jimshred

I just saw this video on a show called "Sports Disasters" on TLC. Some guy named Tom Bernard in Rantoul tried to do a stunt of swooping into a giant hangar through door #1 and swoop out of door #2. Kinda like a u-turn swoop. Very low margin of error. Well the left side of his canopy got caught on the left side of door #1 as he entered the hangar. He was going fast and got thrown down on the concrete real hard. Fractured his pelvis several times. In the interview he says he survived and is still skydiving and doing crazy stunts. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

I have struggled with this danger element myself. I have read and heard many stories about serious injuries and some deaths due to the sport. This danger element is one of the reasons (there are others like money, time, and juggling other priorities) why I decided to put my skydiving aspirations on hold till next spring. I have told myself that if I still have strong desires to continue then I will restart AFF training next spring. You mention how it will affect your family. If you are married and have kids then you might want to discuss this with them. My 2 cents opinion, try the FirstJumpCourse AFF-CatA and AFF-CatB (or if doing AFP go up to non-tandem assisted level). Then make the hard decision of continuing on. But this is just my 2 cents worth. Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

I did 2 AFF jumps this summer. I am now done for this year so that I can focus on my continuing-education goals. I guess we all have other priorities in life. Skydiving was a fun and unique experience that put a smile on my face that I haven't had in a long time. Hopefully I can give it another try next spring.

This is an inspiring story. Thanks for sharing it with us. I like your outlook on life and on skydiving. Lately I've been battling second thoughts about continuing skydiving. This is mostly due to hearing and reading about some of the tragic injuries/deaths that occur when skydiving. I've decided to take a break and wait till next spring and if I still have a strong desire to skydive then I while continue with it. Anyways, it was good to read about someone who has had a positive experience from skydiving. Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

This is a tragic story. I hope the person is ok and is walking fine now. I have been thinking about this. *warning: newbie question/idea again* I am not totally familiar with the whole container/harness system but it seems to me if there had existed a strap across the waist line(like a belt) then such an injury would have been prevented. By having a belt like strap the forces would be more evenly distributed and counter-act the leg strap force that broke this persons pelvis. Does this make sense or am I just full of it ? ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Please excuse my inexperienced question but it seems to me a fractured pelvis is a very odd injury to get on canopy opening. It seems very very rare. I can understand whiplash type injuries. Or even a dislocation injury like a femur getting separated from the hip socket. But that would require a really really hard opening. Are these types of injuries more common with high performance canopies? Or are they just as likely possible with bigger more docile canopies like student canopies? Also, I work-out at the gym a lot (I'm not a big muscle dude though). Would such activity help prevent such injuries? I would think that having stronger tendons or whatever could help prevent such injuries. Once again, please excuse my questions, if I am diverting from the main discussion here then just ignore me. Thanks. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

I don't want to land in the ocean in freefall or parachute. That would hurt or cause drowning. Now landing on the beach - that might be fun. Especially if there are a lot of hot babes ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

This sounds scary. Glad you survived. Do you remember how you got belly down or was it just luck? I have only done two jumps so far. Both times my exits were poor. I would just launch myself in a belly/hips down position. My instructor says this is wrong and that I need to exit looking up at the plane. He says this will put me in a position with the relative wind that is initially opposite the direction of the plane. Did your instructor say anything during your debrief? Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Thanks Bob, I've read some of your other posts. They are hilarious. I see you have that door fear as well. At the dropzone I go to we only have the otter for the summer, then I have to switch to the cessna where we hang on a wing strut. I fear those cessnas. Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

I remember that nintendo game. It was a japanese game that didn't translate very well to english. I'd like to see that t-shirt. Good luck with your skydive. Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Good luck on your skydive Plokkum. This sport can be highly addictive. Let us know how it goes :-) Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Thanks, and Congratulations on your landing. As everyone says, any skydive that you can walk away from is a good skydive. And believe me, I felt a little overwhelmed when going up in the plane. Even though there was only two new maneuvers I had to do, it still felt like too much. I guess it was just nerves. Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Well its been over a month since my first AFF jump. My ankle finally healed up. I kept it wrapped up and then worked out in the gym to get it back to normal. It is good as new. Meanwhile, during my time off I bought a few instructional videos. One was Fly like Pro, second was Basic canopy Flight, and another was Breakaway. These helped me learn more about canopy control, landing, and preparing for malfunctions. I also studied several forum posts on landing since this has become my biggest worry. I would suggest reading posts by Spizzzarko and Deuce. Deuce had a good suggestion on visualizing the 12 ft spot for flaring. Go to this thread for more info on landing http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1721172;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread So, anyways, I returned to the DZ on Friday evening after work. I had to battle through two huge traffic jams and drive 60 miles to get to the DZ. I was almost ready to turn around and give this up. But I finally made it. I was expecting to have to repeat my Cat A jump since I didn't jump for over 30 days. But the instructor gave me the go ahead for Cat B. I was a little more nervous when I heard that. We then went over the new maneuvers I had to do. One was forward motion and the other was a 180 deg turn. Then the instructor quizzed me on malfunctions which I was glad he did. I hope he quizzes me on malfunctions before every jump. I passed his quiz and asked more questions. Then we went over the flight plan and landing. I asked him more questions on landing. He also suggested trying the accuracy trick when higher up. But I felt that was a little too advanced. I then waited outside while they packed things up and for the otter plane to return from a load. It was a beutiful evening sunset with almost no winds. Finally, the other instructor came out and jokingly said "Are you Jim? Come on, you wanna live forever?". We suited up, practiced the jump from the door and then boarded the plane. I was more nervous now than my first jump. I wasn't sure if I had rehearsed the dive-flow enough in my head. But I didn't want to put pressure on myself to succeed and pass a level. I wanted to relax and have fun. But relaxing is still hard for me do right now. Finally we got the 13000' and I went to the door. Door fear came back once again. I just grabbed on to the handle bar on the top and did my count down and jumped. Exit was good but I didn't get in correct body position with the relative wind which is initially coming from the opposite direction of the plane. After 2-3 secs I stablized and checked alt and JM. Then I forgot what to do next for some reason. My JM gave me the signal to do a practice-ripcord-pull and then I remembered everything. I then did a forward motion which was awesome, I really felt myself move and was dragging the JM's off to the side. It was fun. I then recovered and proceeded to do a 180 turn. I twisted my shoulders and over shot a little. The turn went fast. My instructor said I dug in too aggressively. I then got to 5-5 and pulled. Canopy opened up and I looked up after 4 secs. I noticed the lines were twisted about 2 or 3 times. But thankfully it all untwisted by itself. Although, I was ready to grab the risers and untwist them. I am just glad that I was "aware" during time of deployment. I think that is a good habit to get into. I followed the flight plan a lot better this time. I actually had confidence. On my final leg of the landing I had partially brakes on but then remembered that in order to get a good final flare I must come in at full speed so I just raised the toggles and focused on the area in front of me instead of looking down. I then noticed the right spot to flare and started flaring, trying to keep it as dynamic as possible. My feet touched the freshly mowed grass and I slid for a little bit. I thought about standing up but my knees were bent too much and I was leaning too far back. I slid on my butt a little and then rolled over to get off my butt. The landing was done, I got up and yelled out a big YAHOO!! The other guy who landed nearby was laughing at me. I was so happy and I felt on top of the world. I was really pumped up then. I can't even describe the feeling after a successful landing, it was awesome. My instructor said I need to work on stabilizing after each maneuver in freefall and that I overshot on my turn and that I need to work on my arch during exit. He said that I could have stood up the landing but it is ok that I slid it out and rolled over. He then passed me and said I was ready for Cat C where I get to freefall alone for the first time *whew*. It just keeps getting harder and harder. I hope I can repeat this good landing in the future and that every other student can experience a good landing. It is the greatest feeling in the world. Also, I suggest skydiving in the evening just before sunset. The air is cool and crisp and there are almost no winds. It makes for an incredible view and enjoyable experience. Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Exactly, you will die eventually. I for one am tired of all this talk of odds of dying. What would you rather die of? Cancer, sudden heart attack, car crash, hunting accident, drowning, or Skydiving? I would say that your odds of enjoying life and gaining a newer appreciation for life from skydiving are far greater and worth so much more than in comparison to the worrying over the odds of dying. Be safe and have fun. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Conrats Jigs

Hi Jigs, I hope you are doing ok. It sounds like you should see a doctor about your tailbone. If it is really bothering you then don't hesitate and have it looked at. Anyways, I only have one skydive so far and my landing ended up in a corn field. I didn't apply the brakes in time and end up rolling in the dirt pretty hard. This resulted in a sprained ankle. After that I started having doubts about whether I would continue this sport. But in the end I looked back at what I did and realized it was quite an awesome and magical experience. I just need to work on my canopy skills and landing. I think skydiving has both its emotional highs and lows. All I can suggest is that if you are starting to have serious doubts about skydiving then it is ok to take some time off and think about why you want to do this. Think about what skydiving does for you, does it enrich your life, does it make you a happy person? If the answer is yes then continue after you've taken some time off. Otherwise, move on in your search without feeling as if you have failed. Be safe and have fun. Jim ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Sorry to hear about your sprained ankle. Give it lots of time to heal. My ankle is almost healed now. Although, last week it was feeling good and so I went to the gym and worked on the stair climber machine. Turned out that excercise irrated my ankle and it became sore again. For several days it was sore. Now it feels just fine. But I will be giving it 3 or 4 more weeks just to be sure. Meanwhile, I have ordered a video on canopy control and will be studying that. I will also be practicing my PLF's. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

I don't remember much about what my instructor said during my briefing (I was in that "first jump high" at the moment). He wrote in my log that I left the "play area" too early and should have waited till 1000'. After thinking about this for a while I think I know what I did wrong that started this whole chain of events. I misinterpreted the reading on my altimeter. I remember looking at it while in the play area and saw it was going in this red zone area on the dial. At that point I thought I was supposed to start heading downwind. My memory on the whole event is starting to get foggy now. But I think this is what had happened. I do remember finding it difficult to focus on maneuvering the canopy while constantly checking the altimeter. Overall I felt that not enough instructional time was spent on canopy control and landing. This is not too say that the instructor was bad. He probably gave good instructions for most people to land adequately (the other 2 students landed fine). But I probably needed some rehearsal in going thru the canopy flight plan and landing. I don't know if it is possible to rehearse canopy control and landing but if it is it would help me a lot. All the ground rehearsal we did for the freefall part gave me confidence and something to focus on and I think that it would do the same for the canopy part of the whole skydive. Anyways, thanks for all the suggestions. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

I know what you mean, pccoder. I really, really want to skydive again but I must give my ankle time to heal. My ankle is definitely healing but it is going really slow. I think it will take several more weeks yet. I wish I hadn't had this bad landing experience. I envy the other students who did perfect landings. I have gone over and over the whole thing in my mind on how I could have done it better. There were some valuable lessons from this I guess - like don't do a low turn, concentrate on flaring at right time, and it would have been ok to have landed downwind, etc. Hopefully someday I can return. I'll probably have to restart from AFF level1 or, if I can talk them into a "learning tandem" I'll probably do that. ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss

Thanks for the input. I have never heard of "learning tandems". There is only one other DZ near where I live. They do require a tandem before starting AFF. But their tandem is just an instructor controlled canopy ride. It is mostly for those curious about the experience. Sounds like you are suggesting a tandem where the student gets to take the toggles and do some steering. Also, my freefall experience for the most part went ok. I was able to focus on the rehearsed procedures. The only thing is that I noticed it difficult to breath towards the end of my freefall. Maybe a tandem jump would have helped in this regard. I don't know. It is the canopy control and landing that troubled me the most. Maybe I should have asked my instructor more questions about this area. One thing about the level 1 AFF that I noticed is that there is a lot of information to absorb. If I was to improve on this I would break it up into 2 days instead doing a 4hr class and then jumping right away. I think it would help to take home the knowledge, rehearse it, then go back the next day with any questions, take the test and then jump. Anyways, thanks for the input.

Hello all, I'm hoping you guys could give me some suggestions on my first AFF jump. I did my first jump about 9 days ago. My freefall went ok with a few minor mistakes. Upon exit from the plane I didn't quickly arch and look up. Eventually I got into position and responded to my JM to get my hips down. I did my PRCT's and maintained good altitude awareness. I had trouble with my legs and my feet kept hitting my butt (I guess you have to put some effort into extending the legs a little). My JM had signaled me to fix my legs but I didn't identify his signal. At that moment I noticed I was having trouble breathing (keep in mind this is my first ever freefall) and was almost gasping for air. I finally got a good breath of air and checked altitude which was at 5500' so I did my waive off and pulled the ripcord. I made a mistake and just threw my ripcord out into the air - that cost me $20. My canopy ride went ok until the landing. Wind was from the south. My ears were clogged up so I couldn't hear the radio instr's. I did the ride downwind at 1000' but didn't get far enough beyond the target area. At this point I just rode crosswind at about 600' (I was heading east) and then tried coming back to the target. But I was still too high or so it seemed. Now I was starting to go over a line of trees(I was heading west) on the west side of the DZ. On the west side of the tree line was a strip of corn fields. Here I had to make a quick decision, try to turn back to the DZ or go for the cornfields. I chose to go for the corn fields since turning back towards the DZ would have required too sharp of a turn and I didn't want to do such a fancy manuever. So I turned north into the corn field which was still a somewhat tight turn and I came down fast. I had time to straighten the approach but that was it. I hit the ground hard and did a forward roll on my upper left shoulder and then did a second sideways roll. The corn stalks were about 3-4' high and the dirt was soft from being tilled up which help break my fall. I got up, face down in the dirt, spitting out dirt and cleaning out dirt from my nostrils and ears. But was alive and walking. I got a slightly sprained ankle from the experience which is almost healed now. This landing experience scared the crap out of me and has almost made me think of giving up skydiving. The 2 other students in my group made perfect landings yet I messed up. How could I have done my landing better? Is it ok to land heading downwind? Are landings like this common amongst first time students? Currently I plan on giving skydiving a second try. For sure I will be asking my JM many questions on canopy control and landing. But any advance information would be helpful. Thanks, Jim ______________________________________ "Find your passion, find that thing you love, and, well, get out there and do it" - Jeb Corliss