freefall138

My reserve is attached with metal connector links and has the standard risers.

I did not try to land with my rears because I have never attempted that during the day, much less at night. I was afraid I may have stalled the canopy upon landing and did not want to take that chance.

Yes, I found the main two days later in a tree.

I wanted to relate an experience that I had recently at my DZ. I usually don't post much on the forums but I thought that I would share the following incident. Last Saturday night I was doing my 4th or 5th night jump (the first and only one that night). I did a three way RW that was uneventful. My deployment was also uneventful. It was when I collapsed my slider that I ran into a problematic situation. Somehow I got both slider gromments stuck on both of my toggles to point that I could not effectively steer/brake/flare without the use of my risers. I initially deployed a little high (around 3700 - 3900 feet) so I attempted to clear the problem for the next 1000 - 1200 feet. Unfortunately, I was not able to fix the problem so I was forced to use my emergency procedures. Once under my reserve the situation only seemed to worsen as I was WAY off track and VERY downwind. To top it all off my canopy had almost zero penetration due to moderately high winds and I was over alot of trees. I picked out the only area I thought to be a viable landing area (a large dark area...wasn't too sure) and barely made it past the trees. I flared looking at lights in the distance and I actually had a soft landing with kinda a half PLF. My walk back to the DZ was long and uneventful. Looking back at the situation (that will forever change my life perspective) there are a series of LITTLE things that, if changed, may have (probably would have) changed the outcome. Here they are (in no particular order): 1. It was a night jump and as a result my vision was not as good as it could have been. I think maybe I could have cleared the malfunction if I could have identified it better. 2. I almost aborted the jump early because of the weather and I was tired from working all day. I should have listened to the little voice in my head. 3. This was my first jump that day and I was not fully prepared for the winds that were moving around 2000 - 4000 feet. Mental note: never jump at night without first jumping that day. 4. My awareness was not on my ground track/direction when I was dealing with the malfunction for 1000 feet. If I would have realized that I was hauling ass downwind away from the DZ maybe I would have changed heading! Again, I am faulted with not paying attention to my environment. 5. I wore gloves on this jump. I normally do not wear gloves unless I think that I will be really cold (it actually was not that bad). These gloves were the thin police type gloves but my dexerity still suffered a bit. Maybe if I did not wear gloves I would have been able to "feel" the problem a little better since I was in the dark. 6. The flashlight that I brought with me doubles as a strobe light but the flashlight end was not illuminating the situation very well. You think I would have double checked this BEFORE the skydive! 7. On previous night jumps I always brought my cell phone with me. Wouldn't you know that the one time I don't I end up with a cutaway and an off DZ landing! Mental note: Always bring a cell phone on night dives! 8. This particular main pack job was done by my wife who is going through AFF. Being a rigger, I obviously felt it to be my responsibility to teach her how to pack. Although I fully observed this pack job, which opened fine, I remembered that we stowed the excess steering line differently this time. Maybe this contributed to the tangled mess that I found with the slider/toggle/steering line when I finally got my canopy back two days later. All of the above seemed to be little and insignificant at the time but snowballed and produced a situation that I was not expecting. It makes more even more vigilant so that I don't wind up a statistic. To me, the fact that I walked away without a scratch is simply amazing. I can't remember when I learned that much on a single skydive...it truly altered my perspective (in a positive way). Oh, yeah...one more thing - that way my 1st cutaway!!! I hope others can learn from my mistakes on this jump because I think I got off lucky.

Anyone have any ideas on where to look for case law involving skydiving injuries or fatalities? I want to do a case study on it for my business law class, but I am having a hard time finding any cases to work with. Any help would be great.

Anyone know anything about Swift reserves (not Swift Plus). I have an opportunity to get one at a good price but I don't know much on the reputation of the product. Any input would be great.