Most Scared

[Kramer 0]

Scariest Moment: Feeling myself dearch, roll onto my back during a clear and pull. My JM had told me on the ground "pull time means pull time"...I knew I had to pull, even if it meant on my back. There was about two seconds there where I really got to think long and hard about how much cutting away was going to suck, looked up...bam, gorgeous canopy. Phew...

I think all of that is soon going to be topped by my AFF journey to ZHills...God help me.

-Kramer

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

[GregBrady 0]

No shit, there I was, thought I was going to die... from a canopy wrap with another on opening.

[nigel99 143]

DanglesOZQld

1) Doing a really bad low hook turn heading straight towards the ground knowing I was going to hit VERY hard. My f..k up - no life flashing before my eyes just the thought "well you have really done it now!!."
Hit the ground hard enough to bounce back up in the air at least 10 feet. Thought for sure that at least both legs were broken but after 15-20 mins walked away. Still can't believe I got away with that sort of stuff up. (Certainly learned from it!!!)
2) The hanging incident with a Tandem Skydive. We were under the plane for a good four minutes and I honestly thought we were dead. We had two options and I felt totally helpless at the time trying to convey to the pilot what to do. I do remember thinking clearly that if I did not die then I wanted it to be quick when the time comes. It was a feeling I will never forget!!! BSBD -Mark.

Do you mind giving some background on 2? It sounds like a really out there story...

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[nigel99 143]

Either

1) 1st Night jump. Definitely the closest I've come to riding the plane down.

2) Full story is in incidents. Having a skilled jumper dump my reserve deliberately as my gear was damaged (I didn't know, we couldn't communicate). The longest 5 minutes of my life, was riding down under a reserve not knowing WHY. I checked my harness a 1000 times and didn't budge a muscle

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[kallend 1,621]

Being hit from behind under canopy at 100' agl.

...

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

[ridebmxbikes 0]

Jumps 66-69 were the scarest for me. Went out to the dz just like any other day but for some reason was scared shitless all day. I've never been scared to jump before that. The first 3 jumps went good but was still scared. On the 4th jump freefall was ok, had a 4-way and nobody was docking so ivwas flying to each one. Breakoff! Deployed my canopy and had linetwists all the way up to the top and it started spinning me on my back. Cutawy and rode my reserve down. Wasn't scared of the mal at all. Just had that fear all day.

[Croc 0]

My last Mr. Bill. Went way ugly. The pilot chute ended up caught between us. I pulled the bridle to get it in clean air and thought, "This can't be good!" It wasn't. Unfortunately I was still holding onto my buddy's chest strap. The opening shock damn near tore my arm off. Later I looked in the mirror and I had bruises on both shoulders, a bruise on a rib that felt like someone smacked me with a hammer, and my back, rib and sternum hurt when I took a deep breath.

I'm done with Mr. Bills. I'll stick to CRW, which is nice and safe. (And fun!)

"Here's a good specimen of my own wisdom. Something is so, except when it isn't so."

Charles Fort, commenting on the many contradictions of astronomy

[Mach1dmb 0]

Like jump #10 doing a solo on student status. I was the last to exit the plane and it was cloudy, so I told the pilot and he went around again and said "go now". There were still clouds, but I didn't know better so I just jumped. I was in clouds the entire freefall and could barely make out my altimeter which I had pressed against my goggles. I pulled when I saw 6,000. All I saw was lines disappearing into clouds. Luckily I came out after 10 seconds or so.

Also my latest jump, I can't really remember what happened exactly but I had thought the wind direction changed after takeoff and under canopy I decided to still try to land against the wind as everybody on the load already landed. But around 1,000ft I saw the wind was back in the other direction. I made a slight 90 turn on final approach and landed crosswind. I have been having bad landings to begin with recently so I was already scared of flaring too late like I have been. I tried flaring but was getting blown sideways and didn't fully finish my flare. I hit the ground really hard, I thought for sure I was going to brake something. I didn't do a fully PLF, but I had my feet and knees together and tried to slide. I was in a lot of pain but luckily not injured.

[l_ek0 0]

Newby here wondering how likely it is that I'll experience something like one of the incidents on this thread. I know there is a very real risk, but I want to get some kind of feel for the likelihood.

[oldwomanc6 38]

l_ek0

Newby here wondering how likely it is that I'll experience something like one of the incidents on this thread. I know there is a very real risk, but I want to get some kind of feel for the likelihood.

If you make a jump ( not sure if you have, yet), you will be the most scared. Every jump you make after that has the potential to be the most scared you will ever be.

No way to quantify that, but if it is something you don't want to contemplate, this isn't the sport for you.

The upside is that every jump you make has the potential to be some of the most fun you will ever have.

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[MikeJD 0]

nigel99

Do you mind giving some background on 2? It sounds like a really out there story...

Good luck with that, Nigel - it's four years since he last logged in!
Yet another thread dredged up from the dim and distant...

[nigel99 143]

MikeJD

***
Do you mind giving some background on 2? It sounds like a really out there story...

Good luck with that, Nigel - it's four years since he last logged in!
Yet another thread dredged up from the dim and distant...

I didn't look at the date. But by coincidence I am pretty sure this incident came up last night in a discussion at the pub. If it is the same one, I doubt anybody would want to share the details. Last nights story - a TI forgot to take off his seatbelt and ended up suspended under the plane, until another TI cut the belt

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[MikeJD 0]

nigel99

But by coincidence I am pretty sure this incident came up last night in a discussion at the pub. If it is the same one, I doubt anybody would want to share the details. Last nights story - a TI forgot to take off his seatbelt and ended up suspended under the plane, until another TI cut the belt

I'm actually surprised that doesn't happen more often - more than once I've seen someone get up to exit and realise they're still attached to the plane - particularly in the case of single-point restraints. I guess the reason we don't get more people hung up is that in most cases the restraints aren't long enough for them to get to the door.

[GalFisk 0]

Sometimes I worry that I don't scare easily enough, and that I therefore will fail to duck/jump/dodge if something sudden and dangerous was to happen.
I've only ever once been scared "green-faced" and that was during my first bungee jump, right before jumping. That water sure was far down, and that tall stone dock sure was close to my touchdown area!

But sure, there have been some "Oh, shit" moments in my skydiving career, though not of that magnitude. The interesting thing is that neither my forest landing at <40 jumps (I was mostly annoyed, and I accepted that I could get hurt, badly - luckily it went fine), nor my landing-in-a-turn (during S/L course, still not sure what happened, but I turned into the ground and landed at a 45 degree angle, feet-knees-elbows-face, nose saved by helmet) scared me any.

Some scares:
Hop&pop with sabre 190, using bungee collapse pilot: I threw the pilot a second or two after exit, and waited. and waited. And was about to go for the handles when my airspeed had gained enough to uncollapse the pilot. I always waited longer on my H&P after that.

First time I jumped my spectre 150 with my own pack job. I was used to pack the sabre for soft openings - open slider, floded-in cells, open center cell - so I packed the spectre the same way.
And jumped. And pulled. And waited. What the fuck?
Again, I was almost at my handles when the fucker stopped sniveling, and finally opened. I now pack it with the slider only opened to the sides, and do nothing to the nose, and it still opens nicer than the sabre.

Another time, solo skydive, pull time: reach back, grab handle, pull... and it's stuck! Again, the thought of my handles. I get angry, and pull like crazy - and it finally releases.
I may have grabbed part of my sweater with the handle, and been unable to feel the difference because of my gloves. From then om, I made very sure to tuck in any loose clothing when I wasn't wearing a jumpsuit.

Some more: pull after filming tandem - 8-10 turns of line twist. Rotating, diving. I started kicking, thought of my handles, checked the alti - lots of time left. I kept kicking, the canopy kept diving, check alti again - still lots of time. I managed to kick it out with more than halfway left to my hard deck, but it sure was a workout! This was not my packjob, and video showed that I was stable at pull time.
Landing in tailwind - we had decided landing direction, and wind had then picked up and turned 180. Full face helmet saved my chin from the beer line asphalt.
The fear didn't come then, it came when I made my next jump. It subsided when I made a perfect stand-up landing. So it seems to be all the times I've messed up - there and then I'm okay, the fear comes when it's time to do it again. but I do it, and do it right, and it's okay again.

[FloPro 0]

Is it possible to ever be more scared than you were on your 1st jump?