Plane beats parachutest to the ground.

[Paul Taylor]

This is one crazy race. Never seen a approach like this.

[mike londke]

Paul, That's pretty standard at Drop Zones that have turbine aircraft. Also the last ones out were a Tandem with a video guy. A Tandem minimum opening altitude is 4500ft.  Much longer canopy ride than sport jumpers opening at 2000ft. The name of the game is $$$$$. Get up, get down and pick up the next load. Jump planes make no money when they are not hauling loads. A King-Air like that can fly 3 loads an hour if he doesn't have to shut down. We flew a Twin Otter in MI and some days the plane would fly loads all day without shutting down. We would hot load (engines running) and hot fuel as well.  Mike

[Mike Scholtes]

"Crazy" is right. This pilot rolls inverted in what appears to be a transport category aircraft, does a split-S reverse just after his jumpers have left the plane, and his "approach to final" includes a 90 degree vertical bank with a tight radius turn, over a forest and then over the airport, only a few feet above the deck. This guy is going to be DEAD soon. Only question is how many others he takes with him. Appears to be Brazil.

[Mike Keville]

Watching his approach, that's the same thing I thought:  this guy is going to "buy it" soon.

Way back when, if my CFI had caught me making an approach like that, he would've kicked my a$$ up between my ears.

[Steve Helmick]

I recall watching some parachutists jump from a plane upwind from the FF field at Taft, CA. They didn't come down at all! We figured they probably landed about 20 miles downwind. The thermals there can be vicious...they should know enough to check for lift before they jump. I've personally seen lawn chairs 50' in the air...true.  Steve

[Norm Faith Jr.]

"Crazy" is right. This pilot rolls inverted in what appears to be a transport category aircraft, does a split-S reverse just after his jumpers have left the plane, and his "approach to final" includes a 90 degree vertical bank with a tight radius turn, over a forest and then over the airport, only a few feet above the deck. This guy is going to be DEAD soon. Only question is how many others he takes with him. Appears to be Brazil.

Looks like a PA31 or a PA42 to me.
Norm

[Mike Scholtes]

Way too large for a PA31, possibly a Cheyenne, maybe an Embraer 110 or a 121 if any are in civil hands, this being apparently in Brazil from the captions. Regardless, the way this aircraft is going to "beat them to the ground" is in ballistic flight after shedding its wings in a maneuver it was not designed to withstand. If it IS something like an Embraer 121 it probably can take the stresses but not the crazy flying. This would result in instant loss of pilot's certificate in the USA. Like the C-310 pilot who did an axial slow roll down the runway at my home field in Calif about 20 years ago, about 100 feet off the deck, which I saw in person. Fun and exciting, until very suddenly it isn't.

[dave siegler]

After high school, I worked at a FBO that had a drop zone attached.  They had a Cessna 182 drop plane then.  Poor thing.  They beat the crap out of that poor little airplane. 

I assisted on a top overhaul, and the wear from constant climb at full power ( smoking hot) to dive (over cooling) was very clear.  Also gear, brakes and tires were under more than their share of stress.  When we did a 100hr inspection we were extra careful with the structure.  If you ever buy an airplane make sure jump plane was not part of its history. 

[Steve Fitton]

What makes you think the guy is flying the aircraft beyond its limitations?  Bob Hoover did plenty of aerobatic maneuvers in his Shrike Commander for decades.

[mike londke]

Its a King-Air guys.

[Dan McEntee]

   Ditto on the remarks about Bob Hoover, my thoughts exactly, and not only in a Shrike or Aero Commander, but a Sabreliner and any one of a bunch of other airplanes. Most often, he never pulled more than 1G for his whole routine. I think this guy has many, many hours at the yoke of this airplane, and probably a lot of others. One telling indicator is the stuffed animal he has hanging from the top of the windshield. Notice that it never swings until he's on the ground? Landing was pretty smooth also. I wish the guy shooting the video would have pulled it back a bit so we could see more of the pilots control inputs and such. Notice he sits right up on the wheel also, kind of like a current NASCAR stock car set up. From what I could see, he really isn't working it very hard. I would fly with him.
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Norm Faith Jr.]

Way too large for a PA31, possibly a Cheyenne, maybe an Embraer 110 or a 121 if any are in civil hands, this being apparently in Brazil from the captions. Regardless, the way this aircraft is going to "beat them to the ground" is in ballistic flight after shedding its wings in a maneuver it was not designed to withstand. If it IS something like an Embraer 121 it probably can take the stresses but not the crazy flying. This would result in instant loss of pilot's certificate in the USA. Like the C-310 pilot who did an axial slow roll down the runway at my home field in Calif about 20 years ago, about 100 feet off the deck, which I saw in person. Fun and exciting, until very suddenly it isn't.

A PA42 is a Cheyenne, The PA31T is slightly smaller. The twin PT-6 engines, seen from the cockpit, looks like the same view as our Cheyenne.
Norm

[Norm Faith Jr.]

Its a King-Air guys.

HHHHHmmmm?...I'll maybe go along with that. 
Norm

[jim gevay]

HHHHHmmmm?...I'll maybe go along with that.  
Norm

All of you guys are wrong!
That's obviously no King Air, the pilots side window is not shaped like any standard King Air "D" shaped window, the cabin windows are square shaped, not like King Air round windows, there's only 2 windows before the door and the cabin is square shaped, it's not round enough for a King Air.
On landing after touchdown, you can see the tail come down around 3:05 or so which makes it a tail-dragger.
 
It was easy guys, just look at the top of the screen, the title says DO-28, which makes it a Dornier DO-28. Here's a video of the exact same plane down to the same animal hanging from the center post in the windshield.



This skydiving video came out about a year ago and others were just as confused as some of you were. It's all in the details guys.
Oh, I forgot to add, turn the sound off the video I found, the song sucks big time!

[mike londke]

Jim, you are correct. I was wrong. The video of the PT-6's out the front window look very similar to a King Air. Mike

[Mike Scholtes]

Well cat my dogs! Turns out the Dornier 28 is quite capable of this kind of thing. A video from the ground of this very landing is viewable as "Do 28 Pilot makes insane landing." It took place in Einsenach, Germany in 2012. The view from the ground pans over a Ju 52 trimotor in the foreground so must be an interesting airfield! Pilot makes a wheel landing and holds the tail up on rollout until the video ends, so no way to tell from inside view this is a taildragger. I want one!!

My comments on the crazy flying still stand, stress limits exceeded or not. Witness the caption mentioned above.

[Norm Faith Jr.]

Ok, OK...I'll buy the DO-28...my bad. But! The song "Sail" by AWOLNATION...is, IMHO, one of the recent; most well written and composed songs in a long time.
Norm
BTW: Floyd recognizes a well composed piece of music, I bet if he listened to it he would like it.

[BrianW517]

  H^^This Pilot would be a great fire retardant fire fighter? 

[Dwayne]

Can't stop smiling that was awesome. Very skilled pilot.