CPTSkydive

I witnessed another incident.... It was about 3 years ago. Two tandem instructors, each with video were falling. Each fell to one side of a 757 (I think it was a 757, could have been a 737) with not much room to spare. Each had video of the other falling past the plane. It was a show! I know because I was on that load and out just before these two jumpers, and saw the plane below me. I believe it was logged with the FAA as ATC or pilot error as the jump plane did make all the appropriate calls prior to jump run, as always at this DZ.
The problem is, the most common free fall areas to the drop zone where I witnessed this incident are right the middle of a very common commercial airline decent glide path to an international airport into a very large city. Usually in this area ATC diverts the airliners once they know a jump plane is in the air and jump run is getting ready to commence, but as in this case....and others.... there is a factor that can only be defined as human.
Imagine the tragedy, not just to the human lives, but to our sport as a whole if one of us brought down a commercial airliner because of a collision, weather it was our fault or not. You can look all you want before you jump, but if a commercial airliner is approaching at speed from behind your jump plane, at three thousand feet below you, you may not see it until it is either too late, or it makes a very cool but scary video.
I really think that the commercial traffic could be diverted, as a rule, around any DZ during daylight hours or posted jump hours, and not just when “jumpers are in the air.”. It is only prudent and really would not be that hard to accomplish. Is this something USPA can lobby for? Am I off base here?

Exited at 1800ft (because clouds made us come back down from altitude and I REALLY wanted to get a jump in) from a 182. Tossed my pilot too soon, only to have it hang up on my heel. Got it kicked off, main deployed in a severe snivel with me pumping up and down on my rear risers as I passed through 800 feet. It finally caught full air shortly there after, I executed one turn and landed right in front of manifest. A few spectators thought it was amazing. Those who knew better thought is was STUPID.

Yonatan and CK Family:
I am crushed! I just found out about Sara. As most of you know I am in Afghanistan now and getting info can be slow. I am very sorry for the loss. Sara was a wonderful young woman and was always ready to flash a smile. That and her personality were her best feature. Hang in there you guys. TJ

[could have been a lutz story] What is a lutz story?

Please excuse my ignorance but can you give further information on a Collins system? Is that a Skyhook? Sorry if I missed it in another thread

Thanks to all for your replies. I will continue to monitor for more information but for now I believe I will take Billvon's advise and stay hooked to the RSL and be aware when after successful deployment of the main when it might be a good idea to pull the quick release (as I have been taught). One question though. Will a partially cut away main with one riser not released (especially the non RSL side) cause the RSL to pull the reserve out of the container. God, I think I am going to take a riggers class just for the safety exercise! Thanks again to all! TJ

As a relative newbie with only 3 years in the sport and just over 350 jumps I have a question about my RSL (which is still installed on my rig) and the 1-2 quick cut and pull technique. I am IN NO WAY second guessing the decisions made by this jumper during his malfunction as I was not there, in his rig, faced with the same situation. I need a sanity check on my thought process from some of you that have been doing this for many years with thousands of jumps.
I have deployed my reserve due to a pilot chute in tow mal and my biggest concern as I pulled that reserve handle is that the reserve pilot chute would get hung up I the pilot chute in tow. I have never had a cutaway main followed by reserve deployment. I have heard all of the arguments for and against an RSL. This is the third time I have heard of a main riser not clearing the rig after cutaway and the reserve wrapping around the main leading a failure of either chute to fully inflate. I like to think myself situationally aware person (and having been trained and to be so under stressful environments and experienced those environments). In this situation, assuming an AAD is in use, and altitude allows (I habitually pull above 4,000 ft.) it seems to me that locating your reserve handle, cutting away, checking over your shoulder to make sure your main is clear and both risers have released (if not making sure cutaway handle and cables are completely clear and, releasing with hand(s) or knife if necessary/possible), then going for the reserve, is a good course of action. I remember being taught: Locate the reserve handle, cutaway, arch, pull. This sequence is not a quick “1-2 pull” but that is all I have been practicing in the plane and on the ground and all I really see others practicing. I think it is time to ditch the RSL on my rig and begin a different practice procedure for cutaway/reserve deployment. Feed me back please! Thanks TJ

Raff was a special guy. I just met him a couple of months but we bonded right away. He helped me introduce my buddy Rick to skydiving. And when early this season Rick got hung up in a tree on his very first jump, he stood under that tree for 2 1/2 hours with John and me while the fire department roped him down. Not one negative thing was said. It was always encouraging and constructive. Thanks to Raff, Rick was fired up and ready to jump again the next weekend. He jumped twice more with him and was scheduled for another on Monday. I informed Rick of the news this evening. He is crushed. I am jealous of Rick, he got to jump with him. Raff and I kept on saying “next load I/you don’t have a student, it’s on!” Never happened, he always had a student. SFC (Ret.) Paul Rafferty was also a comrade in arms, a fellow member of the Army, a band of brothers. Not long after we me he kidded me about my leaving the enlisted ranks as a Staff Sergeant and going to Officer Candidate School.
"Hey TJ".
Yeah, what's up Raff?"
"Did it hurt?" he asked with that toothy grin and those eyes that smiled.
"What's that Raff"?
"The frontal lobotomy they gave you in officer training?”
I had to laugh because he was right.
Raff had an exiting and rewarding career in the Army. I know this because he told me, and his eyes smiled when he talked about it. But even more when he discussed his plans for retirement. I never got to give him the 175th Infantry battalion coin I promised him for.... well, I guess for just being himself with Rick when he up in that tree.. Challenge coin? For the non mil-spec folks it is a silly trinket that really means a lot to those of us in boots. There are thousands of different challenge coins out there, just like there are skydivers, but there are a few that are really rare, just like Raff. The one I had for Raff I kept on forgetting to put in my gear bag. I would still like to get it to him and I shall. To a man of substance, passion, kindness, and honor I say farewell. I will miss you every day at the DZ. The blues skies of all must be those in Heaven. Don’t forget to PLF when you get there. TJ

Captain T.J. Sullins
Commander
Company C, 1-175th Infantry