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davelepka

Pulling your handles

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First off, this post is in reference to the recent passing of Bob Mag (see the incidents forum). Bob was an assistant police chief with 20+ years on the force, and was recently elected as the new S&TA of the Cleveland Parachute Center, both of which speak toward what kind of guy he was. Neither of those accomplishments comes easy, and he was more than qualified for both.

The exact details of his incident will never be known, save for the fact that he had a mal, and his cutaway and reserve pull were too late to allow his reserve to inflate before impact.

The obvious lesson here is to respect your hard deck, but it would be presumptuous to assume that Bob didn't respect his hard deck, as there is an underlying lesson. It's this underlying lesson that may have been the problem here, and as such I wanted to get it out in the open, and make sure that everyone is aware of it, and mindful of it while jumping.

The lesson is this - Your handles may not be where you expect them to be when you have a mal. Your handles may not pull the way you expect them to when you have a mal. Your hands may not be where you expet them to be when you have a mal. Your head (and your eyes) may not be where you expect it to be when you have a mal (in the physical sense). Your head may not be where you expect it be when you have a mal (in the mental capacity sense).

Anyone of these factors can effect the speed at which you can perform your EP's, and in turn the usefulness of your hard deck.

Your handles will move around during a mal, and most people know they will shift upwards if you have a partially open canopy pulling on your harness. What many people may not consider is that a spinning mal can apply asymetircal loads to the harness, and cause twisting and other odd circumstances. This can have handles folded back, or trapped under other things. This can also lead to dislodged handles, which aloows an even gretaer range of possibilities.

Once you have your handles, you may encounter hard pulls, or have difficulty gripping them. The end result is a delay in performing your EP's.

If you are in the habit of grabbing your risers on opening (and who isn't?) severe line twists can trap one or both of your hands in the risers. It may be for a second, or it may be for the rest of your life. Hand mounted altimeters can provide an additional snag point, and furhter delay freeing your hands. The end result is a delay in preforming your EP's.

Looking up at your canopy deploy will have your head trapped behind your risers in the case of severe line twists. You may not be able to get a visual on your handles at all. The end result is a delay in preforming your EP's.

Being scared shitless, and thinking you're going to die, or not being scared enough, and thinking it's no big deal will both not help you if you have a mal. The end result, you guessed it, a delay in performing your EP's.

The sum total of all this is to remember that no matter how many times you mime your EP's on the ground, there's a good chance that it won't go that smoothly when you really need it. By all means, continue to rehearse as often as possible, but keep inmind that the reality of a mal will change EVERYTHING.

Plan your breakoffs, deployments, and hard decks keeping all of the above in mind. Remember, as long as you don't run into a plane or another jumper, there's no such thing as being open too high.

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Excellent advice.

On the topic of the harness shifting during a mal, it certainly does NOT help if you are one of those people that likes to have your leg and chest straps loose.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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Excellent advice

Yep. Particularly if things are going badly (e.g. a hand is caught, you can't see), that's the time to make sure you're doing it right the first time, instead of doing it as quickly as possible. You probably have that 1 second to think; you might not have the extra 5 seconds to do it again.

Wendy W.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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Great advice- i always grabbed my risers instead of doing the 5,000 count and watched the canopy deploy and would have thus visualised any mal and dealt with it.

Having heard what you said i will wtah my handles!!!

One question though- if i put my hands near or on my handles would I be at risk of snagging and pulling them accidentally while the main was deploying?


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Great advice- i always grabbed my risers instead of doing the 5,000 count and watched the canopy deploy and would have thus visualised any mal and dealt with it.

Having heard what you said i will wtah my handles!!!

One question though- if i put my hands near or on my handles would I be at risk of snagging and pulling them accidentally while the main was deploying?



what do you think? hands on toggles, things get a little spinny and bumpy - could a toggle come loose if that is where you are grasping your risers? If one goes into a spin is ther a potential that altitude awareness could be lost amist all the excitment?


Hmmmm, kinda make me think that there is a long list of things that if they go wrong coupled with another small thing that goes wrong then at least my family will save some money this christmas...

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OK, I'm not telling you to change the way you do things, but just to be aware of some of the things that could hamper your ability to perform your EPs as quickly and as easily as you practice them.

Keep your hands away from your handles unless you plan to use them.

By selecting a safe breakoff, pull altitude, and hard deck, you can take any of the problems I outlined and make them simply an annoying delay to your EP's, as opposed to real risk to your well-being.

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Keep your hands away from your handles unless you plan to use them.



While it was my intent to use them, I had a full example of that "yes" having your hands on your handles during opening can cause problems...

I usually bring my hands up to my deploying risers, but on this dive I had PC-in-tow... Hands to the handles (I learned one-hand on each), but just as I went to pull the cut-a-way, my main SLAMMED!! me. "Ok, so lets not cut it away... what's that sound of nylon behind me..."

The main had slammed me hard enough to drive my left hand down and deploy the reserve.

A routine practice of placing your hands on the handles may cause you to inadvertently use them if/when you get slammed.

Not a sermon, just a thought,
Jim
Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

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I don't know what a "hard deck" is

I also am alittle confused on pc in tow malfunction.



Here's a link to the glossary.
http://www.dropzone.com/safety/resources/handbook/gloss2.shtml

But if, after 9 jumps, you still don't know what a hard deck is and how to handle a PC in tow (or what it is), that's very disturbing. You should have absorbed that during your first jump course. I see in another thread you ask a pretty basic question about what to do at pull time.

Any questions you have are perfectly valid, but STUDENTS SHOULD NOT RECEIVE SKYDIVING INSTRUCTION OVER THE INTERNET!!
Go out to the DZ and take the time to sit down with your instructor and discuss all these issues at great length. If need be, make an apointment in advance to be sure you get the discussion time you need. (And you clearly do need it!)

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hey man go fuck yourself,

I am going to talk to the instructors at my dropzone about my pull time. I just thought i'd ask on here first. "any question is valid" my ass, not when you respond like an asshole. futher more hard deck is not in your glossary link. god damn.

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Bad form brother. Personal Attacks get you banned :( He was trying to help ya believe it or not. As for Hard Deck your instructor most likely called it your decision altitude not your hard deck Decision Altitude/Hard Deck is the Altitude you decide if your landing what you have over your head or going to plan B. ;)

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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Skydive Eagles Nest
Awesome
Reviewed on 2005-10-02. (3 people found this review helpful.)
Pros: very complete instructions
Cons: I can't think of any

You still feel this way about the "very complete instructions"? I took this from your profile.

Please accept this in the spirit it is intended, please take up golf, or bowling.
-Richard-
"You're Holding The Rope And I'm Taking The Fall"

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Read the post right above yours. Did they call it the term "hard deck" or did they say "decision altitude" or whatever.

TUB is inappropriate coming from anyone but his instructor. I'm sure my vocabulary wasn't letter perfect when I was new either. I'm a shitty bowler, though, so I just had to keep skydiving.

Wendy W.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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Please accept this in the spirit it is intended, please take up golf, or bowling.



How many times has an instructor told me my next student is about to get the bowling speech in real life? It's happened quite a few times actually, and all of the the students learned to skydive.

You're an *interesting* character mr wieder sir.
My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

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1) Telling someone you have never met to "take up bowling" won't be tolerated here, and is a very poor reflection on the person who posts such things.

2) Needless to say, telling people to go fuck themselves is even worse.

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