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Joellercoaster

Silly skydiving injuries

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Just finishing packing and i'm there, knee on the main tray, pulling hard on the pull-up cord to have enough room to thread the pin.

"Just a touch more and i'm in"

and then...

POW!!

Closing loop snaps and i score a direct punch in my balls.

That doubled me over for about 5 minutes... :S

Edit: I make my closing loops a little bit longer now

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Surprised no one's mentioned creeper injuries. Finger under creeper wheel isn't much fun.
"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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Strained rotator cuff, throwing a log (and I do mean LOG) into the firepit. With all the beverage assistance, I didn't feel it until the next morning when I woke up and couldn't lift my right arm.

Worried about it a bit, went and got breakfast, drank my coffee with my left hand, did a couple practice touches and jumped anyway. Hell, silver was right there, right?

The most fun was driving home with a stick shift. I stuck my hand on the shifter and used body-language whenever I had to change gears. I must've looked like I was having a seizure when shifting.:D

That crap took a couple months to go away. Lesson learned? Once you've cracked a few, get the FNG's to stoke the big shit in the pit!

Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal

Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

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Took a hit from a ring mount doing a Mr. Bill. Funny, the guy's name was Bill. Came down w/ a blood all over my face. Bill Quinn. Where are you? Tried one more. Fuck a Mr. Bill. Was fun tho.
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

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akarunway

Fuck a Mr. Bill.



There's a saying somewhere about a small window of opportunity in your jumping career, between when you have enough experience to try a Mr Bill, and when you have enough experience to not want to any more B|
--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

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Years ago, I was working on accuracy jumps for B and C licenses. On my first jump of the day, I was going to have an easy stand up landing and decided to stick my left foot out to the side so I can land "there" and not "here" (you know...like anyone would care about the extra two feet closer). I rolled my ankle rather bad, likely a moderate sprain. I thought I could just walk it off, but it was hurting more and more and I was limping noticeably. Since it was the first jump of the day, I didn't want to quit and did three more jumps.

It took about two to three weeks for the the swelling and color to go down, but it really took close to 6 months for the ankle to feel normal again (even if most of the functionality was back by three weeks or so).

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There's a saying somewhere about a small window of opportunity in your jumping career, between when you have enough experience to try a Mr Bill, and when you have enough experience to not want to any more




+1. Been there. A couple guys with 100 jumps, no S&TA for the day, and a static line rig. Damn near hung ourselves. :S
=========Shaun ==========


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Highly experienced skydiver, landed without incident. Walking back to the hangar with his canopy over his shoulder, a gust of wind caught his smallish canopy and flipped him high enough to let him break a wrist.

Learnt my lesson watching him that day and now I wrap my bridle around the middle of the canopy. Not foolproof, but it helps.

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two incidents come to mind.
After a successful jump I gathered my chute and lines and started waling back to the hanger. I tripped over my own feet, fell forward and put out my hand to break the fall. Broken right thumb. Still jumped with a full cast from elbow to fingers.

The funnier one was when I was checking the C182 one winter day. The plane was parker outside and I would check it periodically as I lived very close to the DZ. Walking out to the plane I did my standard head duck as I approached the wing. Totally forgot I was walking on about 6 inches of snow. Forehead into the wing flap and straight onto my back. Ended up with a diamond shaped cut in the middle of my forehead.

Danger

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Totally forgot I was walking on about 6 inches of snow. Forehead into the wing flap and straight onto my back.



Sorry, but had the total visual in my head and had to laugh. :D

:)
50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

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monkycndo

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Totally forgot I was walking on about 6 inches of snow. Forehead into the wing flap and straight onto my back.



Sorry, but had the total visual in my head and had to laugh. :D

:)


You aren't the only one.

Every Cessna pilot I've ever met (including myself) is a member of the "Diamond Club".
More than just a few jumpers too. Walking around when the plane is in the hangar can be tricky.

Not all of them 'joined' in such a dramatic (and hilarious) manner though.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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Just how "silly" some of the thread's injuries are, is open to debate. High speeds and forces and risk taking and occasional bad choices do result in injuries...

I did once see a jumper join the 'diamond club' when he was assisting an insturctor's course and he had student gear on, pretending to be a dumb student. He played the part with great dedication when he accidentally walked into the Cessna trailing edge without his helmet on!

But anyway here are my tales, although not as good as my fellow Canadian forgetting about snow.

1. At a new DZ many years back I had gear on and was going to the plane. I jumped over a small ditch that didn't have a bridge over it yet, and rolled an ankle in the taller grass on the other side. Ended up on crutches for a couple days, my first real skydiving injury but not during the actual skydive.

Naturally it didn't help that I still did a couple jumps that day until my ankle convinced me it had already had enough.

2. Tandem recurrency jump when I was a pretty new instructor: Took up a buddy as the passenger but we forgot to get him a frap hat. So I ended up with a bloody nose on opening from his ProTec. Well duh.

3. An uninjured-but-close story: Swooped in with a Cobalt 75, saw I could get right to the tuffet, so for a lark I thought I'd land sitting right down on the foam. My accuracy was good, I didn't drop down hard, but with the small canopy I still had residual speed. A worn tarp on the tuffet had a ton of friction so instead of me just sliding, it grabbed me. This pitched me forward into a half front flip.

Wham! I landed again upside down just off the tuffet, head tucked, on the back of my head and neck and upper back. I was OK but landing like that could be very bad for one's spinal cord...

4. Just a couple years ago after testing some student gear for the DZ, I came in for landing on the Solo 250 canopy. Wanting to have some fun I did multiple toggle spirals to the landing, but despite often doing swoop turns on any style canopy, I misjudged, hammered on the brakes but still dove into the ground not even close to planed out. Those watching didn't think I'd get up from that, but I managed to. Stiffness and bruising take some time to develop! While nothing was broken, I still wasted a lot of time on doctors visits checking things out, and dealing with a skin infection after the dirt rubbed skin on one shin somewhat raw even through my pants.

So it was a little embarrassing pounding in on a 250. Back to my usual crossbraced 88 after a couple weeks of hobbling -- those swoops I have dialled in!

5. I was hanging on the side of a raft on a raft dive, organized by my friend "Freak". The grips hadn't been figured out as well as they could have been, with some ropes removed "for safety". Thus the three girls in the raft couldn't hold on and pitched out soon after exiting the Skyvan. Now the raft had a ton of drag but no weight, and hangers-on started letting go very quickly. AFF instructor instincts of mine served me poorly here, as I held on just a little longer, last man holding on. The raft flipped up, collapsed, and spun like crazy, trapping two of my fingers on the right hand in a plastic oarlock that had been one of my grips, pulling me up and away from the other jumpers. I managed to shake free after a very long few seconds. I was still able to pull, and no bones turned out broken, but with ligament damage it took half a year for the fingers to work right again. I made a t-shirt with a still from the video, captioned "I survived... Freak's raft dive". (All in good fun between friends - we set the raft up the best we knew and took the risks.)

Yay, raft dives. :S

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JohnMitchell

Dumbest skydiving injury. Trying to make a dive out the door but the lineup slowed. I still dove from my original point but didn't have the speed I wanted. Smacked my right thigh on the bottom of the door so hard I did 4 front flips before I could get stable. Took a month for that bruise to go away. :S



I have two:

1) Dive-out exit, misjudged where the door ended and slammed my left shoulder into it so hard it flipped me over and I kicked the guy behind me in the face. (Did I mention the guy behind me was my boyfriend? Oops ...) Bruised arm, bruised ego, and a "WTF, babe?!" upon landing.

2) Awesome jump, great landing, normal walk back to hangar, jumping high five to celebrate ... broken thumb. :$
You may never get rid of the butterflies, but you can teach them to fly in formation.

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Jumping student mil-surp gear back in the day. Had a total on a 4-pin main, was pitched head-downish because I had both hands inboard trying to pull. At terminal, pulled chest-mount reserve, which deployed between my legs, whipping me around about 200 degrees. Purple thighs and balls for about a month.

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EChen22


1) Dive-out exit, misjudged where the door ended and slammed my left shoulder into it so hard it flipped me over and I kicked the guy behind me in the face.



We were doing a large exit from a plane with a small door, when the people outside the door went before were finished lining up on the inside. Everybody was suddenly gone in front of me, so I dove out the door even though I was too far away from it. The lower edge of the door caught me hard (and painfully) in the shins, causing my feet to rotate up and hit the guy behind in the face.:S:$
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Andy9o8

Jumping student mil-surp gear back in the day. Had a total on a 4-pin main, was pitched head-downish because I had both hands inboard trying to pull. At terminal, pulled chest-mount reserve, which deployed between my legs, whipping me around about 200 degrees. Purple thighs and balls for about a month.



My first instructor told me a somewhat similar story:
He came in for the main ripcord pull, but just grabbed the handle w/o looking at it.
Then he turned his head to look at what his right hand was holding;
It was his Stevens Line.:o
Then he looked down at his belly-mount reserve...just in time to see the pilot chute disappear between his knees.:S
He said at that moment, his whole sex life flashed before his eyes.:D

Same end result as yours.
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Landing a reserve as a student. Totally misjudge the landing, and end up aimed directly at the fence at the end of the student landing area. Plenty of altitude to correct, give a little rears, and great, not aimed at the fence. Now aimed at a pond. A little rears, and great, not aimed at the pond. Now aimed at a berm. A little rears, and great, now set to land on top of the berm. Flare, nice soft landing, woohoo, safe and sound!

Adrenaline starts fading, take one little stumble step to the side, and put my hand into a pricker bush. I still have an inch-long scar...

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Ouch!

I guess my silliest one was actually two.

Jumping at Skydive Suffolk, VA in the middle 80's while at Ft. Eustis for a military school was a blast.

1. Had a great jump! Walking back in I stepped in a hole and sprained my left ankle.
2. Two weeks later on my first jump back I had another great landing. Walked two steps and tripped over a rock and sprained the same ankle again! :(

____________________________________
I'm back in the USA!!

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I am surprised no bull stories yet. It's always all fun and games until somebody gets hurt on the mechanical bull at the boogie party! Seen that one quite a few times!
Apologies for the spelling (and grammar).... I got a B.S, not a B.A. :)

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I was teaching a German team how to do 10 man speed stars out of a DC 3. The base guy was like an NFL lineman. When he stood in the door the plane got dark. I was behind him as pin. I would give them Ready in German, so everyone would tighten up the line then Rouse/go. I said ready and that guy stood straight up with my foot under his. Broke two bones.
I was talking a student down some years ago. Guy landed fine, but lost his balance and fell backward. Broke both bones in his arm. By the time I got to him his two instructors were there, with the strangest looking grins on their faces. He was suppose to leave for Iraq in two days.
U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

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Was dispatching two students from a cessna 206 back in the days of IADS. The rest of us were climbing to altitude. The Pilot was an idiot. The sort of idiot that doesnt even notice when a dog nearly runs into the prop, the sort of idiot that runs out of fuel and crashes in a field. I dispatch 1 student then hop to the back of the plane to get the next student ready while the pilot does the go around. I have the students pilot chute in my hand when I feel someone pushing on my rig. I turn to my right to see whats up, not noticing my right hand at the top (hinge side) of the door from turning at the same time as the idiot pilot slams the door crushing my hand. The said idiot then slams the door repeatedly on my hand while he climbs for 3,000' (from 3,500' to 6,500'), as I try to knock the door open with my shoulder (both hands are now trapped, one by a pilot chute I dont dare drop, one by the door). Silliest injury ever! (There was a lot of blood, took 2 months to heal).

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