The roll-up door retracted upward as sunlight beamed through the opening. Beacon steady; green. Go, go, go! Thousands of feet of air; around a minute of free fall followed by a graceful drifting back to reality. Another takeoff in an aircraft followed by a biped landing.
Jumping out of “perfectly good airplanes” is something that happens every day across the country. Whether it be tandem with an instructor or any other freestyle solo work, adrenaline junkies enthusiastically hurl themselves from many types of aircraft. Among those aircraft are Beechcraft King Airs, specifically model 90s and a few 200s, flown for skydiver transport.
Skydive KC uses a 1977 King Air E90. Owner Chris Hall is Skydive KC’s sole pilot. Having been around the skydiving industry since the early 1970s, he has decades of experience, including 23 years as a “drop zone” owner. His skydiving and aviation careers have been linear, intersecting at times. Seeing his dad jump on the weekends back when the industry was “really casual,” Hall awaited the chance to free fall himself and seized the opportunity while in high school once he turned 18. At the same time, he had interests in pursuing a career as a professional pilot, but ultimately opted not to. He continued skydiving as a hobby on the weekends. Being in the Midwest, operations are “seasonal and on the weekends,” but he still managed to make around 2,000 jumps in a five-year period. During that time, he also became a jumpmaster, aerial photographer and skydiving instructor.
As time went on, Hall became interested in the operational side of the industry. He had moved to Chicago and missed his home drop zone in Missouri that had since closed. At 25 years old, he started discussions with his dad and began working on a business plan to open a skydiving center together in the Kansas City area.
Airport selection is a key consideration when opening a drop zone. Having pitched their business to more than 25 airports in the area, they landed an agreement with their current field to open their business. Skydive Kansas City, rebranded as Skydive KC, was founded in 1998.
Roughly an hour southeast of downtown, Butler Memorial Airport (KBUM) has one asphalt runway (18/36, 3,999 feet x 75 feet) and is home to primarily general aviation businesses and traffic. This type of relatively quiet airport is good for drop zones, especially on good weather Saturdays and Sundays when parachutes fill the sky.
A common skydiving aircraft amongst operators, even those who also operate larger aircraft, is the Cessna 182 which has been the hallmark of Skydive KC for several years. “We bought a 1956 Cessna 182, which is the best year for this type of jump plane, in my opinion. Sitting at around 1,500 pounds empty and rated to 2,500 pounds MTOW, there are a few hundred pounds more of useful weight than other 182s,” Hall said.
While their first year of jumping was “rough,” (the internet is a key advertising tool for the business and had not become mainstream yet) they awaited favorable winds. Those came the following year and Hall began working toward his private pilot certificate. “If I am going to own the aircraft and make payments on it, it would probably be best for me to learn how to fly it, as well,” he recalls telling himself.
This philosophy helped him steer the business successfully over the next decade. While personally gaining additional ratings, including instrument and multi-engine, the business added another 1956 Cessna 182 that they modified to a jump plane via FAA 337 Field Approvals. This addition allowed them to continue increasing the number of loads flown each weekend.
With the additional level of traffic, in 2011, a personal connection and airline captain reached out to him with an idea. He owned a Beechcraft Twin Bonanza and thought that it would make a suitable skydiving aircraft, and Hall agreed. They worked to find another Twin Bonanza that could be used for the mission. The agreement was that the airline captain would purchase the aircraft and lease it back to the drop zone, an easy way Skydive KC could increase load sizes and jump altitudes. While choosing the aircraft type over others was not arrived at quickly, it was not the best for the mission and only lasted three months. Hall noted that the twin “was a good plane, just not for [skydiving operations].”
The two men were not deterred by their initial aircraft selection and were determined to find the right aircraft and that’s when the King Air was suggested. As it had with the previous twin, the aircraft would be a leaseback and be a low-level risk experiment for Hall as a business owner.
Through extensive research, they determined the “ideal” characteristics of a King Air jump plane candidate:
- A 90 model of some variant
- A corporate aircraft in its previous life (i.e., not currently modified for jump operations)
- Relatively modern instrument panel
- Mid-time with no damage history
- An aircraft meeting most of these needs was located and quickly introduced to the drop zone’s run schedule in September 2001. Hall immediately became a tenant in the right seat of the chosen 1976 C90 (serial LJ-701).
The aircraft worked great for the drop zone and enabled them to advertise some of the region’s highest jumps (14,000 feet MSL). In 2016, his partner had the chance to lease the King Air to another business for year-round use. Since Hall had collected five years of experience with the aircraft model, he wanted to find another one. This time he added additional criteria to his search for the perfect airplane:
An E90 model (with roughly only 350 made, the overall pool size is slim). Hall likes this model due to its PT6A-28 engines and the King Air 200’s gravity fed fuel system, among other reasons.
Incorporation of modifications, such as a four-blade Hartzell prop, Frakes exhaust or various Raisbeck modifications, or the ability to do so financially.
The following year, N83FE (serial LW-219) was acquired. A byproduct of years of hard work and planning, the aircraft is Hall’s personal pride and joy. As such, all flying and maintenance is held to the highest standards. “I am the sole pilot of the aircraft until the right guy comes along,” he said. “All it takes is one bad start or gear up landing to ruin my career, something that runs through my mind on each flight.”
And unlike corporate flying, skydiving flights are not taken one or two a day. In 2020, only operating 32 days due to COVID and weather, Skydive KC flew 463 King Air loads. Each load averaged 12.8 jumpers and coupled with the drop zones’ other aircraft, took nearly 7,000 people (some more than once) on an unforgettable adventure.
As evidenced by Skydive KC’s years of flying King Airs, it is economically viable to operate a twin turboprop in support of skydiving. On a good day with full loads, operating a King Air is more than twice as economically beneficial compared to a Cessna 182.
For Skydive KC, jumping typically begins in April of each year and ends in late October. The down months are when most heavy maintenance is completed. Preventative maintenance and other needed tasks are a year-round affair, and mostly completed by Hall. He has had his A&P license since 2003 and estimates that the aircraft is on jacks every two or three weeks being inspected.
For larger tasks, such as hot section inspections and avionics upgrades, a trusted few have worked on the aircraft in the past decade. Among these companies are Higdon Aviation (Griffin, Georgia), Precision Avionics (Griffin, Georgia) and Clemens Aviation (Benton, Kansas), all of whom Hall gives positive reviews.
Flying a different mission profile than most King Airs, there are some maintenance differences between this aircraft and its more “straight and level” counterparts. Among these are the aircraft going through three to four pairs of tires a season, and heavy gear use, seeing 20 cycles (five hours) added during a good day of jumping.
And while many skydiving aircraft are not aesthetically pleasing or “updated,” this 44-year-old bird is up to 21st century standards. As Hall notes, he is “only the current caretaker of the aircraft; ensuring it’s well taken care of until it’s time to go to a new owner.” The aircraft previously had a basic King Air instrument panel and Garmin 500 PFD (TAS/WAAS), prior to the ADS-B mandate, that has since been updated with a new center stack, brand new Garmin GTN750XI and Garmin 345/355 dual ADS receivers, all installed by Precision Avionics in 2020.
Operationally, the aircraft is loaded with the left side engine idle and feathered, with the right still turning (commonly referred to as a “hot load”). The aircraft is normally shut down fully after four loads, or around one hour of flight time. From ground to jump altitude, it takes an average of eight to nine minutes.
As the King Air nears 14,000 feet MSL, Hall, who hand flies the airplane roughly 98% of the time, reduces power back to around 1,900 RPM. He will typically reduce the right engine to around 700 pounds of torque and the left to around 450, so that prop blast is reduced for jumpers exiting. Throughout the climb, he is monitoring CTAF and speaking with Kansas City Center, which is interested in knowing once jumpers are underway. As he gets closer to leveling out, the jumpers will open the retractable door when the light is red. Soon thereafter, the green light will turn on signaling jumpers they are free to proceed.
Hall notes that loading and subsequent inflight unloading is an important aspect of the mission. Careful not to load the aircraft aft – a common denominator in some King Air skydiving accidents – he ensures that all skydivers are seated within their noted spots.
Outside the aircraft, above the door, there is a 5-foot-long grab bar that jumpers can hold onto if they desire. Three or four jumpers can use this grab bar (there is also a step they stand on) at one time. If more than a few skydivers are out there holding on, it is even more critical for the pilot to carry more airspeed and pitch slightly downward.
Once all jumpers are out of the plane, verified by looking at the fisheye mirror above the compass, the aircraft begins its aggressive descent. The King Air heads toward terra firma at roughly 4,000-5,000 feet a minute at 180 to 200 knots when in smooth air. Entering the traffic pattern and aware of jumpers, Hall completes another few “GUMPS” checks to ensure the gear is down.
If there were tandem jumpers on the flight, he typically beats them back to earth. They usually land once he’s already back at the hangar picking up the next load. All in all, the trip takes about 15 minutes from door to door.
As Hall sums up, “The King Air works great for us as it’s fast to altitude, comfortable for the ride up and is relatively low-cost versus other more expensive aircraft used in the industry. Having two big PT6 engines gives me peace of mind compared to single engine planes.”
For more information go to: https://skydivekc.com/
Grant Boyd is a private pilot with seven years of experience in general aviation business from marketing to customer service. He has written more than 85 articles for aviation publications and enjoys learning about aircraft/pilots with unique missions. Grant can be reached at grantboyd2015@gmail.com.