Hey folks... I AM a student (Gee... Is it ok for me to post here?
I'm glad you did. I remember a classic "dumb" student from a long time ago; he never touched his toggles, and we talked about him for a long time afterward.
I happened to talk to him about 5 years later in a non-skydiving setting (he never came back after his first jump). He said he never saw them, and then explained why -- on his main (round), the toggles had simply been passed through the connector links, and therefore were up there. They kind of blended right in to his eyes, since they weren't used to what was a toggle and what wasn't.
Sensory overload is powerful; some stupid things are simply massive misinterpretation of the evidence under its power.
C-206 w/ cargo door. S/L student chickens out when door opens & rides plane down. Comes back next weekend "ready to jump" now. At 1000 feet, JM unhooks student's "Hooker" seatbelt & turns his radio on. While JM is spotting, student hooks seatbelt back around his legstrap. JM doesn't notice, student jumps and falls about 2 feet. Whap-whap-whap against the bottom of the plane, JM finds hookknife & cuts seatbelt. Normal deployment & landing (he actually made the landing area). When JM lands, student says "wow, the fall before the parachute opened lasted longer than I expected" and didn't remember flopping around under the plane at all. It was only after being told what happened that he recalled hooking the seatbelt back up because he was scared he'd fall out.
>The tandem that pulled on me at 9k since he misread the alti was a fun one too...
Hey folks... I AM a student (Gee... Is it ok for me to post here? )
Anyway... I was doing my AFF II this past weekend and I took my 63yo father to the DZ to do a Tandem.
I was on the 2nd to last load and my Dad went up on the last. I was filling in my log book and debriefing after my jump when me and the JM saw the canopies descending from the last jump. We BS'd, smoked (Do ALL skydivers smoke?) and drank a beer as well as finished our debrief. At least five full minutes passed when my JM looked up and said "What the hell is that?"
It turns out that "that" was my dad. He got confused right after exit and when the JM tapped his shoulders to uncross his arms he reached back and pulled the rip cord. Altitude: 12,500 ft.
Not a big deal though. I mean, heck - he got IN the plane and jumped out of it. He did what he set out to do. Damn long canopy ride though...
Another thing... He paid $69 for a video. The video is approximately 8 seconds long! LoL
He may not have had much freefall time, but if he got comfortable enough in the tandem harness I bet it was a pretty cool canopy ride (I really enjoy the view under canopy)
I'm not sure about stupid but I've always thought this was funny. A friend of mine was going through AFP and on every jump was scared to get right next to the door for exit. His JM told him on his last jump that he needed to get closer to the door.
His response:
"It feels like I'm gonna fall out if I get any closer"
This guy never did finish his AFP and has not jumped for the last 3 years.....I guess he was to afraid of falling out of the plane...haha
The first time I saw that video of Lutz on TV, he also claimed no one told him what to do if there was no parachute over his head! Duh, I'm sure someone mentioned TOTAL MALFUNCTION sometime during the 8 hours of AFF training! The guy definitely gets my vote for the biggest idiot and biggest jerk awards.
Let's not forget that some students are made to feel stupid by their instructors. I jumped at Byron Bay in Australia a while back and their safety officer was so offensive I felt like an idiot for having done nothing wrong
I was probably the worst student to ever get cleared for freefall at my DZ back in 1975.You name it,I did it "Wrong".Got there out of just pure(Not Giving Up)!!!!!!!!!!!!Instructor said start doing it right or take up bowling!That was enough!
Don't feel so bad - One of my JM's gave me the old "skydiving isn't for everyone" speech. I kept dearching and going feet first so I had to do L1 3 times. To my credit, I did pull on my own on every jump, never lost altitude awareness, and never landed off the DZ. My primary JM kept telling me to stay with it and I got a new reserve JM - the new arrangement worked out well and I got through AFF. Of course, now I can't stand up again for the life of me - figures...
this happened when I was actually a student, not to me though but I was on the load.
I was on static line progression getting set for my first clear and pull, I was going to be the second one out of the 182 so I was sitting behind the pilot, a great view for all this.
Jumper #1 goes to climb out, looses his footing and almost falls off the plane, but is still holding the strut with one hand. He muscles his other arm back up to the strut and pulled himself back up onto the step. Then he proceedes to maneuver his way to the edge of the strut and get into a hanging position, then looks back at the instructor to get the go signal like nothing had happened.
At this point I forget I'm about to do my first freefall and just start laughing hysterically. After getting the signal and letting go of the strut, the student dearched and dumped on his back. one of his line sets wrapped around his shoe and his parachute deployed in a slight turn with him hanging upside down underneath it. He kicked out of his shoe and got flipped right side up, and had an otherwise uneventful canopy ride.
After his exit the jumpmaster signaled to the pilot to circle around so she could watch and make sure he get his foot unstuck.
At this point I suddenly remember I'm doing my first freefall and start worrying, asking everyone frantically if the guy was okay. I was assured he was and I was able to make my first freefall just fine.
Regarding the Lutz videos. I don't know if the original incorrect version was on RealTV or Maximum Exposure. I do know that Fox aired the same footage on "Stupid Behavior Caught on Tape" sometime this past summer. That version explained that he pulled the cutaway among other mistakes and was in general a dumbass (aka "Lutz").
Maybe not stupid but definitely 'student from hell':
Older gent, spent extra time with him in Ground School going over AFF1 dive.
The dive itself was bad but nothing I have not seen before in my huge, grand total of 4 months as an AFF instructor. I'm on main side, so I track away as soon as I see the pilot chute clear the BOC pouch.
I open, look around for the student, can't see him for a bit then I see him FALL BELOW ME.
He has a partially inflated main; looks like maybe a stuck slider. I turn to get closer and by that time, I see main take off/reserve open.
Then, to my horror, I realize he has line twists and is flying backwards! He doesn't do anything about the twists; I try to get his attention but he serenely flies backwards towards a gully where the train tracks are.
Even though he opened below me I am quickly getting lower than him; he is flying calmly and stately towards a really crappy section of land (hills trees and teeny tiny fields with big bales of hay in them). I decide to turn and land in a field I know I can land in.
For 3 minutes I am cursing up a storm, fearful I just witnessed my first skydiving death. A bunch of friendly locals (bless 'em) help me locate my student: he was fine - scraped nose was it.
Extra twist to the tale - his cutaway handle wasn't pulled. Said he couldn't find it; just pulled his reserve. There is something to be said for SOS systems.
-Sandy (Billy told me there would be students like this)
Just saw one on "what were you thinking" on TLC. This time the announcer and the student fully admitted it was pure stupidity. Guy has a decent AFF 1. Clearly nervous and everything but he does fine and deploys himself. At 300 feet, under a nice canopy, ready to land, he cuts away. Reserve is snivelling as he hits the ground. Why'd he do it? He has no clue. He was just nervous.
I dont think he wins the stupidest student award but thats a pretty good one.
He was barely injured, btw. Too bad he didnt go buy a lottery ticket afterwards.
Let's not forget that some students are made to feel stupid by their instructors. I jumped at Byron Bay in Australia a while back and their safety officer was so offensive I felt like an idiot for having done nothing wrong __________________________________ thats is sadly true. i had one like that when i was a student. and to all students and newbies reading this thread: its all in good fun. theres not a skydiver here who didnt screw up, or say stupid things. it just so much fun to look back and laugh about it now. in no way does anyone wish to make students feel silly. we were all students.
Regarding the Lutz videos. I don't know if the original incorrect version was on RealTV or Maximum Exposure. I do know that Fox aired the same footage on "Stupid Behavior Caught on Tape" sometime this past summer. That version explained that he pulled the cutaway among other mistakes and was in general a dumbass (aka "Lutz").
At least somene at the Fox network has some degree of common sense. Does anybody know where I can Download the Fox version of Mr. Lutz?
That POS real player. I hate the whole REAL company....crappy software if you ask me. The only thing good about em is they seem to be able to cram pretty long movies into small file sizes.
Was this the african american british guy. that chopped over trees? I was told that he was heading toward some powerlines and chopped because he didn't know what else to do.
No!I've just watched the movie.It's some dumb f!*k with total brain lock that bullshits to the TV people in the name of sensationalist entertainment. African/American/British.No,just exactly what planet is he on....
Interesting - I've been using and digitizing in Real format for years and years now and find it to be just as reliable given a stable machine as anything else out there. imho of course...
Your right, I've never had any technical problems with it, it is a stable player. I just don't like the player itself...it just annoys me. I would much rather use Winamp or WMP to play movies.
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