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MissBuffDiver

Ever jump with your canopy in backwards???

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I did. It was my last jump too. :( It was a demo into the US Festival at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore, CA. What a shock to look up and see yourself going in the wrong direction. It was the 70's when the gas wars were on. I finally got the hang of steering about 200 ft off the deck. I was going for the parking lot. All I could hear was the voice of Bob Celaya [ground crew] laughing hysterically and yelling over here, Sandy over here. I couldn't get to the target so I was looking for a spot to land. :( Gee should I slam into the side of this window van or should I hook a turn to avoid it? I found myself approaching the trunk of a car and did the hardest PLF on record. My legs slammed into the trunk and I did a &*^%$#@) this is gonna hurt roll over onto my feet landing. I was OK but very sore muscles soon after. Within an hr we heard a fire truck and went to check out the commotion....The car that I had landed on, had caught fire. It seems that the cars owner had 5=5 gal cans of gas stored in the trunk I landed on. They say the force of my landing, plus a very hot day, coupled with combustion made the trunk explode. DAMN :$ The owner of the car was looking for me. Why to sue for damages to his car of course. Instead he was met by the Fire Dept. and given a pretty heavy fine for carrying full gas cans in his trunk. :o Jump #997 THE END:S SANDY
Sandy

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I did. It was my last jump too. :( It was a demo into the US Festival at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore, CA. What a shock to look up and see yourself going in the wrong direction. It was the 70's when the gas wars were on. I finally got the hang of steering about 200 ft off the deck. I was going for the parking lot. All I could hear was the voice of Bob Celaya [ground crew] laughing hysterically and yelling over here, Sandy over here. I couldn't get to the target so I was looking for a spot to land. :( Gee should I slam into the side of this window van or should I hook a turn to avoid it? I found myself approaching the trunk of a car and did the hardest PLF on record. My legs slammed into the trunk and I did a &*^%$#@) this is gonna hurt roll over onto my feet landing. I was OK but very sore muscles soon after. Within an hr we heard a fire truck and went to check out the commotion....The car that I had landed on, had caught fire. It seems that the cars owner had 5=5 gal cans of gas stored in the trunk I landed on. They say the force of my landing, plus a very hot day, coupled with combustion made the trunk explode. DAMN :$ The owner of the car was looking for me. Why to sue for damages to his car of course. Instead he was met by the Fire Dept. and given a pretty heavy fine for carrying full gas cans in his trunk. :o Jump #997 THE END *** WHEN YOU'RE HOT...YOU'RE HOT B|:S SANDY
Sandy

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No, but two friends have done.

One hooked thought he’d see if he could land it but when he saw nothing but sky during the first turn he tried he thought he’d ditch the backwards stiletto 120 and go for the right way round reserve.

The other… well he hooked it up backwards and jumped it… some slow ass huge thing back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Landed it and decided that was a very stupid thing to do so he went to the hanger to take the 180 out of it.

He lay the thing on the floor, switched the risers 180 then... yep, you’ve guessed it, switched the container 180 and went up to jump again.

Once again there he was going backwards under a functioning square. :S

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I did about a year ago! Decided one boring Sunday afternoon to hook up a 375 sq ft canopy on my intentional cutaway rig. Went out with a sandwich, a couple of drinks, and a radio in a waist pouch. Deployed that main and oops! It was hooked on backwards.. I thought about it for a bit then decided that I'd just have lunch first and then try to figure out what to do about it...

I didn't make the airport but decided to land it because it was going so darned slow (I think my wingloading was somthing like ..4 !) Stood up the landing piece of cake going backwards, though it was weird to be doing s-turns for landing by pulling a toggle to my waist!

W

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I never jumped with my canopy backwards but did a couple of crw jumps with a buddy of mine who had his on backwards. It took a couple of jumps for him to figure out the handling enough that we could get a biplane together.

When we got the biplane together I handed him my camera and he took pictures as I stalled my canopy out and we did a trashplane. I'll see if I can scan the photo and post it...pretty neat picture. He was jumping a Pegasus and the landings were fine. We jumped with a bit of wind so that he wasn't going real fast over the ground.

A few years later, after another friend and I did a double cutaway from a side by side, two other guys at the dz both put their canopies on backwards and did a downplane...which they both cutaway from!

I've heard of cameramen hooking up their canopies backwards so they could video/photograph crw formations from in front of the formation.
--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

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The first time I ever jumped at a big DZ was at old Z-Hills in 1979 when I had 60 jumps. I had gotten my rig back from the rigger the night before from a reserve repack, did a hurried reinstall of the main, packed and got on a private jet in Dallas heading to Tampa with dreams of skydiving glory in my head. Finally got to Z Hills, got on a DC-3 load organizer load, exited with the wrong group, opened with my canopy in backward, landed waaaay off the DZ, hiked back to my car, went back to my hotel and did other things besides skydiving that weekend. :$:$
The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

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I never jumped with my canopy backwards but did a couple of crw jumps with a buddy of mine who had his on backwards. It took a couple of jumps for him to figure out the handling enough that we could get a biplane together.

When we got the biplane together I handed him my camera and he took pictures as I stalled my canopy out and we did a trashplane. I'll see if I can scan the photo and post it...pretty neat picture. He was jumping a Pegasus and the landings were fine. We jumped with a bit of wind so that he wasn't going real fast over the ground.

A few years later, after another friend and I did a double cutaway from a side by side, two other guys at the dz both put their canopies on backwards and did a downplane...which they both cutaway from!

I've heard of cameramen hooking up their canopies backwards so they could video/photograph crw formations from in front of the formation.



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Yeah we found that the Pegasus was a pretty good canopy for CRW - back in those days. We used them on the backwards jumps that we made, and I could even stand up the landings. I wouldn't dare attempt something like that on a Lightning.

The "trashplane" (I'm not sure we had a name for that at the time) was a different animal. One of my teammates and I used to do a lot of them - not backwards. I'd be interested to see your photo.

I always piloted the biplane when we did these trashplane dives. Barry Fields (yep, that's his name) was underneath me. We would usually link-up at the end of an 8-way speed dive. When we got ready to make the transition from the biplane, I would cinch my ankles deep into the "V" of his risers and grab my front riser dive loops. He would take a double wrap of his toggles. Following that, I would pull down front risers while he put his canopy into a full stall. We had it dialed in; my canopy would dive over as his gave it up in a stall. As soon as the canopies departed, he would take a grip with his legs around my body. We had a blast doing these maneuvers. Sometimes I would reach under and smack him on the ass. He would respond by letting up on the brakes a little, causing a startling jolt to me in front. We often took these formations low as we both felt they were safer than a downplane. You can turn them into the wind, break-off high enough for the forward canopy to pull out of a dive and the rear canopy recover from the stall - unlike a downplane.

I haven't done one of these dives since the early 80's, and here's why: At the time Barry and I were doing these maneuvers we didn't know anything about wing loading. Barry was flying the lower/stalling canopy and was 25 - 30 lbs. heavier than me. It worked fine.

On another dive, one of my teammates - jumping the same size Pegasus, but weighing 40 lbs. more than me - asked me if I would be interested in doing this formation with him at the end of the dive. His name is Bob Atkins, "Space" to those who know him. Old Space wants to fly the pilot slot on this maneuver so I am on the bottom. After our 8-way dive we do pilot pin. We transition to the "trashplane" but immediately I find myself having trouble keeping my canopy in a stall. It wants to recover even though I have a double wrap with the toggles and it's in a full stall. I can feel my canopy buffeting. In an instant, my caonpy does a shotgun recovery overhead, flinging Space over his own slider and into his lines and canopy. I couldn't believe what had just happened. From my position above, he was in freefall, entangled in the lines of his own canopy. I immediately went into a front riser spiral in an attempt to stay with him. His canopy was a bed sheet with him inside - I couldn't stay with him at that speed. He was in deep shit. I was screaming my head off to no avail. He tried to free himself from the lines but couldn't get out. He finally cutaway, but remained in the lines like a spider in a web. He couldn't get out, so crossing under 1200' he fired the reserve. I watched from above as the reserve pilot chute, trapped in the burble of the main, stayed on his back. In my mind, he had already bounced, and his girlfriend, Denise was running out to the impact area. But guess what, at about 800', the reserve launches and extracts him right out of the main. After a very brief reserve ride he landed in the peas.

We used to call old Space "Death from Above". I just figured that the devil needed guys like him and wouldn't let them go with out a fight.

Blue Skies, Bob, wherever you are.

Russ

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I found the 8 x 10 and just took a picture of it as I don't have a scanner at home.

On the last trashplane I had a similar thing happen as happened to "Space" only not nearly as bad. I was on the bottom, stalling the canopy out and the pilot's canopy really dove forward and then rebounded and I popped up into his canopy. At about 2,000' I really didn't like seeing nothing but nylon and lines in front of my face. It was pretty weird as by that time we had done a lot of them and they were quite often very stable. I was taking pictures with a 35mm camera duct taped to my running shoe and the release cable for the motor drive that ran down my leg to the camera was broken off so I was pretty lucky not to have this turn into something ugly....

oh well, they say God looks after fools and cripples...and I don't limp.
;)
--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

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Mine was not expected. A total surprise. :o I think I have a good idea who switched my risers. Can't prove it, but some people just don't like to be walked out on :( Understand? >:( Still a very dangerous way to get revenge. Sore loser. Oh well, I lived through it so that's the main thing. :)
Sandy

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Back in the early 80's, out at Perris, Gary Cobb was into hooking up his parachute backwards and doing CRW. He talked a couple of us into trying it. We even landed a triplane backwards.



I was S&TA at Perris around that time. Gary went for his Pro rating and I signed him off with 6 of his 10 accuracy jumps made with the canopy backwards.

Sparky
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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I missed the title of this thread before it was deleted, but I am assuming it was talking about landing canopies backward. We used to regularly do that to each other in the early 80's in Alabama where I jumped. Likewise, we did it occasionally to each other at the Green Beret Parachute Club as well. Last time I ever landed one it was a Laser 7, but I also landed my Pegasus backwards as well.

Chuck

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I did it on a cross-country jump. Light wing loading, so I just landed it in front of the hangar. I like to think I stood it up, but, well, actually I have no idea any more.

Wendy W.
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)

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I did, by accident. It happened during a Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws. We never did get along, and I was feeling the tension. Since I had just picked up a demo canopy from Precision (my first ZP) I begged off the rest of dinner, citing my need to hook it to my rig as an excuse to get away.

Note to self: don't rig while upset. Yes, I did a 4-line check, but still screwed it up.

The next day over Anderson IN, I did a hop & pop and felt a seriously strange opening. I looked up and took a few seconds to see the problem... my brake lines ran to the FRONT of the canopy! I thought about it for a few minutes as I played with the Interceptor, then decided that I could control it just fine and chose to land it.

The flare was a little funky and I did my planned PLF. I landed a little out, not because I couldn't steer but because I was embarrassed.

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