Stupid things I have done

[craddock 0]

I could right a chapter in Stupid things I have done. Assuming this in meant to pertain only to Skydiving I would say the most stupid thing I have done was to do nothing. To look the other way. Followed closely by the examples I have set in my need to get that extra dose of adrenaline that becomes harder in time to get like happens with many addictive drugs.

I literately told a friend who was at the dropzone for a USPA meeting that he was on the board to go out to the pond(not a swoop pond) as there was "about to be some carnage" there. He and two other board members went out to watch the fatality that ensued. I tried a little to help avoid that situation but ultimately didn't put my foot down or even seek the DZO out about what I knew was a bad idea. He had more jumps and time in sport than me and I let than get in the way

Further more my reckless behavior doing a hop and pop at Night from altitude and hanging deep only to later come screaming in on extremely congested unlit
retention pond with one entry point and one exit area is what inspired his effort in the first place.

I set a poor example, minimizing how difficult of a jump it was(in addition to zero outs your could not come in short at all or go long) all to feed my selfish needs and in front of a large crowd no less and then didn't take the appropriate steps to tell him NO about his plans. And he actually(they) prepared for a week with some accuracy markers in the main landing area. I don't know if this makes it worse I can use it to help justify someway to myself

But to sum it up one of the most Stupid things I have done Skydiving was.." nothing"

That spot isn't bad at all, the winds were strong and that was the issue! It was just on the downwind side.

[dks13827 2]

Now THAT is way funny ! :)

[ellena 0]

What an absolutely fantastic thread!

I'm bumping this with my own mistakes

#30-something jump: exited the plane without fastening the buckle on my helmet. Obviously realised this as soon as I was out the door, so the entire free fall-time was spent trying to fasten it. And thankfully, I managed to stay altitude aware, so when I reached 4500ft I held onto the the not fastened-buckle with my left hand, pulled, and managed to fasten it when I was under canopy..
When doing the 3x3 check in the plane after this episode, I always do a little tug on the buckle to make sure it's fastened, and not just think "helmet? yup, that's on."
Lesson learned, and I'm just glad it didn't blow off of me and hurt someone/-thing.

#40-something. Was on a 10-minute call, and really didn't like the look on the weather considering my (lack of) experience. However, it was a 10 minute call, and I didn't want to waste the money - and the rest of the load was going up..
I spent the entire ride up with a bad feeling, dreading the jump. Thankfully - it turned out okay! the weather had changed, there was no rain, the scary-looking-clouds had gone somewhere else, and the jump was absolutely fine.
However, I promised myself that I'm never doing that again, despite of it turning out okay. The feeling I had during the ride up was not good, and don't even want to think about what sort of situations I could end up in if I don't have the guts to say no when I feel that I should.
If I'm not comfortable, I'm not going up in that plane.

[Snowcrash 0]

Quote

#40-something. Was on a 10-minute call, and really didn't like the look on the weather considering my (lack of) experience. However, it was a 10 minute call, and I didn't want to waste the money - and the rest of the load was going up..
I spent the entire ride up with a bad feeling, dreading the jump. Thankfully - it turned out okay! the weather had changed, there was no rain, the scary-looking-clouds had gone somewhere else, and the jump was absolutely fine.
However, I promised myself that I'm never doing that again, despite of it turning out okay. The feeling I had during the ride up was not good, and don't even want to think about what sort of situations I could end up in if I don't have the guts to say no when I feel that I should.
If I'm not comfortable, I'm not going up in that plane.

No doubt, it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than being in the air wishing you were on the ground...

Tough decision to make when you are on a 10 minute call though.

[wmw999 2,116]

I fought line twists without first or interim checking my altimeter. I'd opened kind of high, and I have reasonably good eyes. But that's exactly how you get low fighting spinning line twists. I just knew I'd get them out. And I did.

Hopefully next time I'll remember to look at my altimeter. I'm making a quick check part of my post opening routine a little sooner.

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)

[CornishChris 5]

Quote

Tough decision to make when you are on a 10 minute call though.

No it's not. I stood down from a load the other day whilst we were walking to the plane. When I told manifest they said "good call".

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

[gunpaq 1]

Chapter and even books about stupid things we have done. Most surprising is we survived to tell the tales.

One of many for me was a Mr. Bill bungee jump. It all looked good on paper, the Mr. Bill dives were well rehearsed, and the rigging wasflawless. What possibly could go wrong? The jump was successful but what we did not count on was a beating by the bungee that would have impressed my drunken raged old man when I was a kid. I had welts and bruises that lasted for two weeks.

www.geronimoskydiving.com

[Baksteen 84]

*bump*

Skimming through my logbook I was reminded of this old thread:

Two weeks ago I was coming in under my L160 on a no wind day. When I realised my ground speed, it briefly startled me. I flared poorly, but instead of making a proper PLF I landed on my butt and caught myself on my right hand.

Fortunately the ground was soft because of all the bad weather lately, so all I had to show for it was a bruised ego and, for a couple of days, a painful wrist.

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[sombra2 0]

CornishChris

Quote

Tough decision to make when you are on a 10 minute call though.

No it's not. I stood down from a load the other day whilst we were walking to the plane. When I told manifest they said "good call".

Totally agree. Been there, done that. It has happened to me in a couple of occasions that I've decided to lose my ticket instead and stay, for different reasons but at that point I wasn't confident enough. Complacency kills my friends, and especially in this sport!

[PeteW 0]

CornishChris

Quote

Tough decision to make when you are on a 10 minute call though.

No it's not. I stood down from a load the other day whilst we were walking to the plane. When I told manifest they said "good call".

Our dzo has told me a few times to get a wind check at altitude. If you feel it's too strong ride the plane down. I won't charge you.

[muff528 3]

First (and only) flag jump. Combined with an RW jump. Landed downwind and against traffic. Piss poor planning and failure to treat as a "special" jump requiring focused attention. Ended OK (except for the deserved ass-chewing).

[evh 22]

Baksteen

*bump*

Skimming through my logbook I was reminded of this old thread:

Two weeks ago I was coming in under my L160 on a no wind day. When I realised my ground speed, it briefly startled me. I flared poorly, but instead of making a proper PLF I landed on my butt and caught myself on my right hand.

Fortunately the ground was soft because of all the bad weather lately, so all I had to show for it was a bruised ego and, for a couple of days, a painful wrist.

thats exactly what I did, many years ago as a student under a Fury 220 ...... except I broke 2 bones in my left hand ...

[meteora 2]

1. Jumped a Storm 107 @ WL 1.6 for my first wingsuit jump. I borrowed it from my wingsuit instructor. My own canopy at that time was a Stiletto 135 and the Storm was the smallest canopy I ever jumped. Of course I had an off landing on the first jump.

2. First jump at a new dropzone. I jumped with a guy that had about 30 jumps and he wanted to get video of his opening. He was supposed to pull at 5000ft, but didn't. I gave him the pull signal and he finally pulled at 3000ft. I watched his canopy open, then turned and tracked as planned. Pulled my own main at about 1800... Had to land off and walk a few miles, because the dropzone staff didn't even notice that I was missing. Should have just tracked away instead of wanting to get his video...

[JohnMitchell 14]

meteora

Should have just tracked away instead of wanting to get his video...

Haha, you should have videoed his opening . . . between your toes from under canopy. . .

[the.Legend 54]

One of the worst jumps I ever had:
It was season closing celebration day and DZO brought huge soviet Mi-8 copter, so everyone was eager to do something big.
Our group was not an exception and somehow we managed to gather 8 people. Most with rather doubtful qualification to do 8-way (that is, only 2 or 3 had between 100 and 200 jumps and only one had few hundreds). We made a girl with circa 35 jumps to be the base (cause base is for noobs, right? Big boys don't go base :D).
The flight plan was roughly like this: we get on board, go up and then jump.
Should we train exits? What for?! Even student knows how to do that, right?
Exit lineup? No need, the ramp is huge! Just stick together, we'll be fine.

We were exiting 2-nd, right after 9-way group. Now, Mi-8 doesn't fly as fast as airplanes, so you have to give few extra seconds of separation. With that, you'd give ~15 seconds for 9-way. We gave them 7 at max.
Oh, and we didn't have a leader on that jump. Everyone was looking at each other and when someone jumped out first the rest followed him like horde of lemmings.

Air time was a total disaster because base was drifting left and right and spinning like a broken Ferris wheel. Maybe one or two managed to dock. We might even had some minor collision, but I don't remember now.

Oh, hey! It's time to open! Wait, what are those bright dots coming right onto us? Oh, right! That's the 9-way group
My parachute just left the container as I flew past someone's opened canopy with maybe 50 meters between us.

Luckily at least landing was without any incidents.



Many lessons were learned that day. Since that day I made myself few strict rules for group jumps, so if at least one of them broken I'd better go solo than be a part of suicide squad again.

[airdvr 197]

Launched a 4-way out of a Beech 18 at 2,300 ft on a cloudy day.

Tracking away from a formation and followed a friend into clouds. When he reappeared we were both getting line stretch about 20 feet apart. Fortunately he was facing away from me. I bounced off his container and flew away.

Sea Breezes

Floater on a pull out Racer...messed around too long trying to find it. That was followed by a weak launch of my reserve PC resulting in a hesitation. In the saddle at 600ft.

I could go on...

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[MrShave 0]

The stupidest thing I've done is this:

Around jump 30 was in a 3 way RW jump on a long spot. We were all jumping rental gear, and I was flying an F-111 canopy (Falcon if I remember correctly) while the other two were flying ZP... At break off, I of course tracked away from the DZ and spent the canopy flight following my two friends saying to myself "if they can make it, I can make it! And I'm sure they are gonna make it!"... Boy was I wrong. I passed 3 good outs before I had to land in between two hangers... But for some reason, I flared with the rear risers like you would with toggles and collapsed the canopy at about 15 feet. left a nice divot in the gravel/moss and broke my ankle.

But I've also, more recently, flew my base leg cutting off everyone on final... Luckily it was a slow day and only one person was there... Yep, I got a talking to that day...

[councilman24 36]

Trusting a rigger when I had 80 jumps who packed my crossbow round reserve into my profotype SST on the ground at the dz during jumping in about 20 m8nutes. And gave me a 1400' reseve total. I got to Sfruggle, Struggle,, Thu.... (mp) 300' terminal opening 2 second before bouncing. 20 second canopy ride.

Why I became a rigger. Couldn't trust anybody else.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[Phil1111 908]

councilman24

Trusting a rigger when I had 80 jumps who packed my crossbow round reserve into my profotype SST on the ground at the dz during jumping in about 20 m8nutes. And gave me a 1400' reseve total. I got to Sfruggle, Struggle,, Thu.... (mp) 300' terminal opening 2 second before bouncing. 20 second canopy ride.

Why I became a rigger. Couldn't trust anybody else.

What kind of a cowboy, dope smoking, non-USPA, rogue DZ did you start out at?

Anyway, after reading some of these many adventures I feel like a rocket-surgeon now. The greatest thing about some stupidity is that no injury results and everyone can laugh about it later.

[Ron 7]

Phil1111

***Trusting a rigger when I had 80 jumps who packed my crossbow round reserve into my profotype SST on the ground at the dz during jumping in about 20 m8nutes. And gave me a 1400' reseve total. I got to Sfruggle, Struggle,, Thu.... (mp) 300' terminal opening 2 second before bouncing. 20 second canopy ride.

Why I became a rigger. Couldn't trust anybody else.

What kind of a cowboy, dope smoking, non-USPA, rogue DZ did you start out at?

Anyway, after reading some of these many adventures I feel like a rocket-surgeon now. The greatest thing about some stupidity is that no injury results and everyone can laugh about it later.

I started at a USPA DZ and they were doing illegal AFF. My 3rd freefall was an 8 way, after that they said I was "off student status". My 13th jump was on a rig with no AAD or RSL. They used to do Tandem jumps was sunset.

USPA DZ does not mean safe..... Never has.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[DemolitionDarby 0]

Jump #116. Brought my phone with me to take a selfie under canopy after clearing what I wanted to do with the S&TA.

Long story short, object fixation on phone getting the "perfect" selfie and finally noticed my altitude and location at 1,000ft AGL after setting up above the DZ in the holding pattern at 3k.

I ended up landing a 1/2 mile out from the DZ.

Needless to say I landed in some random field and had a long walk back to the DZ then got a stern lecture from the S&TA and other very experienced jumpers on object fixation and why people shouldn't use any kind of device prior to 200 jumps under canopy or in free fall.

Keeping things in perspective, I didn't get hurt, the gear wasn't damaged, nor was there any property damage. The only thing that got hurt was my pride and ego. But, I'll take a bruised ego and pride with a hard knox lesson over a broken leg or pounding in any day.

Make fun of me if you want, or offer advice. I just hope anyone reading this can relay this story to a sub 200 jumper looking to use a camera before reaching the recommended jump numbers.

[Lawndarter 3]

DShiznit

Downwind landing in 20kt winds - thank you, OXYGN.

Did that RIGHT AFTER Flight 101 and 102. I followed the pattern. Except the guy who set it didn't realize the winds had turned 180! Added insult to injury (not actual injury, fortunately) by leaving not much room for a base leg and turning final at 600'. So I got lots of speed for my awesome slide/summersault landing. 4.7 from East German judge for artistic impression. And lots of scratches on my new helmet.

[maxhogg 0]

First ever jump (AFF level 1) Skydive Elsinore I curled into a ball out of the plane. One instructor released, the second clung on, which I'm grateful for because there was no way I was going to be saving myself (complete information overload). After a couple of thousand feet the instructor managed to get me to uncurl enough that I was belly to earth, but as stiff as a board. I still wasn't anywhere near planning on saving myself (i.e. pulling) and the instructor wasn't convinced I'd stay stable, so pulled for me about 6 grand.

Under canopy, all seemed to be going well until, set up upwind of a motorbike track (I think - anyone who knows Elsinore, is there a dirt bike track near the landing area?) I hit turbulence, my canopy rotated 180 degrees and I had a downwind landing into a muddy puddle on the motorbike track. Thankfully it wasn't being used at the time.

A couple of notable things about the jump:
1. Remarkably, my instructors passed me for level 1, and I don't think I knew enough to have scared myself, so went straight back up for level 2 (which was uneventful, though it took me ages to learn to arch properly).
2. My instructor only told me much later that from exit to when I got stable(ish!) I was regularly and with some force elbowing him in the face. To my eternal shame I don't recall buying him beer.

[maxhogg 0]

And one where I could definitely learn some lessons.

Jump 120 or so (Skydive Algarve)
2 way FF - third jump or so of the day and first one with a camera flyer (he wanted the practice). Being on camera caused us to rush set up in the door, and I heard a bang as I exited. Didn't think too much of it, continued the dive, broke off and deployed as normal.

Only as I looked to my alti during my control check did I realise...it wasn't there! It turned out I'd held the bar in the door in such a way that I trapped my alti between my wrist and the top of the door. As we exited I must have wrenched the alti off my wrist, breaking the velcro strap. Needless to say my fingers were a little sore later on.

Flying the pattern was a useful exercise in using my eyes rather than relying on my alti (!), and I knew Phil my jump partner was good with his accuracy so followed his landing pattern as closely as I felt comfortable with. Landing was fine.

Remarkably, Sian had not only noticed my alti fly off, but had seen it drop back into the plane and ran down the plane to catch it before it bounced out the door. With a disapproving shout of 'Boys!' she returned it to me in the landing area. I dread to think what might have happened had it landed on an unsuspecting golfer on the golf course directly under the spot.

Lessons learned:
1. Camera makes me a bit of an idiot, especially when I'm not used to it. I'm not immune to the desire to 'look good' and being filmed, whilst v useful, is also an extra thing to think about and at my relatively low level of experience can add risk to my jump.
2. In a jump where lots else was going on, my alti awareness was horrendous - otherwise I would have known that I had lost my alti before I got under canopy! Relying on a dytter and my jump partner is poor practice. I thought I was pretty good at this but clearly not as good as I thought.
3. Eyes can a good measure of altitude, at least at a familiar drop zone. I thought setting up for landing would be an issue, but I had a pretty good feel for 1000, 600 and 300 feet.

Love this thread - keep them coming.