ecnuob

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Posts posted by ecnuob

  1. Quote

    ***

    If the kill line AND apex support tapes ALL broke, then the P/C would indeed streamer.

    ***

    Could you please explain this?



    There are three lines in the pc, all joined at the hacky, two to support it from streching out lengthwise and the kill line. The kill line is sewn to the support tapes and the support tape to the top/apex of the bridle, that attachment failed allowing the PC to collapse lenghtwise having very little drag. Could very easily been a total mal/ PC in tow.

  2. Quote

    To be fair I think there are many people who do not look at their altimeter at deployment. It is common for me to look at the altimeter during break off altitude, track for space, and then pull without looking at my altimeter. I'm usually too busy looking around the sky to make sure I'm clear. Using audibles in my opinion are no more dangerous then relying on our battery operated Neptunes.




    Pretty much exactly this is what I do, though most of the time I do take a quick look when I stop tracking. Once the pull time is reached I was taught that looking around for obstacles was way more important then staring at your alti.

    As for neptunes and the like I've often wondered this, what makes everyone think that thing is any more or less reliable then an audible... Other then obviuosly haveing completly crapped out and gone blank. I plan to get one but its gonna be myin helmet aubile and a flight logger, ill stick with a mechanical alti for my wrist.

  3. Quote

    Without being too hard on you, because you lived: Some things to think about.

    A hard deck is a hard deck. We teach 2500 feet. As an instructor with thousands of jumps and every rating in the book, my hard deck is usually 1800 feet. Since you're not an instructor and don't have every rating in the book, I would recommend that your hard deck be more than a few hundred feet higher than mine.

    When we talk about a hard deck, we mean something quite simple - you simply do not pass through this altitude with a parachute that you don't intend to land. This means that you have opened your main with sufficient altitude to do a controlability check and made the decision to cutaway if necessary. If you hit your hard deck and your main hasn't passed, get rid of it.

    The narrative that you've presented showed that you opened with plenty of altitude, but did not do any kind of controlability check on the parachute. Your narrative did not mention any thoughts towards a hard deck, or a decision point. I hope that your (former) instructors gave you a hard time over this.



    High speed mal, it's gone ASAP. No hard decks have ever been discussed but i will consider that from now on. However I can't imagine an emergent situation were I'm gonna get a look at my alti, in a high speed when time is of the essence what good is it going to do to waste the time looking at it, Cut and Deploy.

    The scary twisting part was over, life was calm and I was infact doing control tests. I'm not one to ditch a relatively good canopy in favor of one i don't know(the devil you know...) And was up until 1500 doing control checks, turning, flaring and so on sorry for not detailing EVERY control move from 2200-1500. It had passed up till that point, I could maintain a heading, steer and slow the canopy. I made the decision at 1500 that i was keeping it, which i and others feel is a completely reasonable altitude to perform a cutaway from a slow mal. It wasn't until I started to do fully practiced landing flares below 1500 that it was clear to me that keeping it completely level while flaring was difficult. I adapted and chose a conservative line and landed out of the main traffic pattern/landing area without a flare.
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    Secondly, I'm a bit annoyed that you're reporting your altitude based on the audible tones. Audibles are backups, right? Remember, batteries fail without warning. I would hope that you're using your visual altimeter and (as you get better at it), your eyes to judge altitude before you depend on an audible.



    I reported a guess on my final deployment altitude based on audible tones, would you prefer i was looking at my alti whilst pulling? I don't rely on and have always made it a goal to deploy before my audible even makes a peep and with the exception of this jump and one other have. The decision to go below on this one was because I had temporarily lost sight of the the other low timer on a four-way that had broken up a little messy. So I rolled over at 4500 hundred to double check my airspace, rolled back to stable and deployed.

    Hard and fast rules, while some are appropriate and save lives, being robotic and saying I have to do this every time by this time can also kill, and is only necessary when you have left yourself no margin for error or outs. Leave yourself some margin and flexibility is my feeling. Setting a intended deployment alt of 4000 affords me this margin. However if my intended alt was 2500, then I'm damn sure going to feel as those I have to dump no matter what, and I'm going to have to make a cutaway decision based on instantaneous gut feeling and without all the facts.

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    The malfunction that you had is an odd one - certainly not common. It may or may not have been preventable, but to me - that isn't the point. If you do enough jumps, malfunctions (both high-speed and low-speed) are inevitable. The people who have long skydiving careers are those that are able to deal with them.

    There's a lot of people who've posted to this thread saying that you did all-right because you landed ok, and to be honest - I don't disagree. You did all-right, and you walked away. Cool. But, you can do better. You can improve your altitude awareness so you're not depending on audibles, and you can improve your altitude awareness after the parachute opens so that you can deal with malfunctions in adequate time.

    If you open at 3500 feet you have plenty of time to identify and deal with a slow speed malfunction without being rushed. :)

    Exactly, the only moment of rushed feeling was during the spins and line twists, clam, unrushed, levelheaded decision making is what took place after that
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    _Am

  5. Quote

    One thing that struck me was " 1500'... finally notice pilot chute wrapped around lines". When you check your canopy, you really want to take a good look at everything over your head to check for rips, tears, broken lines, tangles, etc.



    Yeah, I hear you on that, Couldn't believe i didn't notice it either. Was concentrating more on looking at the canopy itself then the lines. Lesson learned on that one for sure. I was actually looking for broken lines when i noticed the PC out of place. I think it may have also been aiding the turn since it was out to the side causing drag.

  6. Quote

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    For a low time jumper like myself i would have landed it but probably be more worried about trying to flare and end with and uneven flare and braking something.




    All the student training has people locked into believing that both hands must be pulled down evenly and symmetrically, or else! Well, that's the best we can do for students, but once a jumper advances beyond that skill level, they need to start learning to be more responsive to control inputs, and quit acting like robots.



    I know you can, and have pulled unevenly on the toggles when flaring in a turbulent landing (albeit i was on a much larger canopy at the time). But after a couple of practice flares up high resulting in more roll then I felt comfortable landing, as Mrbiceps said, i was WAY to nervous about causing a turn. Since i was flying in essentially half brakes (but with a distorted canopy) i figured the flight speed was low enough to handle.


    Any advice on canopy drills that could help practice for this type of situation? I've been doing alot of high perf toggle turns and then trying to flare out of them level and on a pre-chosen heading. Been hard to keep from rolling back the other way or still being out to the side of the canopy when it recovers to level flight.

  8. All internal lines of the PC broke, It's done, if you hold the hackey it turns into a circle instead of a triangle.

    Probably had just enough tension on deployment to pop the pin and just get the bag off my back before is failed and the bag began bouncing it s way to deployment.

    I would have thought that it still had enough drag to stay out of the canopy lines though. Guess I'm lucky it didnt wrap the lines while the canopy was still in the bag.

  9. Long time lurker, first time poster.

    Normally I pull at 4000, was breaking of from group and double checked for separation. Deployed near end of 4000' audible 32-3500 guessing.

    Slow to get stood up, finally opened with about 6 line twists and diving left. Diving quickly slowed and was able to kick out of twists, but considered chopping for a second.
    In the saddle and out of twists first alti check at 2200. rear riser towards drop zone and notice I'm still drifting to the left a little while collapsing slider. Pop the brakes and the canopy turns significantly left, take a look at the canopy and everything seems fine. Thinking it was wind I 180 the other way to check. Nope still turns significantly left, right toggle to shoulder to fly straight. Alti reads 1500', Another inspection and thinking about cutaway again I finally notice that the bridal and PC are wrapped around left brake lines and a couple d lines. I decided I could control it enough to land and kept it.
    Practice flared a few times, but had trouble keeping it straight and by this point to low to chop, so flew it in flat and level with no flare, PLF'd and all was fine except for everyone giving me shit for not flaring.

    Post mortum: Kill line and internal cords of pilot chute had separated from the top of the pilot chute, so pilot chute was essentially a streamer. Slow extraction caused the line twists, but what I don't understand is how the pc and bridal ended up in my lines?

    Does anyone think I should have chopped? Whats the best way to land an asymmetrically flying canopy?