Parachute Zones

Parachuting has become much more popular in recent years and far more dangerous to us. Most parachuting used to be done below cloud base and there was very little free falling. We could see what was going on, generally large coloured parachutes with men underneath falling at about 10 knots. Now free falling from over 10 000 feet is common. We often can't see the dropping aircraft, as it is climbing above cloud for several minutes. Parachutists are falling around, and occasionally through, cloud at 100 knots. You are extremely unlikely to see them before they hit you. The only safe option is to keep clear of the parachute sites.

The most active sites are lited below and their zones must never be entered unless you get definite confirmation that they are not operating.

South Cerney

Brize Norton (119.0MHz) know if they aee active but will generally say "active all day".

Weston On The Green

Oxford Gliding Club operates from the same airfield and may tell you about parachuting activity on 130.1 MHz. Brize Norton (119.0 MHz) know if they are active but will generally say "active all day".

Hinton in the Hedges

A very busy commercial opeartion (closed on Mondays). A collision between a parachutist and a Ka 8 occured last year, it was fatal for both. Free fall parachutists recently came within a reported 10 feet of 3 gliders. The glider pilots are being prosecuted as the parachutists read their numbers. Hinton have a telescope that enables them to read gliders' numbers at up to 6000 feet.

Redlands

Just SE of Swindon. Now active most of the time. Lyneham know if they are active but will generally say "active all day".

Sibson

West of Peterborough.

Langar

Just NE of the East Midlands Zone.

I strongly recommend that everyone who flies cross-country has a GPS with airspace on it. The small Garmins with the simple Crabb software are perfectly adequate at a total of £250. Looking out of the window is clearly essential but a little circle getting gradually closer on the moving map is a very good wake up call.

Tim Macfadyen, 2 July 2003.