JohnMitchell

My speculation too. Being main side, I left when the pilot chute left. But I teach "hard throw to the side", not soft toss next to the head. That's so 1980's.

Why set the bar so hi, when others already don't meet that standard.

That is something to be VERY proud of. She made a lot of positive difference in a lot of lives.

Everything you just said, yes. He'll be buried next week in Kent, WA. I'm guessing the National Cemetery for Veterans (he was a former Marine, CH47 door gunner). Was there ever a time when he was around that you weren't laughing your @$$ off? I can't think of any.

Okay, pretty normal level 2 with a pretty nervous student, 25-ish male, average size and build. Locked on at 6K, waved and pulled at 5,5. He brought the pilot chute up pretty high towards his head before letting go. As soon as he let go, I, being on the main side, turned and tracked. As I'm tracking off I look back between my feet and see he's got the PC bridal wrapped around his right ankle, inflated, and was yanking away from the reserve side instructor. The reserve side guy didn't really see what happened but that he seemed to dip right shoulder low, legs slightly up after I left. Pilot chute hesitation coming back down? I don't know, didn't see it. So now he's on his back slowly spinning down below us and I'm turning, watching, 4K now, wondering if I should go back, or if he's going to cutaway like he should. Then the pin pops and the bag is around his leg and the main struggles its way out of the bag and deploys. The student's foot appears to be caught in something, lines or riser or maybe still pilot chute, but everything has slowed down, thank goodness. I open about the same level. He finally gets untangled but is under line-overed partial malfunction of some sort, not steerable, not landable. I'm flying over yelling "cutaway, cutaway" when he finally does at about 2.5K. Normal reserve deployment, but now we're low and over the trees, and his steering is not taking him the shortest route to the open field. I front riser down in front of him and lead him on the shortest route over the bad terrain. That also gives me a chance to check that we'll all clear the trees. If it looked bad, I planned to lead him to an alternate. The guy on the ground running the radio had no idea where the student on the green parachute was, so the student, on his white reserve, did an okay flare on his own. I landed ahead of him (by front risering down quickly) and turned to yell "flare" at the appropriate time, but I don't know if he heard me or not. After some extensive debriefing, he went up and did a perfect level 3. Quite a first day in the sport. Boy, howdy.

I'm always shocked by people who know so little of how the gear they are saving their lives with really works. I've always said having a little bit of mechanical smarts goes a long way in this sport. It's something we as instructors need to work harder to remedy.

One point I've seen made is that, although we're living in the 21st century, we still have our "caveman" brains from millennia past. Our brains don't interpret numbers and figures as quickly as positional relationships, angles, and proportions. "Needle's approaching the red part! Better pull." Not sure how true this is. Just one opinion I've read.

Haha, yeah, glad to see him finally pull the cutaway.

I grew up in an analog world. Do you think this is a generational thing?

Best thing I've seen in awhile? A level 2 student survive a horseshoe malfunction . . . this last weekend.

Didn't he though? I can't remember how many laughs we had with him.

Women's gymnastics is always an 11.

Don't know how many Chicks Rock boogies ago that we first met him, fresh out of the Marines. Always ready to joke about anything, offend anyone, laugh about everything. To hang out with Jewbag was always a pleasure. When he moved to Seattle a few years back we got to have even more great times with him. Whether it was smores and cage fighting at his place, or pushing his busted ass around the woods in a wheelchair, partying with him or flying with him, Gary always made life a crazy, funny, loving experience. I'll never forget taking his mom shooting at the gun range. Vskydiver and I are really crushed by this. . . Our hearts go out esp. to his mom, his brother (we took him on a tandem not too long ago with JB shooting video), and more than anyone his gf Paige.

She did a lot of work for them when they were based here. She still have a 15 needle commercial embroidery machine if anyone needs some work done. BTW, we're in Lacey, WA, 35 minutes from the DZ. And we have a spare room.

That would have been fun. There were a lot of jumps still to be made, weren't there? But the weather could have been worse. We've all been there.

It's nice to be considered "cool". We all had a great time. BTW, there were a LOT of really good jumpers, both homegrown and visiting, at that boogie. Good times.

You make a beautiful bride.

For the type of flying jump planes do, climbing at best rate-of-climb speed, I thought that the additional weight of the retractable gear mechanism would outweigh the advantages of reduced drag, or be a wash at best. Adding the complication of retractable gear to an up-and-down operation like a jump center does, plus the increase (I would imagine) in insurance rates would further tip the scales in favor of fixed gear. But I could be wrong. BTW, do the RG models also have larger engines or more power?

Ha, no, never seen a C182 RG for a jump plane. That would be a waste of money.

We might, or might not, have a video of the JM kicking a student off the step despite her deathgrip... Never done that. Might be a bit serious for this discussion, but isn't that a bit like jumping with a tandem student yelling "NO! NO! NO!" ?

Haha, I think I know already!

I'm lucky. I like American cars, parachutes, and beers. We grow our own hops and brew our own beer in the winter. In the summer, I have so many Pacific NW breweries to choose from. Currently have a case of Deschutes IPA, brewed just up the road from where Kelly made my Infinity rig.

It's still pertinent advice

Ahh, that's a common problem. We just might be on to a specific remedy for your problem.

We try to go by that too. But this was one very determined woman. Shaking the wing a bit didn't dislodge her. Not sure what the next move was. As determined as she was, I figured the best thing was to keep her climb in safe.