Kerry go-low :-(

[bluefingers 0]

Hi all
I had a very educational jump yesterday. It was the second RW coach in our cat II programme, wearing 10lb in a weight vest, jumping a Hornet 210. Without the lead I load it at 0.68. It was my 62nd skydive, and I’m a bit of a late starter with RW (did S/L progression, and got stuck there for ages). Was wearing lead cos my coach is a good 45 - 50kg heavier than me. Unlinked exit at 9500ft (C182), I had to dock, coach moved back 2m, turned 90 deg and moved back another 2m. I had to fly in and dock from the front. All good. Then I released him and we just worked on body position (mantis) till wave off at 4500ft. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of the skydive till this point. Then I tried to track. Arms close in, hands cupped, rolling shoulders, legs straight and together (it was the first time I had tried this). Well, I was zigzagging all over the place, and felt very unstable. This is where I made a mistake. I stopped counting in my head. I was concentrating so much on getting my track on a heading, I lost altitude awareness. A glance at the ground indicated that I wasn’t where I normally am in a track, so got into the box, checked alti and got a huge fright. I reached at 2500ft, fumbled, got it and deployed. Snivel, snivel, 3 line twists. With that glance at the alti, my heartrate must have tripled. My body position on the pull wasn’t too good, which is probably why I had the line twists. Kicked out of them pretty quickly though. I don’t know what altitude I was when under a full canopy, I was too busy trying to find the airfield. Orientated myself, figured I might just make it back, but decided not to. Didn’t want an iffy landing on a fence. So chose my out – the middle of a field next to the airfield. Landing was a lot faster than I was used to (fourth jump on this canopy, first one with lead). Landed safely, and my coach picked me up and gave me a stern talking to all the way back to the airfield. But he didn’t yell or make me uncomfortable. In the debrief he was calm and encouraging, and I really appreciated that.

Lessons learned:
1. The skydive doesn’t stop at wave-off. Keep altitude awareness!!!!!!! Keep that mental count going in a track. I managed to use up 2000ft trying to track by not being altitude aware.

2. Don’t try too many new things on one skydive. On this jump it was new exit, new body position, new RW, and trying a new way of tracking.

3. LOOK at the ground, and if you can see the trees are a bit bigger than normal, do something about it.

4. Practice tracking.

5. Practice touches. I have been doing these on the ground, but not nearly enough. I fumbled and lost a couple of precious seconds.

Kerry

[Squeak 17]

See ya in Belther

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[skydive84 0]

Hey kerry
glad you got down ok.
Adi

[gus 1]

Most of us, at some point, have done exactly what you've described - I have. The important thing is to have a think about how it happened and what you can do to prevent it from happening again - and you seem to be doing exactly that so don't sweat it too much.

Glad you're ok
Gus

OutpatientsOnline.com

[DavidKing 0]

Everyone does it once, that one will keep you aware for another
200 jumps or so. Have fun and be careful.
David

[ladyskydiver 0]

Glad you're ok and took the out. It's nice to see that you didn't suffer from get-home-itis.

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[andy2 0]

this brings up a question I have, how many people consciously count while skydiving? Or is it more of a subconscious thing for you?

---------------------------------------------
let my inspiration flow,
in token rhyme suggesting rhythm...

[bluefingers 0]

Hi

I went through the S/l progression and freefall progression prog in South Africa, and we don't use an alti, until our second 15sec delay. Counting became habitual. But in this case, no I don't count on all my skydives, but I do normally count when I track. Minimum of three maximum of 5 seconds. Yesterday, I didn't count.

Kerry

[Amazon 7]

Definitely a subconscious thing in my case.... I FEEL it when I am getting close to pull time. I think I counted for a couple jumps when I first started jumping again but since then I have not. I do check my Alti on my hand and I do have a Pro Track set to go off at 4k, 3k and 2k. Last weekend it was screaming at me and I still did not have a canopy. I had a bit of a Pilot chute in tow in my burble then a snivel... I was not a happy camper on that one. I was very close to my first reserve ride in 23 years...

But Kerry.... no sweat ok... it happens to all of us eventually. It seems to me you handled it well.

Amazon

[Snowbird 0]

Kerry, don't let it eat you up. Did you do another jump afterward?

About counting, at first the S/L habit stayed with me. Now I only count during my track. I do have a dytter, but make a conscious effort to be doing what I should be doing before the beep tells me to.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
-Robert A. Heinlein

[BlueEyedMonster 0]

Quote

this brings up a question I have, how many people consciously count while skydiving? Or is it more of a subconscious thing for you?

I used to count, until I started tracking. I found that depending on body position (track/belly/sit) my fall rate can vary quite a bit. I stopped myself from using my internal clock for altitude awareness after fighting off the urge to pull at 8,000 on a couple of track dives. I have learned my altitude awareness by the size of ground objects. How big are the rows of corn? ...the dotted lines on a road? ...a familiar building?

[bluefingers 0]

Hi
Ah it's Tuesday, and I've calmed down No, didn't get another jump in on Sunday, but I have cancelled other weekend plans to get up there and do a couple of solo's, practising my tracking!

Have been thinking about getting an audible for a while now, but first I have to find something to put it in!

*heads off to go helmet shopping*

Kerry

[174fps 1]

You are better to find someone to watch you
practice tracking.
they can give you feedback on, heading control
body position, and relative altitude.
The most common novice tracking problems
are, poor heading control, chipping from being too
rigid, and altitude loss(delta) rather than a good flat
track.


Andrew

[BigM 2]

Quote

You are better to find someone to watch you
practice tracking.

I concur. Do an entire jump (or 2 or 3) that is nothing but practice tracks. Get out, get stable, and pretend like it is breakoff time and track... back to the box... practice touch... then another practice track. Do this the entire jump to build body memory, and check you altitude every time you come out of the track. Do all this with a coach or very experienced jumper flying with you. You pretend they aren't there... this isn't an RW jump, they will just be observing to give you feedback (video would be nice too). Hope this works for you. Be safe and have fun!

"When I die, I want to go like my grandmother, who died peacefully in her sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in her car."

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