Bad Me!!

[skyjumpenfool 2]

Thought I'd post this here for discussion...

I shot video of a new A licensed jumpers first four way yesterday. On opening, he had some line twists, but, worked thru them. After talking to him on the ground, I suggested he have someone watch him pack. I meant to do it myself, but as we often do, I got busy with other stuff.

On his next jump, another 4 way, I watched his deployment as his canopy opened and began to turn to the right. The turn got faster and faster. He chopped it… good reserve… landed on the dz…all is well! I followed his main and D-bag to a nearby bean field and retrieved it.

Upon examination, it was obvious he had not set his brakes correctly, routing the toggle thru the ring before the loop. When asked, he said that’s how he always did it. It clearly caused a premature brake release resulting in the spin. He was debriefed by several instructors more experienced than me. And, will be retrained on packing.

For discussion…. I blame myself for not following thru with observing his pack job!! I could have easily caught this problem by spending 10 minutes with this jumper. I would even bet this problem caused his earlier line twists. Bad Me!!!

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

[diablopilot 2]

I'll say good you. For being receptive to the ability to learn something new about working with students. To be willing to change methods. To being open enough to share it with others.

Thanks you.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

Upon examination, it was obvious he had not set his brakes correctly, routing the toggle thru the ring before the loop. When asked, he said that’s how he always did it. It clearly caused a premature brake release resulting in the spin. He was debriefed by several instructors more experienced than me. And, will be retrained on packing.

He also needs to be re-trained to try releasing both brakes to stop a spin before resorting to a cut-away.

[skyjumpenfool 2]

Quote

He also needs to be re-trained to try releasing both brakes to stop a spin before resorting to a cut-away.

It's the second thing he was told!!! The first thing he was told is that, at 25 or so jumps, we were NOT going to second guess his decision to cut away that main.
By the way, Luke, nice four way!!

But yes, anyone reading this should understand the value in releasing both brakes to reslove a spin.

Birdshit & Fools Productions

"Son, only two things fall from the sky."

[davelepka 4]

Quote

I suggested he have someone watch him pack. I meant to do it myself, but as we often do, I got busy with other stuff.

I blame myself for not following thru with observing his pack job!!

Why? If you told the guy to have 'someone' watch him pack, the responsibility is on him to locate an appropriately skilled jumper to observe his pack job. If he chose not to, it is at his own risk.

Even if you told him that 'you' would observe his pk job, but were busy during the time he was packing, again the responsibility falls on the jumper to either wait until you have time to obsereve him, ask you to reccomend another jumper to obsereve him, or again, pack alone at his own risk.

I see nothing wrong with your actions, quite the contrary. You gave good advice involving a simple and easy course of action for the jumper to follow. This is obviously more than anyone else had ever done, indicateds by the fact that he had 'always stowed his brakes that way'.

What the jumper does after you ofer up some adivce is not your responsibility.

[airathanas 0]

I can see how you would feel guilty about not being there to help this jumper out, but feeling guilty about it is a good thing! It means you care.

I also agree with the above posters that it was HIS responsibility on knowing how to pack properly and to fix a fixable minor malfunction. However, and thankfully, he performed his EPs properly and has lived to tell the tale.

http://3ringnecklace.com/

[councilman24 37]

I don't know where people learn this!

This is the fifth or six person I've either heard of or found myself that was setting their brakes this way.

GRRRRRRRRRRRR

NEWBIES.... PLEASE LEARN YOUR GEAR AND READ THE MANUAL




I'm in a pissy mood.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[theonlyski 8]

Quote

I don't know where people learn this!

This is the fifth or six person I've either heard of or found myself that was setting their brakes this way.

GRRRRRRRRRRRR

NEWBIES.... PLEASE LEARN YOUR GEAR AND READ THE MANUAL




I'm in a pissy mood.

Manual? You get manuals??

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[councilman24 37]

Since I bought all my gear before the internet, yeah.


But since these newbies can only read something if its on a flat screen and they don't have to turn a page, download them!

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[theonlyski 8]

Quote

Since I bought all my gear before the internet, yeah.

Might want to get some more 'modern' gear...

I dont think Al Gore would appreciate you not using his invention!

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[ufk22 33]

To disagree with most of the previous posters, I would say Yes, bad YOU.
It's always when thing get busy that we make mistakes.
Misrouting the brakes is an easy mistake to make. Just yesterday, I was doing my end-of-the-day pack job, when I always walk the brake lines back from the canopy to get rid of line twists (prevents friction knots) and when I do this I set my brakes after walking the twists back, and while setting the second side, I noticed that I had set the loop on the wrong side of the ring. I looked at the first one and realized I'd done the same thing with that one. I caught it, but it would have been easy to miss.
Yeah, I know, ultimately it's the young jumper's reponsibility to follow your advice, but they're the newbs and we're the ones with experience.
I've made a ton of mistakes working with students over the years, almost always when things gwet busy, usually towards the end of the day, but my guess is you've learned from this and this is one mistake that you'll never make again.
Thanks for posting this, it's a good reminder that we old-in-the-sport people can't sit around and bitch about how the youngsters never listen to our "sage advice", then blow off our own mistakes by saying "but, he's really responsibly for himself".

This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

[shropshire 0]

Don't beat yourself up .... there's always someone on here that can do that for you

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Programmer 0]

At least you got him to look at the way he was packing and (eventually) fix it. If you hadn't taken an interest in what he was doing and gotten involved with it, he would probably still be wondering why his parachute didn't work right.