Two High Speed Mals

[tbrown 26]

This weekend our monthly formation load group had two high speed mals over five jumps. Both had happy endings due to quick reactions.

On the first jump of the day, one of the guys tossed his p/c and got nothing but ground rush. He didn't like what he was seeing, so pulled both handles. There may be some issues with the kill line on his p/c, the bag came out of the container, but the canopy never came out. But his reserve opened in time to not trigger his hardline alarm at 1500 ft.

On the fifth jump of the day, a woman gave two good tugs on her p/c, but it was balled up in a monkey fist inside the pouch (we all saw this back on the ground, it was NOT coming out). She went straight to silver and was open at about 1200 ft.

Both of these jumpers were flying in outer slots on a large formation, so their assigned opening altitude was 2000 - 2500 ft. (which is to say "in the saddle" at that altitude).

High speed mals are scary, but they're curable. They're the reason for those extra handles on our harness. But they require quick and decisive action - and even then, they still eat up a frightening amount of altitude. But as I said, both of our friends had a happy ending to their troubles and our wonderful Perris recovery crew even found both freebags (thank you Tim Farnham !).

Just a Monday morning reminder that these things can & do happen to the best of us and to never be complacent.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

These mals give me the willies. I am not overly worried about a crappy canopy overhead... but the high speed ones spook me.

Fortunately, I haven't had either yet, although I came damn close to having a "hard pull" a couple of weeks ago (new packer). Yes, I have spent time recently in the training harness. Yes, I practice every time I put on my rig. I know the drill, but these mals still spook me. On the other hand, I suppose that it is better for me to be a bit spooked by these than to have a cavalier attitude about them.

I am delighted that these events warrant posting HERE rather than in "Incidents".
Was there beer owed?

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[wmw999 2,439]

Hard pulls should default to standard rules -- mine is two tries, and then I go to the reserve. Period, no thought required. What I don't like are snivels, where you're not sure if you're seeing a snivel or a malfunction. That eats up time deciding, which is a worse problem.

So, well, I pack for decisive openings. Not slammers, but if it's not open pretty doggone quickly, it's a malfunction.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[erdnarob 1]

I had two high speed mal "recently" out of a total of 6. Those two were my firt totals and have a certain similarity.
1) past August, my jump suit zipper gave up in freefall and probably because of the subsequent inflation of the jumpsuit, it seems that it was pushing up on the rig. When I came to grab my hackey it wasn't at the familiar location. After 2 attempts I went for the silver. That happened at 3500 ft.
2) past January, in Florida, I went twice to grab my hackey and couldn't find it. I pulled my reserve. In this case, I think that the hackey has been put outside the poach mouth but against my butts while I was trying to locate it at the opposite side of the poach. I have now changed my method. I go with my hand below the poach and slip it toward the poach mouth.
In both case I had a perfect reserve opening and ride. However I noticed one thing, when I came to grab my reserve handle with left hand (thumb inside) immediately my right hand came and grabbed my left wrist to assist the pull.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[ghost47 18]

My current plan should I not be able to find my hackey after a couple tries is to cut away and then pull reserve. My thought is that maybe the pilot chute is out already, and I've got some weird pilot chute in tow thing, in which case I want to cut away first. And if I just couldn't find the hackey and the pilot chute is still in the pouch, then cutting away shouldn't do anything bad (except for eat up a little altitude, but I go to pull at 4000, so I'm not too worried about that). Plus this way I have only one set of emergency procedures.

Is this a bad idea? If I can't locate my hackey, should I just pull silver?

[DanG 1]

Glad to hear your friends reacted quickly and properly and saved themselves. I agree with everything in your post about high speed mals.

I'd also like to point out, however, that both of these mals come down to preventable gear issues. A good gear check should have caught the monkey fist,and proper maintenance could have remedied the bad pilot chute before it created a mal.

Your friends did a great job in not being complacent at pulltime and being spot on with their emergency procedures. Unfortunately, complacency starts in the hangar before the jump and its effects can sometimes only be felt when screaming through 2 grand with nothing out.

I'm not posting to criticize them or you, I just want to make sure that people are learning all the good lessons from this. Being up on emergency procedures is great, but just as important is being up on gear maintenance and gear checks (so you might avoid times when you need the emergency procedures).

- Dan G

[NovaTTT 2]

Quote

If I can't locate my hackey, should I just pull silver?

Yes. It's a matter of practices. If you train to and/or are in the practice of cutting away (unneccesarily) and, as one example, find yourself in the basement, and for whatever reason are unable to find your hackey, you will perform as you practiced. That means you will pull the cutaway pillow and then go for the silver, wasting precious time and altitude.

Some might say, "Well, that's the worst-case scenario". I say, "Yes, it is, and that's what we need to be prepared to deal with."

Blues.

N


(Small edit for clarity)

"Even in a world where perfection is unattainable, there's still a difference between excellence and mediocrity." Gary73

[tbrown 26]

I'd also like to point out, however, that both of these mals come down to preventable gear issues. A good gear check should have caught the monkey fist,and proper maintenance could have remedied the bad pilot chute before it created a mal.

[Arvoitus 1]

There is a way to pack the pilot chute so that it won't do what happened to the other jumper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axCeYlY_6io

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[tbrown 26]

Quote

There is a way to pack the pilot chute so that it won't do what happened to the other jumper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axCeYlY_6io

Thanks for posting that link. I've seen this vid before, but wasn't sure where to find it. Even if people choose to use a packer, repacking the p/c themselves is quick, easy, and so worth it.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[davelepka 4]

Quote

These mals give me the willies.


I came damn close to having a "hard pull" a couple of weeks ago (new packer).

These two quotes don't jive. If you're worried about the operation of your gear, pack it yourself.

Any time a story about a mal, hard opening or other gear problem includes the line "The packer.....", the root cause of the problem is right there.

Learn to pack your own stuff, and do it yourself.

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

I know how to pack. (Why on earth would you assume that I don't know how to pack?)

I usually only use packers on team training days when I need the time between jumps for dirt dives and debriefs. I find that using a packer on team training days lets me conserve my energy and be sharper for the later jumps in the day (especially in July/August).

Usually the paid packing quality at my DZ is excellent. This was a new guy, who was being supervised by a diligent rigger. Shit happens.

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[kkeenan 14]

Quote

Is this a bad idea? If I can't locate my hackey, should I just pull silver?

In my opinion, it is a bad idea. Doing unnessary stuff just to keep your EPs the same is foolish. If you can not think your way through different procedures for different problems, you will eventually do the wrong thing.

Kevin k.

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[rmarshall234 13]

Excellent! Very nice work by all involved. Thanks for reporting this, Tom.

I agree, the ground support at Perris rocks! I had a cut-away and landed about a mile to the south once......the otter circled overhead to check on me, Tim arrived in the truck before I had even collected my stuff, and Stuee was on the radio to make sure all was good. They really watch out for you there.

[wmw999 2,439]

Quote

I agree, the ground support at Perris rocks!

Yep. My last two cutaways were there. On the second one, they even found the cutaway handle!

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[erdnarob 1]

I agree 100% with you, at Perris the recovery truck is real fast. When I had a biplane up there and landed it, they recovered my pilot chute assembly before me. They just blamed me to use a green color pilot chute fabric which wasn't my choice BTW. I told them that anyway the grass at Perris is generally light brown. He He!

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[lethargic8 0]

I had my first(beer!) cutaway at Elsinore on Sunday and it was a high speed mal; bag lock.

After deploying there was only a weak snatch force pulling me up to maybe 30-45 degrees up from belly down. I looked up and saw the bag floating above me. I cutaway and pulled silver. It was a clean cutaway and my reserve opened like a dream. I was fully under the reserve by 2200 ft.

When we recovered the main still in the bag it was immediately apparent what had happened. One line still in the stow band had grabbed all the lines in the next stow resulting in a mess that did not come out of the stow (nor did the stow band break for that matter). I know my stows are not always the optimal length, consider that a lesson learned, albeit the hard way.

When I had time to slow down and think I realized I had not looked at my handles at all. While I grabbed them accurately I know I could have gotten myself into a shit storm of trouble had a grabbed some harness by accident. There has been extensive practice with my ep's since.

Obviously a newbie mistake but maybe some other low jump number individual will read this and think twice before getting sloppy with the line stows.