Finding chopped mains

[ryan_d_sucks 0]

I had my first reserve ride this past weekend at a DZ I was visiting. I had it on my first jump on the first day of the boogie. It landed somewhere in a gigantic and incredibly dense corn field. Nobody followed it in, but a few people watched and pointed me in the general direction. After many hours spent in the corn, and multiple cessna trips over the field the boogie ended and I had to go home chuteless.

Supposedly the corn will change color in a few weeks, and it may be easier to spot the canopy (the canopy is PD's "lime green" which blends in perfectly with corn). Does anyone have any experience with getting a canopy back after an extended stay out in the corn or some other crop?

The folks that call that DZ home are going to keep an eye out, which I appreciate, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Any thoughts?

[stratostar 5]

No wonder I couldn't find you on the dz, I wasn't looking in the corn, but I did hear about the loss, that sucks! The only way your going to find that is on the ground and you may even have to crawl a grid row to row till you find it, this is better done if you have more then one person, but you WILL NOT find it from the air being that color. The combine will find it in about a month or so.

Let me know if your going to be able to come up this next weekend and I maybe able to help you go look. At least in the deep corn it will be some what in the shade, but the sooner you find it the better!

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[diablopilot 2]

Find a local ultralight pilot, buy him/her a case of beer, a tank of gas, and if he's got a 2 seater, ask if you can go along.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[stratostar 5]

There were two planes making a number of turns over the weekend looking, nada, zero, zip.... Not surprising this time of year and the color of the canopy will make it impossible to spot from the air even going slo & low, maybe with the rotor wash from a chopper but who can afford that.

Line green, neon green, all shades of green this time of year will blend right in and the ONLY way you will find it is to walk/(crawl by staying low you can see down the rows) up on top of it, or you wait about a month and the farmers will return it, I mean what is left of it.

Due to how tall the corn is now canopies won't stay on top the weight will take them to the rows and the top of the corn will cover it up, even if the canopy did rest a little on top, over night the dew sets in and it will get wet and then drop to the rows. Cutaways don't disturb the fields much at all so there is no impact crater visable from the air, even all white or hot pink free bag bridles are next to impossible to see from the air, but they will sometimes lay on top, but 98% of the time they go down in the rows too.

Been there, done that and have a stack of t-shirts, like I say if you want to find it you need good friends and student overalls and start working a grid.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[brewman 0]

A group of us retrieved a cut away main from a corn field at Couchfreaks last weekend. Must have had twelve people walking side by side four rows apart from one end to the other. Found the main on the ground and the free bag near the top of the corn.

[hackish 8]

This past weekend at a boogie someone lost their main d-bag in a soy field. I flew over it looking ever time before I landed. Couldn't see anything. 3 people who wandered through the soy field left evidence of very poor searching patterns. You probably need a GPS to do an efficient search.

Next someone chopped a mal. I ran after the main and it was retrieved (not by me). I doubt the freebag will be found without help from agricultural machinery. I hate the UPT grey pilot chutes. I'm happy we have no corn fields around my DZ. Corn sucks.

-Michael

[nitrochute 2]

and you guys have probably now pissed off the farmer by trampling his soy bean crop

[NickDG 23]

I spotted a lost student canopy motoring through the town of Perris once. A bunch of gangbangers were sitting under it drinking beer. I just smiled, waved, and kept on driving . . .

NickD

[poe62 0]

Quote

I spotted a lost student canopy motoring through the town of Perris once. A bunch of gangbangers were sitting under it drinking beer. I just smiled, waved, and kept on driving . . .

NickD

~Nikki
http://www.facebook.com/poe62

Irgity Dirgity

[mircan 0]

Quote

A group of us retrieved a cut away main from a corn field at Couchfreaks last weekend. Must have had twelve people walking side by side four rows apart from one end to the other. Found the main on the ground and the free bag near the top of the corn.

Yeah. That`s what we do too. Time consuming and major pain in the rear section, but we did find it. (actually two times - two cutaways).
And you have to be "popular" (read: have a number of friends that are willing to help)

dudeist skydiver #42

[ryan_d_sucks 0]

Well I'm heading back out to Richmond tomorrow to look again. So far I've got one person from my home DZ commin with me to help. If anyone's in the area and willing to help it would be MUCH appreciated. And if we find it, I'll take anyone helping out to dinner and beers.

Ryan

[gearless_chris 1]

Quote

Well I'm heading back out to Richmond tomorrow to look again. So far I've got one person from my home DZ commin with me to help. If anyone's in the area and willing to help it would be MUCH appreciated. And if we find it, I'll take anyone helping out to dinner and beers.

Ryan

I may be going down next weekend, it depends on what gets scheduled at my home dz, and the weather. I told Jaime I wanted to come down sometime other than "The Boogie". How's your friend doing that landed on the taxi way?

"If it wasn't easy stupid people couldn't do it", Duane.

My momma said I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a$$hole.

[skyflybabe 0]

One thing over the years that we have found helps is if you see a chopped main land in a corn field or other crop, if you can count the number of tractor/tyre tracks from one edge of the field to where the canopy landed. This makes it much easier to find ... just an idea that worked for us and might help for future losses.