After an uneventful tandemvideo i pulled at 1000m (3000ft) an immediatly noticed a very "soft" opening shock. i looked up and noticed 2 linetwists, slider was still up. it didnīt take long for the canopy to start spinning. after what i thought were 3 complete turns i decided to cutaway and hung under a good reserve at 400m (1200ft). i kept all my handles (and was really surprised about it!), found my main and freebag on the way to the packing hangar.
canopy is a crossfire2 119 loaded @ 1.8
what really happened:
1) i had prepared myself for such a malfunction for a long time and my plan was to give the canopy maximum 3 spins to recover and then to cut away. for me it was very important to have this plan, because without i probably would have wasted precious time trying to recover from the spins.
2) i had learned to do my EPīs with one hand on each handle and thatīs how i tried to do it, but i couldīnt pull my cutaway handle with just one hand. iīm 1,91m and i weigh 92kg, i do a lot of workout and i would not consider myself weak. i had to waste time and use my 2 hands to pull.
i have already ordered hard housings for my riser and iīve changed my EP drills -> 2 hands for cutaway.
3) after cutting away i had a really hard time to regain a stable belly to earth position. in fact i didnīt and had to pull the reserve in a slight head-down position. it took me 6 to 7 seconds between cutaway and reserve pull. in those 6 seconds i remembered all the incident reports iīve read, where other skydivers waited too long to pull the reserve and bounced. time and altitude awareness is critical.
After an uneventful tandemvideo i pulled at 1000m (3000ft) an immediatly noticed a very "soft" opening shock. i looked up and noticed 2 linetwists, slider was still up. it didnīt take long for the canopy to start spinning. after what i thought were 3 complete turns i decided to cutaway and hung under a good reserve at 400m (1200ft). i kept all my handles (and was really surprised about it!), found my main and freebag on the way to the packing hangar.
canopy is a crossfire2 119 loaded @ 1.8
what really happened:
1) i had prepared myself for such a malfunction for a long time and my plan was to give the canopy maximum 3 spins to recover and then to cut away. for me it was very important to have this plan, because without i probably would have wasted precious time trying to recover from the spins.
2) i had learned to do my EPīs with one hand on each handle and thatīs how i tried to do it, but i couldīnt pull my cutaway handle with just one hand. iīm 1,91m and i weigh 92kg, i do a lot of workout and i would not consider myself weak. i had to waste time and use my 2 hands to pull.
i have already ordered hard housings for my riser and iīve changed my EP drills -> 2 hands for cutaway.
3) after cutting away i had a really hard time to regain a stable belly to earth position. in fact i didnīt and had to pull the reserve in a slight head-down position. it took me 6 to 7 seconds between cutaway and reserve pull. in those 6 seconds i remembered all the incident reports iīve read, where other skydivers waited too long to pull the reserve and bounced. time and altitude awareness is critical.
CONGRATS!!! on surviving. As to stable, well... better pull a bit unstable/head down than spend the rest of your life trying to get stable. (A local DZ lost one that way years ago )
Apr 19, 2007, 3:14 PM
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Re: [sgt_ludy] 1st cutaway and reserve ride - some thoughts
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... 3) after cutting away i had a really hard time to regain a stable belly to earth position. in fact i didnīt and had to pull the reserve in a slight head-down position. it took me 6 to 7 seconds between cutaway and reserve pull. in those 6 seconds i remembered all the incident reports iīve read, where other skydivers waited too long to pull the reserve and bounced. time and altitude awareness is critical.
Glad you didn't die. Lots of dead people did just what you did. This is either a good advertisement for the Skyhook, or "note to self" pull immediately.
Apr 19, 2007, 3:24 PM
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Re: [sgt_ludy] 1st cutaway and reserve ride - some thoughts
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After nearly going in under a hard spinning main that I could not cutaway, even with two hands, I would never, ever consider jumping a small main without hard housings in the risers. I can't believe people are still jumping gear without them.
Apr 19, 2007, 6:38 PM
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Re: [SkymonkeyONE] 1st cutaway and reserve ride - some thoughts
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After nearly going in under a hard spinning main that I could not cutaway, even with two hands, I would never, ever consider jumping a small main without hard housings in the risers. I can't believe people are still jumping gear without them.
Chuck
I second that without the caveat related to small mains. I had a hardcutaway on a Spectre 210 with a lineover that spun it into line twist...It makes no sense to not have hard housings in your risers....no matter the size of you main.
(This post was edited by mbondvegas on Apr 19, 2007, 6:38 PM)
Apr 20, 2007, 4:53 AM
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Re: [sundevil777] 1st cutaway and reserve ride - some thoughts
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sure, no offense taken...
no, i didnīt peel the cutaway handle off the velcro, but i donīt think the hard pull was induced by the velcro. i ripped the handle off the velcro, and THEN came the hard pull on the cutaway handle. on the video it seems to me that both risers donīt come off simultaneously (spelling?). you can see the riser come off and then it seems that after one second iīm in freefall again.
thanks for all the "good job staying alive"... it wasnīt that hard...but it was not as easy as i had always imagined it would be.
(This post was edited by sgt_ludy on Apr 20, 2007, 6:37 AM)
Apr 23, 2007, 12:48 PM
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Re: [SwampThing] 1st cutaway and reserve ride - some thoughts
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i found it, no way i could have followed it down, but i saw where it went down... brand new crossfire2 with just 7 jumps! man, i was happy! and the freebag just lay there, on the way to the hangar... nice
(This post was edited by sgt_ludy on Apr 23, 2007, 12:50 PM)
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