1ST "CUTAWAY"

[Squeak 17]

THIS IS A COPY OF MY LOG ENTRY.

HOP N POP, strut hang,LEFT ok but kicked legs and got unstable on deploy
fliped Through risers, got line tangle on foot & arm twisted though in right riser.
Untangled line from foot and then armfrom risers. Risers still tangled up.
Looked and didn’t know how to fix.
"CUTAWAY"
Safe landing on 2 feet.
Fellow jumper chased down free bag and main canopy.

OK What did i learn from this. LOTS but mainly 2 things

1) GET STABLE if you have altitude to do so.

2) Don't always dive your plan. I have been a SCUBA diver for 20 odd years (PADI Instractor), One of the tenants of SCUBA is "Plan your dive & then Dive your Plan".
I have just finished my 19th jump and on jump 18 (this cutaway) I violently learned that you don't always "dive your plan" in skydiving.
I practiced and planned to do a strut hang hop n pop from a cessna. Release strut and pull on 3 count. I was aware of going unstable just b4 I deployed, since I had altitude I should have held off and got stable again b4 depolying, but in my mind I was dropping and pulling so thats what I did.
I Will be back on the DZ tomorrow doing practice strut hangs and PRP's to try and maintain stability of the strut.

BEER was bought for 1st reserve ride

p.s. I have a wicked bruise and line burn on my bicep

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?

[ladyskydiver 0]

Congrats on the cut-a-way and stand up landing. Glad to hear you're safe. Sorry to hear about the bruises.

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

[Dumpster 0]

Congrats on a safe reserve ride-
Yes indeed stability is important!
Hope the beer tasted good! ( I know it was really tasty after my cutaway!)
Did you hear that distict "ka-chink" from the three-rings? I'll never forget that sound!

Easy Does It

[flyangel2 2]

Glad to hear that you are okay. Yes, practice, practice, practice. Also glad to hear that you're getting back in the air so soon. Good luck to you and keep us posted with your improvements.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[pkasdorf 0]

Besides congratulating you because all went well, I wanted to tell you to stick to the SCUBA tenant: "PLAN YOUR DIVE, DIVE YOUR PLAN". As a fun (not pro like you) scubadiver myself (I went into skydiving later in life) I always found that rule very useful and shared it with my fellow skydivers. You simply do not have to forget that deploying stable with sufficient altitude IS part of the plan.

Enjoy skydiving, to me as rewarding as scubadiving!

HISPA # 18 POPS # 8757

[ernokaikkonen 0]

Quote

I practiced and planned to do a strut hang hop n pop from a cessna. Release strut and pull on 3 count. I was aware of going unstable just b4 I deployed, since I had altitude I should have held off and got stable again b4 depolying, but in my mind I was dropping and pulling so thats what I did.

Something the CRW-jumpers on my DZ emphasize, while coaching new jumpers the basics of CF, is the "exit sequence":

Quote

1-exit
2-get stable
3-deploy
Do not change the order of the steps, that will cause problems.

Of course the same advice can(and should) be applied to all jumps.

Congrats on the safe cutaway!

[Squeak 17]

Quote

Did you hear that distict "ka-chink" from the three-rings? I'll never forget that sound!

DISTINCTLY and loudly.
Also did you notice how everytihng, seems to run in slow motion, my reserve seemd to take forever to open afters cutaway, but I know that its very quick.

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?

[RichM 0]

I'm glad you're here with us to share your story. I would be careful about what stage in your skydiving career you start moving toward thinking about situations rather than just doing the drills. During all this line entanglement and sorting out (which you did well) did you look at your alti at all, and what did it read when you looked at and what were you doing at the time. If you don't know then you were not altitude aware during the malfunction and you need to ask yourself if you are 100% confident you will be altitude aware in the next. Too many people have fought mals into the ground and got badly hurt or killed because they didn't check their alti while trying to deal with the situation.

There will come a time when you can start to seperate out different situations, the most basic one is the difference between a low speed mal and a high speed mal. In high speed mals (total, pc in tow, bag lock, etc) you have only seconds to decide and act, but in low speed mals (line over, minor canopy damage) you have much longer.

When you are capable of differentiating and dealing with situations appropriately will differ from individual to individual, but I would suggest that at 19 jumps you have a lot more jumps to do before you should consider detailed analysis of a mal situation.

Well done for dealing with this one quickly and successfully, I'll have a beer tonight (virtually) with you :)

Rich M

[RichM 0]

Quote

Something the CRW-jumpers on my DZ emphasize, while coaching new jumpers the basics of CF, is the "exit sequence":

Quote

1-exit
2-get stable
3-deploy
Do not change the order of the steps, that will cause problems.

Of course the same advice can(and should) be applied to all jumps.

Gotta disagree with this one. It depends on where you're at in term of experience and currency. You can expect CReW dogs to be reasonably experienced skydivers and more capable than most of dealing with mals as they are desperately trying to mal each other on every jump

You tell a student or a 19 jump skydiver to wait to be stable before they deploy and some will wait until the end of their life.
1. Pull
2. Pull at a safe altitude
3. Pull stable

Rich M

[Kris 0]

Quote

1. Pull
2. Pull at a safe altitude
3. Pull stable

Actually, it's:

1. Pull
2. Pull at the proper altitude
3. Pull at the proper altitude with stability


Kris

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[ernokaikkonen 0]

Quote

You tell a student or a 19 jump skydiver to wait to be stable before they deploy and some will wait until the end of their life.
1. Pull
2. Pull at a safe altitude
3. Pull stable

Yes, you're right of course. That's not what I meant, but it certainly can be mis-interpreted from my post.

The point I was trying to make was that on a hop'n'pop more experienced jumpers will exit, get stable, and deploy without thinking about it too much. The less experienced jumpers should make it a concious effort to execute the three steps, in order. "Low" altitude hop'n'pops can be intimidating, especially to AFF-students, causing them to unnecessarily hurry the deployment, thus forgetting the "get stable" part. Altitude awareness should of course be kept as the first priority.

[Michele 1]

Good deal, Squeak! Well done. You're learning...and that's what you need to do. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[Dumpster 0]

Quote

DISTINCTLY and loudly.
Also did you notice how everytihng, seems to run in slow motion, my reserve seemd to take forever to open afters cutaway, but I know that its very quick.

Yeah things seeed to happen in slow motion, and for several days afterward, kept on replaying themselves in my head- And my hands went to the handles and did what they should- it was like they were on autopilot. I was, like, just watching them do what we had praticed so many times. Pretty wild!

Easy Does It