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tjm

Landed Off: Stadium Demo; Sprain Ankle

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Last Saturday evening (10/09/10), I had an off landing on a football stadium demo.

We had two demos that day. A cross country demo into a soccer field in the morning and then do our usual home game football stadium demo (we do all home games for this particular college) in the evening. The first demo was uneventful.

The second demo didn't go as planned. As I was third of five out and since I forgot my altimeter at home and it was almost a night jump; I allowed a 1000 foot separation in freefall and waited for the jumper below to pull. Once he pulled at his predetermined altitude (3000 ft), I pulled in order to stay above him and maintain our landing sequence. Upon opening I expericenced a long snivel and linetwist. When I opened up into line twists I was in a dive and lost even more altitude.

By the time I was open and flying straight, I was just as low or lower than our first guy down and far off the wind line. I realized soon after opening that I was too far down wind with little to no outs in this densely populated part of town.

As I aimed for the stadium I am searching for outs and can't determine the exact direction of the wind (they were variable depending on altitude). As I approach the stadium the only outs are a stadium parking lot full of tailgaters and vechicles, a stadium street full of fans and one yard with a 20' gap to land in between a tree and a carport.

When I realized I was coming up short, my first priorty in an emergency landing is to not harm anyone on the ground, so I hook it toward the yard (the less likely place to hit someone). As I'm coming into the yard, the only place to land was on a bush next to a stunned women who could not believe I was heading toward her. Upon hitting the ground hard I performed a decent PLF or should I say multiple PLFs as I rolled into the yard.

This was the only out around this side of the stadium. The landing was so I hard, once I stood up I was glad be standing because I knew my back was not broken. I felt pressure on my ankle, but did not feel it right away because of the andrenaline. After X-rays it turned out I did not break anything, but it was just a severe sprain ankle.

I never actually thought this scenario would happen and could not beleive I did not make the stadium.

Moral of the story is:

-Always wear an altimeter on demos in screwy winds with no good outs. Well any demo for that matter.
-Always be prepared to land off no matter how many times you have done this particular demo.
-Save the spectators before yourself if at all possible upon landing.
-Do a good plf, If I had not done so I could have more than a sprain ankle.
-If doing demos, know all your outs and be prepared to land off at all times. Which may mean you landing in someones backyard or an asphalt street.

Although I made the best of a shitty situation, It is a humbling experience to land off and have to deal with landing off in a densly populated area. I see why they want you to have some experience for these types of demos.

Stay safe and know your limits,

-TJ
If you're not living on the edge; you're taking up too much room!

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I would say...
Wear an altimeter on demos every time, no matter the winds.
Always plan for outs with an alternate landing area - I've selected rooftops in congested areas.
Judge winds by trees, smoke and smoke stacks, even grills and vendors at events can help that - or the wind indicator your ground crew has placed in the landing area. I prefer an arrow or a "T" with the top of the "T" towards landing direction.
NEVER injure a spectator. Ever.
Be safe on those demo jumps, or make the national news FAST.
Glad you'll be ok.

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I always tried to pick my outs prior to doing a demo, although I have to admit I did a few without a site survey first. In that case my head was out the door early to search for and identify outs.
I jumped a StarTracII and could sink that thing in just about any wind condition, the big canopy gave me an additional edge.
Glad you learned a valuable lesson(s), without serious injury, or having your mug all over liveleak/youtube etc.

A demo is NOT just another skydive....

"Just 'cause I'm simple, don't mean I'm stewpid!"

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A demo is NOT just another skydive....

No, it's not. Roughly 5% of fatalities have been in demo-type situations. Nowhere close to 5% of jumps are demos.

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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-Always wear an altimeter on demos in screwy winds with no good outs. Well any demo for that matter.



What's the particular fun or thrill in jumping without an altimeter? I would rephrase it just like this:

Always wear an altimeter Period...



HISPA # 18 POPS # 8757

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Always wear an altimeter Period...

You don't need an altimeter to be safe, esp. on hop and pops.:)


With all due respect to your vast experience, don't take me wrong but not wearing an altimeter just adds one uncertainty factor to your jump, regardless of the altitude of it. That uncertainty factor may or may not be important but it's there... and very modestly I think it shouldn't be there... in any jump.



HISPA # 18 POPS # 8757

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Always wear an altimeter Period...

You don't need an altimeter to be safe, esp. on hop and pops.:)


With all due respect to your vast experience, don't take me wrong but not wearing an altimeter just adds one uncertainty factor to your jump, regardless of the altitude of it. That uncertainty factor may or may not be important but it's there... and very modestly I think it shouldn't be there... in any jump.


If you do a low hop & pop, you don't need an alti to tell you when you're at your hard deck; you're already there. If you need an alti to be able to fly a safe pattern to a safe landing under canopy, you seriously need a canopy course.

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Always wear an altimeter Period...

You don't need an altimeter to be safe, esp. on hop and pops.:)


With all due respect to your vast experience, don't take me wrong but not wearing an altimeter just adds one uncertainty factor to your jump, regardless of the altitude of it. That uncertainty factor may or may not be important but it's there... and very modestly I think it shouldn't be there... in any jump.


I check my alti in the plane, I can look at other altis to do that. I practically never check my alti in freefall since I do mostly tandem video and FS video. Under canopy, don't need a alti. For reserves, I've had 8 I think, never looked at my alti during the real mals (I did when I had time to fly myself to a better spot...). I've also had my digital alti fail once or twice. Luckily I can tell the difference between ~1000k as I was entering the pattern and the 4k the alti insisted I was at :S

All in all, while I've never intentionally boarded the plane without an alti, I have given mine (in the plane) to students/TMs who needed one, and I don't think twice about doing so. I should hope anyone with a couple hundred jumps and not jumping with students shouldn't have any problems doing the same!

ciel bleu,
Saskia

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Always wear an altimeter Period...

You don't need an altimeter to be safe, esp. on hop and pops.:)


With all due respect to your vast experience, don't take me wrong but not wearing an altimeter just adds one uncertainty factor to your jump, regardless of the altitude of it. That uncertainty factor may or may not be important but it's there... and very modestly I think it shouldn't be there... in any jump.


If you do a low hop & pop, you don't need an alti to tell you when you're at your hard deck; you're already there. If you need an alti to be able to fly a safe pattern to a safe landing under canopy, you seriously need a canopy course.


I think my post was respectful enough not to deserve irony and sarcasm.

To purposefully jump without an altimeter does not add an inch to safety and may turn out to be a mistake (nobody's perfect and even very experienced people can occasionally have a bad moment and misjudge altitude).



HISPA # 18 POPS # 8757

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All in all, while I've never intentionally boarded the plane without an alti, I have given mine (in the plane) to students/TMs who needed one, and I don't think twice about doing so. I should hope anyone with a couple hundred jumps and not jumping with students shouldn't have any problems doing the same!



100% agreed



HISPA # 18 POPS # 8757

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