Chopping from a mal with your wingsuit on

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

There I was, no shit. Soaring along in my very-stylish BirdMan GTi at about 4000 feet after coaching one of new students on his 4th flight. I sit up, throw my pilot chute and bring my arms in near my handles like I normally do. Oops! My "never spinning" competiton cobalt 75 opens in a hard right dive. I know my legstraps were even and tight before exit and I know I threw out dead on heading.....
BirdMen, what is the first thing you would have done? Proper answers in a minute, but listen to what my dumb ass did...
My main is spinning right due to closed end cells on both sides, but I try and harness steer left, which normally would work fine on my tiny main. I IMMEDIATELY reach for my left arm zipper and start to unzip. Oops, I pulled my thumb loop off before pulling tension, so the left zipper jams up three inches from my wrist.
Fellow BirdMen, after failing to do this first off, what did I again fail to do immediately????
I manage, somehow, to reach my left rear riser while my arms are still sewn in and clear the left and right end-cell closures, but still, I have a right turn. No tension knots visible, no released toggle, must be a loose leg strap. Still, I try to un-fuck the left zipper. I am burning through 1500 feet.
BirdMen, I still have not gotten my head out of my ass.....
Well, looks like I am fucked.... Even harness steering very hard to the left, my main is still diving right and I can't un-seize that left zipper... Look right, grab right. Look left, grab left. Pull right, pull left (at about 1000 feet), then see my two arm wing cutaway handles (what a moron), reach and pull both arm cutaways. Land the Tempo 120 right across the paved road in a freshly burned grass field. Butt surf in because I was too low to get my booties and leg wing undone, then hop up and wipe off the "evidence".
This was my first reserve ride since 1988; you do the math. first reserve ride in the last 2,420 jumps. First cutaway with a "pad" reserve handle (didn't like it).
This ride could have, and SHOULD have been prevented with about 1/2 second of work. My main was mostly open, but spinning. My first move should have been to reach down and cut away my arm wings. I could have then just reached up and cleared my closed end cells, got out of my leg wing, then swooped the blades as planned. Even though I practice my emergency drills on every skydive, and had just gone over them with my junior BirdMan, I failed to follow my own guidance until I had already chopped. I felt like a complete moron just as soon as I pulled the handles and saw those arm wing cutaways, but it was too late. Anyone think I will ever do that again? No way in hell. Just like your first standard cutaway, you never know how you will react until you first have to REALLY deal with it.
Generally, after I toss my pilot chute in my wingsuit, I drop my knees and bring my hands in to a position near my mudflaps. I will now amend that to having my hands down near my arm wing cutaways. Jesus, it only takes a minute to sew your wings back down if you chop them; no big deal at all. It is CERTAINLY much easier to do that then have to find your main, freebag, etc, then repack your reserve.
Bottom line here: Do not get complacent, no matter if you are straight skydiving or adding to the mix with an additional piece of equipment: tandem, skysurf, wingsuit, etc....Know your emergency procedures and be prepared to use them. I will now treat every opening as I do when I am jumping with freefall students....You never know what is going to happen till it does!
Anyway, I lived (obviously), bought beer (It was my own reserve pack job so no liquor) and retold the story many times afterwards.
Chuck
My webpage HERE

[rgoper 0]

Chuck:
that's decent of you to relate your experience with your birdman suit, and your mal. it says a lot while we are all trying harder to be "safer" sky divers, that you would tell your story. i know a few who would have kept "the details" to themselfs. but it's kewel you have the rocks to relay your experience, so everyone else who flys this kind of suit, will know what to do.
Richard

[rhino 0]

Kick Ass Chuck.. No reason to feel bad. Apparently you made great decisions. You exercised your emergency procedures perfectly and lived to jump another day. Glad you are here to tell the tale Good point though...
Rhino
Blue Skies .....

[sangiro 4]

Good job Chucky! I'm not a Birdman so I won't give you shit but I'm glad you're still posting here this morning. Must have done at least something right....
Safe swoops
Sangiro

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Rhino,
yes I lived through it, but the point of the post was that I failed to follow the correct procedure with respects to the wingsuit protocol. I should have just reached down and released my wings via the cutaway handles immediately and I would not have looked like a jackass as I was zipping in a tightening circle under a 75 square foot parachute. I wasted a good 35 seconds fighting a stuck zipper without even thinking of just pulling my wing handles; very dumb. Lesson learned. The parachute was not spun up, only diving right.
Chuck
My webpage HERE

[Jussi 0]

Glad you survived..
maybe we should spank da Monkey for not following the
instructions..;)
Welcome to the cutaway w/ wingsuit club..;-)
Anybody else?

[freeflir29 0]

Glad you didn't depart on me brother. Let's be a little more careful in the future eh....."I'm a danger to myself and everyone around me!"-Clay

[matttrudeau 0]

Chuck is right, he wants to make a point that you never know when your next mal is coming. Going 2,500 skydives without cutting away is fantastic. How can you not get complacent with that many skydives? You can't. Following the right emergency procedure greatly increases the likelihood that you'll survive.

[diverdriver 5]

Chuck, totally speaking as someone who has never jumped a Birdman suit.......what kind of handle training is done with the suite on? What I mean is....Would it be recommended to actually go up on a mid hop and pop and actually pull those handles for real in the air. Or is this already done? Or would it be more hazardous to pull them for real in flight unless there was a real emergency?
Chris

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Chris, no we do not do a pull in the air as part of the training, but we do perform live pulls on the ground as part of initial training.
My webpage HERE

[jceman 1]

Quote

The parachute was not spun up, only diving right.

Chuck,
Glad you got through this -- I have a friend who did the same thing, but his canopy was spun up! I have watched the video several times and have shivers run up my spine -- it's bad enough seeing the initial spin, but seeing the horizon accelerate on the last portion is really scary. At one point, while he is still struggling with his zipper, you can see the loop off his thumb just like you mentioned. His reserve ride wasn't very long, either.
Scary shit. Guess we need reminders to be constantly aware and be sure of our emergency procedures, especially with extraordinary equipment.

[base698 1]

Way to go Chuck. I think every birdman has had a birdman experience at least partially similar. I did the same damn thing but I was spun. I blew through 2000 after pulling at 4500 before I got out of them. I felt stupid as well for not pulling the handles immediatly. When I do Birdman jumps from now on I make sure I go over that in the plane many times. They are exceptional skydives that deserve to be treated as such.
Glad to see ya made it out alright.

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

I agree completely. I will spend more time on touching those wing handles during my many pre-jump checks.
Chuck
My webpage HERE

[Shark 0]

Chuck,
Nice to have you around to tell the story! I'm planning on my Birdman jump this summer, the next time they got demos at 'snore. Chopped at a thousand? Whoa. Did you have an RSL? (For the record, I don't have one on the Frankenrig.)
Late

[tomblin 0]

Not that this is really the right place to post this, but how many jumps do you need before the boy's down in Deland will let you train and jump a Birdman suit?

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

I do NOT jump an RSL for any reason with the gear I use. Spinners under sub-100 mains need to be cleared prior to pulling your reserve. By the way, I had a VERY quick reserve, and yes, I packed it.
Chuck
My webpage HERE

[GroundZero 0]

Good answer...
rsl and wing suits don't need to mix... if you need to ask "why?" perhaps you're not ready for wingsuits...
Chris

[AndyMan 7]

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rsl and wing suits don't need to mix... if you need to ask "why?" perhaps you're not ready for wingsuits...

Chris, I am not ready for wingsuits.
Now can I ask why?
_Am
ICQ: 5578907
MSN Messenger: andrewdmetcalfe at hotmail dot com
AIM: andrewdmetcalfe
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[GroundZero 0]

A malfunction presents special challenges with a wingsuit. Chopping a violent spinning canopy can toss the jumper into instability world, wearing a wingsuit can add time to regaining stability. Deploying a reserve in an unstable body position can cause some real problems... (remember pull priorities, though.)
No rsl's with wingsuits, please...
Chris

[Jimbo 0]

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Deploying a reserve in an unstable body position can cause some real problems...

Uh. I thought reserves were designed to operate in an unstable body position?
(I'm not advocating RSLs and Wingsuits, just curious)
-
Jim

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

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Uh. I thought reserves were designed to operate in an unstable body position?

Tell that to Jim Preston's widow Lori. While it is true that todays technology gives your reserve every opportunity to deploy cleanly, even if snagged on your body or another piece of equipment, it is still PLENTY possible to have that rascal come off your back in such a manner as to preclude a clean opening.
Jim Preston had a very hard opening after an otherwise uneventful RW skydive. His main broke some lines and was spinning up. Jim, stunned by the hard opening, reached up with what strength he had left and chopped. His RSL fired his reserve immediately as he was shot out laterally while still spinning along his longitudal axis before he was able to regain stability. His bridle and several rows of suspension lines double-wrapped around his throat, choking him out. He rode in a reserve bag-lock from 2000 standing straight up. This, on a "regular" skydive. Bottom line is that the risk factor compounds exponentially with each additional piece of equipment you add to the mix.
Chuck
My webpage HERE

[leroydb 0]

OMG Chucky... it's your student... yes folks he bought beer, but since i already owed alot of beer (my first day of bird jumping) I still had to buy my share.... Don't worry chuck, I still believe in you... Thanks for sharing your knowledge and not being a money whore like so many others....
Dude I will always owe U beer...
Le Roy.... aka AssMonkey
[email protected]

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Not a problem dude. It's all about getting more people trained, that way we don't have to fly around by ourselves.
Chuck
My webpage HERE

[apoil 0]

Quote

I do NOT jump an RSL for any reason with the gear I use. Spinners under sub-100 mains need to be cleared prior to pulling your reserve.

whoa dude.. I think you need to visit the safety and training forum again particularly the thread on RSL myths.
An RSL in a birdman is probably not a good idea. But the notion that a high performance elliptical mandates no RSL is a common misconception.
It's precisely that case where an RSL is designed to help. You don't need to be stable to deploy your reserve. You yourself spent a dangerous amount of time dealing with a spinner before deploying. Had you spent a few more seconds you might have entered that zone where the RSL would have saved your life.

[Levin 0]

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You don't need to be stable to deploy your reserve

i have to disagree with this statement. i have a little 109 reserve to match my little main. i certainly wouldn't want to be upside down or flipping head over heels when it deployed.