Most Scared

[Katzeye 0]

I would have to say the time I almost killed the rigger (and myself) was the scariest jump to date.

I was at about 50 ish jumps and working on my sitfly in a nice little solo one windy day. The uppers were cooking, I was last out of the plane and the group before me was a 3-way w/vid (the rigger) doing a practice AFF I dive. They were all over the sky, I was all over the sky, I didn't give enough time out the door and next thing I knew, I was looking down through my legs at THE RIGGER under me! SHIT! Straight to belly and track *away* from the group. I clear air above myself, each shoulder twice and dump. Uneventful landing, walk over the rigger and he's about to rip me a new one, see's I'm visibly SHAKING from head-to-toe, apologizing profusely. He just didn't have the heart to tear me up. I got a stern talking to, and learned a good lesson. He related later over beers that I must have tracked in a semi-circle because when he was under canopy, I shot right past him about 20 feet away, still in freefall.

I would never have forgiven myself if I had killed our rigger.

LA*

Is a chicken omelette redundant?

[Nightingale 0]

Do you have a logbook, Jennifer? You may want to start logging your tandems and get the TM to sign your book.

My DZ told me that tandems now count towards the uspa license requirement of 25 skydives.

[mailin 0]

woah.... really??

Even if its not in a tandem progression program? The only problem is that I've jumped at 3 different locations... I have those cheesy certificates (signed by the TMs) but thats it - anybody know if that would count?

Jennifer

Arianna Frances

[dropdeded 0]

After initiating a very hard, very low turn, when I saw how fast the ground was coming at me, and I knew I was gonna bif it in REAL hard THAT was pretty scary.
Got away cheap, two breaks to my right fibula.

dropdeded

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The Dude Abides.
-

[Nightingale 0]

my two tandems weren't in a tandem progression, and Shelly at perris says they count.

[WILDBILLAQR 0]

Pre-me @ 12000ft. One freind had just taken wrist grip (after climbing off my back during a funneld exit) saw my other two buds go past me about 4ft away! Then watched the rest of the load go by. I got lots of canopy practice that day!

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"Thats not smoke, thats BUCKEYE!!"
AQR#3,CWR#49

[mcneill79 0]

I did 3 tandems in my progression. The first one was done at a different dropzone and all I got was the certificate. The new dz allowed my first tandem to count towards the progression since it had been within 30 days. Hope that helps. I can't tell you about the A, b/c I haven't gotten there yet.

Oh yeah and on topic, I was most scared for was my first AFP jump. I just couldn't relax.

[Push 0]

It's a toss up.

One is the time I went on a sitfly jump with someone before I could sitfly at all, corked, and ended up about 200ft above them and 20ft away from them when they pulled. I was too inexperienced to be able to get into a stable track in a split second, and he was already waving off when I saw him. I could read the "Wings" stitching on his container when he went past me. Taught me a good lesson about going places I'm not ready to go.

The other is a freefly coach dive, also for sitflying. I had a spinning problem, and I was fighting the spin. Too much wrong input, the spin gets hard. I ball up, but I'm on my side. Side spin! I finally went flat when the world started compressing into a small point of light on the horizon. Spent the entire dive from 13k in an arch waiting for my head to stop spinning. It was still spinning when I landed. My coach was... a little worried.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

[Rhonda66 0]

When my AFF Level 7 JM's reserve pin got dislodged in the plane before exit and made for one heck of a scary freefall. I thought I was going to see someone die that day and I felt completely helpless when he ended up in a spinning downplane. Miraculously, he was able to chop the main eventually and landed perfectly under his reserve - whew

Rhonda
PP ASEL

[Nightingale 0]

if his reserve pin got pulled on exit, why was the main out in the first place?

[Lee03 0]

Hasn't happened... yet! I'm sure my time is coming!

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To put your life in danger from time to time ... breeds a saneness in dealing with day-to-day trivialities.

--Nevil Shute, Slide Rule

[Rhonda66 0]

He had no clue what happened so he threw out the PC and both the reserve and main deployed simutaneously...

Rhonda
PP ASEL

[Rhonda66 0]

Oh, and the pin wasn't pulled on exit - he was sitting on the floor behind the pilot in the Otter when it was dislodged. Thay found the rigger's seal there after we landed.

Rhonda
PP ASEL

[Nightingale 0]

hmm...

reserve pin pulls, reserve pilot chute is supposed to spring off your back. if he was up by the pilot, why didn't he know?

just trying to make sense of it...

[PhreeZone 14]

The pin might not have been pulled, but pushed so close to the end of the pin that a slight bump is all that was needed to fire the reserve. The seal is held on by seal thread, if the pin moves usually more then half way out thats enough that the seal thread can break.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Mad47 0]

Quote

Had borrowed my sisters Pro-track. Didn't know how it worked or anything and on the way up in the plane I remembered that I hadn't turned it on. So I turned it on, expecting it to work as it usually does.

Got the first warning 500 meter too high. Looked at altimeter and ground and thought "hm, that can't be right". Second warning was also 500 meter too high. Same thought, except I see a canopy deploying in the distance, about same alt as me. Am beginning to think the altimeter might have malfunctioned, but the ground doesn't *look* that close. Wasn't that worried.

The flatline warning scared the *shit* outta me - especially as I could see that canopy getting higher and higher above me. That sinus-curve-esque sound, together with seeing another canopy deploying made me go into "oh-shit-dump-something-now" mode.

I remember breathing heavily after the canopy came out. I really wasn't that concerned until the flatline sound came on. Dunno what it is about it, but it sure catches my attention.

Later it turned out the high canopy was just someone opening, well, high. I had turned the Pro-track on at around 500 meter, so my guess is that it took that altitude for being ground level. Pro-track showed me deployed at 1000 meter.

If I had less than 100 jumps, got a pull signal on pro-track and was not sure how high I was on solo jump, I would immediately waive off and pull.
In general it is a good idea to set the first two warning altitudes 2-300 hundred feet lower than a planned break-off and pull-time in order not to learn to rely on pro-track. It is also a good idea to turn Pro-track and Cypress on BEFORE boarding the plane, at '0' altitude

[skymick 0]

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Was just thinking about this - when have you been most scared during your skydiving career? I have two occasions (and I am still at low jump numbers)

hmmm..would have to say that split second after an unintentional hook turn..my body would of been just about parallel to the ground..had enough time to think "oh fuck it"....then smack

its a pretty funny feeling where u just realised that you monumentally stuffed up and cant do a thing about it... (i broke my back on that one!)

[vonSanta 0]

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If I had less than 100 jumps, got a pull signal on pro-track and was not sure how high I was on solo jump, I would immediately waive off and pull.

Well, it did evoke a "umm, HUH?!?" in my mind. The info didn't match my alti or what I saw and I'm usually checking the alti a few hundred meters before it starts to beep. Nut the flatline signal at my low jump numbers definitely is close to a brown trousers experience

Quote

In general it is a good idea to set the first two warning altitudes 2-300 hundred feet lower than a planned break-off and pull-time in order not to learn to rely on pro-track.

I can see the logic in that. I'll set it up like that in the future.

Quote

It is also a good idea to turn Pro-track and Cypress on BEFORE boarding the plane, at '0' altitude

Oh yeah. Now, I am very inteligle...intelegu...smart, so I've learned from this

Santa Von GrossenArsch
I only come in one flavour
ohwaitthatcanbemisunderst

[Paige 0]

Quote

I had one similar to Dangles there. I turned really low, knew I was gonna hit, (swear I saw my own body hit), thought "OH SHIT IT'S OVER" and WHAMMO!!! It was a nasty hit, my right side of my body was black, but I got up (a few minutes later) and walked it off. Even jumped again later that day!!

U so crazy!

Tunnel Pink Mafia Delegate
www.TunnelPinkMafia.com

[Rhonda66 0]

That was more like it. He was also jumping some funky older rig at the time that made things more complicated, but I can't remember what it was - this was well over 5 years ago now.

Rhonda
PP ASEL

[DrewEckhardt 0]

First skysurf.

I learned to skysurf the Black Death Billy way before he became respectable. Back then I don't think he could go a full minute without saying "dude."

Apart from what I'd read on the internet and meeting the pre-requisites (standing+sitting left and right 360s, back flips, front flips, and cartwheels in both directions) my instruction could be summed up as follows:

Dude, you gotta surf it out the door and not get the tail low. Check out this video (Billy exits with an unintentional back-flip and spins out of control for most of the skydive).

Dude, you gotta be aggressive and get back on top of it.

Dude, you should like flip on your belly early and do a few practice pulls.

and the final words of wisdom

Dude, you should go to the mockup and practice getting your bindings on 10 times so you aren't in people's way.

I was definately scared on the King Air ride to altitude and exit.
I surfed out the door at 12000 feet, watched the plane following me down, flipped on my belly after 5000-6000 feet, did a few practice pulls, and dumped (standard recomendation is to tuck the board up in your burble and do practice pulls the whole jump).

I also didn't have an AAD, although I don't think that made much of a difference in the fear factor.

[BoogieBob 0]

I've made 41 skydives (including one tandem). I have made 18 jumps on my own rig (with a Sabre2-170).

For the first 16 jumps on my Sabre2 the openings were incredibly consistent. Even with my pack jobs (haven't been packing long) the openings always felt just the same. Snivel, snivel, small hitch to the left then about a 90-degree turn to the right.

On jump 40, I deployed...snivel, snivel, small hitch to the left and then canopy started banking to the right and my airspace is clear. "Ok! Another great opening" I'm thinking as I reach up to collapse the slider and realize that the 90-degree hadn't stopped...it's a spin.

Call me crazy, but I was actually kind of excited about the situation. Not because it was happening, but because the two thoughts that instantly popped into my head were: 1) I'm spinning and something is wrong; 2) "They" (my instructors) always said not to mess around too long...I'm going to take a couple of seconds to try and fix this and then I'm cutting.

I looked up at the canopy. "Well, it looks fine, WTF?" Maybe I've got some kind of line over that I can't see real well? Screw it...one flare attempt to clear it and I'm cutting.

I reached up to the toggles to flare and the instant my right hand put pressure on the right toggle the canopy was flying straight and level.

I felt kind of dumb when I realized that it was just an unstowed brake that had caused my problems. But, in hindsight, I feel good that I didn't freak out and that the first things that popped into my head were those things I'd been instructed.

I know most of you people in here are probably saying "What kind of idiot doesn't know what an unstowed brake looks like?" or "What kind of dumbass can't recognize a stowed-brake turn?" Well, with my jump numbers and my canopy's history of consistency I just didn't know what was wrong...but I did know SOMETHING was wrong and that I wasn't going to bullshit with it for long.

I know it's not some great "No Shit There I Was" story...but I'll be quite happy if I never have one of those stories to tell.

[Auryn 0]

those unstowed brakes have caused a lot of problems for people... sometime fatal. you handled it great


its not silly at all.

blue ones

D 27808

[Rhonda66 0]

Yeah, I've heard of many incidents where people made something as small as an unstowed breakline a major problem - you did well...

Rhonda
PP ASEL

[dj-seus 0]

Quote

I think I was hypoxic simply because I WASN'T BREATHING.

i remember a very similar thing happening to me on AFF 1 - i wasn't very scared, although i was a little more nervous on that jump than on the intro jump...

it was really cold out (lucky me - i began my skydiving progression in the dead of winter!) and at about 35 seconds into freefall, i realized that i hadn't taken a single breath of air!

-dan