What I learned from my two-out

[ljwobker 2]

I had a two-out situation about a year ago, and recently someone suggested that I post my experience here so that others may learn from my mistakes. Comments are welcome (but please don't bother telling me that I'm an idiot, as I already figured that part out on my own).

My two-out, January 9th, 2005.

My cypress is in the loft for it’s 4-year check, so I check out a rig from the store and do a gear check, everything is in order. The jump is a basic 4-way mess-around jump, nothing exciting until pull time. Jumping a rig that isn’t mine, I pull at about 3200ft, which is about 500ft higher than my normal pull altitude. The main deploys in what my body tells me is “normal” line twists, when you get that “slightly-turning” feeling. I look up and start to spread the risers apart when I realize that the slider is only about 2/3rds of the way down and “looks funny”. I spent maybe 5 seconds or so trying to figure out why the lines looked wrong, and at that point the canopy starts to spin – not violently, but violently enough that when combined with the fact that it’s not my canopy AND it looks ugly, I’m gonna chop it. Here’s where I make my first mistake of the day. I was taught in my AFF to use the “one hand on each handle” method to chop, but when I go to pull the cutaway handle, I missed – either didn’t pull it hard enough or didn’t peel or something like that. Instinctively I go immediately after the reserve, and now hear this “pop” and out comes the reserve. I’m basically directly over the center of the DZ at this point (thanks for the awesome spot, whoever was flying!) After the reserve opened I had a couple of people tell me that the two-out got into a downplane for a few seconds. I don’t remember this myself as I was probably concentrating on figuring out what the hell was going on. I do remember checking my altimeter a lot, I was at about 2800 when I initially opened with the bad lines, I decided to chop at about 2500, and was at 1800 when I realized I had two canopies out and flying side-by-side. This 700ft sounds about right for two or three rotations in a downplane. At about 1800 feet I realize that I’ve got two out and flying side by side. The reserve is on my left side, flying maybe 6-12 inches behind the main canopy on the right I can’t figure out why the main hasn’t released, because in my mind *I’m certain that I’ve pulled the cutaway handle*. This is the second mistake – I never physically looked at the cutaway handle to see if it was still there, I just assumed that since I had “pulled it” it was gone somewhere and the main hadn’t released for some reason. In any case, I spent about 1000 feet trying to figure out why the main was still attached, again without looking at the cutaway handle. At about 800 feet I decided that since the side-by-side was fairly stable, I was going to ride it down and PLF like hell. I didn’t want to mess with the canopy any more than absolutely necessary, but I was also headed north towards the box plant and had no desire to end up there, so I tried turning the whole thing by just dropping my left hip and using harness input. This set me up running downwind (ground winds were light, maybe 5mph) directly away from the hanger. The only real excitement was at about 150ft when the canopies buffeted a little bit and bounced maybe two feet apart, which at the time seemed like a lot of movement. Ten seconds later I hit the ground in damn-near perfect PLF format: feet and knees together and limp as a rag doll. I got a muddy jumpsuit and a good case of the shakes, but no damage whatsoever. Thanks to Brian Ball for landing next to me and to Rob for hauling ass in the van towards my landing spot! To summarize, here’s a sequence of events and my opinion on whether I handled things correctly or incorrectly:
1) a thorough gear check when jumping unfamiliar gear. (GOOD)
2) Pulling slightly higher than normal under unfamiliar gear (GOOD)
3) Realizing that a low-speed malfunction gives me time to think (GOOD)
4) Checking altitude immediately upon deciding that something wasn’t right (GOOD)
5) Missing the cutaway handle without looking at it (BAD, REAL BAD)
6) Hitting the reserve handle without verifiying that the main was gone (BAD, REAL BAD)
7) Not realizing I was in a downplane for 2-3 rotations (BAD)
8) Checking altitude as soon as I realized that I had two out. (GOOD)
9) Assessing that the two out were flying stable once in the side-by-side configuration (GOOD)
10) Spending 1000 feet trying to determine why the main isn’t cut away without looking for the cutaway handle (BAD)
11) Recognizing that at 800ft it was “probably” going to stay stable and deciding not to mess with it any more. (GOOD)
12) Harness inputs to steer to an open area as opposed to toggles or risers (GOOD)
13) The PLF. (my first. Hopefully, also my last.) (GOOD)

What I learned from this, and/or things I’ll change in how I jump:

1) I’m very lucky. I learned an awful lot for a very small price.
2) ALWAYS ALWAYS look at your handles.
3) I was trained in the “one hand on each handle” emergency procedures. After this and thinking about it some more, I’m going to change this to the two hands on each handle, which incidentally is the way that CSS teaches their students. I jump with an RSL, the canopy is a Sabre2 170 loaded at about 1.3:1, which is not a particularly fast canopy configuration. Considering all this I think that in 99% of malfunctions making certain that I chop the main is the most important thing to do, and the risk of the one-hand-on-each handle is that you miss the cutaway and get another two-out situation, which I’m not a big fan of. My “instinctive training” was to go bang-bang on the two handles, and I didn’t stop to realize that I had missed. That was an important and potentially very expensive lesson.
4) Wear a hook knife. The root cause of the malfunction was a bad pack job, where the right side steering lines were somehow wrapped around the left-side lineset, making the main uncontrollable. If I’d had a hook knife on me and had realized what was going on, I could have cut the one misrouted line and easily landed the main using the risers.

The pictures (from Karen Wood) are posted at http://www.pbase.com/ljwobker/jump_pix near the bottom of the list.

[Balu 1]

Lots of lessons to be learned. Nothing basically new, but a lot that should be remembered from time to time. Thank you for sharing your experience with us!

However, you made a good job handling it down to earth without any injuries.

1300 Sprünge, 100er Wingsuit Formation, viele nette Menschen kennengelernt, keine Unfälle. Schön war's!

[Reginald 0]

Great post. I think you made some good points and were honest that you made mistakes. Humans by nature make mistakes and you are a good man for posting your experiences so openly.

One thing you said that bothers me was, “My “instinctive training” was to go bang-bang on the two handles, and I didn’t stop to realize that I had missed.”

I see people practice their EP’s like this all the time and I believe they are ingraining bad habits on a critical process! It is NOT a race to see how fast one can pull the handles! It is a slow methodical process. Pull cutaway handle, confirm main is detached, pull reserve. All in all it should only take a couple of seconds. However, I see people go “bang-bang” in a half second all the time. Personally, I don’t advocate a two handed EP but I do believe it is acceptable. Whatever choice people make they need to practice their EP’s realistically not “bang-bang”!

"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

[The111 0]

I'm curious why you'd rather pay to jump a rig you don't know very well instead of your own rig with no AAD. But that would probably start a whole other discussion...

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[sid 1]

you beat me to it Matt...... good job with dealing with it.... when I used to teach first jump courses I always taught the first step was "Take a DEEP breath, then......"

Pete Draper,

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

[bob.dino 0]

The way I drill it is cutaway - check right riser - check left riser - deploy reserve.

[riggerrob 558]

Quote

The way I drill it is cutaway - check right riser - check left riser - deploy reserve.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

... and that is the LONGEST you delay between cutting away and pulling your reserve ripcord.

I have only had that much patience a couple of times out of 20 reserve rides.

[lisamariewillbe 1]

I was wondering why look at the risers? For my cutaway (same method one on each handle) after I cleared the cutaway handle, I arched and cleared the reserve, I had a two count from clear cutaway as I was peeling the reserve handle.

Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

[champu 1]

I carry a hook knife on my rig, but as long as my main isn't wrapped around me, a malfunction is going to drive me to my cutaway handle, not my hook knife. I trust my rigger better than that, and besides, a reline costs more than a reserve packjob.

[ljwobker 2]

Answers:

reference "instinctive training" comment from reginald:
I spent hours in the plane over my first 700 jumps going "arch look reach pull check SHIT right hand-pull left hand pull". Now that's been modified to include "make sure the !%$*-ing main has detached" between the two hands. This comment perfectly summarizes (what I think) anyone reading this needs to take away: make damn sure your main is gone before you auto-fire your reserve into it. I got a significant "discount" on the cost of this lesson.

reference The111's comment about which rig:
My rig was down for an I&R as well as the AAD check. Both the rig and canopy were similar enough to mine that I felt comfortable jumping them with only a slight addition to my normal pull altitude. This particular main canopy was actually larger than my normal one.

reference champu's comment about the hook knife:
I generally agree with you, but in this case the only line with problems was the right-side steering line. If the exact same malfunction happend to me today, I'd vey easily cut just the one misrouted line and be on my way. I can't imagine that repairing one steering line costs more than an I+R, and even if it does, I'd rather save myself the reserve ride.

[bob.dino 0]

If one of the risers hangs up, I don't want to fire the reserve into my malfunctioning main. Ergo, check beforehand.

[FrogNog 1]

At some point I noticed that under an inflated canopy my handles move upward. My rig fits so they're not in a bad place, they're just not where I practice all my handle-pulls on the ground before every jump.

So now when I practice my EPs on the ground (and in the plane, space permitting), I do them in a paired set: "look, reach, pull, pull, arch" with my hands on my handles, and then the same thing with my hands on my chest just higher than my handles - where the handles always seem to be under canopy. I also added a "handle, handle" visual and touch check to my post-opening, post-traffic/direction checks.

But, then, when I practice my EPs I try to look at the handles and get a good feel on them, too. I am another person very interested in not failing to detach my main when I mean to. (But for myself, I prefer the one-hand-each-handle thing because I have a lot of faith in my right hand and arm and once I pull "go", I really want to know where "stop" is.)

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[raw 0]

Quote

If one of the risers hangs up, I don't want to fire the reserve into my malfunctioning main. Ergo, check beforehand.

What would your other options be?

[bob.dino 0]

Try to claw it free. If that fails, get the reserve out anyway. Some fabric is better than none.

[RossDagley 0]

Looking at the photos, it looks like you left both canopies with their brakes stowed - is this the case?

I'm just thinking out loud really - I've a slightly lower WL and harness inputs dont make a huge difference under one canopy, let alone two. I dont know how responsive attempting that would be in my situation.

[AFFI 0]

Quote

I'd rather save myself the reserve ride.

Am I the only crazy bastard here who actually LIKES reserve rides?

Havent used the old reserve in over 5 years and 2600 jumps so I am not only due, but looking forward to it.

It is a good skill to stay current on...

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

[canedraw4 0]

Still awaiting my first reserve ride, cant wait to get it out of the way. Starting to think i must be due one with my packing skills.

[darnknit 0]

Quote

Am I the only crazy bastard here who actually LIKES reserve rides?

i love reserve rides. what's the point in extra handles if you don't use them every once in a while?

pulling is cool. keep it in the skin

[ljwobker 2]

Quote

Looking at the photos, it looks like you left both canopies with their brakes stowed - is this the case?
I'm just thinking out loud really - I've a slightly lower WL and harness inputs dont make a huge difference under one canopy, let alone two. I dont know how responsive attempting that would be in my situation.

That's right. By the time I decided that I wasn't going to mess with it, I also decided that since they were both flying in a docile manner the LAST thing I wanted to do was upset the apple cart. I decided this pretty high and was indeed able to turn the canop(ies) with just harness inputs... they didn't by any means turn QUICKLY, but I could definitely steer them. Fortuneately (again) it was a pretty calm day, and I was able to line up along the longest part of our landing area. (One more item where I was lucky). I also didn't dare flare them, figuring two canopies in brakes was more than slow enough to take my chances with a PLF. It ended up being one of the softest landings ever... like jumping off a one-foot fence.

[kschilk 0]

I'm a firm believer in the RSL. I was taught a two-hand pull sequence and the RSL adds a margin of safety, to the mix. I also block about 1/3 of the velcro, on my handles. I place a small piece of paper, between the center part of the velcro surfaces. It leaves more than enough, for safety but can mean a few saved seconds....during a flat spin/hard pull situation.

"T'was ever thus."