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freefalle

What I learned from my cut away

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This weekend at the Dublin Boogie, I had a rather humbling experience I don't mind sharing. For a while now, I was warned about pulling a little lower than maybe I should. We're not talking stupid, Cypres firing low, but lower than I should. I took the advise and understood my friends good intentions and started to pull higher, both in the name of safety and also to avoid the verbal ass chewing I recieved from my friends when I was void of common sense and again pulled lower than I should. The debate about my deployment altitude has gone on for a few months now, ultimately, I made a promise that I would pull by 3000 or higher on every jump and everyone was happy with that.

Saturday, I became painfully aware or how lucky I was I made that promise. I went on a two way with my girlfriend, she pulled higher, being a newer skydiver. I watched her deployment and reached my own deployment altitude, which, was well above 3000 feet. I deployed and immediately my canopy slammed open, my chest strap ended up bruising my throat, I felt my neck pop and slam forward. I immedately felt as if I was either going to puke or pass out. My canopy was starting to spin with increasing force, I though I had a toggle come loose on deployment and thought I could reach up and deploy both toggles to stop the spin. I looked up as I was reaching to deploy my toggles as I did so I saw 2 lines on the left side of the caonpy were broken and blowing in the wind one of the two was my break line. The canopy was continuing to spin and I knew I was not going to be able to control much less land the thing.

Just before I cut it way and deployed my reserve, the last thought that went through my head was God, Im glad I pulled at a good altitude.

The lesson I learned from my cut away is, there is nothing at the end of a skydive but a big ass solid unforgiving planet. Give yourself time (altitude) to recover from bad crap that can happen. I'm glad I did.

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I deployed at 3500 feet, I am flying a triathilon 220 manufactured in 1997 it has about 550 jumps on it. I was belly to earth at the time of deployment and perfectly stable. I suspect the hard opening was due to poor packing procedures although I wont go into that with any detail out of respect for the packing concession that was present.

It was a rough weekend for cut aways at the boogie, I know for a fact, there were at least 7 in two days including one tandem.

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It was a rough weekend for cut aways at the boogie, I know for a fact, there were at least 7 in two days including one tandem.



So who WAS packing, Gomez, Lurch, or Uncle Fester ?!? Seven cutaways, ai carumba !

Hey, good job ! One less thing for you to have wonder about, Mark Twain once said, "Anyone who's ever grabbed a tiger by the tail knows six or seven things more than someone who hasn't". Good job, ya done real good. Ain't it great to be alive ?!

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

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Greetings Chuck

You're one tough individual. We never did introduce ourselves afterward. I was the guy who gathered up your equipment and carried it back. Chris (kitof1976) was the other person.

I'll agree with you about the packing. After your reserve ride, I couldn't help but observe some interesting packing techniques used by the person I think packed your rig.

You were knocked pretty silly my friend. After you caught your breathe you started recovering quickly. I was happy to see you got back in the air right away.

This thread is a good one. A few things stand out in my mind.

1) Proper Pull altitude.

- You made a conscious decision to pull higher. Almost everyone goes through a low pull stage. I'm glad you're over that one.

2) Proper Packing Techniques.

- There is a certain amount of randomness involved when you toss a bunch of nylon in the air. It's best to stack the odds in your favor. After observing a few pack jobs, It's my opinion they were not stacked in your favor.

3) First Aid Training.

- Most of the time, a reserve ride is not that big a deal. It's exciting and can be scary but that's about it. In this instance, Chuck didn't move right away so we ran after him. It came apparent that he may need assistance. I'll be looking into a refresher course after I send this. It was a quick wake up call that currency is necessary in other areas, not just skydiving.

Hey Chuck, where does the chest strap sit when you're under canopy? You were slammed pretty hard but getting hit by the chest strap makes me wonder if your harness is a bit large or if the leg straps weren't tighted or maybe slipped.

What did you end up demoing?
My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

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Good job! I had an opening 2 years ago that was so hard that it gave me whiplash and cracked my sternum, I didn't have a mal, but I did spend the rest of the canopy ride lapsing in and out of conciousness. If I'd had a mal, there is probably no way I could have responded in time, but an extra 1000 ft could have made the difference. There is nothing wrong with opening at 3000'.

John
John Wright

World's most beloved skydiver

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Quote

2) Proper Packing Techniques.

- There is a certain amount of randomness involved when you toss a bunch of nylon in the air. It's best to stack the odds in your favor. After observing a few pack jobs, It's my opinion they were not stacked in your favor.




and this is why I don't use a packer...scares the crap out of me not knowing how my nylon is going into my bag....:o

Marc
otherwise known as Mr.Fallinwoman....

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I had a similar incident about 4 weeks ago. Pulled @ normal height (3000AGL). canopy came out of bag as normal and started to snivell as normall. All of a sudern it smashed open causing me to practically kick myself it the face (i aint that flexible either). Same thing, canopy began to spin so i took brakes off to see if that done anything but it never. I then noticed lines hanging over my shoulders along with lines swaying in the wind so i chopped it. On inspection of the canopy 3 of the front lines had snapped which in turn were all cascade lines.

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Hey chuck, what can I say, good job, glad I could help you get back into the air! Yeah, I am not sure what was in the air at Dublin, but I ended up packing four reserves this weekend (mains were packed by four different people, no flaming of packers here), but....yours and the one on the rig I lent out were most definitely packing related. Take care!

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very good post. I know that i'm a low timer but that is why i pull high. my instructors allways told me that the two things that you dont get back on a skydive are time and altitude. USE them to your advantage. also I aggree with everyone else as far as packing for myself goes when i pack i can be pretty sure that it will open the way i want. witch gives me a little more security at pull time
Pruitt

Skydive The Farm

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Here another thought. Myself I usually have very good openings on my Pilot main. However I did once have a really hard opening that really tweaked out my neck and had me on the ground in real pain shortlly afterwards. I don't know that this was a packing issue, but it very well may have been. It could have also been a result of bad body position. However I sure as hell said something to the packer. I told him all about the hard opening and asked him if he had done anything unusual on my pack job. I guess the point is did you have any other strange openings with this partickular packer, and have there been alot of other complaints? 7 cutaways in a day?? sure does sound like alot for one day. Do you have any idea what the malfunctions were on these seven. Please don't tell me broken lines from hard openings.



http://www.freefallmaniacs.net

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