JerseyShawn 0 #1 July 20, 2011 What jump scared you the most out of you? Lesson(s) learned from it? I don't have one yet to share, so lets hear yours. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nebug 0 #2 July 20, 2011 1973 - Belly reserve deployed in the door of C-180. Grabbed it rolled backwards screaming door - door - door!! Pilot popped left rudder, slammed jump door and down we went. To this day, second guess what I should of done ( perhaps rolled out the door?) but we all survived. Start of a hate relationship with belly reserves though I know the ones now can kill you too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AggieDave 6 #3 July 20, 2011 QuoteWhat jump scared you the most out of you? Lesson(s) learned from it? I don't have one yet to share, so lets hear yours. The jump where the motor quit on our fully loaded 182 at 200ft taking off towards the industrial park. Lesson? Hope your DZ has a pilot worth a crap! Or the one where I rode spinning linetwists down to below 500ft. Then I had to land in a yard, shooting the gap between a building, a tree, a sign (business) and power lines. I ended up going under some other power lines by the highway and crashed into the bar ditch next to the highway (canopy fell into the highway, thank god no vehicles hit it). That was under a 170, a smaller canopy would have sucked even more and I probably would have been really hurt. Lesson learned? Don't F*** with spinning linetwists, you burn altitude too fast. If I can't fix it in under 2 rotations, it gets chopped. My last two chops were spinning linetwists. The last one on a Velo loaded around 2.7. That went from zero to holy-christ-on-a-stick faster than I could get my hands up on the risers!--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnMitchell 14 #4 July 21, 2011 I'm not gonna talk about mine. I'm still too scared. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuckakers 370 #5 July 21, 2011 QuoteWhat jump scared you the most out of you? Lesson(s) learned from it? I don't have one yet to share, so lets hear yours. Not sure if scary is the right description but I hung myself from a 182 by my main bag once. I dislodged my main pin while moving from the "back to the dashboard" position to the "sitting on the strut" slot for exit and my bag went over the strut and began deploying under my feet toward the tail of the plane. Me and my buddy went ahead and launched a 2-way and a split second later I was in tow. I got lucky and it cleared and deployed before I could cutaway. My buddy deployed when he saw what was happening, which gave us plenty of time to throw a little CReW together on the way down.Chuck Akers D-10855 Houston, TX Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NWFlyer 2 #6 July 21, 2011 Quote I'm not gonna talk about mine. I'm still too scared. No shit, there I was, on a skydive with John Mitchell.... I kid, I kid, all of my jumps with John have been pure fun! I'd have to say this one, when I had somewhere around 250 jumps. Took me several months to really get my head straight after that one."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 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
champu 1 #7 July 21, 2011 The first one that comes to mind is a 16 way hybrid that funneled right before break-off resulting in one jumper having a broken closing loop and a deployment bag and lines coming out in the middle of a bunch of people tumbling in every direction. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firemedic 7 #8 July 21, 2011 In 1976 on jump #14. Lost altitude awareness. Deployed main at 2000. It streamered and I nearly rode it too long. Cutaway with capewells, backfliped, pulled reserve and got about a 2 second ride out of it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,396 #9 July 21, 2011 BASE jump #15. Realized the main I was using (old Manta) would not fit down the lane in the trees I was aiming for. Old training took over (or more accurately stuff I teach every weekend took over) and I aimed for the middle of one of the trees. Hit hard, grabbed a big branch, and was quite proud of my excellent reactions - until the branch broke. I ended up falling face-first about 30 feet until a line caught on a branch and jerked me to a stop about 3 feet off the ground. I looked up to see two EMT's running towards me; when they saw me looking at them they stopped and turned around. I didn't have time during the event itself to think "holy shit" but I definitely thought it afterwards. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnMitchell 14 #10 July 21, 2011 Quote No shit, there I was, on a skydive with John Mitchell.... That's a common element in many people's scary jump stories.Jumping a Twin Otter in Costa Rica one time. Valinda, some Italian guy and I are at the front of the plane, jammed pack with many local jumpers. On jumprun they say "You're first out."So the 3 of us shoved our way down the crowded aisle. Somewhere along the way my pin got popped on my pull-out rig. As I climbed out front float, I saw my pilot chute on the Italian guy's leg and felt my bag roll off my legs. I instantly threw myself off the plane. A second later I had an inflated main over my head, a full backflip in the lines and my pilot chute wrapped in the right steering lines, spinning. Woohoo! Being at 12000' and 1/4 mile from the ocean, I decided to ride it for a while. By working the brakes I could stop the spin most of the time, although it would still take off on me. Then, somewhere around 9 grand the pilot chute came out of the steering lines and I was able to fly it in for a normal landing. Of course, Vskydiver and the Italian guy had to do a two way. Lucky bastard. Lesson learned? Protect your stuff better when moving around in the plane. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #11 July 21, 2011 Quote Quote I'm not gonna talk about mine. I'm still too scared. No shit, there I was, on a skydive with John Mitchell.... I kid, I kid, all of my jumps with John have been pure fun! I'd have to say this one, when I had somewhere around 250 jumps. Took me several months to really get my head straight after that one. Glad you are OK but I gotta say, watching that from overhead was almost as scary for me as it was for you.My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #12 July 21, 2011 My scariest was RSJM on an AFF Level 1 that found the MSJM folded under belly-to-belly with the student when he pulled the student's PC. It came out between the student's legs and wrapped around his right leg, quickly came off and then pulled suspension lines around the students leg which also came off into a nice on-heading opening.My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
almeister112 0 #13 July 21, 2011 Jump 101, I was doing a 2-way with a guy out of a Skyvan. I needed practice diving down to a formation, so he told me to give him a couple seconds then dive out after him. He said he wasn't even going to look for me--I should just get down to him. He jumped, I gave him a few seconds, and then I followed. Turned out my accuracy in diving down was incredible--I was able to head straight for him. However, my stopping ability was somewhat lacking, to say the least, and I slammed into him at pretty much full speed. I bounced off and looked back to see his reserve deploying at 11 grand. I proceeded to freak the hell out and land as fast as possible, assuming I had managed to dislodge his reserve after I killed him. When I finally saw him turning his canopy a few minutes later I breathed a massive sigh of relief. It turns out that I either dislocated or pinched a nerve in his right shoulder, which rendered it useless for a bit, so he decided to go to his reserve right away. He got feeling back in it as he was coming down and was able to land just fine. Lessons learned: Learn to stop. If you aren't able to stop in time, realize that with enough time to avoid taking out the formation. Always jump with an AAD (he didn't have one at the time, and it's a miracle I didn't knock him out). Always watch out for everyone around you. The reserve on that container works, which was good to know when I bought the rig off him a few months ago and then had to use it on my first cutaway. The two of us are now good friends and joke about it all the time (I always call him "the guy I tried to kill" when talking to people about him), but it easily could have been a fatality. We both learned a lot from it (to this day I'm still overly-conservative when approaching formations), but I never want to come close to anything like that happening again. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yarpos 4 #15 July 21, 2011 Last out of lead plane on a cessna formation load. On exit there is ... RIGHT THERE ... about 50ft below us, is the trailing C185 and its big chrome spinner and big propellor (that spinner is welded into my brain even now decades later ). Later the chase pilot said it looked like I came over the top of the prop and dropped past the windscreen and the wings leading edge. All I remember is thinking FUCK!!!!! and rolling into a ball, then just seeing ground,sky, ground, sky as I tumbled. Was very happy when I stabled out and all my arms and legs and stuff stayed on me. Really shook me up a bit when I started thinking about it. The lack of control and randomness of it got to me. Led to a lot of discussion about how we did formation loads. Sadly an almost identical incident was recorded in the US in about the same era, but with fatal results. regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kimemerson 7 #16 July 21, 2011 Back in the early days of skysurfing, before Jerry Loftis came along with boards you could buy and instructions on how to use them, a few of us built our own and worked things out. Sort of. I had binding designs direct from Patrick DeGayardon and his only instruction was that I not kill myself. I was the first and second person to attempt to skysurf in NY. No pioneer. Just ballsy. Back then all anyone knew about deployment was that it had to be done while standing on the board. But getting into the stand up was a challenge all by itself and I hadn't really mastered it at all. Once out of the Otter I was spinning, flipping and anything but stable or in control. But I did manage to stand up, albeit briefly. I did a practice pull that was not much to write home about. I lost the stand up. I spun and twirled and tried the stand up a second time. Same result. So when, at about 8,000' I was able to stand up a third time I decided to really pull because I couldn't guarantee I could stand up again and pull on time. But as I reached back and grabbed the PC handle, I fell backwards, on to my back and as the PC was already out I completed the pull. The bag came out, hit the board, knocked off the board and sneakers, wrapped the lines around my right knee twice and the canopy, a Sabre 135, was fully inflated - at my feet. I was spinning and had severe line twists all the way up. I managed to untwist my knee from the lines, get myself at least with my head right side up, though still in a wild line twisted spin. It was clearly time to chop this bad boy. I pulled the cut away handle but then I noticed the altitude and for some bizarre reason I decide I had too much so I decided to ride it down a little, to about 4'000 before completing the chop. I chopped it and went to my reserve (Phantom 22'), but I was still spinning a tad too much I suppose and a mud flap on the container tore off and one line on the reserve broke. I was in a mild rotation the whole way down. Landed in some saplings. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
emmiwy 0 #17 July 21, 2011 QuoteWhat jump scared you the most out of you? Lesson(s) learned from it? I don't have one yet to share, so lets hear yours. Jump #440. It was pretty warm out, which isn't unusual for the summer season at Elsinore, and winds were not blowing exceptionally strong. But I got caught in thermals between 1400-1800', canopy partially collapsed twice. I never wanted to be on the ground so badly. Landing was uneventful but I was shaking when I got down. Lesson learned: when you think you're confident enough to handle wind/weather conditions, think twice. Consider consequence of the worst case scenario and not only how you'd handle it but how you'd feel. I didn't feel comfortable jumping the combined heat+wind after that jump and now think about setting a separate upper bound for winds considering higher temperatures. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jsreznor 0 #18 July 21, 2011 Jump #40-something. 15-way sunset tracking dive with heavy cloud cover coming in at 4k. Fell behind the group, next thing I knew there were people from the tail of the track breaking off and tracking at/past me in the opposite direction. Got separation and had to make the choice to pull above or below the clouds at 4k. Pulled above. Got through the cloud cover and it was VERY dark under the clouds. Had a hard time recognizing landmarks at this new dropzone (to me). Barely landed on the good side of the beer line. Lots of scary factors for a new jumper. Too many people in the air for comfort, clouds at pull time, new DZ, no light. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
beowulf 1 #19 July 21, 2011 I don't remember the exact jump number, but I had about 500 jumps at the time. A late evening jump that really was a night jump out of a 182. I should have figured out early that things weren't going well when I got out on the step first, looked down and saw nothing but clouds. Oh well, I figured we have GPS so the spot is probably good. Once under canopy I found myself directly over the top a small city and I had no idea where the dropzone was! Oh shit where do I land? Lots of lights and darkness! I finally did locate the dropzone and there was no chance of making it back. But I managed to remember that there was empty land accross from a high school that I passed on the way to the dropzone. At least that is what I had remembered! Wasn't 100% on that, but went with it. Since it seemed like the best option at the time. Turned out it was soccer field! That was an exciting jump! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davelepka 4 #20 July 21, 2011 QuoteTurned out my accuracy in diving down was incredible--I was able to head straight for him. Lessons learned: Learn to stop. If you aren't able to stop in time, realize that with enough time to avoid taking out the formation. Always jump with an AAD (he didn't have one at the time, and it's a miracle I didn't knock him out). Always watch out for everyone around you. You left out diving down lesson #1, always aim off to the side of the formation. Dive down, get on level with a stable, matched fall rate, then move horizontally into your slot. This way, if you 'over cook' your swoop, you can put 100% of your effort into stopping, and not have to worry about slowing down as well as sliding off to the side to avoid a collision. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybytch 259 #21 July 21, 2011 Half my canopy collapsed while I was on final one day at Perris. Looked down at the spot I was going to die on, thought "this is going to hurt", the canopy reinflated, I landed fine. Then there was the tandem side spin with my 21st real student. No shit there we were. Thanks to Bill and Ted and the techniques they developed, we didn't die. I've never seen eyes as big as my camera flier's were after we got out of it and he caught up to us. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Calvin19 0 #22 July 21, 2011 Doing amateur CRW, ~3 sec exit separation, 0 sec delays. had an opening impact, our canopies hit pretty hard but nothing bad happened. continued jump as planned. good times. -SPACE- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #23 July 21, 2011 Never had ONE. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnRich 4 #24 July 21, 2011 QuoteWhat jump scared you the most out of you? (sic) Wrap. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JerseyShawn 0 #25 July 21, 2011 QuoteQuoteWhat jump scared you the most out of you? (sic) Wrap.(sic), too lazy to edit my horrid sentence. Wrap, canopy?, I would imagine. How did you get out of that? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
