Smart things I have done

[NWFlyer 2]

As a positive complement to Ron's "Stupid things I have done" post ... share some of the smart things you've done, too (of course there's lots of smart decisions we make every time we jump, but I guess I'm looking for specific actions/decisions you made or make that seem particularly "smart").

... fresh off student status (I'd gotten my license the day before, I think) I did two jumps in the morning on a day with very high winds. I watched as more and more of the more experienced people at the DZ started sitting down and thought "Hmmm... maybe that ought to tell me something" and stopped jumping, even though I was itching to be in the air. I've done this multiple times since, but it was that first time that set a pattern for how I would approach skydiving.

...Jump 40ish. Landed out because I wasn't 100% positive I could make it back to the landing area on a long spot. I got teased about it, but I stuck to my guns and said "Hey, I wasn't completely sure."

... took a canopy control course. Multiple times. I took Brian Germain's course at around 100 jumps, and have taken Scott Miller's course recently (almost two times - due to weather, didn't finish the eval jumps the first time around, so I just sat through the classroom portion again the second time when I went back to do the eval jumps).

... pulled myself off a jump when it got bigger than I was comfortable with that day.

... said "no" when I was asked to be on 12 and 14-ways when I had about 40 jumps. "We'll just put you in the base!" Flattering, tempting, but no. I knew I didn't have the in-air awareness skills at the time to handle that many people in the air.

...Said "no" to people who offered to let me borrow their gear just to get back in the air after my recent cutaway. Very nice of them, but the canopies they were offering were 2 sizes smaller than what I normally jump and 1 size smaller than anything I'd ever jumped before.

"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

[AFFI 0]

Practice dealing with malfunctions at the start of EVERY day jumping.
EP's EP's EP's!!!

Canopy piloting proficiency -
Practice Practice Practice!!!

Never stop learning from others, and not just those with more jumps than I but taking on the attitude that I can learn from everyone.
Humility Humility Humility!!!

Know when I have reached my ability to safely jump due to fatigue, injuries and whatnot.

Keeping my priorities in order - for me freefall skills are not on my list of priorities, that will come with time but it is hard to get better in freefall if injury or death occoures.
I have never seen someone on the plane on the way to altitude with a femur sticking out.

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[darkwing 4]

Pulled myself off a tandem/rw jump that was getting too big for comfort.

Casually practiced my EPs in front of a newbie, so he'd notice a "big gun" was doing it.

Also practiced EPs when nobody was around.

Pestered a guy I knew into letting me check his pins on jump run. The end of his reserve pin was only about 2 mm past the loop. Saved some lives there.

Jumped with beginners a lot, and enjoyed it.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[Stevehend15 0]

2nd solo jump ever. Thought I was going to land on the runway and decided it was better to land there and pay beer than make a low turn. Paid my beer fine.

Just took Scott Millers course

Bumped myself of a load because of incoming storm

[rehmwa 2]

Jump with very new people. It has really helped my skills.

Discovered the wind tunnel

Stayed with all the disciplines I could try and not restricted myself to one - each one helps me be better in each other - except crw, I just do that to be seen

got into 4-way (thanks NSL)

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[AFFI 0]

Quote

Casually practiced my EPs in front of a newbie, so he'd notice a "big gun" was doing it.

What a great point!

Lead by example...

[skybytch 259]

I chose a very conservative wingloading for the number of jumps I have. I don't stay current enough to fly something more aggressive.

Took a canopy control course at 970 jumps. Other than what I paid for my student jumps it was the best money I've spent in skydiving.

When students go on wind hold, I go on wind hold.

I actively control my landing pattern so there are no other canopies on final when I am. I'll adjust my descent rate and place in traffic with brakes or spiraling to let the smaller, faster canopies land first and the bigger, slower canopies to land after me.

I don't chase windsocks anymore; I land in the direction established. I fly a canopy that I can safely land in a 5 mph downwind. Stand up landings are nice but I'll take PLF'ing a downwind landing over a canopy collision anyday.

[mjosparky 3]

Spent years just listening to jumpers, young and old, talk about parachutes and jumping. Learned to filter out the bad and file away the good. The more years I spent listening the more I seemed to learn. Knowledge is a great foundation for building more knowledge. I found that I could learn something from just about every jumper I met even if it was something not to do.

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[AggieDave 6]

Canopy coaching.

Paid good money to take Scott Miller's Basic and Advanced course twice each. Did 1 on 1 coaching with him too. Then everytime he comes through town, he'll debrief me with video for a few jumps.

Got coaching from other people too. Hooknswoop helped me out early on with explaining some basics that I didn't understand and watching/debriefing my landings. TJ helped me with some coaching as well...there are many others.

Reading about canopy flight is good, it helps you understand concepts, but nothing is as good as a person being right there to coach you, video your landings and debrief each one.

Canopy coaching has been a great help for me and I recommend it to everyone. Doesn't matter how good you are, how much of a badass swooper you might be, everyone can benifit from coaching.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[ChrisL 2]

Quote

share some of the smart things you've done, too .

Divorced my first wife

__

My mighty steed

[Scrumpot 1]

Caught a jumper ON JUMPRUN about to exit last December with his cheststrap NOT routed through the tensioner (effectively UN-DONE!) at Elsinore. After I had mentioned it, and he was quickly then doing it up right ...ANOTHER jumper looks at me and says something like "yeah, I saw that too, but didn't want to say anything!" "I'm just visiting" - DUH! (hello! ...)

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[druvaughn 0]

Have landed down wind twice to avoid low turns (of course putting "didn't plan far enough ahead to make a proper landing" should go in the other thread)

Ask every question I can't answer regardless of how miniscule (sp?) it seems

Had a hard opening and resisted the urge to jump for a couple of hours and make sure I wasn't too sore to run out the next landing if I had to

-
-
"Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical."

[napalmboy 0]

One of the smart things I've done is that I've gotten myself in the habit of double-checking every chest strap I can see (including my own). I haven't caught any yet, but I'll keep looking.

Well, the door was open...

[billvon 2,400]

>Caught a jumper ON JUMPRUN about to exit last December with his
>cheststrap NOT routed through the tensioner . . .

Let's see -

Caught one open reserve (pin pulled but PC not escaping) in the airplane. Two cheststraps. One misrouted 3-ring. Many folded under or unmated reserve handles/cutaway handles.

Called off about half a dozen loads for gust fronts coming through, darkness or winds.

Pulled for a lot of AFF students. Chased an experienced jumper who had apparently lost her mind and pulled her reserve, because she had given up.

Started wearing shoes after I almost broke my toes off during one landing at Quincy.

Stopped jumping my old Pursuit, PD190 and Nova 150.

Intentionally took a rig without a cypres on one particular jump. (That was about the only smart thing I did on that jump; the rest of the decisions that day belong in the "stupid things I have done" thread.)

[georgerussia 0]

Asked about everything I wanted to know, even though some questions were silly.

* Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

[KNewman 0]

Quote

When students go on wind hold, I go on wind hold.

That is very cool for you to do!!

Mine are:

Inspect my gear from top to bottom at the beginning of my jump day, to include dissassembling the three ring and massaging the webbing.

Participated in all of the activities at safety day. (did the hanging harness twice!!)

Asking for canopy control advice from the S&TA.

I get three gear checks before I exit the plane, one on the ground, one before I board, and one at altitude!!

Oh yea, learning how to skydive!!!

Blue Skies and Stand-up Landings!!!!!!

[labrys 0]

I was one of 2 low time jumpers on a 6 or 8 way when I had about 200 jumps. The other inexperienced jumper was just newly licensed. The RW went well and at break off I looked left and right and picked my lane to track. At pull time I looked up over my shoulder and saw the younger jumper about 50 feet directly above me.

I had started to wave off as I looked above and he saw my wave. The poor guy looked like Wiley Coyote hitting the breaks before he slammed into a wall. I had no idea what to do but I found myself reacting none the less. I gave him a pull signal and tracked my ass off for a few more seconds,

He was alert enough to grasp the problem and pull when I asked. It worked out well. I was really happy that it did.

Owned by Remi #?

[fueler 0]

Quote

Asked about everything I wanted to know, even though some questions were silly.

NO silly questions Georgie!!! always ask questions, even if you THINK they are silly!

-Alex from hollister

****************************************
what!?

[JohnMitchell 14]

Realizing that you have to survive each jump . . . one at a time.

[MB38 0]

Check every piece of equipment I can get my eyes on while sitting on the plane. I've caught two chest straps and three exposed bridles on freeflyers.

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[dorbie 0]

Took a plane ride down when everyone was hopping & popping at < 2k ft after clouds rolled in. Don't get out below your hard deck. Sure it's no big deal and doable and you'll probably live, but rationalizing this is bullshit in the extreme. The first rule in EPs is your decision altitude and getting out under your decision altitude with no canopy over your head leaves you well... leaves you guessing where your new decision altitude should be at best. Most of the time you get away with it, but one day there will be an incident report that begins with the initial bad decision to get out low and ends with a crater and who knows what in between. You have two square canopies one particularly unreliable, the altitude requirements are there for a reason.

Took myself off a load when the winds were switching in the afternoon. Watching the previous load land there was some obvious minor carnage, sometimes it's good to be on the ground looking up.

P.S. I just realized both of these were decisions to not jump. Sometimes teh smartest thing you can do in skydiving is to not skydive.

[DSE 3]

I read this forum daily, take the things I don't understand or perhaps agree with, copy them to my PDA, and share them with my instructor to either
a; understand better
b; attempt to do or be told why I shouldn't attempt them

Only "smart" thing is that my EP's/malfunction motto was drilled into my head as a musical theme since I'm in the entertainment world. While kicking out of a top to bottom line twist with slider up to the canopy, I could hear my instructor's voice badly singing as I crossed 2500 after starting at 4500. Cleared by 2K. I learned why I had the problem, and if I truly learned, it'll become a smart experience rather than a scare.

[Yossarian 0]

smart thing no.1 - took up skydiving
smart thing no.2 - came out of cloud at 6,000 over a village, knew from lots of jumps at that dz theres no way in hell i should be over a village and able to make it back (uppers were much quicker than as per the met report, no-ones fault really), had a look round and pulled at 5,500 to make it back watching mates landing in fields literally miles short of the dropzone, hung on rear risers for ages (knackered my arms) and was the only one out of 15 (including guys with thousands of jumps) to make it back (however, immediately embarrased as was dragged over 100yds into a hedge cos i couldnt deflate the canopy, and being the only one back having a captive audience, then had to use the scrubbing brush of shame on the hire rig)

[beowulf 1]

opening high is not always the smart decision. It really depends on where you were in the exit sequence. I won't open high if I am not the last person out of the plane, because I don't want to risk having someone accidentally end up freefalling through my canopy for any reason. I would rather deal with landing out. That is not to say you didn't make the right decision. I wasn't there I don't know what your situation was like. I am just bringing this up so that anyone considering opening higher then planned thinks about what could happen. Landing out isn't a mistake. Sometimes the best decision is to land out.

[dorbie 0]

Quote

smart thing no.1 - took up skydiving
smart thing no.2 - came out of cloud at 6,000 over a village, knew from lots of jumps at that dz theres no way in hell i should be over a village and able to make it back (uppers were much quicker than as per the met report, no-ones fault really), had a look round and pulled at 5,500 to make it back watching mates landing in fields literally miles short of the dropzone, hung on rear risers for ages (knackered my arms) and was the only one out of 15 (including guys with thousands of jumps) to make it back (however, immediately embarrased as was dragged over 100yds into a hedge cos i couldnt deflate the canopy, and being the only one back having a captive audience, then had to use the scrubbing brush of shame on the hire rig)

Best way to avoid dragging is to not try to collapse your canopy instantly on the brakes.

Unless you're close to stationary or going backwards close to the ground you can keep flying your canopy over your head. Then you can pick your time to bring it down. There are several ways that are better than yanking brakes, one is to fly it down by your side, still facing the wind. Another is to grab a middle line set (if you have gloves) and yank them to stall it completely by deforming the wing. Yanking on the brakes will guarantee you're fighting with it to get it on the ground and stationary, and the best thing in that situation is to preempt it by moving downwind fast on your feet before you're forced to do it on your butt. Ground handling skills will help a lot if you practice them. It took hours of paragliding ground handling to teach me this, more of that in skydiving would help jumpers landing in high wind IMHO.