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pchapman

Tandem tension knot - Just because it flies OK doesn't mean it lands OK

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How many people have gone in with a unpacked parachute still in the container trying to land a malfunctioning one versus a reserve malfunction? If one person reads what your saying and decides to ride a half ass parachute down and it turns to fuckall at 300' are you going to go tell thier family "well at least they didn't have a reserve malfunction" seriously Billy WTF I don't agree with your views on much of anything but I never thought I'd question anything you said about skydiving.

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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>If one person reads what your saying and decides to ride a half ass parachute down
>and it turns to fuckall at 300' are you going to go tell thier family "well at least they
>didn't have a reserve malfunction"

The alternative is telling them "yeah, they might have survived landing with that broken brake line, but they cut away like I told them. Sorry about the reserve problem."

Reserves sometimes fail. Surviving under a main with a tension knot is better than dying under a malfunctioning reserve. Which is the better choice? It's going to be up to the jumper. Most jumpers seem to make good decisions when it comes to that. Personally, I've cut away from one "malfunction" (stuck brake line) and landed two "malfunctions" (stuck brake line, big hole in the main.) Seemed to work for me.

And you didn't answer my question. Do you think reserves never malfunction?

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If that's the case, I'm not deploying any parachutes anymore. There is a chance that my main will go wrong and then another chance that my reserve will go wrong.


Edit- Billvon, do you even jump with a reserve? What the he'll is the point of having a parachute if you don't trust it and refuse to use it? Same with the main, no?

It takes much longer and takes much more caution to pack a reserve. Wouldn't you trust your reserve more? Why not go straight to reserve?

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No bill of course not but if i ever start worrying about it then I need to stop jumping. I feel you need to trust your reserve will open on time everytime that is it's one and only purpose.

Now to use your flawed logic do you think airplanes never crash? because they do so we should not get on them and we won't have to even have this discussion.

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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>There is a chance that my main will go wrong and then another chance that my
>reserve will go wrong.

Yes, there is. Don't want to risk that? Don't jump.

>Billvon, do you even jump with a reserve?

Usually, yes.

>What the he'll is the point of having a parachute if you don't trust it and refuse to use it?

?? Of course I use it, and of course I don't trust it 100%. I am sure you don't either.

>It takes much longer and takes much more caution to pack a reserve. Wouldn't you
>trust your reserve more?

More than the main? Generally yes. 100%? No.

>Why not go straight to reserve?

I wouldn't, since then you only have one shot at it. (Of course, if your reserve really was 100% reliable, going straight to reserve will always be your best option.)

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>No bill of course not but if i ever start worrying about it then I need to stop jumping.

You can stop jumping if you want. But if you really think your reserve is 100% reliable then you have a false expectation of it.

Does that mean you have to "worry?" That's up to you. But if you do not even consider the possibility that your reserve might not work, then you're missing a factor in the equation.

>I feel you need to trust your reserve will open on time everytime that is it's one and only purpose.

Yes, that is its purpose. And they don't always work.

>Now to use your flawed logic do you think airplanes never crash? because they do so
>we should not get on them and we won't have to even have this discussion.

?? Dude, I'm not the one saying "you need to trust the airplane/reserve to work fine every time." Reserves malfunction. Airplanes crash. If you cannot accept either one of those things, then perhaps jumping is not for you. If you are willing to accept the risk of death from an airplane crash or a reserve that fails, then skydiving might be a good tradeoff.

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How many people have gone in with a unpacked parachute still in the container trying to land a malfunctioning one versus a reserve malfunction?



You nailed it right there brother.
2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

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Do you think reserves never malfunction?


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I know they do, I've had a line over on one...still never hesitate cutting away a malfunctioning main. If I didn't trust the reserve to work I wouldn't jump.

Now throw a paying customer into the mix and the decision is obvious. I wonder what the older woman with the broken leg would have said if she were given the odds.

"We have a 50/50 chance of getting busted up landing this, or a .00001% chance the reserve wont' work"

I'm sure any Tandem Examiner would agree, THAT malfunction should not have been landed.
It resulted in a serious injury that lets be honest ,is a LOT more serious for an older person.

Should NOT have taken the chance.

Where do you draw the line with that logic, if it was a spinning tension knot do you land it too??...might just break both legs...but the reserve could malfunction and they would be dead?!

This is cut & dried, parachute wasn't operating within design, get rid of it. What if things had gone to shit and got even worse down lower?

Bad judgement call that given the odds... negatively and quite unnecessarily changed a woman's life forever.











~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Where do you draw the line with that logic, if it was a spinning tension knot do you land it too??...



Nope, had one the other week, flew fine as long as I held more then half left down, but if you let it up even a little it was spin right away there was never any question about using the reserve. Now having just flown a master 435 with big fat chick on front, well it was 50/50 we could have busted our asses on the fucked up main or we risked busting up our asses on landing the reserve due to no wind and it flies (toggle pressure) like a mack truck with no power steering.... that makes you real tired and leaves little left for the flair... good thing I been working out.

Guess the point is, my first thought was FUCK I got a fat chick on the front to worry about hurting, might have kept it and crash landed it had I been solo???
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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And if he had chopped and the reserve was a bag lock.... And we had these pictures of him flying this main. What would you say then???? Would your opinion change?



That's the stupidest thing I've ever read!! so what your saying is next you, or I, have a mal on the main, I need to think, what if I reserve bag locks?? Teach this "theory" to a new AFF student as see how long they stay alive.
Weren't you the guy that reviewed precision's "new" tandem main on here a while ago when precision has been making that same tandem main for almost 12 years????

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Oh sorry, that was a serious question? My bad. I have an 8 year old son that can ask a more intelligent question than that.
Would you care to explain to the injured party to why she's laid up in hospital, having been pounded in under a malfunctioning canopy, when there was a 'perfectly' good reserve there to be used?
You don't have to answer that. It's rhetorical.




RIGHT ON Rover!!!!!

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and it is so nice that all this has been posted publicly so that when the student decides to sue, they have tons of evidence to present which implies that the TI made a bad decision.

perfect.:S



Pretty much a no brainer. Case shouldn't take long.
2 wrongs don't make a right - but 3 lefts do.

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That's the stupidest thing I've ever read!! so what your saying is next you, or I, have a mal on the main, I need to think, what if I reserve bag locks??



It was a question... Don't blame me you are not smart enough to know the difference.

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Weren't you the guy that reviewed precision's "new" tandem main on here a while ago when precision has been making that same tandem main for almost 12 years????



They called it a test canopy... I guess you know more than them?
And since they called me and talked to me about it... I guess they don't know what they are talking about huh?

Believe it or not, companys make changes to designs... I know a crazy idea.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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and it is so nice that all this has been posted publicly so that when the student decides to sue, they have tons of evidence to present which implies that the TI made a bad decision.

perfect.:S



????? dangerous irresponsible judgements that cause injury or death should be hidden because someone might sue? How about don't hire people with poor judgement and you won't have to worry about getting sued? There are way to many meat haulers when the should be instructors and it if takes a winning lawsuits to get DZO's to start hiring instructors instead of anyone with 500 jumps and is willing to haul meat 15 times a day is that really a bad thing?

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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Sure, from a purist point of view, no one should ever hire people who cannot handle every situation possible perfectly. And no instructor should ever have a rating if they ever make a mistake. And I guess it's OK too for dropzones and manufacturers to spend millions of dollars defending frivolous lawsuits too.

sure from a purist point of view that would be great.

but that is not the world we live in is it?

Well, except for the part about dropzones and manufacturers spending millions of dollars defending themselves from lawsuits.

Perhaps you think it is OK for jump tickets to be $50 and gear to cost $10K for a rig.

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Sure, from a purist point of view, no one should ever hire people who cannot handle every situation possible perfectly. And no instructor should ever have a rating if they ever make a mistake. And I guess it's OK too for dropzones and manufacturers to spend millions of dollars defending frivolous lawsuits too.

sure from a purist point of view that would be great.

but that is not the world we live in is it?

Well, except for the part about dropzones and manufacturers spending millions of dollars defending themselves from lawsuits.

Perhaps you think it is OK for jump tickets to be $50 and gear to cost $10K for a rig.



I understand your side of things since you have a vested interest in burying negligence but nothing gets better that way.

As for the price of fun jumpers tickets going up because you have to hire compentant Instructors instead of meat haulers please explain why you as the manager of a DZ justify that.

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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As for the price of fun jumpers tickets going up because you have to hire compentant Instructors instead of meat haulers please explain why you as the manager of a DZ justify that.



The prices go up because the cost of running a business gets passed onto the consumer. And if part of that cost is defending yourself from lawsuits then in the end, YOU as the consumer, will pay for that.

Right now, about $2000-$3000 of every tandem rig made goes into legal defense funds.

Have you bought a skiing lift ticket recently? Does it really cost $80 to operate a lift chair?

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I understand your side of things since you have a vested interest in burying negligence but nothing gets better that way.



And FYI, I never said anything about burying negligence. My issue was publicly broadcasting any mistakes we made before a proper investigation or any facts have been actually examined.

Would you be happy with every mistake you ever made in your life videod, posted online, then analyzed by the general public for everyone to see and scrutinize? Especially if it involved injury to someone else?

Tort lawyers have a job. Their job is to blame someone else and/or find fault wherever they can to make a living. Regardless of the actual circumstances. This will cost money to defend, negligent or not. period.

I have landed the same tandem canopy situation as described here before. negligent? Really?

Not when you consider that the FIRST time I encountered a line knot, i decided to cut it away and ended up with a worse reserve tension knot malfunction. Second time it happened, I flew the parachute, flared it, tested the controllability and decided that i could land it.

These are the facts. The interpretation according to this thread is that I was somehow grossly negligent. This is not the case. I was an experienced tandem pilot in charge of a situation. And I made a call.

Now if you are inferring that I would have been grossly negligent in my duties ONLY IF someone had gotten hurt? Well that would be what tort lawyers do.

The facts would remain the same. What would be different would be the hundreds of thousands of dollars I would have spent defending my position.

Unless you own and operate a business where lawsuits happen or you have had to dish out the money defending yourself against assholes that like to sue, and/or unless you really don't give a shit about the sport of skydiving, then shaddup.....

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dz.com postings have already been used in lawsuits. I know, because I sat in a courtroom and listened to it.


Unless the person who posted a comment on DZ.com was a witness or a party in the suit, this would be hearsay evidence and clearly not admissible. (Unless the defense attorney failed to object, in which case the problem is with the competence of the attorney.)

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Unless the person who posted a comment on DZ.com was a witness or a party in the suit, this would be hearsay evidence and clearly not admissible. (Unless the defense attorney failed to object, in which case the problem is with the competence of the attorney.)



perhaps at a trial, yes. Most civil cases never make it that far. motions, preliminary hearings, pleadings and such as all susceptible to pretty much any lame-ass shit that can get thrown out there.

Again, this is what tort lawyers do. My point stands. You can sit there are take it, or you can SPEND MONEY defending it. I assure you that you will have to spend money to defend it.

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How many people have gone in with a unpacked parachute still in the container trying to land a malfunctioning one versus a reserve malfunction? If one person reads what your saying and decides to ride a half ass parachute down and it turns to fuckall at 300' are you going to go tell thier family "well at least they didn't have a reserve malfunction" seriously Billy WTF I don't agree with your views on much of anything but I never thought I'd question anything you said about skydiving.



And if one person reads your post and cuts away a very minor problem and ends up with a reserve malfunction, then you are just as guilty of bad advice.

It is not black and white, it is a judgement call. Part of the that judgement is exactly why tandem instruuctors are required to have 3 years in the sport, 500 jumps, extensive training, because these situations really arise. Even Bill Morrisey at Strong taught tandem instructors to make the call and land what you have if you can land it. I expect Bill's advice comes from years of experience and a few reserve malfunctions.

If you have never had a reserve malfunction, then you cannot possibly have the same experience as those of us that have.

It's a judgement call, not necessarily good or bad. Lots of people have not cut away and died, lots of people HAVE cut away and died. Your viewpoint seems to be only black and white. The plaintiff woul;d be very happy I expect to have you testify as an expert witness.

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