GTA parachute drop?

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Gator596

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Was out for a walk this morning at around 10:00 local and saw a large two engine prop plane with a T tail orbiting around the south side of Lake Ontario near St.Catharines. It was quite high up and seemed to have a red and blue tail. I didn't have my scanner with me arggggh!!
Got home and turned on the scanner and heard the YYZ Grimsby Sector controller on 133.3 working what was either callsign "GAHB" or "Fedex(unk#) coordinating a run to release jumpers.
I've never heard that kind of activity on that frequency before. Does anybody know what was going on and where?
 

acurayyz

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C-GAHB is a single engine home-build aircraft and FedEx would not be operating a two engine prop in the area (and not dropping anyone).
 

ATCTech

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C-GAHB is a single engine home-build aircraft and FedEx would not be operating a two engine prop in the area (and not dropping anyone).

Why not? Express delivery, signature not required! Nobody said there was a person under the parachute did they? <G>
 

mikewazowski

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Toronto Centre on 124.025Mhz out of the Midland area coordinates with the New Lowell parachute school.

I would have thought they were too low to bother with so I was also surprised when I heard them.
 

acurayyz

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C-GDDI comes back to being registered to the Southwestern Ontario Organization Of Parachutists.
 

CanWoodsman

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C-GDDI comes back to being registered to the Southwestern Ontario Organization Of Parachutists.
AKA - SWOOP
Based out of Dundas Air Plaza, on Highway #5 near Hamilton.
Formerly based out of Simcoe & before that Grand Bend.
tandem-(25).jpg
 
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ChrisSkydiver

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Swoop operates a Cessna 206 and 2 182 = Single engine small cessnas.

Skydive toronto operates a Cessna Caravan which is also a single engine, yet much larger than a 182.


The only twin engine T-tail jump plane that I'm aware of in that area would be Parachute School of Toronto who operates this Shorts Skyvan:

Video is by yours truly: A quick skydive with Minna - YouTube

Here's a link to the plane on airliners.net:
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N50NS
 
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CanWoodsman

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Swoop operates a Cessna 206 and 2 182 = Single engine small cessnas ....
The only twin engine T-tail jump plane that I'm aware of in that area would be Parachute School of Toronto who operates this Shorts Skyvan:
The reason for my post with the photo which clearly shows C-GDDI is not a twin engined t- tail.
 

ChrisSkydiver

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Wasn't trying to trump anyone, I just wanted to share which dropzone's ran which planes to find the likely plane which the OP saw.

I would find it very unlikely that PST's plane would be on the south side of Lake Ontario, but who knows. I think what may be more likely is that the OP saw a twin engined T tail aircraft unrelated to skydiving, and then picked up a communication from one of the area dropzones.

When they're dropping us, they have to make calls to get radar clearance to notify other planes in the area if they may enter our airspace during our jump. When they're at 13,000ft on jump run, you could pick up those radio calls many miles away. Line of sight basically.
 

Gator596

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Thanx

Thanks for all the replies. I think I got the mystery solved, and it is likely closest to what Skydiver said - the big T tail was probably un-related to the the comms I heard.
Turns out the Niagara District Airport was having an open house to celebrate their recent re-modeling. They ended up having a pretty good collection of static and live aircraft displays. They likely had the parachutists doing their thing. Later in the afternoon I saw a glider being ferry towed away from the area and It reminded me that I heard "glider ops" being mentioned with the jumper run comms.

We still have the the mystery of the T tail.... I remember seeing a similar plane doing similar orbits during the G20. I wonder if it was connected to the Layton funeral?
 
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ChrisSkydiver

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Hey Gator,

I'm curious what you mean by T-tail as it can be construed many ways. I'm a plane nut, so I'm curious to figure out the plane. Do you recall if it sounded like a turbo prop, or a radial engine? (eg: Steady "whistle", or pounding sort of like a harley). Can you provide any additional details? Ie: was it long, short, fat, wing shape, noise, any odd features etc?

A very common T-tail is the Dash-8 (Flown by many airlines, most likely Air Canada Jazz)
Bombardier Dash 8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The military does use a T tail in the same family, but it's a 4 engine Dash 7
de Havilland Canada Dash 7 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Depending on your definition of T-tail, could it be a Twin Otter?
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For most military transport, the Cdn Govt runs a Challenger Jet (T-tail, but not prop driven)
Bombardier Challenger 600 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RCMP run a Pilatus PC-12 (T tail, but single engine)
Pilatus PC-12 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I believe someone runs a medical transport using a Super King Air (T tail, twin turboprop)
Beechcraft Super King Air - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Those are my guesses based on the info given. If it was a radial engine aircraft, it could be one of many possible aircraft which I'd never guess without a photo or something.

Thanks!
 

Gator596

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Hi Chris,
I would say it was most like the Dash 8 in every respect. I wish I could provide more detail, but he was pretty high up.
Thanks for your interest,
 
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