Tandem Student minor injury by hardware

[inextremis 0]

Had an unfortunate minor mishap--one of our instructors released an exuberant tandem passenger after an uneventful standup landing. She was excited to see her friends and started jumping up an down in the harness. When she turned her head to the side, one of the harness hooks (Sigma) flipped upwards and knocked a piece out of one of her front teeth. I've always warned my passengers to stay with me an watch for other jumpers after landing. Now I have one other thing to warn them about.

[JohnnyMarko 1]

ha

[rhys 0]

I've had that happen before too.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[cpoxon 0]

Or you could hook the connectors back onto the rings on the student harness. Or leave the connectors in the tightened down position so that they remain close to the body? I hate seeing students walking back in with the connectors at the end of the laterals swinging about banging into their legs.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[skydog 2]

Was this the top hooks?

The same thing happened to one of my students, but it was retribution as he had spewed in my face........so I didn't feel bad at all........

Journey not destination.....

[cpoxon 0]

Quote

Was this the top hooks?

Ahh right, that would make sense. Still, the Sigma has pop-studs to help with this? Not smooth to disconnect and re-snap the pop-studs before the student moves away.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[koppel 3]

I sadly can tell you from personal experience even when they are connected to the poppers when the student does a jump that it is still easy for it to reach and/ to disconnect and hit them in the mouth.

Long time ago before I consider this problem I was doing a final photo for a TM student and I encouraged them to do the jump. Kindly they never took any action and put it down to 'one of those unfortunate things'

I like my canopy...


...it lets me down.

[lowpull 0]

I teach my candidates to re-attach the lowers to the d-hooks on the front of the harness after opening, once you get the passenger comfy.
If this helps, after deployment, as soon as you have the canopy under control, and have done a controlability check,I have the student pull the gogles down over their neck,since the goggles will fog up, and they are just not comfy for them, I ask then to "scrunch" their sholders together, and loosen the chest strap just a little to relax the harness on them and let them breath easier. I them tell them that they aren't going to go anywhere, I am just going to make them more comfortable.
I disconnect the right lower, and feel on the front of the harness for the small, plastic "D" ring on the front of the student harness in front of the hip area. I then do the same on the left side. there is a little releasing feeling, but it makes it much easier for the connectors to be out of the way, and not anywhere they can cause a problem.
It is possible to catch the brake line in the connector causing a spinning turn, and I have been told by Maddog, when he ran my Tandem course, that he had it happen once, and he could NOT get the line loose, and was terrifeid to fire the reserve into the main, since he would have had a fat Horseshoe . He told me it is impossible to get the line out of the conncter when it gets "bitten" into the mechanical release.
He rode the spin into the ocean since he knew he was going to be able to aim it out to sea far enough to be safe. He sais, since someone is going to ask, if he pulled the other brake line down to match the hung one, the canopy would stall.
It was a Racer Tandem, which is usually the next question.

Some dz's ask me to teach releasing the lowers, running them to the max extension, and re-attaching them to the Tandem rigs lower rings.

I hope this rant helps a little. Snap them back.
Ralph
Tandem I/E

[rhys 0]

Quote

It is possible to catch the brake line in the connector causing a spinning turn, and I have been told by Maddog, when he ran my Tandem course, that he had it happen once, and he could NOT get the line loose, and was terrifeid to fire the reserve into the main, since he would have had a fat Horseshoe . He told me it is impossible to get the line out of the conncter when it gets "bitten" into the mechanical release.

This subject was beaten to death in another thread.

My toggle seldom go lower than my shoulders besies the final shut down on flare, but we use 330's for everything.

Not saying that it is not possible to catch these hooks but I would imagine it would have to be on a very big instructor with long arms and a large canopy.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[inextremis 0]

Yes, it was a top hook.

[Fledgling 0]

Also be careful when they try and hug you after their jump. I have gotten a busted lip like that.

[riggerrob 558]

Strong Enterprises teaches candidates to always land with side straps attached.
Loose side straps make it easier to walk out a landing.
But dis-connected side straps puts TIs at risk of repeating John Parrot's mistake. John landed with side straps dis-connected. His student's feet slid forward while his feet slid aft. John suffered a broken neck when they did the "splits." John is confined to a wheel-chair for the rest of his life!