First Terrifying Experience

[CG07 0]

I felt the need to tell this somewhere...

Working my way to my A license I finally decided to do the jump I was dreading the most, the hop n pop. My DZ normally jumps out of an Otter but for hop n pops they use they the C182. The slower airspeed messed with my exit (mostly mental) and self induced paranoia to pull quickly resulted in me rolling on my back as I was pitching the pilot chute (I took hop n pop a little too literally). As I watched it stream up between my legs I knew I was in for some trouble. I got tossed around a bit as the canopy opened and somehow ended with my left leg, up to the area behind my knee, caught in the risers on my right side. I then started to go into a pretty fast spin. I tried a couple times to free myself but I was so contorted that I couldn't move my leg back any farther to get it out. At this point I decided I need to chop. When I looked for my handles I saw part of my cutaway sticking out from under my leg. I was able to barely get my hand on it but had no leverage to pull it. I messed with it a few more times, even trying with both hands, but my leg was firmly blocking me from pulling the handle and I decided that it wasn't happening. This is when the seriousness of my situation really started to hit me. I looked at the ground and then at my canopy (which looked like it was directly in front of me) and realized how fast I was spinning. I hate to say it but for a few seconds I just sort of started to accept my fate. All I knew was that I had an out of control canopy, had wrenched myself around trying to get out and was unable to execute my EP's. I remember thinking "wow this is actually happening!" I couldn't think of anything else to do. After the couple seconds of self pity I snapped out of it and told myself "No! you are finding a way out of this!" I looked up to assess the whole situation and saw that I had a fully deployed main but my leg was pushing down on the front risers and causing me to spiral down. I figured my best option was to yank on my rear risers to counteract it. I instantly felt myself slow down and was able to get my body up higher to do a full flare with my rear risers. After a few flares I finally worked my leg out (It was MUCH easier to move without the force of the spin throwing me around) and was flying the canopy normally with a little less than 1000ft below me. Never been happier to see the ground.

Not sure if I acted correctly but it ended up working out. One huge mistake I made after I corrected the situation was not checking my handles since I had been trying to work them free. When I finally took my rig off I noticed my cutaway handle was detached from the velcro and could have easily been bumped and cut away my main as I was landing.

[jailbot 0]

CG07

Not sure if I acted correctly but it ended up working out.

You made it to the ground without taking a visit to the hospital or worse, that's what counts

Definitely understand what happened and what you did so it doesn't occur again. Obviously the exit and early pitch are what made this into a mess. If you would have waited to pitch when you were stable, instead of on your back, you probably would have avoided this altogether.

Btw, what hop and pop was it? 3.5k or 5.5k?

Live and learn they say.

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

You're alive. No matter how much anyone second guesses your actions here, if you walked away from something like that you did something right. The cutaway handle takes a fair bit of force to pull, so it's unlikely you could have accidentally cut away while landing, but it is always a good idea to check that they're in the right place and secure before each jump, and protect them on the way up.

It sounds like the main thing you did wrong was pull before getting stable. It takes 10 seconds to fall the first thousand feet. Even if you're doing a hop and pop from 3000, you still have some time to get stable before you need to pull. I've seen people wait 15-20 seconds on hop and pops from 5000. That feels like an eternity when you're watching from the plane.

It might be a good idea to go do another one so you know they're not this big scary thing. They're really kind of nice once you get used to them -- not much time in the plane and an entire landing field to yourself. Or maybe line up 10 of them and work on stable exits (They're good for that, too.)

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[FB1609 0]

Probably a good thing you were not able to pull the cutaway

[CG07 0]

It was the 3.5k one. I actually ended up going back the next day to do it since it was the only thing besides the 25 jumps that I still needed on my proficiency card. I knew thinking about it would eat me up if I waited.

[CG07 0]

FB1609

Probably a good thing you were not able to pull the cutaway

That's what the instructor told me afterward too. I probably would have held onto my main with my leg and sent my reserve into it

[Deimian 43]

I've been there too a year ago :-P. My 3rd or 4th hop and pop. I've been taught a technique for stable exits, so I could pull almost immediately. Worked fine the first couple of times. Then I overrelaxed, jump and pull. I was just starting to fall. I tumbled and the bridle came between my legs while I was falling on my back. I pulled the bridle at the same time as I flipped over to be on my belly. Turned out ok. But I was very lucky, I could have been in your situation or worse. Lesson: don't hurry up so much in hop-n-pops!

[nadominhoca 0]

That's a common mistake in the bad H&P that I've seen... people rushing up to deploy their parachutes!!

Take it easy! Even if you have a bad and unstable exist you have plenty of time to correct it, get stable and deploy your parachute!!

Man, being honest with you, I can't picture what happened to you... one of your legs was caught by the riser?!?!?!

[dthames 0]

Great story and great effort. Thanks for sharing.

I was on a load Saturday that had a student that also pitched right after exit (3500) and got all sideways. Bad form and he knew it.

May threads have the comments about "no need to rush it". But still it is something that normally has to be learned by practice.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[djar 0]

CG07

The slower airspeed messed with my exit (mostly mental) and self induced paranoia to pull quickly resulted in me rolling on my back as I was pitching the pilot chute (I took hop n pop a little too literally).

I think you did great. This must have been scary.

When i did AFF, i almost shit myself every time when doing HopNPops. I never got the stable exit right. I managed to pull 5 Seconds after exit so it was ok, but it never felt good. When i got my license and did some jumps "just for the lulz" on my own, every exit was kind of stable. I finally got it right without thinking about it. When the pressure is gone, you will see how easy and fun the HopNPops are.

At about 30 jumps i signed up for a canopy control training. Exit at 2000m and instant pull to use all the altitude for canopy flying. Guess what happened? The guys already flying their canopies seen me falling and tumbling, pulling at 1700m. So just thinking about "this must be done 100%" and I f***** up.

Now I enjoy HopNHops, i have my own private landing area. And a few jumps later i'm sure you will enjoy them too.

[pchapman 261]

So this is one good example of a student, who is presumably used to full altitude jumps, messing up the low hop and pop jump that is required in many places.

The debate has long been about how to challenge a student outside of their comfort zone, to do something that is well within safe practice when done right... but can become dangerous when a student gets nervous.

CG07: Nice job fighting the problem. And realizing why it all happened in the first place.

I try reminding students doing a low hop and pop to calculate how much time they have. e.g., 3500' to 2500' is over 9 seconds.

[wmw999 2,121]

Understand, too, that even in the days of static lines, while students weren't scared of getting out low, the first hop and pop was still often known as the pop and hop.

A fast, unstable pull is not unprecedented. Good job thinking about it, OP. Glad you had the time to do so.

Wendy P.

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)

[TrickyMike 1]

I also struggled with hop and pops... It was the only part of the AFF program that I REALLY did not want to do.

What ended up helping me was not more hop and pops but intentionally unstable exits from full altitude. It made me realize how quickly I could get stable if I just hucked myself out the door in an intentional tumble. With that experience in mind the amount of time I had in a typical hop and pop seemed so much longer.

I did a canopy course last weekend consisting of all hop and pops and was doing goofy exits for fun after my group had established that we had no issues creating abundant separation. You'll get there!

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

pchapman

So this is one good example of a student, who is presumably used to full altitude jumps, messing up the low hop and pop jump that is required in many places.

The debate has long been about how to challenge a student outside of their comfort zone, to do something that is well within safe practice when done right... but can become dangerous when a student gets nervous.

CG07: Nice job fighting the problem. And realizing why it all happened in the first place.

I try reminding students doing a low hop and pop to calculate how much time they have. e.g., 3500' to 2500' is over 9 seconds.

We do a couple solos from full altitude and then a H&P from 5000 and people still get freaked out by it. On my second solo off AFF there was a guy doing a H&P who dumped right out of the door while unstable. He was fine but the discussion it prompted on the way up solidified my resolve to wait until stable to pull from that one. Prior to that jump, the lowest I'd ever pulled was 5500, so that made me a bit uncomfortable, but I got out, got stable, did my pull and thought "Wow, that was kind of nice!" 5 minutes in the plane and the entire landing field to myself.

Funnily enough when I did the canopy class a few jumps later, I used the same approach and they kept telling me to pull higher so I'd have more time to fly the canopy. It took me another few exits to get stable exits down, but I was never particularly uncomfortable with H&Ps after that first one.

I haven't done a hop and pop for a while but I'm averaging about one high pull a week during the summer and always force myself to wait a couple seconds before dumping. Last one my altimeter shows I was fully deployed 750 feet below my exit altitude. Not too bad for a sub-terminal deploy. Took me 14 minutes to get down on that one. I always warn the driver for the rest of the load that I'm doing a high pull and that he should just leave once the tandems are loaded up. I'm fine riding back with the next load.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[yoink 321]

CG07

I felt the need to tell this somewhere...

Working my way to my A license I finally decided to do the jump I was dreading the most, the hop n pop.

I can't tell you how much it depresses me when I hear a student say this.

If students are scared of hop and pops then we're doing a shitty job teaching them.


The fact that you were contemplating cutting away an entanglement only solidifies that opinion...




Good job fixing it - next time don't freak yourself out. Ask to do some high hop and pops so you can feel how much time you really have. There's nothing to be scared of.

[malooper 0]

As an AFF level 7 student…my response to that was "oh my gosh!" So glad you were able to snap out of the fatalistic view you had and tried something that changed your outcome! Smart to go back real soon to do it again too.

I'll admit I'm nervous about these. I think it's the fact that there's a lot less altitude to correct something if anything happens. I pretty much took a small jump out of the plane on my level 7 that I didn't pass this last time which had me turning a bit making me think I was on my back (completely clueless to the fact that I wasn't looking at a blue sky) so I did the roll out of bed maneuver. Had my instructors laughing at me but I just watched the video again and saw how much time it took me from the moment I left the plane and felt unstable to the point I was stable and it was just under 4 seconds. So..I agree that the higher altitude hop and pops would definitely help boost confidence and experience with those of us who are a bit anxious about these!

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-Raymond Lindquist

[jailbot 0]

CG07

I actually ended up going back the next day to do it

Awesome, awesome choice.

[johnmatrix 21]

Wow, nice work surviving, and thanks for posting.

[-ftp- 0]

I understand you are a new jumper, but can you explain your thought process on why you would cut away?

Was your leg through the risers as in, between the front and rear risers? Or suspension lines?