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freeflir29

Altitude awareness

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I saw two differen't instances involving three jumpers this weekend that were kinda scary. The first wasn't so bad because it was an experienced jumper doing a largish way belly formation load. I watch the break off......people start deploying. I see one guy with his arm back. Looks like he is trying to pull. Finally a reserve comes out. As far as I know he beat the Cypres. He landed safely in the landing area. He was a bit upset with himself for taking so long to decide to go to silver. He was jumping with gloves on and fumbled a little too long. WATCH THYNE ALTITUDE!!!
Second one was a little more scary. Two A license jumpers going out together on a high speed casa pass. I guess it was disorienting for them. Long story short they had very little seperation when they dumped. I think the second jumper only realized how low he was when the first one pulled. I'll guess somewhere between 1000 and 1500Ft. The first somehow managed to get away with his student Cypres not firing. The second jumper with an expert cypres wasn't so lucky. He ended up with two out and successfully cut away the main. Landed off under his reserve uneventfully.
No injuries in either of these incidents but they could have easily ended much worse. Altitude awareness is KEY to your survival. That big whirling planet should also be a clue. ;)

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That's one thing I'm always very careful of - I look at my alti about every 5 seconds. "it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end"
-----------------------------------
It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone

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When I deploy, I get ready about 3-5 hundred feet before hand, and I watch my altimeter the whole time. That way I know exactly where I am and how much time I have.



interesting... do you jump with more than one person? Do you track away, do you look at the airspace around you before you pull? It's hard to do all that if you are fixated on your altimeter.

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>When I deploy, I get ready about 3-5 hundred feet before hand, and
> I watch my altimeter the whole time.

Might be easier to just count. If I break off at 4000 feet, I know I can track for 5 seconds, flare out, wave off and pull, and be pulling at around 2500 feet. Counting lets you track, look around for traffic etc.

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Don't get me wrong, paying attention to our visible altimeters is extremely important. But recently I have started to notice that my internal clock is starting to work. I have been trying to teach myself how to do free fly sits (with some success and much failure) and I haven't always been watching my altimeters for much of my jumps. But several times yesterday, there I was in free fall working on my sit thinking to myself, hmmm ... I should probably be thinking about getting on my belly and deploying my main right about now, and seconds later my ProTrack (which I have set to sound the first warning at 5k) goes off.

Just an observation that's all. :)



Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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Well...I now have about 308 jumps I think. I have just now started to get REALLY accurate with the calibrated eyeballs. I was doing some outside camera for Rook this weekend. Just hanging out in a sit enjoying the show. I was dead on when I called 4500 in my head. I kinda have to be careful.....my time out doesn't always go off when it's supposed to because it's in a burbble. It used to just be my internal clock and I would check my alti 3 or 4 times during a dive. Now....I find myself never even looking at it until very close to break off. It's harder on tandems because you have to set up for the opening at 5500 so I check it more often.

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just wait until you try a belly jump after your internal clock is set to sitflying! you swear you've been in freefall forever, you look at your alti and you're still at 8,000!

one time the internal clock almost got me into trouble... i'm used to getting 14,000, but one time due to cloud cover, we only got 10,500. let me tell you, we were at deployment altitude and i was SO not expecting to already be there! (for the record, i ended up pulling low and landing off. no real harm done, but a lesson learned!)
spiral out...keep going...

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just wait until you try a belly jump after your internal clock is set to sitflying! you swear you've been in freefall forever, you look at your alti and you're still at 8,000!




and JUST WAIT till you have only a C-182 to jump from at 9000. 8k is just the beginning. I bet any VRW from that alti would freak you out!! ... kinda makes it difficult to learn too - what with about 30 seconds of working time off the step at best. Oh ya, and a 4 way is THE big way:P

Dave


Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

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When I deploy, I get ready about 3-5 hundred feet before hand, and I watch my altimeter the whole time. That way I know exactly where I am and how much time I have.



I have always thought I did this, but have become much more aware ofi it in recent times. My first reserve ride following a hard pull exhibited the importance of continued awareness through pull time. Story can be found here >>>Reserve Ride


kwak
Sometimes your the bug, sometimes your the windshield. Sometimes your the hammer sometimes your the nail. Question is Hun, Do you wanna get hammered or do you wanna get nailed?????

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