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Kramer

Make Sure Your Slider Is ALL The Way Down

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Was at SGC today, there was a jumper coming in on final with his slider stuck halfway up the lines. He landed VERY hard on his butt, could have (and may have) easily broke his tailbone.

Anyway, after the jump, while he was walking around very sorely, he commented that he didn't even notice the slider wasn't all the way down because the canopy was open enough that it felt like normal flight until he was a few feet off of the ground realizing he was falling a la Paracommander.

So yeah...just thought I'd pass that on, hopefully someone can benefit from it.

(For the record: I'm not sure why his slider did not come all the way down...even after making many turns and toggle imputs under canopy).

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

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Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't know who the guy was, just overheard him talking to other people on the walk back to the hanger.

There were a lot of DZ.commers there though...I know weegeegirl saw it, so maybe someone will add a little info for us.

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

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Just out of Curiosity - How many Jumps and years in the sport did this jumper have??



No kidding, How can you miss that. Just tug or perhaps crank down on the rear risers several times and problem fixed.

People, dont be scared to manhandle your canopy, If you have to, put some muscle into it, It wont break!!!


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it points out even more problems with people's handling of things in skydiving.

Slider up on landing means that they probably never checked their canopy, (obviously), never tried a practice flare, never did any turns past about 1/4 brakes, or the performance would/should have been noticed.

Novices especially should be running through a rountine of checks when the parachute opens, just like first jump course - check canopy, check steering and practice flare to see if there are control problems with the parachute.

too many people out there with the blinders on.....
TK

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Just out of Curiosity - How many Jumps and years in the sport did this jumper have??



The jumper in question has somewhere around 30 skydives in the past three years. Current, but not very experienced. Also, probably had high anxiety over the unexpected hop n' pop due to incoming weather.

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The jumper in question has somewhere around 30 skydives in the past three years. Current, but not very experienced.



Current by the BSR's maybe, but at some point they are a danger to themselves and others in the air with them. 30 jumps over 36 months with only 30 jumps total puts them in a dangerous situation. They should consider either increasing their jumps/month or move on. Harsh, I know, but that is the reality of it.

Derek

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Do you think there should be a minimum yearly number of jumps that you have to make to keep your level of license? Along with the regular 30/90/120 day currency that the bsrs say? I think so. I have abused the 30 day rule for months while my pocket book recovers from the AFF course and buying a rig. Every one of my currency jumps was a coach jump with a smiley thumbs up, get the hell outta here and go jump again you are back on your own from the instructors.

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Do you think there should be a minimum yearly number of jumps that you have to make to keep your level of license? Along with the regular 30/90/120 day currency that the bsrs say?



Definately. I haven't jumpes in 5 months but I am still technically current. That is just silly. I am not current.

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Every one of my currency jumps was a coach jump with a smiley thumbs up, get the hell outta here and go jump again you are back on your own from the instructors.



Having that coach helps lower the anxiety/stress level, knowing that someone is looking over your shoulder, which allows you to perform better. W/o the coach your anxiety/stress level would be higher, making it more difficult to think and act/re-act correctly and quickly.

Derek

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***The jumper in question has somewhere around 30 skydives in the past three years. Current, but not very experienced. Also, probably had high anxiety over the unexpected hop n' pop due to incoming weather.

Over three years! That's more like 10 jumps experience, 3 times over.:o

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Over three years! That's more like 10 jumps experience, 3 times over.:o



Exactly. Which is why I posted the jumper's #'s. This was not an experienced jumper by any means. I feel that his inexperience definitely contributed to his not recognizing that his slider was still at half-mast and taking corrective action. I also believe that his inexperience should have kept him in the aircraft riding it down with some other jumpers and the tandem students. He is a naturally high-anxiety kind of person. His inexperience, the fact that he was jumping an unfamiliar canopy, and then he elected to get out low rather than ride the plane down definitely created the domino (or avalanche) effect that creates so many incidents. Fortunately, he seems to be very sore, but basically OK today. One can only hope that he will make better choices next time.

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They should consider either increasing their jumps/month or move on. Harsh, I know, but that is the reality of it.



So if you can't jump regularly you shouldn't jump at all? What if you are in a place non conducive to jumping? I did my AFF the same time as my bro (Cornishrich) in July 2002 and I have 180 odd jumps and he has around 40 as I am in Australia and he is in England. Should he give up because his work/time restrictions and the English weather restrict his jumping?

Whenever he has a layoff of a few months he does a currency jump with an instructor. He then takes it very easy for the first few jumps. I believe that you can be safe as long as you continue to refresh yourself after each break. I disagree that the line should be so strict as jump or don't jump. If it gets to that then are we going to quiz prospective AFF students as to how much they intend on jumping and not train them if it is too small an amount?

My 2 cents/pence

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

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So if you can't jump regularly you shouldn't jump at all?



Yes.

If the Indy 500 drivers can't drive but once every month or two, they shouldn't be driving Indy cars. Why? Because without currency they are a danger to themselves and others. Can Andretti get in and turn a couple of hot laps? Sure but he has years of experience to draw from and that experience will be telling him not to push too hard and will make his lack of currency very obvious to him.

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What if you are in a place non conducive to jumping?



Then don’t jump.

If you cannot jump enough to be current, and by current I mean safe, then don’t jump out of airplanes. If you only have enough money to jump once a year and only have 25 total skydives, you shouldn't jump. It is not OK to be an unsafe jumper because you can’t jump enough to be safe.

I practice what I preach. I quit skydiving completely. I wouldn't mind going to a DZ every now and then for a big boogie or something, but my Micron had a VX-60 main and a PD-106R reserve. Jumping every 3-6 months is not enough to keep current with those canopies. I would have had to buy a new main, reserve, and container, all larger to still skydive. It isn’t worth it to me to buy a new rig just to jump every now and then and it would have been stupid to jump the VX only every now and then, so I quit completely. I couldn’t jump safely, so I don’t jump. Simple.

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did my AFF the same time as my bro (Cornishrich) in July 2002 and I have 180 odd jumps and he has around 40 as I am in Australia and he is in England. Should he give up because his work/time restrictions and the English weather restrict his jumping?



40 jumps over 23 month, almost 2 jumps a month, one jump every other weekend. He should ask himself, ‘Is the very real and higher risk, because of lack of currency, worth being able to make 2 skydives a month?’ What are the chances that he will be injured or killed or injure or kill someone else because he doesn’t jump very often? They are definitely increased by lack of currency.

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Whenever he has a layoff of a few months he does a currency jump with an instructor. He then takes it very easy for the first few jumps.



That will definitely help, but remember the most likely time to be injured or killed is either right after deploying and not reacting correctly to a malfunction, from a canopy collision, or from landing. The Instructor cannot help in the event of a partial/low speed malfunction or under canopy. He can wear a radio, but that is only back up.

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I believe that you can be safe as long as you continue to refresh yourself after each break.



It depends if the refresher training is sufficient for the length of the lay-off. There must be a lot of effort put forth by the jumper and the Instructor to compensate for lack of currency with training.

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I disagree that the line should be so strict as jump or don't jump.



It is harsh, I know, but there is a line. On one side is ‘safe’, and on the other is ‘unsafe’. Currency plays a major factor in safety, especially for a low-time jumper.

A private pilot, fixed wing that has 45 hours and flies for 30 minutes once every 90 days for a year and a half to keep legally current is going to cross the line and become unsafe as their primary training wears off. They will be legally current, but unsafe and shouldn’t fly until they can fly with an Instructor for several hours to regain currency and then fly enough to keep that currency.

If you aren’t safe, for any reason, you shouldn’t jump. Safety should never be compromised. No one has to skydive.


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If it gets to that then are we going to quiz prospective AFF students as to how much they intend on jumping and not train them if it is too small an amount?



That will never happen as a lot of traditional AFF level 1’s the jumper only intends to make one jump and DZO’s won’t throw away the profit margins of AFF. I have, as an Instructor, told students that were only showing up at the DZ once every 2-3 months that they either should jump more or should quit.

Take kid ‘A’ that doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Teach him to ride a bike for 60 seconds once a month for 3 months. Take kid ‘B’ that doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Teach him to ride every day for 3 hours for 3 months. Kid ‘A’ is going to get all torn up if you ever let go of the seat and won’t learn to ride a bike w/o you holding them up. Kid 'B'will get it in no time and by the end of 3 months will riding circles around kid 'A'

Derek

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An unexpected hop+pop caused his stress levels to go through the roof, this could have directly contributed to his failure to recognise and correct the problem with his gear. He should have stayed in the plane if he was unable to do the dive he had planned.

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I also believe that his inexperience should have kept him in the aircraft riding it down with some other jumpers and the tandem students.

??? whats up with that statement ???



Unexpected weather moved in and it prevented the plane from going to altitude. Instead the experienced jumpers had the option of doing a pass at 3000-3500 or landing with the plane. About half rode down, this jumper saw it as his chance to do the hop and pop as required on his A licence card. Other factors included that he was loaned a canopy for this jump that he had never jumped before so he had no idea what to expect.

This jumper reportly only took about a 2 second delay and threw very sub terminal. The Omni canopy that the jumper had opened very slowly. No controlablity check other then right, left turns were done. This jumper is very fimiliar with parachutes since he is a packer, but he does not jump that often.
Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

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