Sangi

The problem here was the design of the homemade camera wing.. It had a huge ass gaping hole between the armpit and the hip connection points and at pull time the guy somehow managed to get his PC through this hole and so the bridle and the bag got stuck around the wing...

Dunno how to make a better explanation of this but I hope you get the point..

Edit: attached a pic with an added explanation

Well, it's been over two months now that I've been in rehab..

I've got stronger since I arrived here and more self sufficient in daily things.. Besides that I'm still paralyzed and can't feel or move my legs..

I do have all kinds of weird inner feelings, like muscles cramping, shivers running down my legs and similar type of stuff, you can really feel the strain on your legs after the gym.. I don't have any outer feelings though, like touching the skin or any kind of feeling of pain if say you nip it..

One of the worst parts (besides the fact that you can't walk) is that you can piss or shit like a normal person.. In order to pee you have to use a catheter, crapping is a tedious and long task with the aid of medicine..

I've had a magnetic resonance done not long ago and the myelitis (the thing that made me paralyzed) that I had is gone now, my spine looks "great" now as the doctors said.. So still, not enough time has passed to have any conclusions and the myelitis subsided only not long ago, so any real regeneration to the spinal brain should only be starting now (if any will)..

Overall it's a long and tedious process and nobody knows what the outcome will be

The bridle somehow cleared after it got snagged and pretty fast as far as I can remember from the vid..

Still, good reason to always have a cutaway helmet.

Dude, chiiiiiiill

Why are you even thinking about transitions now?

You have an ideal canopy with a pretty decent WL for your level, enjoy what you've got, don't think about what you'd like to get sometime in the future, because that future is still far away, unless you're super duper rich and can progress in a lightning fast way..

And no I'm not bashing you in any way you're imagining, I'm not saying you don't have the skills or you're going the wrong way because I just don't know and see you in real life..

But from your thread, all I'm saying, don't think about future transitions, again, enjoy what you've got and push it to the limit wisely.

Put your mind on the learning curve and not on the transition curve (for now). You'll get there when you'll get there

If you're worrying and thinking that much into the future than you're not ready for what you're thinking about.

Focus on the NOW and not on the later.

If you're only finished perfecting your 90's than you still have A LOT more to perfect which will take a lot of time and learning if you do it the wise way (don't rush).

Yes, switching to a smaller, faster, snappier canopy is loads of fun, but failing to control it like it should be controlled is not, specially if it gets your bones broken or worse..

As people say, it's a lot more fun to be slow but good at it, than fast but shit at it
Also, the samurai is a perfect canopy to progress in swooping, specially for your level

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Why would you defeat the safety aspect of the plastic 3M sticky mount's ability to break off when needed to save your life from a dangerous entanglement by replacing it with metal hardware bolted to the helmet?

For skydiving - a cutaway helmet, simple.

There's no decent details on this issue, so judging it by being an R&D failure is too soon

Get to know your canopy. Always get to know your canopy and gear in general.

One of the things you should've known is when your canopy stalls in deep brakes. Do it at a high altitude, try flying at different configurations and see when your canopy stalls..

Do a CP course and or read Brian Germains book on CP, there's great things you will find out that you didn't know and should've known.

Goodluck!

Ok I'll chime in (nooo)..

Any canopy can hurt you or kill you. I screwed myself with a "safe" intermediate canopy on a relatively low wingloading..

Just like in the other thread in the swooping subforum, it's not the canopies, but the pilot that is the issue..

Martisan, please do not be ignorant and full of unreasonable hate and fear, just because you lack the knowledge.. The skydiving world has changed a lot since you stopped, so now you just have to accept the way it is or go away from it.. It wont change according to your mindset and wishes..

Please listen to some reasonable people with up to date knowledge and good reason and don't dwell on the past nor live on it..

If you have the question "why would or why do we do what we do, which increases danger" then you don't seem too different from an ignorant wuffo, simply cause he lacks the knowledge and understanding..

Not trying to bash, I'm trying to say, learn and try to understand

http://www.chutingstar.com/companyinfo_en/gopro-low-pro-mount.html

http://www.paragear.com/templates/parachutes.asp?group=455&level=1 (look for "skydance quick mount" at the very bottom of the page)

Thank you all.

Hopefully I won't give up and do my best, I really wanna walk again and most of all get back to flying, damn I miss it so bad and it's been a relatively short time off, not counting the upcoming huge time out.. Oh well, like they say, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get.

What I got now is a painful, but a very good lesson. Tbh, looking at all my injuries and complications after that crash I should've died, I dunno how I survived this at all, even the doctors at first weren't sure if I'll survive, but all in all, disregarding the injuries I'm happy to be alive and happy to have a decent chance to get back to my old (physical) self..

I'm slowly getting better..

I don't have fevers anymore, my blood tests are decent, but I'm still weak because I've been chained to a bed for a month now..

I can't feel or move anything below my chest. This is due to my spinal brain being swollen. It should subside in 2-3 months or so and then I should start slowly feeling and moving my body, starting from top to bottom, but I'll have to do a lot of work in a special rehab hospital which they are moving me to on monday. I might spend 3 or 6 months there, who knows, depending on how I will be recovering, but it's meant to get me back on my feet, if I work hard enough I'll walk again..

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That is horribly scary for newbies like me

Swooping is completely unforgiving when done wrong.

Watching someone crash is one thing and it's good it scares you, it makes you be more careful.

But if people like me (the way I was before) could also feel (for a while) the immense agony and pain and so many health problems without such crashes then they would be really scared off to even touch the front or yank the toggles close to the ground.

Only now I can appreciate my realization, I regret that I was so stupid and cocky all this time to learn this lesson the hard way.. simply put peeps, crashing sucks bad, so bad that you never wanna experience it, believe the stupid Sangi this time, no bullshit this time for real..

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Sorry dude, but I think you wouldn't.

Your hand is still visible giving significant input to the left front riser approximately 1 second before impact, and it's probably still in your hand for another 1/2 second. By the time you let go of your fronts there is nothing you could have done to recover that canopy before pounding in. You misjudged it that badly. It's great that you appreciate now that you were fucking up, but even now you still don't get by how much.

Even if by some miracle you had got away with this one, it would have happened next weekend, or the one after, or the one after that...

You're spot on, on this one. I agree completely, only now I see that my crash was only a matter of time with my type of flying..

But there still was a chance to save myself, if only I would've let go of the front just right after my canopy turned and yanked the toggles I probably would've saved my ass, but as you said only for a short amount of time until the next try to do the same stupid shit..

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Just for the record....you had NO recovery arc on that turn, or it started about 0.25 sec prior to impact, and you still had some oversteer in there... You appeared to be holding the fronts until just before impact, while still turning. It would be hard to tell without outside video.

/not bashing on you man, just clarifying for others reading

Yes, you're probably right. I believe my turn was too slow and too hard (meaning I made the canopy dive faster and longer than I was used to and didn't realize that at that moment..).

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Sangi - Now that you have experienced what you have, and you are going through what you are ...can you think of ANYTHING, or even any "style" perhaps of approach from anyone, that might have gotten through to you, BEFORE your incident has now occurred, which might have effectively helped you AVOID it? You now have a unique potential opportunity here, to maybe help OTHERS hopefully, avoid similar fate.

Most likely seeing from the side in reality someone bounce like me would have scared me off and made me rethink how I'm approaching everything, but that's probably the only thing.

If I ever notice someone like me doing something similar to what I did I'll defo will try to save them by telling my story of pain and showing the visuals..

it was probably between 120 and 130 meters..

This was my usual turn altitude, I was so used to it, because I used to do my turns very quick (without noticing it myself, in my head they look slow, from the side they looked very quick) and I always had a very quick recovery and even still had like 5-10 meters left from the ground, but this time I did the turn slower, which resulted in a much longer rec arc which I didn't realize and I just whacked myself.

Changing the way you turn, but leaving the same initiation altitude is bad.

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Impressive video. I'm glad you missed the asphalt. At what point in the swoop did you realize you were too low? Bailing at the 90 would have been great, probably at the 180 would have worked.

I probably realized I was too low when I was already coming into the ground, but I can't say for sure because my memories of that turn and crash are either super blurry or non existent..

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Just curious, do you have the toggle in your hand between the risers?

Yes, I always hold my toggles in my hands during HP landings.

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What went through you head the moment you realized you were gonna impact?

Honestly I can't remember that point when the ground was coming at me so I can't say for sure but I believe I wasn't going to impact and that the safire will eventually recover because of it's short arc, I was wrong, because I changed my turn and made that arc much longer than I'm used to, but I didn't realize it then..

Here's a quick crap quality vid of my crash..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF578oSkrKk

Hey Jarno, thanks
I quit swooping. When I'm fully healed and back in the sky I plan on buying a wingsuit, I always wanted to do that

Thank you all again. I fucked up and there's no one else to blame but myself, I was warned numerous times by dz.com and my own real skydiving friends.. Coming to think of it, this incident was only a matter of time, I just wanted to look cool fast disregarding everything and hoping that the shit will never happen to me or I'll luck out of it every time.. If only I would've realized how wrong I was back then, but this crash changed my mindset about allot of thing completely..

The gray area was pavement and I missed it by a meter or so, looking at my impact during the vid, if I would've hit the pavement I'd be dead instantly, I got very very lucky.

Thanks all.

Regarding what injuries I had, read up some pages before, there was a guy who posted them (my friend).

About the vid, will defo post it, seeing how much it sucks to crash is good for the newbies, but not soon, because I'm in a hospital with shit pocket net, can't even watch youtube..

During the crash I did a very very slow 270 from around 120-130 meters, it wasn't enough height for the canopy to recover on it's own, I don't know why I didn't hit the brakes, because if I would have I would be perfectly fine now, I probably thought it will still recover during the last seconds and I will get a kickass swoop, no kickass swoop, but some major kickass crash for sure..

Saw my crashvid today. It's brutal.

Hearing yourself gag, gasp, suffocate in agony and cling to every bit of life you got is not fun at all..

I doubt I'll swoop again, because I NEVER EVER want to experience this again.. it's hell

Guys,

2 weeks ago I almost died doing a 270, way too low way too aggressive.

I had to be reanimated and now I have shit loads of titanium in my spine and left leg. Right now I still can't feel or control my legs and I'm still in hospital with long road of rehab in front of me. I'll walk though, so I won't stay crippled forever.. It's a miracle I survived overall, I should be dead now..

You were all right and I suck, I almost killed myself and I might have killed someone else too, I have learned my lesson, I long to and I will be back in the sky but never as I was before..

I think I can now surely say I have learned my lesson.

More doom preachers..

lol