I copied this post off RC Canada forum.
Juan, I think this guy has you beat on the long distance jump.

GaryV

http://www.rccanada.ca/rccforum/showthread.php?p=649054

I have a radio controlled skydiver that I acquired from a friend of mine. It is an older but very nice RC skydiver with a large 40” rectangular canopy (We skydivers call them “squares”).

Mechanically it works fine but the arm activation mechanism is subject to damaging the servos on landing. I had a chance to examine Dave Naylor’s version and can tell you his version is better than the one I have. I plan to modify my skydivers arm mechanism to Dave Naylors style because his is less likely to cause servo damage on landing.

But I have a great story about this skydiver I would like to share. It even explains how I acquired it.

Many years ago (mid 80’s) when Byron was still making large RC aircraft, we were impressed with a video of one of their shows they put on. On the video they showed a bunch of RC skydivers. These skydivers would fall several hundred feet before their parachutes opened. NEATO!!!. Well, my friend Les just had to have one of these. So he ordered one up and quickly put it together.
Finally it was all put together and I had my “workhorse” at the field. It was a Unionville cricket that had been modified with a bomb release, a Glider Piggyback mechanism and an On-board camera. That plane could do everything!
Les showed up with his RC skydiver and couldn’t wait to get it up. I offered my plane, but another guy had a giant 12 foot Senior Telemaster that had a bomb-bay. Les was enamored with it. So they stuff his skydiver into the bomb-bay and up they go. They climb to about 500’ and get over the “Drop Zone”. On the signal, the pilot pops the bomb-bay and…..NOTHING!. We could see the hatch was open but the skydiver didn’t want to come out. “I know!” says the Pilot. “I will yank some G’s and the skydiver will pop out!” So he puts the plane into a slight dive to pick up speed and then hauls back on the stick and…… THE WING SNAPS OFF!!! LOL…HA HA… the plane spirals in with the skydiver still inside. BAMMO! The plane was destroyed and the skydiver servos damaged. Back to the drawing board. Earth 1, Skydiver 0.

Next week, Les shows up with his repaired skydiver. We strap the skydiver under the belly of my workhorse and up we go. I took him to about 500’ and got over the drop point. On command I flip the switch to the bomb release and Mr skydiver makes a clean exit. This skydiver is a full free-fall version that has a drogue (pilot) chute that pulls out the main chute when the release is activated by moving the skydiver’s arms. Well, this skydiver is falling at terminal velocity and he is going straight for the center of the runway….and….Nothing. I am flying my plane and watching the skydiver at the same time. BAMMO! The skydiver goes straight in.
Earth 2, Skydiver 0.

After I landed we did a quick investigation. For some reason, the main paracute release mechanism didn’t activate. But everything else seemed OK. So after a quick repack and check, we strapped him to my airplane and up we went. When I got to 500’, I got onto jump run when Les (standing next to me) says “Higher!”, so I circled around and got to 1000’. On release, the skydiver was supposed to freefall to a lower altitude before opening but when I hit the switch, the parachute opened immediately after release. So here is this nice square canopy WAAAAY the hell up there. In seconds I land and shut down. Meanwhile, the parachute has done a 180 degree turn and is flying away from the field. I turned to Les and ask him “why didn’t you freefall first?” he said he didn’t want to take a chance with it not opening so he popped the main parachute while it was still attached to my plane. DOH!!!. If I’d have known that I would have insisted we do the drop at 200’ or so, but hey, it was *his* skydiver, and he did tell me to climb higher….

Now I am watching this skydiver at 1000’ still heading in a southwesterly heading away from the field. I turn to Les and say “you’d better bring it back…” To which he replied “I don’t have control”. I said “you’d better get in your car NOW!!! and start driving. “No”, he said, “I’ll watch to see where he lands then I will go get it”
Remember, this thing is at 1000’ and I figure it will be a while before it lands. Finally after about 15 minutes and its getting small in the horizon when Les realizes he’d better get in his car and start chasing it.
He comes back about 2 hours later.. No skydiver. Les said he followed the skydiver as best as he could bet he got smaller and smaller on the horizon. He never did see it land. Mr Skydiver was never seen again. Or so we thought.

Fast forward about 5 years. I am at the field when this farmer shows up keen to learn about model airplanes. After a while, he asks if anyone has ever had an RC skydiver. I tell him we had one but we lost it 5 years ago. He asks me to describe it so I did. Red jumpsuit and Light blue square canopy. He goes to his pickup and pulls out THE SKYDIVER!!!. He found it in a tree on his farm that spring. But here is the best part. His farm was located 24 kilometers southwest of the flying field (that’s 15 MILES!!!). here is a google map of where it started and where it ended up: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&sourc...=UTF8&t=h&z=11

I scooped the skydiver and when I got home I tried to find my friend. By this time, Les had moved several times and he already quit the hobby after many frustrating failures. I finally managed to track him down and called him up. I told him I had his skydiver. He told me to keep it, he didn’t want it back.

I still have that skydiver. It has served me well and I expect to continue using it for many, many more years.