>
> Obviously they'd have the aircraft well
> away from the landing zone whilst that happens.
>
The World Freefall Convention (RIP) used to be held in Quincy, Illinois,
when I was living there. It was absolutely insane--you'd have skydivers
landing ON THE RUNWAY while flight-ops were going on. Stupid. How we ever
survived without mid-air collisions is beyond me. There were always some
drunk and naked skydivers aiming for the intersection of the two runways.
There was a recommended "landing zone", but the only ones using it were the
registered jump schools. Of course, a large number of divers never actually
landed back at the airport, but instead would emerge from farm fields like a
cross between "Children of the Corn" and "Field of Dreams".
BTW, you've seen nothing until you seen a packed 727 empty out in-flight
within seconds.
Years ago, at the Paris Air Show, I saw a flight demonstration of a
helicopter swinging a Volkswagon around. I thought it was my imagination,
but my dad confirmed it recently. They actually had it all inverted--the
helicopter was upside-down and the car was swung out above it. Without the
car they were doing rolls and loops with the helicopter. This was also the
year the F16 was first demonstrated in earnest. On the takeoff roll the
plane went vertical at the halfway point down the runway, it climbed
straight up before doing what looked like a hammerhead, then came screaming
back down to earth in the ascent's smoke trail, then pulled to horizontal at
the last possible second, continuing down the rest of the runway at no more
than 200' altitude. The entire routine looked like something straight out of
a Leo Laudenslager routine.
AG
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