AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2019 - 99

checklist, pulled the power back to 1,000
rpm, and stared out the left window,
looking for the Baron pilot who had just
called final.
Suddenly, our airplane shuddered,
and the engine was stopping. My first
thought was that someone taxied into
us from behind. As I looked out front,
my heart sank, and I remember saying,
"Oh no."
There was the silky material of a
parachute draped over the propeller as
it was slowly rotating to a stop. I thought
someone had just died or had been seriously maimed. Steve opened the door as
I turned off the magnetos and master
switch. I heard him talking to someone
on the ground, and I thought, That's a
good sign.
The skydiver was a young woman,
about 20 years of age, and she was asking if our airplane was OK. Steve told her
not to worry about the airplane right now
and asked if she was OK. By this time, I
was getting out of the airplane and saw
no signs of blood, and the skydiver was
trying to get to her feet. We insisted she
sit on the ground for a while. She looked
to be in shock, and who wouldn't be?
The skydiving ground crew soon
showed up and assisted the jumper back
to the hangar. Miraculously, she had
no physical injuries. This was one of
her early solo jumps, and according to
other skydivers she had fixated on the
Cherokee and landed right at it, like a
moth to a flame. She had landed just feet
away from a moving propeller and was
unscathed. Had she landed a minute earlier when I was performing the runup at
a higher rpm, it could have pulled her
into the propeller instead of killing our
idling engine.
Steve and I got back in the Cherokee
and started it up. We ran the power up
to check for any unusual vibrations and
having found none we had just about
decided to take it around the pattern
when someone called over the radio and
told us there was an airworthiness directive that prohibits flight after a sudden
engine stoppage until the engine could
be torn down and inspected (TDI). We
taxied back in and talked to the drop

zone manager who assured us that as a
member of the United States Parachute
Association (USPA), the jumper had
insurance that would pay for the TDI.
Our next conundrum was figuring out
who we needed to report this to. There
was no structural damage and the aircraft
was not moving at the time of the accident. It did not fit in the FAA definition
of an accident, but surely, we should tell
someone.
We decided to contact the Nashville
Flight Standards District Office, and after
a few days they asked for more detailed
information. We each gave our account of
the day, and after a week or so they wrote
back and said they were going to classify
it as an "occurrence" and no more information would be required from us.
Meanwhile, the woman jumped again
the next day with better results. The
USPA insurance was very helpful and
there was no hassle getting them to pay.
We opted to go ahead and do an overhaul
at our expense since the engine was only
250 hours from TBO.
After this episode I will be more careful when I hear the call "jumpers away
over Tullahoma," whether on the ground
or in the air. Experience with the jumpers had given me a false sense that they
were not a factor in routine operations
at the airport, but I will be more paranoid in the future. The jumper missed
her landing area by about a half mile-
with plenty of room to the left or right of
us-but somehow, she ended up just feet
from our propeller. Never again would
this happen-or could it?
AOPA
DAVID HENSLEY is a private pilot who lives

in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2019

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