Thoughts on reconnecting side connectors?

[Eepika 0]

Hi all. UPT is making a big push for all TIs to reconnect the lowers to the passenger after canopy opening. It has also been somewhat accepted in the industry to reconnect them to the passenger harness. Some people just leave them dangling. I am interested in your thoughts on why leaving them dangling is acceptable as I have yet to hear a valid argument for doing so.

[riggerrob 558]

Rumour has it that un-connected side-connectors contributed to John Parrot's broken neck. The way I heard it, John was trying to slide a tandem landing when he fell flat on his face. Meanwhile the student continued sliding on his butt. The resultant extreme angle (spines 180 degrees opposed at the shoulder hooks) broke John's neck. John was confined to a wheelchair after the botched landing.
That was the version that I heard.

The last time we discussed this, some one (Canadian) on dz.com claimed to have witnessed a different version but declined to share details. We challenge him to share his version of the story now.

[DougH 270]

I only loosen them on opening, I don't like disconnecting them. When we land I unhook them and re-stow them on the back of the student harness.

I want the student to be able to get only so far away from me in the even of a bad landing, specifically because of the scenario Rob shared.

I put them back on the harness after landing because I have seen excited students get them swinging, and get hit in the face. It takes no more than 10 second versus just leaving them they way there are.

It is nice to put a student in a harness, and not have to begin the process by re-stowing the laterals that the last guy couldn't have been bothered with, but that is just me.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[riggerrob 558]

....

It is nice to put a student in a harness, and not have to begin the process by re-stowing the laterals that the last guy couldn't have been bothered with, but that is just me.
...............................................

For the same reason I slack off leg straps and back straps before hanging tandem student harnesses on the wall.

[gowlerk 1,901]

I used to leave them dangling. I was not trained to stow them, so I did not. I read here a few times that it was a bad idea to leave them, but I just continued because I thought it would be too much trouble. This year I tried it and discovered that it's really not much trouble at all. So now I stow them. I'm still not convinced that it matters, but it might, so I do. I have not heard about a push from UPT. I would guess Tom is behind it if there is. I tend to listen to Tom, so how about it Tom?

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[gowlerk 1,901]

Quote

The last time we discussed this, some one (Canadian) on dz.com claimed to have witnessed a different version but declined to share details. We challenge him to share his version of the story now.

I have been told a slightly different version, but because I did not see it I am not willing to share publicly. PM sent.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[TomNoonan 1]

Erika is correct, we (UPT) have been meeting with our examiners around the globe to emphasize a number of procedural items in an effort improve safety in the industry. One item being the requirement to reattach the side connectors to the instructor harness after opening, loosening them and reattaching. There are several reasons for it:

- In the event of a breakaway due to canopy collision, post deployment, if the side connectors are not reattached, the student's legs will come forward ("up") as the instructor falls belly to earth, creating a drastically increased chance of unstable reserve deployment.

(For anyone saying "I could never get into a canopy collision after deployment, it can happen. If you have a videographer get out after you and they are flying through your pattern to get back, the chance will always exist. Or, unfortunately, tandem instructors that ignore the "no tandem CReW" rule, risk collisions every time the bump end cells. And yes, tandems have cutaway from unintended CReW wraps flying to close together.)

- As stated above, landing injuries, of any magnitude, are increased if the tandem pair is not connected at the side laterals. The instructor, and the passenger run a greater risk of injury.

- For just leaving the side connectors dangling, that can create a bad day, the possibility that a dangling side connector can snag a toggle on a deep toggle turn. Its happened multiple times.

At the end of the day, there are those that will argue that "in high winds, we need to be able to unhook quickly". Which is simply not true. The extra half a second it takes to unhook the side laterals in higher winds is simply a matter of proper technique, or better yet, accuracy, landing in front of catchers. If winds are so high that an instructor has only a micro second to unclip upper hooks because they couldnt land in front of their catcher and the winds are so high they only have a fraction of a second, then maybe the winds are just a tad bit above that persons performance envelope.

The other argument, and this is an important one......is the argument "Ive been doing this for thousands of jumps and never had a problem." The false premise there is that most problems only surface on the level of 1 in thousands, in tandem skydiving. You can get away with something 3000 times, but it only takes one instance of everything going wrong around you to create an incident, and in this case, an incident that is easily avoidable by following a quick, simple rule.

In the end though, the reason for this, and a lot of the implementations that we are seeing across the board in the tandem industry are simply an effort to reduce incidents. There is nothing worse than investigating an incident that has repeated itself.

Namaste,
Tom Noonan

www.everest-skydive.com

[normiss 619]

Thanks for sharing your combined experience Tom.
I have always thought the first way I was taught to configure the student harness was the safest.

[riggerrob 558]

I stand corrected.
I was confusing John's accident with the first or second tandem fatality (see Tom Noonan's description).

Lord knows that I have tumbled one or two tandem landings and was glad that side connectors prevented me from neck-wrestling with my student.

Which brings us back to the original point: the best way to land tandems is with lateral straps loosely attached - to the instructor's harness.

We are talking best-business-practices here.
Neither the brand of tandem gear nor national air regulations change BBP.

[stayhigh 2]

How do UPT propose to get people to follow this "small" suggestion, when UPT can't even enforce much "bigger" rule?

People don't even bother doing a handle check.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[fanya 3]

I see no reason not to connect the lowers to your passenger after you unconnect them from your lowers, they are already in your hands, leaving loose chunks of metal swinging around isn't a great idea.

[TomNoonan 1]

Hi Mike,

Despite reason and logic presented, there will always be a small population of people incapable of following the rules, small ones and/or big ones. That's the ego side of what we do, there will always be someone, or some group that thinks the rules don't apply to them, or that they are better than the masses based on jump numbers. Can't change that, that's life.

The reality is, despite a small fraction of our population, the majority of the tandem industry is comprised of professionals that want to do the right things, and in most cases, they just need to be educated, or in this instance, re-educated on these rules and regs.

But to be clear, UPT (or any manufacturer) is not in the role of "enforcer". At this professional level, there shouldn't be a need for enforcers. Be that as it may, USPA BSRs are set up to provide a basic foundation of rules and regs that are meant to be enforceable and punitive if broken. Does that process work in it's entirety? Of course not, but it does work.

At the end of the day, if any number of our tandem instructors steps up to and abides by a rule or reg intended to improve safety and reduce incidents, then we are better off for it. Just because a few people or groups refuse to comply, that doesnt mean we are going to stop promoting safety across the board.

I'll close by saying that Ted Strong once told me: "You may not always agree or understand the rules and regs that I have tried to impart on my instructors. If you trust me and do what I ask of you, you will have an amazing career in this sport." Looking back on my tandem career, I'd tend to agree with him.

My job is not to be a "canopy cop" or an enforcer. My job is to be an educator. I educate people on the best practices that will keep them safe. Most will listen and abide my the rules and regs, creating a safer tandem industry. Some won't. It's really that simple.

Namaste,
Tom Noonan

www.everest-skydive.com

[stayhigh 2]

so is it a new rule? or a suggestion?

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[TomNoonan 1]

It's a listed procedure that we train people to follow. Your question is about semantics. Whether it's a rule, a suggestion, a recommendation, a regulation, or whatever. It is a procedure that UPT is asking our examiners to promote in the field with our current and future TIs.

Namaste,
Tom Noonan

www.everest-skydive.com

[gowlerk 1,901]

TomNoonan

It's a listed procedure that we train people to follow. Your question is about semantics. Whether it's a rule, a suggestion, a recommendation, a regulation, or whatever. It is a procedure that UPT is asking our examiners to promote in the field with our current and future TIs.

There are a lot of procedures in the Sigma manual. But as far as I know it never gets updated. Other than announcing them here, or scattered hard to find announcements on the website, are there any plans to move to an online manual with regular updates that can serve as a definitive reference? I know it's easier said than done. But as you know the world is changing. And timely updated info would be a best practice.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[TomNoonan 1]

Great question. I started with our examiner pool, as they are a direct link to both our new instructors that they train and the current instructors that work beside them.

There is a new manual (95% completed) that should be out shortly, that will be updated with all of the current items pertaining to tandem. I have a few other projects that I am working on to tie the instructor population and the manufacturer together better for information dissemination.

Namaste,
Tom Noonan

www.everest-skydive.com

[riggerrob 558]

Tom,

Like you, I am tired of "barracks lawyers" arguing the finer points of "recommendations vs. rules vs. regulations vs. best practices vs. 19 commandments of well-behaved TIs etc. ".....

Perhaps the message (side connectors) is so important that it needs to be sent out on multiple different channels.
Perhaps USPA needs to publish a broad-based TI manual similar to the Australian Parachute Federation's TI manual.
Or maybe the message would be better sent every month in PARACHUTIST Magazine with a photo and a quarter-page explanation of why it is a good practice. Personally, if you tie the explanation to an accident report, the message sinks in much quicker than vague "safety" propaganda.
After too many years service in the Canadian Armed Forces, the word "safety" has lost its original meaning. Now the word "safety" is just another sentence-filler, another punctuation mark that gets ignored along with the rest of the profanity.

[koppel 3]

A major factor to consider when thinking about 'rules' as such is not always the rule itself but the culture that we woudl like to be part of.

If we want less people to step outside the boundaries of good sense and decision making we can help change the culture and that in itself over time will reduce the need to enforce 'rules' as people will have been educated and make better decisions.

there will always be 1%'ers of course but Darwin has a way of dealing with them

I like my canopy...


...it lets me down.

[gowlerk 1,901]

Quote

there will always be 1%'ers of course but Darwin has a way of dealing with them

That's fine in some things, but not in tandem. That damn Darwin, (or Murphy) takes the passenger as well. Not even remotely acceptable.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[BKS60 0]

Fairly new as a TI. I was trained that either re-attaching to the student or the TI was ok, so I have been clipping back on the student.
After reading the thoughts here I spent the weekend re-attaching to me. The couple of seconds to release after landing were simple enough so you all have converted me.

"You don't get many warnings in this sport before you get damaged"

[riggerrob 558]

Mopped makes an interesting point about "changing the culture."
Rules tend to be dumbed-down prohibitions against naughty behaviour, however sometimes rules get dumbed-down so far that the original message gets lots (e.g. Only Master Riggers are allowed to remove RSLs from Javelins). The original problem was that when you simply remove the RSL, it exposes a piece of hook Velcro that chews through the other reserve riser. Sadly, that "rule" passed through so many levels of bureaucracy that the original message (cover the exposed hook Velcro with a scrap of pile Velcro) got lost and we are left with a "rule" that no reasonable man can see the logic behind.

Properly written rules warn people of the danger and include reasonable margins for error (e.g. To avoid being dragged Stay on the ground when winds gust to 26 knots).
Sadly the skydiving business attracts adrenaline-junkies and scoff-laws who get a thrill from dancing on the razor's edge. If they survive crossing the edge a few times, then they lose respect for the rule. Even worse, they lose respect for the old skydiver who learned the bloody lesson the hard way.
So this is where we need to change the culture of skydiving. Overly-simplified rules do not get the message across to scoff-laws. Maybe we need to force them to read a stack of USPA Annual
Fatality reports.