gear fear after cut away

[jean123 0]

hi all together, i know the fear-theme has been dicussed maybee 1000 times, but is till have a question and would like to know about your experiences.
I had recently my first cutaway (on my 81th jump) an a demo eqipment I was jumping. it was a high speed mulfunction, maybe a pc in burble ... the rigger told something about wrong assembling, but i did not understand all of it... well i had no time to think and just did the emergency procedure when i realised nothing was hapening after pulling ... i was at terminal velocity wehen i pull the reserve, and grabbing for the handles made me fall head first, so i saw the reserve opening from above, with my feed higar than the head ,, it was quite scary ... i landed it saftely ,... so all wsa fine.
this was about 15 jumps ago and in the meanwhile i got my own rig, the same model i was jumping on my 81th jump. i now experience a kind of fear i never ad before, i don't know if it's gear fear ...

i just would like to know how long it took you to overcome the frightening experience of your first cut away!

thnak for sharing!!

kr

jean

[AggieDave 6]

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i just would like to know how long it took you to overcome the frightening experience of your first cut away!

Is your gear already assembled and packed? If so, talk to your rigger, suck up the extra $50 and unpack it all on the ground. Open the main up, pull it all the way out. Have the rigger explain each component to you. Why it works, how it works, etc. Do the same with the reserve.

With that much teaching your rigger might need some "help" to be motivated beyond the price of a repack. If your rigger is that sort of person, offer a 5th of favorite liquor or something similar.

Then you might want to go do a solo and do handle touches, ALL the handles and stay stable. Not telling you to do this as an instructor talking to a student, just suggesting it since it sounds like it scared you. It might help you out.

For me, though, my first cutaway was on jump 1398, it was opposite for me, even though I had done an intential cutaway on a cutaway rig I still wondered about what it would be like. I wondered if the reserve would work, etc. For me my first cutaway was a relief.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[phoenixlpr 0]

It took some jumps to get confidence back.

[crazyboy 0]

You already did the most important step to overcome your fear: you did another jump.
Keep jumping; when you realize that everything is fine during the next jumps, your fear will become less.

If your parachute fails to open, remember you have the rest of your live to fix it.

[phoenixlpr 0]

Not me , but I did it anyway.

It was a bit strong to have 2 in a row.

[AdrenalineBluez 0]

To answer you question about how long it took to over come the fear after my first chop. I had a cutaway on the sunset load and was on the second load of night jumps a couple hours later..

However, after my first chop I always had something nagging me about my gear... I hadn't been packing my gear and as a matter of fact I hadn't packed my mal. So I was always wondering what was in the bag...

If you aren't packing for yourself. Learn!!! It solved my gear fear problem and has made jumping a whole lot more fun...

With that being said, getting with your rigger as mentioned above is the best advice there is for learning you gear... As with anything else "knowledge" is power...

"Uh oh! This is gonna hurt!"

[kkeenan 14]

I think that after making some jumps being "theoretically" prepared for a problem, you finally saw that something like that can actually happen. That realization can affect how you view your future jumps.

The good part should be that now you truly know that you can react properly and handle an emergency. You know that your training was right, and that you can take the right actions when needed. If you concentrate on that aspect of it, then you can have confidence bolstered by actual fact and experience.

The final part is to have the rigger, or someone you trust, explain again what went wrong and how to avoid it. Keep asking questions until you understand it fully. Don't worry about looking dumb - you're still learning. Just keep asking until it is solidly understood in your mind. That way, you know what it was, and how to avoid it.

Once you fully understand all this, combined with the knowledge that you DID handle the emergency, it should help to put your mind at ease.

Kevin

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

[fcajump 164]

Recommendation: Gear familiarization on the ground and in the air as previously suggested.

My experience:
Hard Pull on jump #23 (rented gear)
Found myself pulling higher than "required" for years until I felt that I could react quicker. (This was in the day that pulling higher than USPA minimums for your experience was seen as an indicator that this was a jumper who needs to be watched... fortunately times have changed. This does NOT seem to be the case anymore.)

Fly to your comfort.
Learn your gear to increase your comfort.

Have fun!
Jim

Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

[JJohnson 0]

Gear fear should never go away. Fearing that your system could fail you is what helps keep you alive when it does fail you. Anticipating the random unpredictible snafus helps you react. It is what makes you practice your emergency procedures. It is what prevents you from falling into that complacency that kills.
Speaking from my own minor mishaps, it is the ones that hit me most unexpectedly that seemed to scar me the worst and longest. When I tend to remain focused, acknowlkedge what can go wrong and mentally prepare myself for it...and something does go wrong, I seem to be able to learn from it better and let it go.
I'm a big believer in fear. It is healthy and a God given indicator for you to heed. Understand fear and let it be your friend.

JJ

"Call me Darth Balls"

[Ron 10]

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the rigger told something about wrong assembling, but i did not understand all of it.

Thats your problem right there. You had an issue and really do not understand WHY. Of course you are going to be afraid it might happen again, you have no clue why it happend in the first place!

1. Find out EXACTLY why you had the mal.
2. Spend some quality time with a rigger and learn about your rig. Bring beer.

Fear is most often brought on by ignorance. Fix the ignorance and the fear dies. Learn about your gear and the fear will go away.

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i just would like to know how long it took you to overcome the frightening experience of your first cut away!

Never had it. But I also had 600 jumps before my first chop and understood exactly WHY it mal'd. Cutaways are fun as long as you don't lose anything.

Look at it this way, you had a problem and did the right thing. You should be happy.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

[JohnMitchell 16]

I had my first cutaway around 90 jumps, a high speed like yours. No worries, nice cutaway, but definitely an adrenaline moment. Learn more about your gear.

Also . . . big thing but rarely taught, put your feet on your butt when you chop, then arch your upper body like a madman. This will almost always give you a stable, head high reserve deployment. In my 10 or so cutaways, I have always done this and I have never been unstable, even from the spinners. Leaving the legs out makes it very easy to go head down while your hands are in pulling handles. (It's a lot like your head down freefly position, if you think about it.)

Anyway, no one teaches "feet on the butt for cutaways" outside of our family, but we all use it.

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[PrairieDoug 0]

Jean -- My experience with 2 cutaways was somewhat different, probably because they were both lower-speed spinners followed by clean reserve deployment. They caused me to be more vigilant with packing issues, but also gave me more confidence about emergency procedures. I was back in the air within a couple of hours the 1st time (needed reserve repack), but not the 2nd since I lost my main.

Hopefully the guidance offered by others about gear education will help restore your confidence as well.

Doug

[jean123 0]

thanks for your feedbacks and hints! i apreciate that very much!
there were many factors involved, that made it hard, even for the rigger, to locate the mistake. he said that there was something unproperly assemled (the part i did not understand) but, that it also could have been an unproberly loaded pilot chute or that is was trapped in the burble ... but i will definately see him again on that issue!
fisrt thing i did on my new rig was to learn how to pack and i won't let anybody elde pack it again, by the way I have now the smoothest opening I ever had;)
Guess that I have to jump, jump and jump with the new rig to get used to it (and the freefly handle that has to be "unlokced" prior to extracting it) in order to get the confidence back (even tough it did not happen with that one, but the same model).
well, next try on sunday;)
thank you again for you feedback!

[Falko 0]

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I'm a big believer in fear. It is healthy and a God given indicator for you to heed. Understand fear and let it be your friend.

I second that, it's worth repeating (except the "God" thing...).

to the OP:
Won't bother you with my "fear" story after my first cutaway and how it turned into trusting my gear and my emergency procedures with time. Just keep on jumping and learn all you can about your gear and the procedures. Have fun!

Ich betrachte die Religion als Krankheit, als Quelle unnennbaren Elends für die menschliche Rasse.
(Bertrand Russell, engl. Philosoph, 1872-1970)