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kneepuff

When was your first cutaway?

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I had my first cutaway during my AFF training. Yep. Jump 6 of the training. Exit and freefall were excellent. Chute deployment beautiful. The chute opened beautifully. Then I went to release the brakes and the left toggle came off in my hand!

Well, I remembered reading something about another way to steer the chute, but we had not covered it in training, and I had no expereince with it, so, I thought to myself, "Good parachute? Bad parachute? Can I steer it? Can I land it?"

Nope - not on jump 6 of my training. I made the decision to release the main and deploy the reserve. I did it all calmly, without panic, and had a nice tidy landing, too.

I guess it is pretty unusual to have a cutaway so early. I wasn't expecting to use my emergency training so soon but I am happy to know that I can handle it. Thank you Bill, for being so tough on me that morning before we went up. You'll be glad to know that I shouted all the commands out loud as I released and deployed. ;-)

So, how many jumps did you have in before you had to do a cutaway? And what's your story?
Kneepuff
Girls just wanna have fuh hun!

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Jump 1398, I had tension knots on a tandem main that I wasn't able to clear. Even though that was the first time I had a real cutaway, I did have a jump much earlier in my jumping career (prior to jump 500) that I lost altitude awareness during spinning linetwists. I should have chopped that one and made it through that situation through pure luck. I won't bore you with details, I posted about it a few years ago when it happened.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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Good on you for making a decision and sticking to it! I've had 3, the first one was at jump 42 on borrowed gear ( a tension knot), the second at jump 121 (hard pull) and third at 186 (toggle fire, which in hindsight I shouldn't really have chopped ... but hey)

-Chanti-

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Jump #123. Yep, pulled handles 1,2&3B|
BIG FUN!! Lineover! Looked up,started spinning, said "oh--- SHIT", tried to clear once, said" I hope my instructors were right! Chopped!
My instructors & rigger were right:)BTW, so were MY ACTIONS!
(indivdual results may vary)
----------------------------------------------
"Thats not smoke, thats BUCKEYE!!"
AQR#3,CWR#49

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Jump #417, line twists all the way to my risers without any altitude left to kick out. The EP practice made it all automatic.


--
A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. -Oliver Wendel Holmes

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It's nice to know now that you can handle the situation, now never get too relaxed in your EPs. I had a friend who had several hundred jumps without incident, and maybe that made her too indifferent. She was involved in a messy canopy collision, cut away high enough but never pulled the reserve...

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It's nice to know now that you can handle the situation, now never get too relaxed in your EPs. I had a friend who had several hundred jumps without incident, and maybe that made her too indifferent. She was involved in a messy canopy collision, cut away high enough but never pulled the reserve...



You're right. It is nice to know that I can handle the situation. But I also realize that it was a really easy situation this time. Next time could be hairier. I'll not get too comfortable with myself up there. B|
Kneepuff
Girls just wanna have fuh hun!

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It's nice to know now that you can handle the situation, now never get too relaxed in your EPs. I had a friend who had several hundred jumps without incident, and maybe that made her too indifferent. She was involved in a messy canopy collision, cut away high enough but never pulled the reserve...



You're right. It is nice to know that I can handle the situation. But I also realize that it was a really easy situation this time. Next time could be hairier. I'll not get too comfortable with myself up there. B|



Great attitude about not getting too comfortable or complacent. But also give yourself credit for handing an "easy" situation. It's often those malfunctions that aren't as dramatic that can cause the most problems. An "easy" malfunction may seem like something that you can fix, or manage, and people have tried to fix their canopies all the way to the ground. You assessed the situation, made a choice, and acted decisively. Congratulations. :)
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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shot and a half capewells
26 ft. navy Conical reserve, center pull, chest mount. NO AAD, no stevens assist.
standing landing:)



Was that one of the ones where you have to punch the reserve to get it to open? ;)

No cutaways yet, hopefully it will stay that way for a while anyways.

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shot and a half capewells
26 ft. navy Conical reserve, center pull, chest mount. NO AAD, no stevens assist.
standing landing:)



Was that one of the ones where you have to punch the reserve to get it to open? ;)

No cutaways yet, hopefully it will stay that way for a while anyways.



well when i was doing static line jumps I was first trained to "Pull and Punch", since the reserve had NO spring loaded pilot chute in it...
But by the time I had this cutaway, I had "updated" my gear to include a reserve pilot chute, spring loaded and set onto a "kicker plate", which helped to insure a good launch, and make certain that the base of the P C did NOT dig down into the fabric of the canopy material , and thereby get stuck....
The reserve PC "rocketed" outta the chest mounted container, and drew that round cleanly away from me,,, it opened clean and fast...:)

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jump 525

june 20, 1975

cutaway a malfunctioned French Papillon

mini system containers
shot and a half capewells
26 ft. navy Conical reserve, center pull, chest mount. NO AAD, no stevens assist.
standing landing:)



Excellent!

Mine was in 1974, about jump number 350. Lineover on C9 cheapo. One-Shots with a Wonderhog. 26' Navy Conical, standup landing. I had done two intentional cutaways prior. Changed to squares and never had another mal.

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

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close,,, it was wooden AIRPLANES....;)

.....D A V I N C I ........
.....T A V I N O..........
as i was growing up....
i was always told that my ancestry includes some
" different thinking" forefathers.....
and we all share(d) a love for the sky...B|:)maybe I DID have an Uncle Leo , from the old country...:oB|;):)
jmy

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My first was at around 260 jumps. I had diving line twists on a hop n pop. I think a toggle came unstowed along with some line twists. I was on my back and there was nothing I could do to fix it, so oh well. Had to get help fishing my freebag out of powerlines, of all the places it could have landed.

Forty jumps later I had new gear and the main risers got stuck in the rig. I couldn't figure that out either (I thought the risers were twisted behind my head at first) so away it went. I had a Skyhook on that one. It was nice not to have to go looking for the freebag. :)
Owned by Remi #?

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My 1st, and only cutaway to date, was around 400 jumps. 2 jumps before, on different days, I had pilot chute hesitation and both times said, "I need a new pilot chute." Didn't get one, (VERY STUPID) next jump had a pilot chute in tow. Couldn't reach the bridle- was at 2000- said Fuck it. Did my EP, very intinctively- with my main just clearing my reserve(yeah, I know), and was under a reserve with a built in left turn! This started spiraling me to the left-I counteracted it all the way till I landed safe on the runway. A girl on my load ran up to me and said,"I didn't know you bought a new all-white canopy!! Dipshit. Anyway, everyone said,"Ya gotta get back on the horse!". So I grabbed my CRW rig and was up a load later. It did help, but I admit I was pretty scared on the ride to altitude. Needless to say the Co. that built my reserve gave me a free new one-don't know if that's a good thing or not! Bottom line-Keep your gear in good condition! Blue Skies,April
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

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Jump #56, broken D Line at the cascade from a hard opening. Didn't even think about it, just did the EP's and landed fine. Then spent 1/2 the day searching for my main which landed 100+ feet up in a pine tree. Luckily a guy at the DZ just happend to have tree climbing gear and got it down for me.

Good times!

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i was always told that my ancestry includes some
" different thinking" forefathers.....
jmy



Jimmy, I did the research - that was "different drinking" forefathers :P - close though
ps: see ya in a few weeks, try and warm up the North East a little for me willyaB|
Pete Draper,

Just because my life plan is written on the back of a Hooter's Napkin, it's still a life plan.... right?

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I'm one up on you. (Is that a good thing?#$%^&?). Mine was jump #5. A static line off the step of a 182 w/a Paracommander, Capewells and a Stevenson's Cutaway. It was 1978. I did my first hop-and-pop later that day. I was sure I was going to die, so my step off and arch were really good.

Stan

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