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cocheese

Jinxed reserve rides ?

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Have you ever seen someone "jinx" themselves into having a reserve ride ?
Example: Jumper says: "Hey, i never had a reserve ride yet.. i wonder what it's like" and then has one that day... on jump number 3001.
I have seen this happen a few times. Kind of weird.


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No but I did jinx myself a fender bender a few minutes ago.

I was at the grocery and I saw a car with a nice pole impression in the bumper. So as I was backing into my parking spot I backed into a tree
--
drop zone (drop'zone) n. An incestuous sesspool of broken people. -- Attributed to a whuffo girlfriend.

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Have you ever seen someone "jinx" themselves into having a reserve ride ?
***

Yep,
about 4 years ago we were sitting around drinking(go figure) after a night demo and the subject of malfunctions came up and in a very off hand flippant comment said "I sure wish my next mal would be a slow one so I could have time to tell my main to fuck off while I chopped it.........

first jump next morning ---> tension knot

I learned to be carefull what you wish for.....you sometimes get it

Roy
They say I suffer from insanity.... But I actually enjoy it.

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Randy 'Stinky' Green decided to play a trick one day at Elsinore.
I had found an old cutaway handle and decided it would be a neat trick to pull it out of his jumpsuit and throw it back into the plane as he exited, yelling something appropriate. ;)
I told him that it sounded like a really stupid thing to do but that never stopped him before and off he went.

I was on the ground doing a ground school when the load exited and sure enough there was a streamer and resulting cutaway and yes, it was 'Stinky'.
Be careful what kind of games yoy play. :ph34r:

Red, White and Blue Skies,

John T. Brasher D-5166

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Have you ever seen someone "jinx" themselves into having a reserve ride ?

Example: Jumper says: "Hey, i never had a reserve ride yet.. i wonder what it's like" and then has one that day... on jump number 3001.

I have seen this happen a few times. Kind of weird.




Years ago, I was hiking up to the top of a cliff in Moab thinking that I needed to learn more about the finer details in packing. I jumped my pack job anyway and was rewarded with a line over. I gave a few good hard tugs on the brake lines in an attempt to clear the line over but that only resulted in a more violent spin, I tossed he toggles and hoped it would clear. It did not. The brake toggle became entangled with another line on the canopy preventing it from clearing.
fortunately for me I spun into the shallow waters of the colorado and not on to the talus slope.

I'll always remember swimming to shore thinking, "perhaps I should become a parachute rigger. Maybe then I'll be able to avoid doing that again"

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Have you ever seen someone "jinx" themselves into having a reserve ride ?

Example: Jumper says: "Hey, i never had a reserve ride yet.. i wonder what it's like" and then has one that day... on jump number 3001.

I have seen this happen a few times. Kind of weird.



At the first Deaf World Record event at San Marcos, TX in 2001, deaf skydiver Mike Haines asked fellow deaf skydiver Fred Goebel in the plane on the ride up, if he had ever had a malfunction. Fred quickly shushed him "shhh!!" but no, he'd never had one in 1500+ jumps. Well guess what. On that jump, no less, he had his first mal and cutaway! :D
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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Had a tandem instructor have a mal last year on a tandem jump. While in the rigging loft later that evening he was updating the board that he uses to keep track of tandem container/reserve/main/freebag configurations since they change every once in a while. I asked him why he didn't have information on tandem rig #3 and he said that he just hadn't gotten around to writing all the info down because he had packed up the reserve earlier in the season and didn't write it on the board. I said "Well, there is absolutely no chance you will have a mal on tandem #3 this weekend anyway so you probably don't need it." Sure enough Sunday, next jump on tandem #3 he had a line over or tension knots or something and had to chop. He almost landed the main in the hangar but it grabbed some wind at the last moment and it landed in a huge tree right beside the hangar. Had to have someone with a bucket truck come and get it.

.

--------------------------------------------------
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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Me and another jumper going up in a Cessna(yes, just the two of us), planning to do a 2-way from around 3500', and then deploy in place, him first, then me.

Me: "Oh yeah, if you happen to need to chop, first make sure I'm not directly below you when you do."
Him: "Why would I need to chop?"
-"Well, you know, parachute systems just sometimes fail to work as intended."
-"Yeah, ok."

We jump, he dumps, I fall away, I dump a few seconds later. I land, and see two parachutes in the sky. For some reason, my first though was "My god, the pilot jumped too!":D. I then realized what happened. He lands the reserve, and tells me that after opening, for some reason, the canopy was turning and that he couldn't control it. He decided to chop, remembered what I said, checked to see me flying my canopy well to one side, and went for the handles.

Luckily, on his next jump(off a local A), the canopy opened just fine.:o

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I suppose the classic example would be a cutaway on your first jump of a new canopy or a new reserve pack job. That's kind of a sods law mal – plenty of those around.

Only jumped without a hook knife once. (Looked down just before exit and noted the pouch was empty... "how did that happen? Ah well, on with the jump"). Low and behold I had a tension knot causing my main to turn (not that badly).

Landed it from half breaks uneventfully and I guess the hook knife wouldn't really have been the appropriate remedy anyway but I certainly found if funny how I'd thought "ah when do you ever actually need a hook knife anyway" just before getting out of the plane.

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This probably doesn't count.... but...

I had to borrow a CRW rig to do a Bi Di Dive due to both wing loading and compatibility issues. Being an old CRW dog, I asked what reserve it had. When I found out it was a round reserve, I did a couple of practice PLF's. (This was mid 90's and a while since I had jumped a round parachute..) About 30 min later I PLF's that sucker in the senior landing area after the left hand side wingman of the diamond had come through my lines and chopped and I could not clear the entanglement.

I had some issue with the CI thinking I had planned to chop, but after a quick chat with the others on the dive it was clear that wasn't the case. That's the last time I jumped a round canopy.

t
It's the year of the Pig.

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During the huge blackout 2 years ago I packed in the dark in the great hall because the AC had been on before the power went out. The door was open so there was some light. Another packers son walked in and asked what I was doing in the dark. I told him and he asked "but what if you have to cut away?"

When I came down under my reserve he had a pretty pale look on his face!! (Line twists that got way out of hand by the way.)

I also forgot my glasses on that jump and was going to get out low (maybe would'nt have had the twists) but a tandem instructor had an extra pair and gave them to me. When I got down and went to give them back he said "No way, I dont want those anymore!!"

And if that wasnt bad enough I had my second cutaway 10 days later.

Johnny
--"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!"
Mike Rome

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don't know if i think i jinxed myself... but when i was on aff it did occur to me more than once, wow, i wish i would have my first mal while i still have an instructor with me. how scary it will be to have to do your EPs all alone...

and then i became one of the few creatures to graduate aff with two reserve rides. [:/] one because i was stupid and did totally the wrong thing. then the second when i dislocated my right shoulder in freefall on level 7 and had to pull silver.

should have kept my mouth closed. but hey, i know i can do it now, and i am ready for the next 5000 jumps on my main... no more reserve for me, i hope.
life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
(helen keller)

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Yep, I jinxed myself. I talked a friend into doing a tandem on the same load as me doing my first solo(beer) jump off of AFF. The TM was also my AFFI on my first jump. I admitted it was my first solo jump and he called beer. He jokingly said why not have your first chop and save on the beer. We all laughed and the lump in my stomach got that much bigger. I was nervous enough, got ready, did my EPs and out the door I went. It was just remarkable how much time you have when you don't have to worry about the AFF dive flow. So I just just fall and enjoy the view. I pitch about 5k. But now the gremlin in my brain wakes up. I'm in the saddle doing my controllability check. The canopy was square, but It just didn't look right. The toggles just didn't seem to be doing anything. I'm at 4K and have plenty of time to figure this out (as was told to me AFTER I am on the ground). Didn't know about riser turns yet. So the voice of the friend who encouraged me into jumping pops into my brain. "When in doubt, CHOP." I chop and the RSL has me under that big beautiful reserve in a heart beat. This one steers just fine. Plenty of time to think about my landing. The wind is blowing opposite normal, So I have to think about what my pattern should be. End up with a soft stand up landing. One of the hang gliger pilots near by tracks down the freebag for me. Somehow I managed to not lose the pillow either. My friend who had her tandem loved her jump and saw the whole thing. Not that I want to go through it again, but having experienced it once, the fear factor is just a little bit less.

So can a reserve ride be jinxed, I think so.
50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

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about a month ago i found myself in a tent one night in deland talking to a couple of US jumpers about our various bits of kit and jumping a fifteen (or so) year old PISA predator reserve they said why not get a PD? too expensive, besides i'll probably never see the bloody thing anyway.
less than six hours later on the first load of the next day i had my first reserve ride and my predator broke my hand.

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This past fall a TM/BMI at our dropzone had nasty linetwists on a birdman jump on his S3 and had to chop. About 2 weeks later he broke his tib/fib on a tandem. After surgery he loaned his S3 to another jumper named Dave saying, "Be careful, my last jump on that suit was a chop from nasty diving linetwists."
I went up and did a 2 way BM with Dave (his first jump on the S3). He was a little concerned to be jumping an S3 with his stiletto, but he had put a couple jumps on a GTI without any issues. He pulled high, and I dumped at my usual 3500. As soon as I turned around I saw Dave under his yellow reserve 1500 ft above me.
A few days later I am at a resteraunt with Dave and two other friends, Joe and Dawn. Joe and Dawn started cracking jokes about Dave's mom being a crack whore.
Within a week or so, Joe's new sabre2 has a big hole in the topskin and needs to be sent to PD for a cell replacement, so Joe borrowed an old Sabre1 from another jumper and whadda ya know?? His first jump ended up being a baglock :S.
About the same time, Dawn is driving home one night when two guys who were running from the cops in a stolen car jump a median and sideswipe her at 80mph. The occupants of the other car both died, and Dawn and her boyfriend got away with a broken collar bone and ankle.

The moral of the story: Don't make fun of the mom of the guy who just chopped on his first S3 flight in a suit borrowed from a guy who just broke his tib/fib shortly after a really scary chop on the same suit. :S
Egad, A BASE life defiles a bad age.

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Have you ever seen someone "jinx" themselves into having a reserve ride ?



Yooo!

Check out this thread. Scroll down to post 53, have a good read... then scroll down to post 58. :o I call that a 'recorded' jinx. I dreamt of a cutaway... then had my first one 5 days later.

That whole thread was pretty cool if you have the time to read it. But do make sure to read post 39 too! That one just blew me away.

Nick



My Karma ran over my Dogma!!!

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Sitting on the plane two weekends ago. A buddy looks at me and says, "I ruined my streak...3500 jumps and I just had my first reserve ride".

I say, "Thats not bad, I have had 6".
He says "Yeah, but you have more than 3500 jumps".

Me: "Nope right at".

That jump my Stiletto started the death spiral...As I looked up I said, "Here we go again"...As I cut away, "Fuck you Chris".

I landed and he laughed at me....He had anotehr chop later that same day.

We promissed never to talk about malunctions again in the plane.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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A guy at my home DZ had a reverse kind of thing happend to him.

For some reason he just got a feeling he should re-pack his main, when he pullit out and there was a tesion knot by the slider, that would have ended up in a streamer (or somthing similar with the slider not moving an inch)

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You only have one life, make the most of it.

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