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Muffie

How to react if unconscious until a low altitude?

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So, I've been reading the incidents forum and it seems there have been a couple of fatalities where an experienced jumper was knocked unconscious or at least extremely disoriented and not doing anything until an extremely low altitude (say 300 to 500 feet) with a spinning mal. The jumper regained awareness, went into EPs, but not in time to deploy a reserve or not in time for the reserve to do any good.

So, without getting too far into the merits of RSLs or AADs or anything like that, what do experienced jumpers think is the best thing to do: Go into your EPs the minute your regain awareness or are you in some instances more likely to survive by keeping the mal?

I'm brand new so have yet to witness any sort of mal and can't really picture the scenarios in my head. Does a spinning mal mean a harder impact than no chute at all?

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at 300 to 500 feet the odds of getting a good reserve are lower than I would like, I would hope that upon coming to I would recognize this and pull my reserve without cutting away - my ep's have been practiced prior to every exit for quite a few years and muscle memory might get me to cut away first [:/]

a canopy transfer would offer the best hope in this situation - and if it failed would at the least give you more nylon and hopefully slow your descent to a survivable speed.

a spinning mal should be quite a bit slower than terminal - but unless your incredibly lucky with the impact site its still more than likely going to be fatal

Roy

They say I suffer from insanity.... But I actually enjoy it.

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So, I've been reading the incidents forum and it seems there have been a couple of fatalities where an experienced jumper was knocked unconscious or at least extremely disoriented and not doing anything until an extremely low altitude (say 300 to 500 feet) with a spinning mal.


I got 2 spinning mals so far. I gave up fighting and went for plan B when I saw no hope to fix it. If you don't want to get beaten up than don't go that street.

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If you were jumping a smaller canopy would it be fair so say you might not come to because of G-LOCK?



There is at least on fatality that I can think of where the jumper went in under a spinner (extremely small canopy from 14k)... common belief was that he blacked out from the G's.

Under a normal small canopy, dunno...
JW
Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

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I don't think there is anyway to prepare for this scenario. If you are just coming to at 300 to 500 feet your reactions are going to be slow to begin with and very little time to do anything. Only thing you can do is get as much nylon out as possible.

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If you have the altitude, cut away and open the reserve.

If you don't, and you will not survive the landing, deploy the reserve.

>Does a spinning mal mean a harder impact than no chute at all?

No. But a spinning mal under a small canopy can still easily kill you if you try to land it.

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If you were jumping a smaller canopy would it be fair so say you might not come to because of G-LOCK?



There is at least on fatality that I can think of where the jumper went in under a spinner (extremely small canopy from 14k)... common belief was that he blacked out from the G's.

Under a normal small canopy, dunno...
JW



http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3672897;search_string=Double%20Fatality%20at%20Lodi;#3672897

This double fatality CREW warp last year under high loaded (2.1) canopies was more than likely caused from blacking out.

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http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3672897;search_string=Double%20Fatality%20at%20Lodi;#3672897

This double fatality CREW warp last year under high loaded (2.1) canopies was more than likely caused from blacking out.



I would disagree with that statement.

Spinning and being rendered unconscious limited Barb and Robby's time to act, but it did not make it impossible. Something else prevented one or both from cutting away, and that is the big mystery.

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