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Ron

Stupid things I have done

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Well done getting out of that situation.
Small point of criticism:

I'm not sure it makes sense to swap places with the AFF. AFF-students open high.

Instead, the two of you could have simply waited longer before exit, or the plane could have flown a new jumprun. I know that last option is like sacrilege at some DZs, but we were discussing safety.
"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

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I'm not sure it makes sense to swap places with the AFF. AFF-students open high.


Agree in general, although it was an AFF level 5, so planned deploy at 4500, and we were planning on pulling at 4K, so not that big of a difference. And with only 3 groups exiting on a jump run parallel to a 2500 ft long LZ (the Farm), we had plenty of time to give (and we gave it).
But another complication I didn't mention was that with the load and the 11-way, my buddy was sitting in the copilot seat to get more weight forward (and one of *us* sitting there rather than the student or instructor so that they would be able to more easily confer on the way up). So we were a bit staggered regardless of the order, and another reason why it was reasonable to swap the order. With the 11-way essentially trapping us in place until they exited, it seemed like a reasonable accomodation. In retrospect, I think the only thing I would have changed would be to have me sitting behind the student or the instructor.

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Around jump 40ish I decided to pack for myself instead of waiting for a packer to get to it (ive packed before but am very slow and using rental gear). Needless to say since I had a whopping 5 pack jobs that I had done myself previously (which had been about 20 jumps and 3 months earlier) I was not very experienced and not 100% sure on the bridle routing. Instead of swallowing my pride and asking someone for help I just did what I *thought* was the right way. Fortunately for me another jumper spotted my fuckup while I was finishing up and informed me by grabbing the bridle and pickup up the rig I was using. Its a very sobering experiece to see that someone yanking on the bridle wont open my rig. Definitely will NOT be doing that again, and taking another packing class.

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Cypress fire....years ago. Added way to much to the jump. Let the fact that two jumpers earlier in the day had wrapped at opening because they didn't have enough seperation cause me to wait a few seconds more....to get away from another jumper. Dumb dumb dumb....didn't tell the story for years because I was one of the people that use to say "If I had a cypree fire I'd stop jumping..." I did have a main out when the reserve fired....dumb dumb dumb
Kevin Keenan is my hero, a double FUP, he does so much with so little

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Ok here are my two.

AFF Level 2, was at a new Dropzone and they didn't give me much instruction on canopy piloting. Just north of the dropzone is a road with 70mph speed limit. I'm trying like hell to make it back to the zone and pass about 15 feet infront and over a SUV booking by. I could see the look on the drivers face and she saw mine, both pure looks of terror and having no idea what to do.

AFF level 3. Same dropzone I was able to land within the DZ this time, but they have a pen with animals and I bounched off a llama and landed in llama shit.

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I made my first 40 jumps in the early eighties when I was 19, At one point in that time frame, a friend of mine thought it would be a good idea for me to teach him how to make his first SL jump. He was able to convince the DZO that he had made 3 jumps at another DZ and that now he was all ready to try his first DRCP. While on the 30 minute drive out to the DZ, I imparted on him all the skydiving wisdom and knowledge I had gathered in my 6 months of jumping. After making sure no one was watching, I geared him all up. Walking out to the 182, I tried not to be too obvious as I showed him what all the handles were for.

I had never been more terrified in my life while on the ride up, thinking about what he was about to do. He never broke a sweat, and made a flawless jump.

That was by far the stupidest thing I have ever done.

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So I tried fixing those "stern" openings on a sabre 1 I had. Got me an old shitty slider I had laying around , cut it up, and started sewing up a pocket onto the slider. Not knowing what I was doing, I fashoned mine a bit after a tandem slider I had seen.
Now a Sabre opens firm, but mine opened hard enough to look after and see if I still had socks and shoes on. So my theory must be sound.. BIGGER is better.... Not only did my pockets rival that of a tandem slider, I had cleverly sewn them "open" to assure they grabbed more air than a hood scoop on a funny car.
I installed my creation, flaked it, quartered the slider, and pulled the pocket over the nose of the canopy. (yes i said over the nose)
Fast forward to a 3 way gone to shit , and there I am tracking away....low... and for some reason as I pitched I cringed, anticipating the slam. That never came.
As a matter of fact the shape and surface area of the material above my head equated to something i can best describe as Marry Poppins umbrella.
NO SHIT THERE I WAS..... burning through 1500 with a ball of not fucking funny at the end of my lines.
Cut it.
Yank the reserve.
And be damned if the reserve didn't open.....softly:$

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NO SHIT THERE I WAS..... burning through 1500 with a ball of not fucking funny at the end of my lines.



Great... now I gotta clean my monitor.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
"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

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NO SHIT THERE I WAS..... burning through 1500 with a ball of not fucking funny at the end of my lines.



Great... now I gotta clean my monitor.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D


I echo this!!m LOL
Dudeist Skydiver #170
You do not need a parachute to skydive, you only need one to skydive again

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It's actually funny you talk about this, I ended up putting a slider that is *almost* as big as a tandem one on my safire2 169, and boy, it opens like a charm now!

Maybe it was the pockets. :D

"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

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Installed Manta 288 slider for my buddies 150 sabre. the only thing he bitched about was the slider flapping under canopy so I sewed a patch of velcro on to pinch it shut. Problem solved. :) who da thunk?



You didn’t do anything stupid. It wasn’t your canopy. :P

Sparky
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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AFF level 3. Same dropzone I was able to land within the DZ this time, but they have a pen with animals and I bounched off a llama and landed in llama shit.



Bouncing off a llama reminded me of my buddy's first AFF jump. Start watching at 2:26.

My favorite part is the guy who turns into a giant, rolling piece of pink cotton candy at 2:36.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9jAxjNNsk

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AFF level 3. Same dropzone I was able to land within the DZ this time, but they have a pen with animals and I bounched off a llama and landed in llama shit.



Bouncing off a llama reminded me of my buddy's first AFF jump. Start watching at 2:26.

My favorite part is the guy who turns into a giant, rolling piece of pink cotton candy at 2:36.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9jAxjNNsk


My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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Jump #12 -

My AFF filmed exam. I get the genius idea that I should do a precision landing contest with my instructor! (Closest one to what we call the "beer line" without passing it). Exit and freefall go great! Good opening and then I'm coming in for my pattern and I see my instructor has landed extremely close to the line. So when I started my pattern, I was too high and didn't notice. When I finally realize I'm about 200 feet higher than I should be I start doing S curves to lose altitude and come in for my final approach. I thought I lost enough altitude but as I got closer to the line I realized I was still about 10 feet to high and was going to pass it. So I made an irrational decision to attempt a low turn at 5 feet off the ground to try and "surf" the line. Needless to say I smacked right in and rolled a few feet! It was a silly mistake but I'm glad I didn't get hurt at all and I slowed down my progression after that. :)
Jump #15 -

Normal jump but quite a bit of wind. It was just at the barrier that I was allowed to jump at. I chose to go up on the load anyway. When I was under the canopy I was pretty far from the DZ and going against the wind. In my limited experience I tried to get back to the DZ and was not sure whether or not I would make it. At 2,000 feet I made the decision to find a different landing spot but I made the decision too low and didn't have many options. Note: There are a lot of trees around my DZ. So the closest option I had was a construction site with some mounds of rocks (Don't ask me why I chose it). Anyway, I ended up missing that as well and there was a smaller clearing right next to it that I was heading for. To shorten the story, I just made it to the opening of the clearing when I smacked right into the last tree! Didn't flare that much because I thought I would have made it over the last tree but I didn't get injured in that either! Was kind of a fun experience and I learned from it without getting injured so that's what counts!:P

Blue skies!

"Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way." -Alan Watts

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