Stupid things I have done

[NWFlyer 2]

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I've attached an aerial shot of my planned pattern and my actual landing.

I'll absolutely be avoiding strong turns in heavy winds. Additionally, I won't be flying over unlandable terrain under 1000'.

I've bolded what I think is a great takeaway from this - looking at your planned pattern, it's one that I wouldn't have chosen on a high wind day - as you discovered, turbulence is a real factor, and because close to the ground it puts you over something you don't want to land on, without a lot of options.

Looks like you've got lots more room to land farther out in the landing area (not knowing the patterns there, I'm assuming all that space is available and not a restricted area); on a high wind day, either stay on the ground or plan to take a longer walk.

Glad you're here to talk about it.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[VincePetaccio 0]

I suppose I should amend that to say that the pattern I posted was only my planned pattern AFTER the 360. Originally, I was aiming for the X.

You're right, though; there's plenty of space for landing, and I'll be aiming for that in the future.

Come, my friends! 'Tis not too late to seek out a newer world!

[popsjumper 2]

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Of course, the wind blew me all the way across the landing area (extra canopy surface area exposed to the wind during the 360).

Total misconception, Vince. Talk to some experienced people at your DZ. If they support that idea, tell them they are wrong and go ask someone else.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[mjosparky 3]

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Of course, the wind blew me all the way across the landing area (extra canopy surface area exposed to the wind during the 360).

Total misconception, Vince. Talk to some experienced people at your DZ. If they support that idea, tell them they are wrong and go ask someone else.

Something about losing altitude in a turn and for part of the turn you are running down wind?
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[popsjumper 2]

Yes, less distance covered on the upwind side of the turn, more distance covered on the downwind side.
Altitude loss doesn't come into play. It happens that way with flat turns also.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[MorfiusX 0]

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I'll absolutely be avoiding strong turns in heavy winds. Additionally, I won't be flying over unlandable terrain under 1000'.

I am just s newbie as well, but wouldn't it be smarter to avoid jumping in heavy winds?

[Ron 7]

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Additionally, I won't be flying over unlandable terrain under 1000'.

My suggestion to you would have been to plan on flying the attached pattern (suggestion in blue).

If you wanted to land on the target you originally had, you could have used a braked approach, or modified your pattern (Talk to an instructor more about this).

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

[theonlyski 3]

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I'll absolutely be avoiding strong turns in heavy winds. Additionally, I won't be flying over unlandable terrain under 1000'.

I am just s newbie as well, but wouldn't it be smarter to avoid jumping in heavy winds?

Know your limits... I've only pulled off of one or two loads for screwy winds, Lots of free entertainment, try to bet how many people on a load are going to land other than on their feet.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[VincePetaccio 0]

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Additionally, I won't be flying over unlandable terrain under 1000'.

My suggestion to you would have been to plan on flying the attached pattern (suggestion in blue).

If you wanted to land on the target you originally had, you could have used a braked approach, or modified your pattern (Talk to an instructor more about this).

As I mentioned to Krisanne above, the pattern that I have on that image was only my planned pattern after the 360 put me over the parking lot.

Certainly the pattern that I had originally planned looked more like the one you drew.

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I am just s newbie as well, but wouldn't it be smarter to avoid jumping in heavy winds?

Yea, at the time I considered 22 MPH to be my limit. I've since lowered it to 20.

Come, my friends! 'Tis not too late to seek out a newer world!

[frontloop33 1]

Well, you can't call them "stupid things I've done", 'cause I was a student at this time.

1. thing:
About jump no. 5 - 8 (S/L with spring loaded pilotchute): Standing at the door of a Cessna 206, facing on heading. Was supposed to "jump" to the right and arch (nothing else, 'cause S/L jump).
I jump, roll/turn to the right (over my right shoulder on my side/back).
Next thing I see is a good looking canopy (inflated, square), but:
Left risers are ok, right risers around my right arm, right lines between my legs. And I'm hanging somewhere in between.
Luckily I was able to put my right leg out of that mess, which also causes my right risers to unwind.
Everything turned out fine, except the bruises on my right arm.

2. First free-fall jump. Supposed to exit @ 1500 m / 5000 ft, 5 sec. delay and pull.
I exit and pull immediately (@ 1500 m / 5000 ft). Very strong wind that day (but only high up, almost no wind at the ground).
My instructor let me go way to early, so I ended up landing several hundred meters away. See attached file. The blue spot shows the landing area.

[VincePetaccio 0]

At least there were plenty of nice outs!

Come, my friends! 'Tis not too late to seek out a newer world!

[Divalent 89]

On final I took a wrap on each toggle to give me a bit more flare for a landing. Initially pulled to shoulder level, and my right side felt funny, like there was a line snag. No time to do any analysis (let alone rigging). About a second later, ~4 ft off the ground, I tried to finished the flare and immediately hooked left, because I wasn't able pull my right hand down beyond my shoulder (but of course, my left hand had normal mobility). Surprisingly, I didn't land too hard.

Turns out I had caught the line that collapses my slider in my right hand when I took the wrap. I don't plan on doing that again.

[popsjumper 2]

Yeah, I'm sure this is a beer event even though it's not on the official rules...

Newb got his A-license work completed today.

(Don't ever do this)
I asked him where he wanted his A stamp.

He, after a little thought, pulled out his nutsack...I stamped it.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[skyflower_bloom 0]

Stupid... very stupid... after two fun 2-way jumps yesterday I was packing, which I like to think takes me about 15 minutes but if I timed it, it's probably more like 30, lol, I digress..

I did the walk the lines up thing after cocking pilot chute and stowing brakes, and felt that one of the brake lines was twisted. I was thinking, well, it's attached at both ends, it can't have gotten that twisted, and I stowed the toggles in the toggle keepers on landing.. so I go back down, double check my brake stowing and re-do it just to be sure, realize there is no way it could be tangled from the bottom since it can't go through the metal ring, wtf, okay, walk the lines up again, hmmm it seems okay... (stupid number one) so I proceed packing.

As I am gathering the lines together with the slider quartered to wrap the tail around it I notice one line doesn't seem to be holding tension (on the opposite side from the aforementioned questionable "twist"/position of the brake line, seems to be some slack on a single line... okay that's probably not a big deal right? I can't expect them all to be perfect as much as the perfectionist in me would like that, if I had everything perfectly symmetrical I'd be packing all day and never make a load...(stupid number two- when in doubt...)

In the past I have been really anal about my packing and every little thing, I tend to ask someone, is this supposed to go here, what if this seems longer or shorter, what if this happens, can you look at this, etc. etc. and most often I get good feedback and tips, but have a history of noticing little things that I have perceived might be issues and am generally told after someone more experienced checks, they are not, so I think I got cocky in that I was finally feeling comfortable doing all my own packing on my own time, and had never had a mal on one of my pack jobs (dammit I can't say that anymore), so when those couple little things seemed off during the pack job, I just chalked them up to being similar types of little things that had no relevance (duh- better to have it double checked and hear all's well, than not and have something be wrong)

As I am bagging it I hear "ten minutes till sunset load, we need more jumpers" and I am thinking no way I can make that, I'm not gonna manifest when I don't think I will be ready (rule is don't manifest if you're not ready w/ packed rig), but... heck yeah if I am ready I'll get on it (stupid- big stupid- number three, not having a plan and being impulsive) So I have this, well I want to make another jump, but I don't know, it'll be cutting it close, I doubt it'll work... continue on... and as I am doing the 3rd or 4th stow I hear 5 minute call... well shit at this point I am like okay I am gonna get this shit done and get on that plane (more stupid). Close it up, grab rig and additional gear and run out, see others running to make the plane, and ask manifest, can I run for it? I get the go-ahead that there is space and I can get on the load, so I run to the plane tightening my straps and checking this and that WHILE running to and getting in plane.

Then on the plane I hear that a few folks are getting out for full alt clear and pulls and ask some of my former instructors if it is okay for me to do that too (not a good idea to change plans while on the ride to alt!) but they gave me a thorough briefing, and I talked to the other clear and pulls as well as the other jumpers and instructors to ensure it was okay to do (it wasn't my first clear and pull, but it was my first clear and pull from full alt at my home dz)

So out I go, one two three yoink, look up at a ball of crazy shit over my head. Fuck. That's what I get. (if wondering, thinking tension knots and/or step through- canopy square and flying but in brakes, right toggle hanging down with about 8 inches or so of brake line between toggle and metal ring, left brake line tangles around everything in sight, canopy flew straight and slow with no right input and left toggle held at or slightly below shoulder, could flare, kind of, but about half the time the left toggle would jam up and the right would keep going, and I knew it was putting a lot of pressure/friction on the other lines that were being pulled when I yanked the left toggle that hard, and when I tried pumping the brakes (but I was up high with all this messing around obviously)... slider was twisty and higher on the right side, down on the left (but not all the way down on either side) For awhile I was flying it with the left toggle in my teeth and my hands on the risers... not a good canopy, not fixable with anything I tried (hook knife? didn't have one and not sure I would have used it or should have)

I still want to talk more with folks and figure out how to ensure it doesn't happen again (obviously there are links in the chain that I believe would have prevented it- when two "weird-ish" things appeared during the process I should have had someone check it out- there were folks there who would easily have looked and helped, in fact a packer was right there when I noticed before packing the PC at the very end that the color was gone out of the window, I did the inflate test and threw it, and did ask that packer to confirm it was cocked, and he explained about the kill line shrinking, and the color moving, and watched me throw it a couple times to verify it was indeed cocked- so it wasn't like I didn't have someone to ask...

I like the quote I just read somewhere on here by Bill Booth about, you're not really packing the canopy, you are packing the lines- yep) I should have asked someone and not just assumed that, because in the past my questions if something was "off" had resulted in a "nothing is wrong," had no bearing on whether something was wrong this time (it obviously WAS and my dumb ass did not ask, thinking I was being overly cautious- well yeah you can't really be overly cautious with your life...)

And if the lines seeming a bit off during the earlier packing did not cause any problems (I really do not know for sure), it is quite possible that when I made the (stupid) choice to try to finish the pack job and run to the plane, an error in stowing or bagging, when I was probably distracted by the time pressure at that point (which was my own fault, obviously) then that contributed too... and even if the fuck-up happened early in the process when I had no intention of getting on another load that day, it was completely stupid of me to not acknowledge my gut feeling that something was off with the lines and ask for a double-check.

I feel like I am safety conscious in terms of the gear choices I make, the types of jumps I do, etc. and that I ask questions and try to learn, I mean I know I have a shit ton to learn and am not very cocky at all about my skydiving abilities in general (aka I am getting better but overall I kinda suck lol), but I realized that even something like packing, I got in over my head and thought that I had that aspect figured out- guess not. And regardless if it caused the mal, I know anytime you have to rush to make a load, you are upping the chance of issues and it is not worth doing. Kicking myself- ignorance is one thing, but it's plain stupid when you can look back and say, well, I fucked up here and here and here, and I know I fucked up. Ugh. I think along with getting cocky about being able to pack okay, I just was thinking that I don't have many opportunities to jump this summer compared to last, and wanted to take advantage of the jump day, and let that "one last jump" itch get in the way of safe-minded, more meticulous planning.

So yeah- don't be stupid. I know this shit has happened to experienced jumpers too but especially if you are new, realize that seemingly little things make a big difference and there are people willing to help or double check if you ASK them.

If you read this far it's pretty obvious that all's fine now but yeah, lesson is don't get cocky in any aspect of the sport, if something is not right, even an inkling of such, ask someone else to check it, always, two sets of eyes are better than one (and one set of- inexperienced- eyes isn't always worth much lol) and regardless of whether it caused the mal, don't rush to finish a pack job or get distracted by making just "one more jump" at the expense of safety, or change plans midair (I was gonna do a solo to keep working on mantis position, then got all distracted by the option of a high altitude clear and pull to work with my canopy- one can be impulsive, but one needs to reign in the impulsiveness when it comes to skydiving!!)

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short version:
-if something is slightly off while packing, don't be stupid like me and assume it is okay, ask someone to check it!
-don't be stupid and rush a pack job or gear check or dive plan to make one more load!
-don't do stupid shit that you know is stupid but then do it anyway, you are not the exception to the rule!

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi

[skyflower_bloom 0]

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I had off-dz landings for about 20 jumps off student status. Hence, WrongWay.

I was a horrible canopy pilot.

*raises hand*
With ya there...

The scary part is, someone who watched me land today would probably be like, wtf... but someone who saw my student progression would actually see that my current canopy skill set is an exponential improvement. Hopefully I'll get there with continued feedback and practice, and a canopy course if I can get childcare in place for one this summer..

I can at least land in the landing area now, but I am generally overshooting, undershooting, avoiding runways, etc. Maybe one out of every three landings is how I want it and where I want it.

I do feel like I am extremely cautious and aware of not turning too low/aggressive (that got drilled into me pretty good in FJC and here on dz.com incident reports!) and keeping head on a swivel, but any sense of wind/penetration/the minor adjustments needed during the pattern are often lost on me.

I find it helps me to talk to folks on the prior load and/or pilot about conditions, and look at the big wall map for awhile and visualize before going up, like students are taught to do... even at 70ish jumps, I may be a bit more canopy-challenged than most, but I'm not ashamed to say that, while I still F up frequently, I F up much LESS when I take the time to study the wind direction and speed and visualize my intended pattern beforehand...

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi

[paulca 0]

Scary reading this thread as a newbie!

First jump... got rigged up, but the plane lost power on the load 2 before mine. Pilot spent 20 minutes at it with a screwdriver, then took it for a test flight. Then back to taking up loads.

"Any change of de-rigging for a smoke?"
"You had a gear check?"
"Nope"
"Go for it then."

Quick smoke. Came back got into the harness and thought, "Those leg straps are wild hard to sit in... I know, I'll not pull them tight until gear check"

Ooops.

Gear check came and went, climbed out, jumped and then after (what I think was) a hard opening, I found myself sunk way down in the harness with line twists, just able to reach the toggles with my chest strap pretty much at my adam's apple and the chest strap fitted altimeter resting against my chin!

Couldn't see over either shoulder due to my shoulder straps being so high up.... I could actually see between my shoulder and the strap!

"Oh yea, forgot the tighten the leg straps."

[JohnMitchell 14]

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short version:
-if something is slightly off while packing, don't be stupid like me and assume it is okay, ask someone to check it!

I did that to myself once. I walked away in the middle of a pack job to show a video. When I came back, everything had gotten kicked around, but hey, it's probably okay, so I closed it up. Cutaway on the next jump.

Hey lady, you need to learn to do a bullet-proof, 100% sure line check. Sounds like you've been line guessing up til now. I'm sure someone would be glad to work with you on that. I'll be at Skydive Kapowsin this weekend, if you want to come up.

[TKoontz 0]

Somewhere around 20-25 (right before my check out dive) I went up on early bird load. I looked up the METARS report for the uppers but was too embarrassed to admit that I couldn't remember the heading correction for our runway About 2k before pull time I realized that I was about a mile from the landing area and tracked like mad to get back. Lost altitude awareness and was in the saddle by about 1500 (pretty damn scary for someone who doesn't even have his A yet). Barely made it back to the landing area. Got a talking to and made sure to go over the METARS and lean my weather reports and some more intricacies of spotting in relation to ground speed

Find your peace, though the world around you burns

[pchapman 261]

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I couldn't remember the heading correction for our runway

Usually no biggie. Magnetic variation is 15 degrees or less over most of the USA.
But if the issue was general awareness of winds, spotting, and interpreting aviation weather printouts, that's more significant.

[TKoontz 0]

It was a bit of both. I knew the uppers were roughly 30 or so, and then dropped significantly at lower altitudes. So my interpretation of the heading was off which in turn led to a pretty crap spot. in general.

Find your peace, though the world around you burns

[Rick 67]

My turn
So I made the Island jump Friday before last out of DeLand. I stuffed my canopy inot a garbage bag after landing.
Did not jump the rest of that weekend. I packed my rig Saturday in my parents living room since I was jumping sunday at Z-Hills.
Got my rig out and did my typical gear check before the days jumping. I noticed I didn't see the sharpie mark on the pilot chute kill line in the inpsection window. I thought damn i need to mark that thing again because even with the pilot chute cocked the mark does not always show up.
Break off was a little lower than the 4,000' we talked about because you kow needed a few more seconds to get that last point.
I tracked away and pitched I was passing about 2800' when I tossed. Shit nothing I looked over my shoulder while elbowing the shit out of my container and saw nothing. Looked back at the ground about the same time my pro-track started screaming at me to pull (the ground looked awful big). I had a good reserve within a second or 2. Nice stand up landing in the field between Chancey road and the DZ.
I honestly don't remember if I cocked my pilot chute or not. When I found the main it was out of the bag in a small pile. my rigger said it only took a coulple of seconds to sort out the lines.
The lessons learned are obvious. I could have taken 30 seconds and pulled out the pilot chute and made sure it was cocked.
If you have never had one let me tell you in a high speed mal the ground gets big FAST.
OK there is my dumb ass story. It was an expensive lesson.

You can't be drunk all day if you don't start early!

[antibac 0]

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Couldn't see over either shoulder due to my shoulder straps being so high up.... I could actually see between my shoulder and the strap!

"Oh yea, forgot the tighten the leg straps."

Just curious; is it supposed to be bad to see between your shoulder and the strap? I've seen this on myself several times, never been an issue.

[waveoff5500 0]

cant say ive done anything REALLLLY dumb yet haha, when we jumped down at start once, my first time, i checked the spot and hadnt really jumped there enough to tell that it was bad, people told me to go so our group got out and went. long story short, almost landed in a lot of trees and had to improvise an off landing in a back yard surrounded by trees and a horse kennel. looking back on it now i should have spoke up and not gotten out, even though tandem instructors arent big fans of that ;) landing off did turn out to be a good thing though, because before that i had been dreading landing off and it really reassured me that i could control my canopy in a bad situation.

"its just a normal day at the dropzone until its not"

1653

[HeatherB 0]

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The lessons learned are obvious. I could have taken 30 seconds and pulled out the pilot chute and made sure it was cocked.
If you have never had one let me tell you in a high speed mal the ground gets big FAST.
OK there is my dumb ass story. It was an expensive lesson.

Tsk Tsk, Rick! Glad you got your reserve out fast!

I've been there...I checked because I had a bad feeling and it was not cocked. Eep!

Hope to see you soon -- gotta get to Zhills some this fall/winter.

[Divalent 89]

Had a premature deployment while doing a two way, which most likely could have been prevented had I done a simple handle check. Jumped out of a caravan with a buddy (unlinked exit), and the plan was to get stable, dock, and then do more stuff. I did a double forward summersault exit, got stable, spotted my buddy and as we were maneuvering towards each other (about 15 ft away, and about 15-20 seconds after exit), all of a sudden I felt my canopy open. My buddy didn't see anything prior to deployment (like a waving bridle) but OTOH doesn't remember seeing anything unusual (like my PC) until it was clear my chute was opening. Since it felt like a normal deployment to me (and no line twists or other issues once open), it seems most likely that my PC got out on its own, but of course can't rule out the possibility that my bridle got out first.

I normally do handle checks in the plane, including my BOC PC, but didn't check that one for this jump. The reason I likely forgot was that this was a bit unusual. It was a caravan holding 15: a 11-way belly formation, an AFF student and instructor, and the 2 of us. Originally the plan was for the AFF to exit last, but after takeoff decided that since the 11-way needed more separation time, and AFF usually take longer to get set up and off anyway, that it would make sense to swap places. (And with just 3 groups, we gave them 15 seconds also, even though there was no headwinds). With 11 going off first, the 4 of us were asked to remain jammed as far forward as possible until they departed. A PC handle check would have also been a crotch check of the AFF student up to that point. After they left, their was some shuffling to get the AFF and his instructor past us to the door, and that was when I should have checked to ensure my PC was still properly positioned. But I guess in all the excitement, I just forgot.

Fortunately no one was above me. My buddy had a nervous moment trying to figure out why I was deploying all of a sudden (were we low? Way long? About to fly through open canopies of the 11 way?), but he ended up doing what seems like a smart thing, which was to track perpendicular to jump run to get out of my column in case I had issues and might be chopping, but then enjoy his premature solo jump.

The lesson (I think): always check your handles.