Did I make the right choice? Down wind landing..

[kmills0705 0]

Quote

i have seen the video and am wondering if i should post it
hmmmmm

Tuna - can he post it?

Kim Mills
USPA D21696
Tandem I, AFF I and Static Line I

[DSE 3]

You often seem to be making the right decisions, Josh. Good thinking under pressure, and you landed safely without incident. No one can really comment much beyond that because you were literally in the pilot's seat.

[runnit 0]

I think you've pretty much worked out the the guts of the problem about how a bunch of little things added up throughout the the jump to make a potential big problem.

As far as your decision making went once you realised there was a problem, personally i don't reckon words like "the" right choice apply to things like this because a chain of events was involved, rather than a one off instant you had to react to. It's too black and white to say you did the right thing or you completely stuffed it.

But like a few people have said, you made a decision, didn't get hurt or mess up anyone else, so nice one
Just to add my 2 bob to some great points that davelepka made.

1. Totally agree about the importance of a landing pattern being helpful in this situation. I find the great thing about them is that it makes me reassess my flight at each turning point (not just as I enter or as I turn on to finals/swoop).

2. WRT deliberate downwinders, the magnitude of effects of canopy type/size and wind speed can be quite different to what you expect (if you haven't thought it through in detail).

I'll happily swoop my Crossfire 109 downwind over hard ground (on a flat, mowed DZ and with no conflicting traffic of course) with 5 kts up the tail.

However, a couple months ago I did a deilberate downwinder after a 2 way off a 750' E with my Flik 266. I was the low guy and downwind was the only way I was going to make the landing area, but I really wanted to do that specific jump (which is a whole other can of worms there ).

I went with the mind set that I could happily swoop this and run it off, so with a big slow 7 cell I should be sweet. Worst case I'll slide it in or PLF. Landing area is a relatively smooth rock slab and I wear solid pads, ankle supports and boots when I base.

It was probably gusting 2-3kts in the landing area but when I flared, the big mushy canopy didn't have the nice crisp response that my Crossy has when it flares so I came in pretty fast, but with absolutely no plane out. My boots ended up gripping on the rock so I didn't slide like I planned, jarred my ankle pretty badly and ended up limping around for about a month. Thankfully my ankle didn't twist/roll because it would've exploded. The 2km walk out wasn't real fun (could've been worse but!)

I think the result would've been similar even if I was over grass.

Moral of this story is that just because it's a big canopy, doesn't necessarily mean it'll be safer to go downwind. A crisp responsive canopy may be able to make it a bit more forgiving because of that lift and plane out they can achieve while a big, docile canopy may actually make things worse.

Don't let a big canopy give you a false sense of security. Think flight performance, not size.

[Tuna-Salad 0]

What you guys said.. I worked out pretty early what led to the chain of events... I am used to jumping a sabre2 and on this particular jump was flying the storm. I am under a 210 loaded at 1.20 ppsf

Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night.

[skyjumpenfool 2]

At least it wasn't on that "smaller" canopy you wanted to buy a year ago. Another argument for not downsizing to soon.

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."