AFF Level 5 Cutaway

[RonRandomguy 0]

Hello All,

I wanted to write this to tell everyone what happened to me on my AFF level 5 jump, in the hopes that it will help prevent others from making the same mistakes that I made.

The free-fall portion of my jump went well, and I successfully completed my maneuvers. When I deployed the pilot chute, it wrapped around my arm, causing a horseshoe malfunction. I was able to remove my arm from the entanglement, but the main chute was not properly functioning. I pulled on the risers, in the hopes that the twisted lines would correct themselves, and fully inflate my canopy, but that did not work. Instead, the twisting became worse, and I began to spin somewhat quickly.

I went through the steps that I was taught: 1) Look for my cutaway handle, and place my hand on it, 2) Locate my reserve handle, and put my hand on it, 3) Arch, pull the cutaway, then the reserve. I had trouble finding the cutaway handle though, for a couple of reasons. First, I was wearing a red jumpsuit, which was the same color as the cutaway handle, and secondly, the handle was higher up than it was while I was practicing, since the main chute was partially open. Once I located both handles, and performed the procedure, the main chute cutaway, and the reserve chute opened flawlessly.

Then, I ended up not landing on the landing zone, because apparently the reserve chute does not seem to fly quite as well as the main chute does. But, I did land on the ground, my reserve landed in the trees, and I was able to walk away from this experience unharmed, so I am VERY thankful for that.

These are the mistakes that I believe I made during the entire jump, and I have certainly learned a lot from it.

1. I had a weak pitch of my pilot chute, and I believe that I threw it more to the front of me, than to the side, or behind me. This is what caused my arm to become entangled.

2. I might have been a bit hasty to pull my reserve. I probably should have attempted other efforts to correct the malfunction, until I reached the 2500 ft altitude. Although, I do not believe that any other attempts would have been successful, but I do not know that to be 100% true.

3. Apparently, I had not managed to maintain a grip on my cutaway handle, once I had pulled it. When I reached the ground, I still had the reserve handle, but I must have let go of the cutaway handle at some point.

Anyway, I know that I was very lucky with how this jump turned out, and I have certainly learned a great deal from it. I also have more confidence that the reserve chute will deploy when needed, and that is a great feeling. I did not know at the time, but, apparently it's customary to buy the person who packed my reserve, a bottle of wine to show my thanks....I might buy him two bottles instead!

Since then, I have completed my last two AFF jumps, and have graduated.

If you happen to have any helpful feedback or advice, I'd appreciate it if you replied to this. Thanks and have a good one.

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[JerseyShawn 0]

Practice locating your cutaway handle with your eyes closed, on the ground.

Glad you're ok.

[RonRandomguy 0]

Thanks, that's good advice. I've also been practicing how to locate it by feel, by running my hands up the harness, until I reach the handles. I guess that's basically the same thing that you suggested though.

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[nigel99 143]

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If you happen to have any helpful feedback or advice, I'd appreciate it if you replied to this. Thanks and have a good one.

Ron, have a chat with Andy Whitlock about your experience. He is really accommodating and will spend time going over things with you.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[Divalent 89]

And beer for first cutaway. And beer for losing a handle.

PS, congrats on making it through in one piece. Sounds like an adventure (which I am satisfied merely experiencing vicariously through you.

[irishrigger 31]

. I had trouble finding the cutaway handle though, for a couple of reasons. First, I was wearing a red jumpsuit, which was the same color as the cutaway handle, one.

[bclark 0]

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2. I might have been a bit hasty to pull my reserve. I probably should have attempted other efforts to correct the malfunction, until I reached the 2500 ft altitude. Although, I do not believe that any other attempts would have been successful, but I do not know that to be 100% true.

With your experience I think you did the right thing. Right now you lack situational awareness. You took positive action based on your training and walked away. One day when you are more aware and experienced you may be able to fix problems you would have cutaway as a student. ( I had a couple of low speed partial malfunctions that I probably could have fixed. ) Remember, there are some that are just BAD! There are things you can't fix, and there is no point in burning altitude when you can get a canopy over your head.

Many people come to grief trying to fix things until time runs out.

Fewer have been hurt by performing proper emergency procedures in a questionable situation.

[tbrown 26]

2. I might have been a bit hasty to pull my reserve. I probably should have attempted other efforts to correct the malfunction, until I reached the 2500 ft altitude. Although, I do not believe that any other attempts would have been successful, but I do not know that to be 100% true.

[RonRandomguy 0]

Thanks, I'll see if I can track him down. I'm new to 'dropzone.com', just registered tonight, so I'm not very familiar with how everything works just yet. But, I'll figure it out, and look him up, thanks for the feedback, take care. :-)

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[CloudyHead 0]

would this be considered a high-speed malfunction? in my canadian manual they say if you can't fix a high-speed malfunction on the first try with the rear risers, ditch it right away because you're losing altitude too fast.

[RonRandomguy 0]

Thanks Divalent, I didn't even think about buying beer for the cutaway handle, that's a good point. I was lucky about one thing though. When I landed, I was telling my instructor that I was pretty sure that I knew where the main chute landed so I could track it down, but apparently, it landed in the DVO's front yard. I was pretty happy about that one.

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[RonRandomguy 0]

@ Irishrigger: Thanks, I'm glad I passed too, now I can start working toward my 'A' license. As for the color of the jumpsuit, I don't think that anyone had ever really considered that they were the same color. Hell, I should have realized it too, but I didn't, you know. Either way, I think my main problem in finding the handle, was that it was higher up on my chest, since the main was partially open, than I was expecting it to be. Lesson learned though, and thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[RonRandomguy 0]

@ bclark: Thanks bro, and it seems that everyone I've talked to at the facility that I jump at, agrees with you too. I guess I might be being a bit hard on myself about it? I just felt really bad about it happening, since it was completely my fault, and I really didn't want to have to cutaway. But, I guess everything worked out in the end, and like you said, with experience comes more knowledge, and I'm sure I'll do better the next time I have to cutaway. Thanks for posting, I appreciate your feedback.

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[RonRandomguy 0]

@ tbrown: Thanks...although, I think I would have been happy to wait until the 'hundreds or thousands' of jumps before experiencing a cutaway. LOL. I am very happy that I spent some time watching 'cutaway' videos on YouTube though, because it didn't seem quite so scary after watching them. And, I must say, everything happened exactly the way that I was told it would, so that certainly increases my confidence level in the equipment too. I'm just glad that my instructors kept drilling me on emergency procedures, and how to deal with them, because IT WORKS!!!

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[dks13827 2]

Never apologize for getting your reserve out !!! And if you are in a jam and have to throw away your handles, don't hesitate !!! It's your life we are talking about. Tell anyone who gives you the business about it to go pound sand,,, as you survived !!

[RonRandomguy 0]

@ cloudyhead: No, I definitely don't think that this would be considered a 'high-speed' malfunction. The data from my Altitrack altimeter indicates that I was falling at a speed of about 40-50 mph, once I was able to remove my arm, and was trying to fix the problem. So, I DEFINITELY had quite a bit of lift which was reducing my speed. I can say that I'm really thankful that I had this type of malfunction for my first cutaway though, because I learned that there isn't really much time to react, and I'm not sure that if a 'high-speed' malfunction had occurred, that I would have been able to walk away from it. That type of malfunction scares the hell out of me, and I hope that I never have to deal with one. Although, I have already made the decision, that I will never let my personal 'hard deck' opening altitude reach below a level that I feel confident about being able to react to it time, so I guess that's a pretty good lesson to come away with. No daredevil type s@%t for me, with the exception of my wanting to one day get into the sport of swooping.

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[RonRandomguy 0]

@ dks13827: You certainly have a point there! I'm guessing that the people that I've talked to about this, at the place that I jump at, must feel the same way. When this happened, the only thing 'they' were concerned about was whether or not I was alright, but the only thing I was concerned about, was how I screwed up, and I felt bad about it. It's kind of like when you crash your motorcycle, and your first thought is, "Is my bike OK??" Of course, I've always learned things the hard way, and so, I'm sure skydiving is not going to be any different. I'm just glad that I walked away alright. It certainly could have been worse. Something similar happened to a girl that jumps there, but she ended up breaking her back, instead of walking away from it, so I know that I am VERY lucky that it turned out the way that it did.

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[popsjumper 2]

Ron,
This is Andy( recognize me from the avatar?)

You actually experienced two malfunctions and handled them both absolutely properly. I'm very impressed with your situational awareness and heads-up actions.

1. When the bridal got wrapped around your arm, you experienced one type of horseshoe mal function.

2. Then the canopy opened into severe line twists that you were unable to resolve.

You fixed the horseshoe by getting the bridal off your arm and you handled the severe line twists by the cutaway and reserve deployment. You did it when you realized it wasn't going to get fixed. YES! And you got it done above your decision altitude. Who could ask for anything more?

As far as the handles? Hell, I'm surprised you hung onto to one of them. Handles are the least of our worries at crunch time.

If anybody here gives you crap about your mal or how you handled it, I want to know about it.

Now having said that, I'm going to give you crap for the lousy main deployment handle throw and we'll talk about how to more efficiently resolve line twists. See me when you get back.


Keep working on knowing your EPs on that study sheet I gave you.

Andy
(The EP Nazi)

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

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would this be considered a high-speed malfunction? in my canadian manual they say if you can't fix a high-speed malfunction on the first try with the rear risers, ditch it right away because you're losing altitude too fast.

I question this. I want to hear from experienced Canadian skydivers about this.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[RogerRamjet 0]

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Hello All,

...

I went through the steps that I was taught: 1) Look for my cutaway handle, and place my hand on it, 2) Locate my reserve handle, and put my hand on it, 3) Arch, pull the cutaway, then the reserve. I had trouble finding the cutaway handle though, for a couple of reasons. First, I was wearing a red jumpsuit, which was the same color as the cutaway handle, and secondly, the handle was higher up than it was while I was practicing, since the main chute was partially open.

...

Was all your practice just standing in your rig? Do you have access to a hanging harness? Handles can move several inches from their normal position once you're suspended under a canopy.

All in all, sounds like you handled the situation well to me

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

[RonRandomguy 0]

LMAO! You know, I was thinking that the name Andy sounded really, really familiar, and then this morning it dawned on me who that is. And, yeah, your avatar totally resembles you.
Anyway, thanks for that, and the other user who said that you're the one to talk to was absolutely right. I really appreciate the time you spent talking with me about EP's, and I have been studying everything on that list too.

OK, thanks again for everything Andy, I sincerely appreciate all of it. You're an awesome teacher! Can't wait to come back and jump again, hopefully it will be very soon. Take care.

Ron

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[RonRandomguy 0]

@ RogerRamjet: To be honest, I'm not sure if there is a hanging harness there or not? I'll have to find out. But, you're right, that's exactly what the issue was, the handles were much farther up, than they are when I'm on the ground. I guess that's pretty much common sense though, so it probably should have crossed my mind at some point, huh?

Life's not permanent, don't take it too seriously! :-)

[RogerRamjet 0]

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@ RogerRamjet: To be honest, I'm not sure if there is a hanging harness there or not? I'll have to find out. But, you're right, that's exactly what the issue was, the handles were much farther up, than they are when I'm on the ground. I guess that's pretty much common sense though, so it probably should have crossed my mind at some point, huh?

A lot of survival in this sport is "common sense." Keep thinking and keep learning; no one knows it all...

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

[Divalent 89]

Ah, didn't notice that you are another Farm animal. In that case, you might want to down size a bit on the beer allotment, and upsize on the CocaCola allotment (giving the latter directly to Andy). (I've found that it keeps him happy; although surprisingly he'll give you good advice regardless.)

[psychoswooper 2]

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. I had trouble finding the cutaway handle though, for a couple of reasons. First, I was wearing a red jumpsuit, which was the same color as the cutaway handle, one.

hmm that point is interesting. my opinion is your instructor should have never allowed to jump like that.
glad ur ok and managed to land safely in the end.
and congrats on passing your aff.