Safety as a practice; survival is an art

[nightBASE1 0]

My early experiences were eerily similar to Richard's.

Jumps 1-3 (March, 1969): static lines from 2,500' using cheapo (28' 5-TU or 5-double L)

Jump 4: Cleared for FF and bribed my instructor and another experienced jumper to build a 3-man (not "3-way") around me. Cool!

Jumps 5-27: 30-45 second delays practicing RW with hook-ups & 3-man stars.

Jump 28: Went to jump at the local USPA DZ (Dallas Skydivers at Segoville, Texas), and the ASO, Jerry Schrimsher, made me do two more static lines or I couldn't jump there. They hated people from Cedar Hill, so this was an up-yours, but I did it just to be able to jump there, which I knew pissed them off.

A few months later, I needed a water jump to qualify for my C license, and selected a pond near the DZ. It was 12/17/69. The ambient temp was warm (60's or 70's), but the water temp felt like it was freezing when I landed in the middle of the pond. Like Economy, my cheapo settled down over me and I immediately got tangled in my lines as I was gasping for air and bobbing up and down from surface to the bottom (8' or so). At the age of 17, it was the first time in my life that I thought it was all over and I was about to die. I hollered "HELP!" to my buddy on the shore, who just laughed his ass off, snapping photos. I was infuriated that my last seconds of life would be documented by a moron not taking my dire circumstances seriously.

I leaned shoreward with each hop/bob, drenched and exhausted, and miraculously struggled to shallower water, where I was able to drag my "near-death rig" to shore. I caught my breath before blasting my buddy for his willingness to so casually let me expire.

He still thought it was hilarious!

[DrEco 0]

From: DrEcon aka DrEco aka Richard Economy D115

The ultimate altitude safety device: Your eyeballs and a visual knowledge of the dropzone and its surrounding. . If you are familiar with the DZ and its surrounding area and you look or glance at the ground during freefall relative work you will never cream in. When you are at about 1500 feet or lower, ground rush and horizon wrap will get your attention every time. Horizon wrap is when the horizon appears to be swallowing you up, i.e., when you are no longer feel remote from the earth. Under a 1000 feet if you glance at the horizon and or ground, you have to be blind not to know that you have a problem and you just pull your reserve chute because it opens much faster.

A method I used in my early jump career was to drive down a highway where the speed limit is 60 to 65 mph where you are closing with on coming cars at between 120 to 130 mph (freefall speed). You look at the cars and their windshield and judge their size and rate of change of size. Start counting when you think that the cars are 2000 feet away. If you reach a count of 10-12 seconds, the cars were about 2000 feet away when you started to count. Then do the same thing when you think the cars are about 1000 feet away. Repeat this process for building that about the size of those near the DZ when you think they are about a 1000 feet away.

Now when you are skydiving at a DZ you look for any building, cars, or the pickup wagon in the vicinity of the DZ just before and just after you open your chute at 2000 feet and judge their size and their rate of change of size. You have now calibrated your eyeballs/brain to the opening altitude for that DZ.

After about 60 or so jumps I never used an altimeter or stopwatch. I just looked at the ground and or the horizon. Of course when you are doing relative work with a bunch of jumpers and they have all pulled it is a good time to pull your own ripcord.

[nightBASE1 0]

I couldn't say it any better. Eyes aren't prone to immediate and unannounced failure that sometimes happen (albeit rarely) with altimeters, stopwatches, audio alerts, etc. I always taught my students to not trust anything, equipment-wise, that had moving parts.

I remember several times when my Altimaster was hundreds of feet off by the time I hit the ground. Usually it was because of getting bumped on a tight exit.

C-5871

[robinheid 0]

quick jump story on "gadget" addiction.

one day at perris i hop in the plane with gear, shorts, and nothing else.

i'm sitting at the back so everyone on the load can see me.

as the plane starts rolling, several of them urgently point out that i have no altimeter. A couple of them even offer to loan me on of their two (or three or four!) altimeters (i kid you not; one guy had an analog, a digital, and 2 audios!).

i said "no thanks, i still have two" and pointed to my eyes.

This remark was greeted with astonishment by these several jumpers - and chuckles and nods from the few old farts on the load.



d5533
base44
court-certified expert BASE witness

SCR-6933 / SCS-3463 / D-5533 / BASE 44 / CCS-37 / 82d Airborne (Ret.)

"The beginning of wisdom is to first call things by their right names."

[patworks 5]

'obvious' safety imperatives are era dependent. Emotion about safety transcends time

yep, still

Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

[jinlee 0]

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I wondered why there could be so many fatalities back in the day when they were not doing even close to the number of jumps we currently do.

They were learning the things that allow you to make some many jumps today. Did you think all the advancements in safety, equipment and technique just appeared one day?

Sparky

An entertaining humorous, silly skydiving movie... excellent jump fortage for it's time, (1967).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fathom_(film)

I watched it after I learned of it in another thread. Good quality from the pirate bay as a d/l.

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/3737276/Fathom_-_Raquel_Welch_-_DivxRipBy_RUBrTOE.avi

Wooden handles as toggles??? really?

[wmw999 2,117]

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Wooden handles as toggles??? really?

That's why they're called toggles -- one definition is a crosspiece attached to a string, to keep it from slipping through the guide ring. Originally the loops were called soft toggles.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[mjosparky 3]

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This remark was greeted with astonishment by these several jumpers - and chuckles and nods from the few old farts on the load.

Every few years the pool of knowledge and survival skills goes down. It’s lucky that the gear keeps getting better to pick up the slack.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[obelixtim 100]

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Every few years the pool of knowledge and survival skills goes down. It’s lucky that the gear keeps getting better to pick up the slack.

Sparky

When they make wearing a GPS compulsory to tell us doddery oldies where we are in the sky, I guess our days will be numbered.

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[lufkincy 0]

Very interesting thread. I started in the late 1950s but never experienced what you fellows experienced in the early years. Had we attempted to jump that gear the ASO would have grounded us.

Almost all of you have far more jumps than I, but even those who started much earlier than I have higher "D" numbers. I delayed applying for my D for six to nine months and mine should have been several hundred lower than it is.

In the early 1960s we had a few that had a lot of jumps - Gus Anagnostis, Clyde Jacks, Carlos Wallace, etc. but most of us only had a few hundred at most. We were more than just impressed when those like Dick Fortenberry and Stan Janeka visited our DZ.

Cy Stapleton
[email protected]
www.hotlinecy.com