Don't be that guy

[airdrew20012001 0]

You ever sit around and tell stories and find yourself saying, "remember that guy that..."?
Yesterday a jumper ended up in the saddle at 500 feet with a reported pull altitude of around 1,000. The story was that the load ended up having to exit at 7k instead of 10 because of a falling ceiling. The jumper in question was jumping without helmet or cypress. The skydive was going well and only when that guy turned around to notice the other jumper no where in the visible sky did it finally dawn on him that this was a worse case scenario. Lastly he pitched his main, a mildly loaded stilletto 135, with deplorable body position and luckily got a decent on heading opening followed by an uneventful 9 second canopy ride.
Lesson: audibles, attention to altitude, and AAD's are really important in freeflying. That guy was about 4 seconds away from taking his headdown into the tarmak. How do I know? It was me. While the newly found love of life is refreshing it was a mistake that almost cost me my life. The only reason I am here to write this is because I am extremely lucky. Not only would I have burned in it would have been in front of a large collection of my close friends, fellow DZ employees, and about 12 students. No bueno.
Remember what I always say: "Don't be 'that guy'".
Drewfus McDoofus

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

You lived, you learned. That's the important bit. Plus, you're teaching others about it and not denying all knowledge of it. Cheers !! There's no tomorrow - you ain't gonna live it for me - The Offspring

[SkyMissy 0]

Thanks for posting that. It never does any good to learn a hard lesson and not use it to help others!! Just out of curiosity, did ya look up and zone on your impact point as you deployed? That's a freaky feeling!
13,500' to the ground. We're dressed like clowns. The door's open. Hit it!

[vickha 0]

First, it's great that you're still around to deliver your message to others on this forum. Second, it's also really great that you recognize what went wrong and how you'll fix it in the future. Thanks for sending out the message.
On a side note, being someone who really cares about you, I'm incredibly thankful that you are still with us.

[Geoff 0]

Wow! - mucho respect for posting this. Most of us would have kept it quiet after an incident like that.
Geoff

[freeflir29 0]

Two words come to my mind immediately.....HOLY SHIT!!!!!! Glad you lived..."Here I come to save the BOOBIES!"

[Jessica 0]

Oh, MAN. I'm glad you're okay. *hug*
A lot of us have been "that guy" or "that girl." It's valuable to talk about it. Thanks for sharing your story. That was gutsy.

[rgoper 0]

kudos to you my noble friend. most everyone else would have "swept this under the runway" so to speak. you sharing your experience will most assuredly raise the bar on safety practices. thanks for sharing, and i'm glad your posting about this incident, instead of us reading about you, rock on bro! they didn't have the audacity to ground you for the low pull, did they? take care, improvise your safety tools! Richard
"Gravity Is My Friend"

[rainman 0]

MAN!!!!!!!!
I'm glad you are around to tell this story and I'm glad you want to tell this story!
Be safe,
Ramon

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[KATO33 0]

Glad you're ok and glad you shared
Just remember
Blue Skies Black Death

[airdrew20012001 0]

Thank you all for your support, please feel free to pass along/share my tale of "boy was that dumb" for all to learn from.
Drewfus McDoofus

[skreamer 1]

Well, uhhhh, one time I exited the Cessna 3 miles before the DZ.....
Dude, EVERYBODY makes mistakes - some are embarrasing, some can kill you. Whether you learn from them or not is up to you. I learnt from mine and I am sure you have learnt from yours. Its called experience and there is only one way to get it.
Will
PS go ask any jumper with over 1 000 jumps if they have ever made any mistakes.
"Look before you jump, don't die until you're dead"

[drenaline 0]

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3 miles before the DZ.....

Nice walk back. Who says skydiving is not a sport? "Life is full of danger, so why be afraid?"
drenaline

[airdrew20012001 0]

Follow up: Since the above mentioned incident I have done the following:
1) always jump with a dytter
2) spent two skydives doing nothing but staying in a headdown and checking my wrist mount, actually not that hard to do.
3) almost spoked my first sit flyer
4) basically had my first dock in a headdown.
5) have kept on a jumpin! Yeah, babeeee!
outtie-
Drewfus McDoofus

[freeflir29 0]

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Nice walk back. Who says skydiving is not a sport?

No No....thats Para-Hiking...........
"Here I come to save the BOOBIES!"

[diver123 0]

scary stuff...
"pull high! It's lower than you think..."

[trigger 0]

What no CYPRES.Freeflyin!Naughty,very Naughty......P.S Glad U lived & learnt.......

.CHOP WOOD COLLECT WATER.

[PhreeZone 15]

There is nothing wrong with no cypres and freeflying..... its the losing altitude awareness that needs to be increased...

Get better Andrew... Hows the injury now?

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[freeflir29 0]

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There is nothing wrong with no cypres and freeflying

It hasn't killed me yet!!!

[Levin 0]

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There is nothing wrong with no cypres and freeflying..... its the losing altitude awareness that needs to be increased...

i agree. but getting knocked unconcious in freefall would totally suck. which i guess would cause you to loose altitude awareness.

levin
vSCS #3

[AggieDave 6]

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i agree. but getting knocked unconcious in freefall would totally suck. which i guess would cause you to loose altitude awareness.

This came to mind when I was in Eloy and had a 17-way (well, it was RW, not FF, but the point is still valid) collapse on me, literally on my head. My first thought was, damn I'm glad I wore my helmet, the second was, damn, I wish I had a cypress. Luckily for me, I wasn't hit hard enough to be knocked on concious. I was hit hard enough to have to shake it off during the dive, though.

Moral of the story, once I can afford it, I'm buying a Cypres.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[AndyMan 7]

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This came to mind when I was in Eloy and had a 17-way (well, it was RW, not FF, but the point is still valid) collapse on me, literally on my head.

Oh, come on. It wasn't THAT bad of a funnel...?

ya wanna talk fun funnels... when I corked a 10 way hybrid, THAT was a "holy shit" funenl.

Nah, I'm glad you're getting a cypres - it's a no brainer decision. But you do need to spend more time on jumps that funnel!

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[dove 0]

Coming from someone who HAS been unconscious in freefall - GET A CYPRES!!!! I still shudder when I see the video of me rolling around on my back in freefall, my head lolling about. I was definitely not in there. Shit does happen.

lucky dove

[Zennie 0]

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i agree. but getting knocked unconcious in freefall would totally suck.

And one of this year's fatalities was that very thing.

An instructor was going out on a coach dive with a noobie sitflier. Noobie corked while the instructor was in a HD. Noobie's foot hit the instructor's head rendering him unconscious. Instructor's Cypres was turned off. Instructor never wakes up.

I forget the link to the whole story, but IIRC, the student tried hard to get down to him but couldn't.

Story is at http://www.makeithappen.com/jumps/news/news265.html.

Crud, they've changed the url link syntax!

- Z
"Always be yourself... unless you suck." - Joss Whedon

[trigger 0]

.CHOP WOOD COLLECT WATER.