Stowing Brakes Incorrectly

[phoenixlpr 0]

Quote

I hope I'm wrong but it appears that you are meaning to saying "set" your brakes and un-collapse your slider in the landing field. That's NOT a good idea.

Why not? Only thing you have to do in the landing area that keep your eyes open and watch for traffic.

[sanes7 0]

Dale,
I had the same thing happen to me today. I stowed my right brake incorrectly and it fired on opening. I was immediatly in a hard right turn that begin to spin pretty fast; thankfully I had pulled about 4k. The first thing I normally do is to stow the slider; then do a control check. On this jump as soon as the slider came down I was spinning like a top. I grabbed the left rear riser to try and balance the spin, but it was taking an awful lot of force. I thought about cutting away, but I decided to just reach up and grab both toggles, unstow them and see what happens. As soon as the left one unstowed the problem was fixed. I was still above 2500, but it really put the fear it me. I was EXTREMELY careful when I packed to make sure both brakes were set properly.

Mike Sanes

[popsjumper 2]

You've seen why in other posts. Why do you ask now?

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

[popsjumper 2]

Stowing brakes is really hard to do.


Setting brakes and stowing excess incorrectly seems to be becoming more and more frequent amongst the skydiving population.

I wonder why that is. Could it be people trying to re-invent the wheel thinking they have a "better" way of doing things....things like setting brakes in the landing field rather than in the packing area?

Things like
- not stowing excess brake line.
- out-flying their skills under a too-small canopy?
- not knowing their gear and how it works?
- blindly jumping out of airplanes without checking spots?
- rarely doing gear inspections on the equipment that is trying to save their life?
- being willing to accept additional risk because of laziness or ego or for any screwball reason?
- ad infinitum

You know, it's the little things that add up. It's nearly always a series of events that hurt you. I'll never understand the mentality that allows one to add on all those little "gotchya" potentials that soon add up to one big "GOTCHYA".

Like the topic of this thread.
"It's OK for me to stand in the landing area making a target out of myself while I set brakes and uncollapse sliders and remove helmets and check cameras and remove booties and take an additional opportunity to screw up my pack job. It's such a small risk. Never mind that I could avoid all that by simply gathering my stuff and getting out of the way and doing my packing stuff somewhere else. I mean after all, nothing's happened yet, right?"

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

[DrewEckhardt 0]

Quote

Stowing brakes is really hard to do.


Setting brakes and stowing excess incorrectly seems to be becoming more and more frequent amongst the skydiving population.

I wonder why that is. Could it be people trying to re-invent the wheel thinking they have a "better" way of doing things.

All of the manufacturers have reinvented the toggle-riser interface, each providing a different mechanism to store the excess line.

All of the velcro-less installations seem different. Many are non-intuitive. Some are physically difficult and cry out for an easier alternative.

Some makers expect you to wrap the excess around a bottom toggle stub which gets stowed normally. Without reading the manual (which some one who's bought a third-hand rig might not have) or having some mechanical aptitude many people won't figure that out.

Some makers provide a tight elastic. Stuffing skinny Spectra steering lines down there is a bit of a pain.

We didn't have these problems with conventional toggles. The mechanism was standard (I've only seen one set of conventional main risers that had something other than a pile velcro loop), obvious (what else would the loop be there for?), and easy.

[popsjumper 2]

...and thus creating more problems than solving, IMHO.

Kinda ties in with another thread about Aerodyne's soft links with the ring causing problems that are being created by the No-RTFM people.

I got a better mouse trap. But what good does it do in the big scheme of things if people aren't going to use it properly....I dunno...I guess the sale is the most important part?

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