First Cut-away, what I learned from what I have learned

[Feeblemind 1]

No sh#t there I was!!

I was having a great time at the all of the above boogie in Molalla, OR. I go on a head down jump with Bill "MX" Halsey and Weakmindedfool (jump was kick Ars!!) I track off and deploy. As the canopy is sniveling I look up to see more than a few line twists (best guess is 8 to 10). The canopy opens and during that process the slider gets spun into the lines. I press on the risers as hard as I can and kick to no avail (actually I lost ground), I check my alti and see I am at 2K (my personal decision alt.), I reach for my handles and away it went. I then landed safely under my reserve.

The only unfortunate thing was my canopy was not accessible until the next day and I lost my free bag & reserve PC.

Here are the things I learned from my this:

1) I was taught to "Check my Sh#t"" (before boarding, at 1,000 feet, at around 9-10k when you are preparing to exit and after the door opens) I do this at least four times on each jump. I am a coach and I relay this info to newer jumpers. When I decided to cut-away the handles were right where I placed my hands on them over 2100+ times before.

2) Your decision altitude is exactly that, yes some folks would have tried harder to clear this mal, personally at my experience level 2K is my personal alt. I stuck to it and lived to make another skydive.

3) Listen to your instructors (and I don't mean just until your off AFF) Mine happened to be be at the boogie ad he got a hug for training me to save my own ass.

4) Have faith in your rigger and trust in your equipment. If you take care of it and them, they will takecare of you.

That is all and I did by drinks at the 205 club for the chop

Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

I had my first cutaway this past Sunday and am really glad to finally have it out of the way.

What I find strange is that over the past 3 weeks, I've had dreams of my first cutaway and when I pulled the cutaway handle it was like never ending spaghetti and the same for the reserve handle..and it took way more strength than in my actual experience on Sunday. I wonder if perhaps I had those dreams to prepare my psyche for the real thing. Regardless, reality of my cutaway was much nicer than the dreams I had Reality was more like peel/punch, chink chink (risers of main released), peel/punch silver and *poof* voila! I am under a really nice bright yellow reserve!

In your situation, having the alti awareness, knowing what your decision alti is and sticking to it, and taking care of business was totally heads up skydiving...cheers!

_________________________________________

[skybytch 273]

Quote

Have faith in your rigger

[Feeblemind 1]

Thanks for the kind words in regards to being heads up. I have been very fortunate to have a great instructor (Ed Palowski) and awesome mentors at both Lodi/Davis where I jump. I also have two friends (Kieth and Lisa) who have chatted, coached, encouraged, approved and scolded me during my brief tenure in sport. It was these learning experiences that prevented me from hesitating and the training took over.

It did not make me happy to cut-away (I had a jump to make with friends) but we re-scheduled that jump for this Saturday

Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

[tr027 0]

too bad you lost your freebag and PC, I was one of several people (Ed, and other wingsuiters as well) that saw it hit the ground not more than 100ft from the fence, closer than the main.

edit: unless your cutaway was a different one, i dont remember how many there were, so i may be mistaken.

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[Feeblemind 1]

Thanks T,

I passed the info on to Joe. The terrain is less than hospitable to say the least. We looked for a while after we had the main bagged, but the blackberry bushes were kicking our butts.

Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

[georgerussia 0]

Was it at something like 5PM on Sunday? If so, I was in this load, and saw your cutaway.

* Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

[Feeblemind 1]

Yep, that was the one george.

Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

[Elisha 1]

Thank you for doing what you needed to live...to jump again and live. I'm sure your family is thankful too. Good job.

[tr027 0]

Sorry I was mistaken. The one I saw was Saturday morning, all the gear landed close to the west fence.

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957