vanessalh

Guess I shouldn't have expected anything less than trolling on dropzone.com. It still shocks me how aggressive and juvenile people are on this forum. We are all in this sport together. I can only hope people don't judge our sport by what goes on here.

I'm going to assume that any reserve on the market will open when called upon (otherwise it wouldn't be on the market). And I'd expect an excellent track record from all the major manufacturers in terms of safety. Given that, I'm going to be carrying this around with me on every jump. Being smaller and lighter (within the sq ft that I am able to land safely) will make each skydive more comfortable, for the same amount of reserve protection. (FWIW I also like the reports showing the optimum has a good flare, and lands more similarly to a main than other reserves)

Hey folks, I'm looking to get another rig, and I'm considering which reserve I should get. Do you have recommendations for the lowest pack volume and lightest reserve (for a given sq ft)? I've heard that the PD Optimum was the lowest vol/smallest, are there others that come close? Is the difference that large compared with say a PD reserve or Icarus reserve?

Sandy was kind enough to let me post his review of his semi-stowless d-bag for everyone. Check it out here: http://skysmurf.com/blog/2013/7/19/going-stowless

Yup, I've got a world of other mistakes waiting to be made, but I think I'm through with this one :)

Thanks all! rtroup, awesome to hear that there is one for infinity (that's my rig). Where did you get yours?

Hi folks, I was jumping in Chicagoland a few weeks back, and someone mentioned stowless d-bags. This was the first I'd heard of them. As he explained it, it's more like semi-stowless d-bags, with the first two stows going through the elastic bands, and the remainder of the lines folded neatly into a flap. He mentioned that this tends to result in smoother deployments, since elastic bands could have uneven tension on the lines. I also like the allure of replacing bands less frequently... Does anyone have experience with stowless d-bags? Would you recommend them? Is there a higher incidence of malfunction? (I'm imagining the lines getting twisted up somehow without the warm embrace of a band to keep them in check) When I searched dz.com I could only find very old threads about them.

Haha :) There is always hope :)

So true - often your unconscious mind will perceive something still on the edge of consciousness. My boyfriend told me about a time he was on the plane and got this funny feeling. He ended up landing with the plane, and on unpacking his main noticed a line over.

:) Thanks ManagingPrime - always great to hear a little encouragement. I don't take comments personally - after all, this is the Internet, if I took every comment personally I would have serious psychological issues within a few months ;) I'll admit I was surprised at how quickly it turned negative on dz.com (as compared w/ responses from skydivers on fb -where I know ppl or g+ - where I don't know ppl). I had always thought dz.com would be a great place for folks new to the sport to learn more. I know I had a ton of questions about skydiving when I started (still do) - why, how, when, etc. and was interested to get perspectives of the broader skydiving community. I'm discovering that mixed in with the thoughtful and well reasoned responses there is a lot of replies that go something like, "you should already know this, why are you asking?" or "that's nothing special" or in a response to a question seeking to learn a new technique "don't do this you'll die - without further explanation". Along with a lot of folks who never seem to make a mistake, and an equal number who deride people who do admit to mistakes. Thankfully I don't see this as much at the dropzone in person, but where I do it can make the sport feel intimidating and unwelcoming. I'll keep sharing my experiences, and doing my best to make skydiving an approachable and safe sport for everyone. I'm hopeful that some of the threads I've seen in the last year are not representative of the general tone here.

Great idea to switch focus to expecting to find a problem. Someone on fb mentioned to look for what is wrong not what is right. You're more likely to find what you're looking for after all :) Yikes on your instructor missing that. Wow. Glad someone else caught it.

I actually never thought about how the visor on a full face helmet could make water landings a bit trickier. Thanks Remi, opening the visor seems like a good move.

I'm curious, what would you describe as a real problem? I feel that this situation was more dire than the malfunction I had, or the time someone didn't track away properly and almost deployed right into me, or the times where quick canopy course corrections are needed after large formation loads, or searching for an alternate landing area after winds changed. But not quite of the caliber of 'AAD fired for any number of reasons', 'canopy collision under 500ft', 'main wrapped around tail of aircraft', which I hope never to experience.

These are excellent responses to a safety lapse wolfriverjoe. You mention below, I'd add #3: How can I prevent it in the future? to the list. Perhaps I could've been more explicit. I've thought a lot about 1. but I honestly don't know. I wasn't rushed, wasn't distracted. Perhaps tired because it was the 23rd jump in 4 days, but that wouldn't be the first time I've done that many jumps in 4 days. Maybe just a combination of tired, hot, distracted. I'm not really sure. It actually took me a few mins when I got to the ground to figure out how to even misroute a chest strap... For 2., I looked, but didn't LOOK. Tugging on my chest straps aims to solve this by bringing in a kinetic component to my checks that had been missing before, and in the process make it much more likely that I LOOK.

I'm sorry you felt this way about how I chose to express my experience. My goal was not to get into a debate about what qualifies as 'almost dying'. Depending on how close to death you'd like to take it you could argue that anyone with a good canopy above their head by 400ft did not 'almost die'. Or similarly you could say any time you jump out the plane you almost died, but heroically saved your life by deploying at 3,500ft. My intent was to highlight the dire consequences of my safety mistake in a way that would help those new in the sport to understand the importance of a good safety routine that includes checking for a properly routed chest strap. Many of the replies I've seen on this thread have undermined the importance of a correctly routed chest strap, and instead focused on how it's possible for it not to result in a fatal injury. For someone just off their A license with 30 jumps this sends the wrong message.

chill.... I assumed he was giving me a humorous jab knowing that we've all made mistakes. So replied in kind with a humorous jab. If he truly believed that he's never made a mistake and that was the answer to safety... well that's a longer discussion.

Great advice BKS60!

We all aspire to your level of skygodness airtwardo ;)

Thank you for all the responses I received from my last post, "I almost died today". I've received quite a few responses on G+ and Facebook too. I was heartened to see how many people used this as an opportunity to revaluate their own safety routines. I also received a few other types of responses, and felt it was important to respond to those folks. http://skysmurf.com/blog/2013/7/13/constantly-learning-is-the-most-important-part-of-your-safety-routine Safety is not a single event, emergency procedure or safe guard. Safety is a chain of decisions built on the foundation of knowledge and preparation. And to all the folks who had a good chuckle at my "overdramatized" experience, I've got one question for you - what do you do when you have a serious lapse in your safety procedures? Do you brush it off like nothing had happened, or do you take an equally serious look at what went wrong and why?

Or to tweak what we're all taught in AFF: "Pull Pull at the right altitude Pull with your chest strap properly done" Don't sacrifice the first two for the last one :) billvon, I'm interested in some more of your thought on crossing left after and grabbing mud flaps. Sounds like you think it's actually safer to deploy in a normal body position with an unrouted chest strap?

Yes, good clarification - there are ways to (mostly) safely deploy when you discover you don't have your chest strap routed properly in freefall. Grabbing opposite mudflap when deploying is one of them. Trying to stuff your chest strap in and lose altitude awareness and have an AAD fire is NOT one of them :)

Thanks Peek, glad you found it helpful. I find that as I get more experience I need to guard against the 'it can never happen to mes' that assault me...

I almost died today. Well, Sunday actually.I've thought long and hard about what happened, and feel I need to share this with all my skydiver friends. Please read, spend some time thinking about your safety procedures and stay alive for many more jumps. http://skysmurf.com/blog/2013/7/8/i-almost-died-today

Thanks, makes sense. Any reason not to do you 5.0 and 5.5 as part of 1? (I didn't mention it, but I typically point myself at landing area with my rears before moving on to something else) How do you collapse slider and loosen chest strap with brakes in your hand without wobbling all over the place under canopy?

Glad you made it okay, thanks for sharing your experience! I had a question for the group: What is the ideal sequence of stuff to do after canopy opens? My sequence is: 1. Grab rear risers and check for traffic, being prepared to turn quickly if I need to 2. Collapse slider 3. Check altitude 4. Loosen chest strap 5. Open visor 6. Turn off camera 7. Unstow brakes 8. Controllability check I find it difficult to collapse slider or loosen my chest strap with my brakes unstowed - I'm bobbing all over the sky and not able to keep as much awareness on traffic around me.