Humor - Jump Pilot Problems

Meet Mickey Nuttall the ultimate Body Pilot!

One of the perks of being a Jump Pilot is that I get to meet some unique and super cool people. On a recent trip to Dallas I was honored to meet Mickey Nuttall, one of the best skydivers in the world. He happens to be good friends with my girlfriend Renee, they went to high school together and he actually introduced her to skydiving over a year ago. He was in Dallas coaching at the iFly wind tunnel where we met up with him.

Photo by Marvel Studios - Mickey Nuttall in the film Iron Man 3

After he was done coaching Renee, the three of us went to lunch where I was able to ask him a few questions about his very interesting career in skydiving.

Mickey started skydiving 20 years ago and I could tell that he is still passionate about it after all these years, which I can relate to with aviation. He has numerous gold medals from US Nationals, holds world records and has performed stunt skydives in popular television shows such as CSI Miami, The Unit and the infamous Jackass rigless skydive! He has also performed stunt skydives in the film Iron Man 3 and doubled for Will Smith for the KCA 2012 awards show.

Mickey Nuttall at iFly Dallas

He also enjoys BASE jumping, wingsuiting and speedflying. He lives in Colorado where he also loves snowboarding. Mickey's home drop zone is Skydive Chicago but you can find him touring the country competing and coaching at wind tunnel camps. If you need a first class skydive coach or tandem instructor contact him on his site Body Pilots!

Stay sharp this Winter

There's usually not as much flying for us Jump Pilots this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, reference the snowy photo below.  But there is plenty of other aviation related things that you can do to keep your head in the game.  

Read a book that your eyes haven't seen since pilot school, network with other pilots, go "split" some time with a pilot friend and add to your Actual Instrument and Cross Country time or go to a free aviation seminar.  Find some interesting seminar topics on the AOPA site or the FAA site, find their Events List here.  Most recently they presented a seminar titled "iPad in the cockpit". By the way if you haven't subscribed to Fore Flight, do yourself a favor and look into this super helpful ap.

Louisiana Rainbow

I caught a picture of a nice rainbow over Louisiana after throwing out some skydivers in the Grand Caravan.  Constant beautiful views, yet another perk to my job!

Keeping an eye on the kids!

Here's a photo of me at "work" at Skydive Houston awhile ago.  I have a small mirror that I use to keep an eye on those crazy guys behind me...lol  If you look carefully you will count 11 skydivers back there, a larger load for a "Mini Van" (smaller Caravan) during the Summer time.

Harmon Rocket at Golden West Airshow Marysville California

Here is a photo of the Harmon Rocket airplane that I spoke of in the prior post.  This is obviously from my view inside the airplane before I dropped the skydiver with the huge American flag! We were in a holding pattern together south of the airshow waiting for our call to fly over the airshow when this photo was taken. You can see that we're in a slight right bank. I was flying a C182 ... with dirty windows ... lol

American flag demo jump over Golden West Airshow in Marysville, CA

I dropped this skydiver over the Golden West Airshow in Marysville CA in June 2010.  That flag is 20 feet tall, 40 feet long and weighs 50 pounds!  A Harmon Rocket airplane spiraled around him with smoke trailing while they played the Star Spangled Banner over loud speakers for the huge crowd.  I love flying Demo Jumps!  It was more fun than you can imagine.  They pay me to do this stuff?  Life is good!