Had my first reserve ride yesterday.

[ChickenSandwich 0]

When I reached to pull I dipped my left shoulder and sent myself into a spin.

By the time my canopy had opened, I had line twists that had involved my slider and distorted my canopy so that I started going into a spiral.

I looked up and knew that there was no way I could kick out of this, said "FUCK!!" and then cut it away.

My RSL deployed my reserve before I could even pull the handle.

It's really interesting that I didn't freak out when this happened. I have had malfunction dreams where I ended up in the dirt but in reality I was actually very calm about it.

My thanks to Jim at Skydive Perris for chasing and collecting my gear and to rigger Chris for saving my life. Yes, the case of beer and bottle of booze were purchased yesterday and distributed.

Jump 51: my first reserve ride.


On edit: I dipped my left shoulder, not my right.

[Mikhail 0]

Cheers, mate! Congrats on keeping your head.

Quote

It's really interesting that I didn't freak out when this happened. I have had malfunction dreams where I ended up in the dirt but in reality I was actually very calm about it.

Cool, huh? You see what's going on, you know what you need to do, and you just do it. The training really works.

Did you check your altitude before and after the cutaway? Where you still above your "decision altitude"?

[docjohn 0]

Nice job!

Wish I was there to drink the beer!

Doc
http://www.manifestmaster.com/video

[Andy9o8 2]

Quote

My thanks to Jim at Skydive Perris for chasing and collecting my gear and to rigger Chris for saving my life.

Don't forget to thank your instructor(s), who taught you to save your own life.

[Grips 0]

How do you feel about your next jumping after having your first reserve ride?

Nervous, or even more confident?

[sundevil777 102]

Good job saving yourself.

You might try doing a jump where you repeatedly do simulated pulls and stay in the reach back position for a long time, even simulating having to grope around for the handle. You really should be confident in your ability to do this without stability problems. Of course you should not be groping around for a long time on a regular jump.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[ChickenSandwich 0]

Quote

Cheers, mate! Congrats on keeping your head.

Quote

It's really interesting that I didn't freak out when this happened. I have had malfunction dreams where I ended up in the dirt but in reality I was actually very calm about it.

Cool, huh? You see what's going on, you know what you need to do, and you just do it. The training really works.

Did you check your altitude before and after the cutaway? Where you still above your "decision altitude"?

I pulled at 3500 and pretty much knew immediately that I wasn't going to be able to fly the mess that was over my head.

I'm sure I was somewhere around my decision altitude but I didn't check to see where I was at the time. It was a complete, natural reaction to the situation.

[ChickenSandwich 0]

Quote

Quote

My thanks to Jim at Skydive Perris for chasing and collecting my gear and to rigger Chris for saving my life.

Don't forget to thank your instructor(s), who taught you to save your own life.

My rigger was also my AFF instructor, so yeah, I thanked him.

[ChickenSandwich 0]

Quote

How do you feel about your next jumping after having your first reserve ride?

Nervous, or even more confident?

I've actually thought about this quite a bit.

I've known that I would have a malfunction eventually and I had hoped that I would be able to react accordingly. I consider myself fortunate in the fact that I did.

Even though I may be very conscious of the potential for another mal on my next jump, I think that there's going to be a bit of both being nervous about the fact that I'll inevitably have another one yet confident that I'll know what to do when it happens.

[ChickenSandwich 0]

Quote

Good job saving yourself.

You might try doing a jump where you repeatedly do simulated pulls and stay in the reach back position for a long time, even simulating having to grope around for the handle. You really should be confident in your ability to do this without stability problems. Of course you should not be groping around for a long time on a regular jump.

Thanks. I think on my next jump I'll definitely do that.

I realized as soon as it happened what I did wrong. Unfortunately at that point there was nothing I could do to keep myself from getting spun up.

I'm just glad that I had the peace of mind to take care of it.