Cliff strike

[base736 0]

Thought I'd share with you all a jump I made today, since there's a good deal to be learned from it... Things felt good initially; I was second off the cliff, and the exit seemed promising.

As I turned 45 degrees right in freefall, it occurred to me that the right off-heading would be bad; I was watching for that. I pitched after 2 seconds, and was treated to a further 70-80 degrees right on opening. Together with the slight wind into the face, it took me about a second to close the distance to the cliff. I had tried for a left riser correction, but that wasn't particularly effective.

I saw the cliff coming and got my legs out there. Was stunned that I didn't break them on the first hit, but also found that I hit slower than I had expected. Rattled down the cliff for a bit trying to turn the canopy away, and as I was coming up on a small ledge decided it was better just to back the canopy away. Hit the ledge with my legs (which I was stunned, once again, to find intact afterward) and pushed out to clear my body. Hauled down on both rear risers and was ecstatic to find myself flying backward away from the cliff. Spun it around as soon as I was a wingspan or so back.

... And found I had plenty of altitude left. Made a pretty amateurish but stand-up landing in the scree to the west. Unhurt.

I did a bunch of things right, and I think that plays heavily into how this turned out. I've also pulled some unknown quantity from the good ol' luck bucket. Lessons learned...

1. Careful with those exits. I've been getting pretty relaxed, and mostly intend to stay that way. But a little horizontal rotation can take away a lot of your leeway, and probably doesn't help with putting distance between you and the object.

2. Watch headwinds on cliffs. Mostly not a big deal, but if you've got your deep brakes dialed in, a little headwind can push you back toward the object, or make an off-heading a bunch worse.

3. Both rear risers FIRST for an off-heading. At least from a high-ish object, you've got the time. It'll give you space, and space is your friend. Two seconds to impact is better than one when you're making your turn.

Deep brakes rule. My closing speed was SUPER low, and not once did I feel that the situation was anything but survivable. I expected to get busted up, but not to die. VTec also rules. Thank you BR -- my canopy stayed inflated through the entire ordeal.

You'll find first-person video on skydivingmovies very soon (just waiting for the upload to show) under "YamStrike.mov". High-quality audio, again, so if you're not wearing headphones you're really missing out.



Edit to add: Closer inspection of the video reveals that, after the wallstrike, I was on the front right riser for about a second where I thought I was on the rear. The risers were all over the place after the strike.

[base587 0]

Good job 736!!

That rock face is gnarly!! Any damage to the canopy?

[base736 0]

I haven't managed a full inspection yet. I did, however, inspect the thing from below while flying it, to see what I had to land. There's a tear in the left end cell near the nose; I'm pretty certain it's something I can patch easily.

[JaapSuter 0]

Awesome work! I have full confidence that if anybody was going to handle an offheading the best way possible it would be you or your brother.

Any chance you can upload the video?

[Sean621 0]

glad you are alive...dont get why you would jump a low gnarly cliff with a headwind tho

nice work on staying off the list.

http://www.extreme-on-demand.com

[leroydb 0]

awesome job, very nice indeed. I am curious though, how did the canopy fair?

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[RhondaLea 4]

Gak!

I've very glad you're okay.

rl

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[AirCanada 0]

Dude,

Super glad yer ok. Scary.

Funny about the riser thing... I did the same thing yesterday while practicing in Beisiker...

[base736 0]

Video is up.

[Faber 0]

as Sean said ... why would you jump a headwind on a low cliff? i dont get it...

glad your ok

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[base736 0]

Maybe I should clarify. By "headwind" I mean perhaps 3 km/h. Can't feel it at the exit point, but just barely there with a spit test. And (IMHO) to call a 650-foot cliff "low" would be misleading. 587's "gnarly" comment was in reference to the rock itself, which looks evil, rather than in reference to the jump, which is entirely suitable for a first 'E'.

[Ferry 0]

Keep it flying, good job man!

Ferry

[vandev 0]

excellent recovery....great job....gotta love thoes vents.....and that Fox

Stay safe.....chris

In the end...the universe has a way of working itself out.... "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"

[base736 0]

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I am curious though, how did the canopy fair?

Just finished a full inspection of the fabric. Two L-shaped tears maybe three inches on a side, both near the nose (one on the topskin, one on the bottomskin) on the left end cell. Maybe five or ten quarter-sized snags there and elsewhere, all within a foot or so of the nose of the canopy on the topskin, except for a couple on the side of the left end cell. Mostly away from seams, though I was less lucky in a couple of cases.

I'll be visiting my local Rigger B to pick up some fabric, and spending some quality time with Poynter's Manual and my sewing machine. All told, I don't expect the repairs will take me more than a couple of weeks in my spare time.

[AirCanada 0]

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which is entirely suitable for a first 'E'.

Really?!?!

[Peej 0]

Is there an accepted drill for when an object strike is imminent? I had a friend who had a very serious cliff strike last year and she did the same as you when she hit the cliff, stuck her leg out, unfortunately it didn't remin intact.
Students are taught that if they are going to hit a building they should flare and tae the impact on the body and NEVER the legs, would this work in BASE?

Excuse my igonorance but i have four jumps, all off a bridge.

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[Treejumps 0]

Glad you are alright. I snapped my rt tib/fib taking the impact with my legs on a much less severe strike.

The thing I noticed from the video was that it looked like you had grabbed your risers really low on the riser. This may have been why you did not get the reaction you thought you would.

Also, as DW said, if you are bracing for impact, go straight to pulling both risers down (as far as you can). I think that if you had grabbed way up on the risers and pulled them bot down to your shoulders you probably would have back away without strike.

Just my 2 cents worth of monday morning quarterbacking. Anything you walked away from was right.

[TomAiello 26]

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Is there an accepted drill for when an object strike is imminent?

Not really.

Leaving aside what to do with the parachute (there are lots of different answers there, too), I, personally, will try to keep both feet together, knees bent, and try to absorb the impact shock with my legs as much as possible.

I don't think anyone has enough experience in this arena to really have a definitive opinion. Maybe we need a "wall-strike-ulator" to practice.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[Treejumps 0]

*** "wall-strike-ulator"

Funny you mention that. While out rock climbing recently we decided that it would be good practice to launch off the top with about 8' of slack to get used to the feel of a cliff strike. Funny, we had no takers. Guess we need to take some newbie basers climbing.

"Oh yeah, we've all done this"

[base736 0]

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Also, as DW said, if you are bracing for impact, go straight to pulling both risers down (as far as you can). I think that if you had grabbed way up on the risers and pulled them bot down to your shoulders you probably would have back away without strike.

Absolutely. This is my biggest "lesson learned". Both risers down pulled me away from the wall after I'd hit it; I'm sure it would have worked before, too, if I'd done that.

[Peej 0]

Thanks Tom

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