Wooo-hooooo! RESERVE RIDE!

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Yep, beer is owed!

I had my first cutaway mal up at Sebastian on Sunday. Strange, I know, but my moderately loaded Lotus 170 ended up with major unrecoverable line twist, flung me into a steep spiral dive, and I chopped at 2,000 after an initial deployment at 4,000.

Freaky strange and cool, all at the same time. Looking back, it's a sorta fun memory. I have a flashbulb image of both handles in my hands (yep, kept them, too!) and the feeling that Hey, they DID work right!

Friends managed to help me recover both the main and the freebag (from the ground, mind you), too!

All in all, a growth experience; one that I wouldn't mind if I didn't have to ever repeat, but it's an exhilarating thing to make it through unscathed! Now that it's safely just a memory, I wouldn't trade it. Maybe I'll have that "different" look now.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[Airman1270 0]

Way to go. Isn't life sweet?! The best $40-ish you'll ever spend.

My last mal was in 1997, a streamer. Got the (round) reserve out above 1000' & steered into a small clear spot in a neighbor's backyard. (Yes, I know, if I had a square I'd have landed on target.) After landing, I realized I was still holding my handles.

Now just get past the next jump run & exit & all will be well.

Cheers,
Jon

[VampireGirl 0]

Hi Jeffrey, we haven't met before, but I often see your posts and am glad to hear you are still with us after your first cut away!!

Well done, especially for still holding the handles!! LOL

Blue Skies

XX

Sarah

www.sneale-create.com

[TheAnvil 0]

Congrats dude! Glad you're OK.

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[rhino 0]

Sweeeeet!!! I only have 1 cutaway.. But it was on a intentional cut away rig.. Still fun though but not as fun as what you just did...

[bigway 4]

do you remember that 'clink' sound of your main leaving the rings?
i will never forget that sound.
straight back up there

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
.

[JohnMitchell 14]

Nice job, Jeffrey. Isn't it funny how easy it was to do, after all those times of wondering what it would be like? I love that weightless feeling when you chop from a low speeder. If only I wasn't so busy arching and pulling the reserve, I could really get into it.

[jerdahl 0]

Congrats on the successful cutaway.
I have a lotus 136 (great canopy).
After the cutaway, did the lotus stay inflated and drift or did it basically collapse and fall out of the sky. I know a lot of people with airlocks, but I have never seen one cut away. It is a big concern of mine on windy days.

Thanks.
Jason

[PalletMan 0]

Good Job! Glad everything worked out well.
--Art

Sky-div'ing (ski'div'ing) n. A modern sport that involves parties, bragging, sexual excesses, the imbibing of large quantities of beer, and, on rare occasions, parachuting from aircraft.

[Frenchy68 0]

Quote

Isn't it funny how easy it was to do, after all those times of wondering what it would be like?

So true... Everything seems to work just as advertised!!!Congrats Jeffrey.
(PS: if anyone finds a pair of handles in the Moab desert...)

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[Kramer 0]

|-| <--- that much of me is jealous. Like the reasons you described, I kinda wish I had a cutaway and that everything went okay so I knew what it was like. In due time...

Good job bro!

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

[adamjenner 0]

nice job dude!!!

but umm...flashbulb? how old are those? hahaha

[MarkM 0]

Quote

Congrats on the successful cutaway.
I have a lotus 136 (great canopy).
After the cutaway, did the lotus stay inflated and drift or did it basically collapse and fall out of the sky. I know a lot of people with airlocks, but I have never seen one cut away. It is a big concern of mine on windy days.

It stayed mostly inflated and was in a fairly classic bow-tie lineover type config after cutaway, probably from the risers flying back up into the canopy. It really wasn't hard to find as it was pretty easy to track on the way down. I'm guessing the winds were 10-15 and it came down about a 300 yards from the freebag.

[mhartboca 0]

glad it turned out good.... so now - BEER!

(you got PM)

michael

Michael Hart

[jerdahl 0]

MarkM,
Thanks for the details on the recovery.
It's good to hear you were able to track it.
Lots of horror stories out there.

Take Care,
Jason

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

A little update, a day later.

No, I do not remember the clinkish sound of the 3-ring releasing... and I don't even really remember much of the physical sensation of the moment of cutaway -- my memory of the whole thing really is mostly visual. I can very clearly, in my mind, picture looking down at my green and blue handles and wrapping my fingers around both of them. I remember thinking, "Oh my, I really do have to do this, and I'm about to actually do it!" In the kind of spin I was in, there was not much time between me and the ground. That thing was rocketing downward.

Mark mentioned the winds, but I don't think they were quite 10-15... they were more moderate than that. Perhaps 4-7, I think, but I'm no expert judge of it.

For some silly reason, after the cutaway, I was looking below me for the main! Hadn't made the realization that it would most likely be floating higher than I was! My reserve is a pristine, beautiful bright green. I had been told what color it was (by a rigger who had repacked it before), but had never seen it. It was funny, looking up at white risers instead of black, and no 3-ring alongside my head!

I am fairly certain that there was no lineover during the actual malfunction. It seemed to me to be a straightforward line-twist, but how it got so severe, enough that I hadn't a chance of kicking out of it (least of all at 2,000 feet!) I have no idea. Brakes were still stowed when it was recovered. It did look bow-tied as it came down -- and yes, it was still reasonably inflated during its unmanned descent. It landed just east of the east fence of Sebastian airport, alongside (closed) runway 13/31.

Many thanks to Mark, who alone saw the freebag come down, and who is the one who recovered it for me after a search of the grounds.
I'll be bringing beer next weekend (repack should be done by then);
something for Craig, who had repacked the reserve on 10/01 -- just nine days earlier!; and something nice for Mark, who saved me what, $150-200? The guy deserves it; he tells me I put him through quite a scare.

Oooh, movie quote:
"I heard you had quite a scare up there! ...Wanna see something really scary?"

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[TypicalFish 0]

Excellent...

Glad it all worked out and you are OK...

"I gargle no man's balls..." ussfpa on SOCNET

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

Thanks for all the congratulations and "I'm glads," everyone. Glad to still be here!
-Jeffrey

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[D22369 0]

No, I do not remember the clinkish sound of the 3-ring releasing***

in a situation like that, your hearing is your most unneeded sense......

CONGRATS.

Roy

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