Cutaway Landing Procedure?

[gofastrlbrown 0]

Done quite a bit of BASE jumping, but focused on Skydiving out of planes if you will. Got a 100 jumps with no malfunctions. I often read of people flying to their main as not to lose it, makes perfect sense. On a cutaway, opening altitude should be around 1500 feet. What should the priority be, flying to the dropzone and watching where the main goes or flying to the main. It seems like to catch a cutaway main you will probably be going downwind most of the time, how are you going to set up an upwind landing, oh massive hook turn, I forgot!

It is strange, the more I practice, the better I get!

[riggerpaul 1]

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Done quite a bit of BASE jumping, but focused on Skydiving out of planes if you will. Got a 100 jumps with no malfunctions. I often read of people flying to their main as not to lose it, makes perfect sense. On a cutaway, opening altitude should be around 1500 feet. What should the priority be, flying to the dropzone and watching where the main goes or flying to the main. It seems like to catch a cutaway main you will probably be going downwind most of the time, how are you going to set up an upwind landing, oh massive hook turn, I forgot!

You mention "catch a cutaway main". If you really mean "catch", as in snag in the air before reaching the ground, I urge you not to do it. More than a few have found that such an air-caught main can do some horrible things, like partially inflate, at just the wrong moment.

Regarding the idea that an opening after a cutaway would be around 1500 feet, well, sometimes yes and sometimes no.

For example, if you are flying a long sniveling high performance canopy, for instance, you might open higher than the minimum your license allows. If you have a violent spinner, and you decide to delay the cutaway, you might find yourself unable to cutaway at all, as the G forces can build quite quickly. So the advice in such a situation is to chop before you lose the chance to. Actually, this isn't just limited to high perf canopies. If your main is treating you badly, and things could get worse, get rid of it while you can, and sort the rest out later.

Sure, try to see where the main is going if you can. But don't put a whole lot of priority on it. I wouldn't suggest that you follow your main to an off-dz landing unless you are quite familiar with your reserve and are comfortable with landing it under less than ideal conditions. If you are injured landing your reserve off the dz, you are further from help, and maybe nobody even saw it well enough to know you need help.

At my home dz there are usually folks watching who will notice a cutaway and do their best to figure out where it lands. Some will likely go to fetch the canopy before you land, because they are really nice folks and want to help as much as possible.

After a cutaway, your first priority should be to get to as safe a landing area as you can, and finish the jump with the least possible injury. Worrying too much about the main could distract you from this, and the result could cost you a whole lot more than a lost main would.

[pchapman 261]

The decision whether to chase the main & freebag, and to what degree, naturally depends on a bunch of factors -- terrain around the dz, your familiarity with your reserve and the terrain, availability of others on ground to see where things went, etc.

Around where I am though, it is normal to chase one's stuff. Or maybe you chase one item, and someone else on the load chases the other.

No reason to throw away money by flying back to the dz ... but you want to land safely too.

As for what to do when following the main & freebag, you do what you can to stay airborne (eg, fly in brakes) and watch things descend.

But at some point concentrate on planning your own safe landing.

Keep the circling or passes fairly wide, I'd suggest. It can be handy to do a pass right above airborne gear to get a good view of where it is over the earth at that particular time (which can be trickier if looking diagonally). But if one gets in too tight, one gets forced to circle tightly and quickly to keep the stuff in sight, and it makes it tougher to devote time to planning one's own landing.

What can be annoying is if you see someone else chop, and they head back to the DZ. Maybe they have a good reason to do so, but then if you try to help out your fellow jumper and follow their gear, you take on all the risks of landing out.

(E.g., While chasing someone else's freebag with perhaps too much of a generous attitude, by the time I broke off the circling, I had to take a downwinder into rough grass between bushes with my small crossbraced canopy. I was happy to help the guy out, when nobody else saw the freebag, but I was putting my ankles at risk for his wallet. My choice though.)

[NWFlyer 2]

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What can be annoying is if you see someone else chop, and they head back to the DZ. Maybe they have a good reason to do so, but then if you try to help out your fellow jumper and follow their gear, you take on all the risks of landing out.

I don't find that annoying at all. It's their decision and their gear. It's also entirely my decision whether I decide to help out or not if I do see where the gear goes. If someone gives me shit for not chasing my gear (or worse yet for not chasing their gear), fuck 'em. I'm happy to be out there marching around trying to help a friend find their gear after a cutaway and appreciate the folks who have helped me find my stuff... but I'm not necessarily going to land out to get it.

"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

[popsjumper 2]

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What can be annoying is if you see someone else chop, and they head back to the DZ. Maybe they have a good reason to do so, but then if you try to help out your fellow jumper and follow their gear, you take on all the risks of landing out.

Why would you be annoyed? Apparently, you're thinking, "If I take a chance, then he ought to also."

Either you help the guy or not....what does it matter what HE does?

To the OP:
You do what is safe to do. If you can chase the main/freebag and have a place to land safely within range, by all means have at it. Otherwise, landing safely is your priority. Just that simple.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[pchapman 261]

Ok, ok, I'm not THAT annoyed. Everyone gets to make their own decisions on what to do.

It is common courtesy and practice to help each other out by chasing expensive equipment.

So if the other guy is heading back to the DZ, does that mean (a) he has a issue and feels much safer to do so, and would really appreciate your help in finding his gear, or (b) money is no problem for him, so don't feel any moral obligation to follow the gear if he doesn't, or (c) he's a bit of a newbie who hasn't thought through the consequences of losing gear or is unnecessarily frightened of off-landings even where the risk is low, or (d) he's clueless or doesn't care about skydivers helping each other out and probably would screw you over when you yourself needed help on some jump?

So there is some ambiguity as to the frame of mind involved.

In the end, I have chased (& will chase) stuff for others if I feel like it, because I want to help and like the challenge. And not because I expect any sort of material reward (e.g., beer).

[NovaTTT 1]

Learn to spot.



Your freebag and main will land near the peas every time.

"Even in a world where perfection is unattainable, there's still a difference between excellence and mediocrity." Gary73

[Para5-0 0]

oh I wish it were that easy. +1 for the thought though.

[pinkfairy 0]

Priorities, priorities.

As other people have said: it depends on the terrain and altitude available, among other things.

I think I'm way more valuable than my main and freebag, I lost a freebag once, and it doesn't bother me really. I chose to chop, fly to the DZ, do a practice flare and land safely. But that's me. I would feel incredibly silly if I got injured because I chased a cutaway.

Relax, you can die if you mess up, but it will probably not be by bullet.

I'm a BIG, TOUGH BIGWAY FORMATION SKYDIVER! What are you?

[bofh 0]

I've had two cutaways this year. The first cutaway was because of a tension knot. I had pulled high (2500m) and the main flew pretty well so I flew to the DZ and cut away at 1500m, tested the new canopy (an Icarus Reserve [email protected]), then hung in breaks and followed the main and freebag. I had to abort that at around 200 meters and flew to a suitable landing area instead.

The second time was also at high altitude after an accelerating, diving linetwist. This time I hung in breaks and waited for the canopy and freebag to land before I landed next to the freebag.

If it had been a high speed malfunction, I would probably have landed first and then stood at the ground looking for the freebag and canopy.

Like others have said, it all depends on the environment, how high one is and how comfortable one feels with the reserve. With a much smaller reserve I would have chosen to land at the DZ, after seeing two different incidents where people stall their overloaded reserves.