Almost Cutaway on Level 5

[bluewaterstream 0]

I had an awesome day at the DZ yesterday, I did both my AFF Level 4 and 5 jumps.

On Level 4, I was amazed how much easier it was to make 90 degree turns without the JM's holding onto you. What a blast! However, the highlight of the jump for me was that I had my first stand-up landing! What a great feeling!

On Level 5, everything went really smooth. I made a few super-cool 360 degree turns in both directions and played around with forward motion a bit. At about 5 grand I tossed my pilot chute and felt the main open, but then realized that I was still falling kind of fast and that I was spinning. At the time I'm thinking, "Oh shit, my first malfunction." I immediately grabbed my cutaway handle and decided to lookup up at the canopy to see what the hell was wrong with my main before cutting it away. Line Twists - Sweet, I can fix that! I had about 5 or 6 line twists, so I let go of the cutaway handle and spread the risers apart with both hands and bicycle kicked out of them. Now, I finally understand why everyone says that line twists aren't that big of a big deal. I'm so glad that I finally had that experience. I guess I still must have had a slight spin going from the 360's when I deployed, I'll have to work on that. Anyway, I was so excited once a had a nice, square, landable canopy above me and to complete an awesome day of jumping I rode that canopy in for my second stand-up landing!

What a great day!!!

[Hazarrd 1]

nice to hear nothing happened. just make sure to be aware that if you still have line twists below your hard deck, cutaway. for the most part, line twists are a minor problem, but if you have a low pull and you open with line twists make sure you maintain altitude awareness. if you cant land it, its gotta go.

.-.

[bluewaterstream 0]

Yeah, I pulled at about 5 grand and was under a good canopy by 4...

[Tailgate 0]

On my level 5 I had a great jump. As I threw the pilot I felt my right shoulder drop and starting turning to the right and thought " Oh yea this is going to be a line twist" and sure enough it was. I looked up, I kicked out and it was OK.

Glad yours went well

_________________________________________________
Let me live in my house by the side of the road and be a friend to man- Sam Walter Foss

[darkwing 4]

Good job. I caution you (and others) that if you had your hand on the cutaway handle, please inspect the cables through the 3-ring immediately (under canopy) to make sure you didn't partially pull them. And make sure the handle is fixed to the velcro.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[shunkka 0]

thanks darkwing 4 advice

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"jump, have fun, pull"

[bluewaterstream 0]

That is great advice, thanks! I checked the cutaway handle but didn't think to check the 3-ring. I'll definitely remember to do that next time...

[MNskyjumper 0]

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However, the highlight of the jump for me was that I had my first stand-up landing!

BEER!!!

Kevin W.

[SkydiveNFlorida 0]

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At the time I'm thinking, "Oh shit, my first malfunction." I immediately grabbed my cutaway handle and decided to lookup up at the canopy to see what the hell was wrong with my main before cutting it away.

Good that you looked. That should be the first thing you do after you pull. Pull, count 3, look up for landable canopy over your head.

Yeah, pay attention to your posiiton. Line twists are not always so easy to deal with, and once you start getting more jumps in and start jumping with people you'll start pulling a little lower than 5k. So, pay attention to body position now and stay in good habit. I got slack with this once I started freeflying and had to retrain myself to have good position and stability at pull time.

Congrads on your progress with turns and landings! Keep up the good work:D

Angela.

[Conundrum 1]

Cool deal man. Glad to hear it didnt get serious up there for you.

I had line twists on Level 1. I was like.... Hmm ok... line twists.. this is just great. But it was ok cause I knew what to do. Knowlwedge is key.

[bluewaterstream 0]

You know, now I can't seem to stop thinking about this minor malfunction and it's beginning to freak me out a little bit. The more I read, the more I realize how much more there is to learn. It kinda frightens me to think back at how little we are actually taught during our AFF Level 1 jump. I completely understand that it wouldn't be wise to overload a Level 1 student with too much info and that it's best just to have them understand enough so that they can have a safe jump and recover from a mal if necessary, but now that I'm at Level 6 I'm beginning to wonder about everything that I haven't already been taught in the previous AFF Levels (1 -5). Did any of you reach a point like this when you began learning and understanding a lot more about rig set-ups(RSL's, AAD's, etc.) and malfunctions and it reached a point where it actually scared you a bit? I want to know absolutely everything there is to know about skydiving ASAP so that I can be an incrediably safe skydiver, but I know that is going to take more training, jumps, and time. However, I'm finding that difficult to accept and perhaps that's what's freaking me out - not the line twists.

Anyway, considering my level of training and experience, or lack of, I sincerely feel that I responded extremely well and efficiently to the line twists. My JM actually saw the whole thing too and said that my response was great. If I encountered that exact same situation, I would respond exactly the same way (but now I'll check my 3-ring too!). I found this picture (( http://www.dropzone.com/safety/emergencies/photos/142-a-l.jpg )) of a line twist and mine seemed to have just about the same amount of line twists but my canopy was catching a lot more air. Basically the stabilizers and end cells were folded over, so about 70 - 80% of the canopy was open. Therefore I was falling at a much slower speed than the poor person that was under the canopy from the picture in the link above.

Anyway, writing is therapeutic and I just needed to share this odd phase of my skydiving career before I jump again this weekend. I'm still really excited for my Level 6 & 7 jumps and won't let this little hurdle get in the way!!! Thanks again for all of your advise...

((( On a side note: If you're about to jump Level 1 please don't let this posting deter you in any way. The training that you'll receive in AFF is incredible and if it wasn't, I would have never jumped in the first place and I certainly wouldn't have jumped 6 more times after that! )))

[firstime 0]

Good job,
Yes line twists suck, but don't take them with little
concern. I have had 3, 1 bad one and 2 so so.I only
have 53 jumps. All 3 lines twists had to do with body
position upon deployment. i have learned a valuable
lesson. I took the advice a little too lightly regarding
"left hand above the head" while reaching for the
hackey. Get belly to earth. This might sound a little
off key but I have been fortunate to have a few skydives that scared the shit out of me.One was totally unstable from 13500 to 8000 (my first solo).
Then while under canopy(again 1st solo) the radio guy on the ground forgot I was there.and I landed off(way off) but I made a decision early and landed
in a field safely. That is just one, the other was in a guy's backyard and the third was a sod farm(real soft). I am boasting about the training that I have
rec'd.Most new skydiviers have not had the mishaps
w/ 53 jumps that I have . My last 3 months have given me a tremendous amount of respect for this
sport.. Be well be safe and if you have to chop it
what DA FU%&


be well

[champu 1]

"Good morning class"

"Good morning."

"I'd like to welcome you all to the ground portion of your training on making your first static line jump. First things first, let's talk about line-twists..."

[Hazarrd 1]

actually, i reached the exact opposite point. yea, sure, there are plenty of malfunctions and other things that could go wrong, but think about all of these safety devices that are there to aid us in the event we can't act fast enough. add that to the fact that you are now properly trained to act in any emergency, that should make you feel much safer. if it doesnt, i dont know what to tell you.

.-.

[Nightingale 0]

Aff teaches you everything you really need to know to stay safe.

1. how and when to pull
2. how to get stable
3. how to chop
4. when to chop
5. how to land

#4 seems like what people get hung up on... what it comes down to is, no matter what the main's doing, if you can't land it safely, chop it. Doesn't matter if its spinning, baglock, line over, line twist you can't get out of... if you can't fix it by your hard deck, chop it, and chop it sooner if its obvious you can't fix it (ie. baglock)

I got so hung up on the what ifs that I rode the plane down on my AFF 2. When I went back, my instructor had a long talk with me, and made sure that I understood that yes, there are many strange things that can happen under canopy, but no, I don't need to know what all of them are. I just need to know "if you can't land it, chop it, and pull silver"

[bluewaterstream 0]

Yeah, I'm totally fine with everything again. Yesterday, I think I was just reliving the experience a bit and thinking about it way too much. No doubt, I'm ready to jump again...

[Tilion 0]

In a (number of) way(s) I'm actually glad I did SL-jumps before AFF. I've had several linetwists on those jumps and knew something about them and what to do from training. Now that I know what it's like I know it probably won't freak me out after a free fall. That's comforting.

[elfanie 0]

Feh...
I had line twists after AFF (well, ASP, which is basically the same thing as AFF with a couple of tandems first) and didn't freak out.

I honestly don't understand why anyone would want to do static anymore...

--------------------------------------------
Elfanie
My Skydiving Page
Fly Safe - Soft Landings

[Tilion 0]

I'm not saying that not doing SL is going to freak someone out when they have line twists, it's just a personal feeling. Btw there are still a lot of people that do SL, and it's mostly personal so naturally you wouldn't understand.

But I can assure you there is nothing wrong with you not understanding. You don't need to seek medical attention for it.

On a more serious note; in my opinion, starting low also takes away the probability that the lower jumps you do after the course will be unreasonably scary or whatever. Then there's some extra canopy time for experience so that's another worry away when I am focussing on the jump instead of what comes after. And at least now I can say, oh SL! Been there, done that . These arguments may mean nothing to someone else, but hey; that's why we're all different now isn't it?

[elfanie 0]

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But I can assure you there is nothing wrong with you not understanding. You don't need to seek medical attention for it.

Heh...maybe there is something wrong with me...

but seriously, I should have followed up my statement with a question...
"Why do people want to do static line instead of AFF? What are the benefits of static line in comparison to AFF?"

Not being a smarty pants or something....I'm a shiny newbie myself! I'm seriously wondering what the benefits are....

--------------------------------------------
Elfanie
My Skydiving Page
Fly Safe - Soft Landings

[Tilion 0]

I'm sorry, I was editing my post probably when you were typing yours. So there it is.

I'm also a newbie so this opinion has the possibility to change over time but the way I see it there's benefits to both methods. Since money was not so much of a problem I chose to do both in a combi. 8 statics and AFF (and the sum of those wasn;t even that much more than just AFF really, I thought what the heck).