Posted for "JJ JOHNSON" <JJJOHNSON@ACCESSCOMM.CA>:

Hey Jeff, just as an addition to this subject. I had the experiance once of
losing a jumper due to early deployment off a 182 I was flying[this happened
like 4 yrs ago]. The jumper went straight back and hit the tail. I kicked
rudder as soon as I saw his bag drop from his container. His left ankle hit
the outter end of the stab about 2.5"-3" in from the end. When I finally got
the thing down, the damage was pretty extensive, totaled the h-stab and bent
the tail section of the 182. I was going ~ 85mph when he left and even if he
drop'd half that speed and hit the tail at 40ish mph [difference in speed]
w/ only his ankle...  it just goes to show how much damage can come from so
little. The crazy thing was that all he lost was his shoe[ no broken bones],
and jumped again later that day![Damage= Jumper  $30; Jump plane  ~$50,000]
I had all the rest of the jumpers leave as soon as it happened and then took
my seat belt off as I was ready to jump as well. Things were really wobbling
around back there. When I decided I could maintain control [ just checked by
using mininum movement of the yoke for both roll and pitch] I stayed at the
85 mph and didn't use any flaps or trim to land [the 182 has a full moving
stab]  and tried to be as gentle as I could. Anyway this is kind of
different from a bird but goes to show how so little can do so much. [ maybe
a divers `ankle' isn't .. so little, I dunno]

Jarrett Johnson
235/320