that doesn’t mean that the picture out the window right after the jumpers exit isn’t very different from what you see during cruise. Lots of green in the windshield. But a lot of fun, too!

Flying right seat actually comes more easily than I’m expecting it to. The only truly dumbass thing I do is look at Dave’s instruments across the cockpit even though I have a full set of instruments right in front of me. I’m just too used to flying C-172s.

Anyway, let’s go to the ramp at Skydive Chicago. Five people in the back, Dave in the left seat, me in the right seat, just after bringing up the avionics.

[Flight audio.]

Next time on Airspeed, we’ll have the second jump run of the day with Dave Schwartz at Skydive Chicago with a bit more otter flying, including single-engine flight and stall characteristics.

You can find out more information about Skydive Chicago at www.skydivechicago.com or by calling them at 800 SKY-DIVE in the Chicago area and 815-433-0000 from everywhere else.

I had a chance to watch a lot of the training that went into the first tandem jump program that was going on while I was there and, while I’m not a skydiver, I was pretty impressed by the attention that I saw the instructors paying to students both on the ground and in the aircraft. It looked very standardized and professional. If I didn’t have a shoulder that likes to dislocate when you put it in to the required position for belly-flying, I might well have been in the back of the aircraft for the third load!

You can get your first tandem for about $200 and there are programs and pricing for every level of jumper. I believe that they start up operations for the season in late March or early April.

For what it’s worth, one guy on the first load went right back up on the second load. I saw him pull out of the parking lot with a smile so big that he had to put the convertible top down so he could fit his head in the car.

Tune in next time for the second jump run with more Dave, more Otter, and more cowbell. Actually, no cowbell at all, but definitely more Dave and more Otter!