Low S-turns Hurt

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I... don't jump anymore. I haven't for almost two years. Recently though, I decided an incident I had was worth posting. So, here goes.

I had been in the sport for about a year. I had 153 jumps. On jump #116, I downsized from my Triathlon 220 to a Spectre 150. I weighed 160 pounds. Out the door, it gave me a wingloading of around 1.2. Lots of numbers there..... I know.

I jumped a few canopies in between the downsize, but not many. I flew the Spectre pretty damn well without any issues. On jump #154, I had the opportunity to do a film jump. A camera crew came out and paid me and two of my pals to film our landings. The camera was locked down... so they needed us to land in the middle of the peas. First jump, no problem.

On my next jump, jump #155, I worried a little about not hitting my mark... by overshooting or undershooting. So, I set up a little high and did some low S-turns so I could sink down into my spot. I was doing just fine until my last turn, when I noticed the ground coming up at me a wee bit quicker than I was used to. I tried to flare, but the ground was still coming at me. I picked up my legs, thinking the flare would kick in and I would just barely avoid a brutal landing. No such luck.

While my canopy HAD evened out and had lost a lot of vertical speed, I was still too late in my reaction. Picking up my legs may have made the problem worse, as my knees were the first thing to hit the ground. Any type of PLF at that point, well, it didn't happen.

As soon as I impacted the Earth, I bounced and was thrown back up into the air... spun around backwards... and crashed. I remember the last thing going through my mind was, "shit!"

Shortly after coming to a rest, I tried to wiggle my toes to see check on my condition. They moved. I couldn't see any bones sticking out from anywhere. Some of my pals came over to assist.

Through what I really just attribute to dumb-luck, I somehow got up and walked (limped) away. A ripped jumpsuit, two black and blue knees and a bruised ego were among the worst casualties.

I suppose one could make a lot of statements about my incident. Some people might think I downsized too much or too quickly. I wasn't *trying* to be crazy. I was considered a conservative skydiver. I think the 1.2 wingloading I had was good. I continued to jump it over another 100 times without incident.

I realize that no incident does not equal no problem, but... I purchased the canopy based on my flying skills and conversation with people around the dz that knew me. The fact is, I easily could have done the same thing with a 170 or a 190. Maybe not. You tell me. My point is, I felt comfortable with it.

Maybe I should not have been doing a film jump. Again, I FELT ready for it. I was not trying to show off. And in fact, this is really the point of my post:

Even up until the last S-turn, there wasn't a DOUBT in my mind that I was going to make it. I never thought I was in over my head or that I could femur-in or worse. Obviously I was wrong.

I "ended" my skydiving career with 262 uneventful jumps... with this obvious one exception. I feel like my training was amazing and my gear performed as it should. I made a mistake... and was very lucky to walk away from it.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions... my feelings won't be hurt. I do have a pretty amazing video of the crash. Part of me *does* wonder if a 170 or a 190 would have had less of a recovery arc... thereby making my crash worse. Maybe I am just trying to justify my actions.. maybe not.

Anyway, I hope someone with a similar amount of (in)experience decides to leave themselves a larger margin of safety than I did. I easily could have done a ton of damage to myself and am very thankful that I did not.

The video is slowed down... just the way the guys shot it. The music is not to make light of the situation... but it makes it easier for me to watch.

For the record, I did land in the middle of the peas.

Be safe.

-Adam

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3319

[tr027 0]

yea... it's a double-edged sword you played with there. I know because I was in the same place. On the one hand it's nice to be able to do low S-turns, but if you don't watch it they suck you into complacency or lack of focus and into doing them too low (<75 ft) for even the shortest recovery arc.

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

[mattjw916 2]

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Part of me *does* wonder if a 170 or a 190 would have had less of a recovery arc... thereby making my crash worse. Maybe I am just trying to justify my actions.. maybe not.

All things being equal bigger canopies generally have a shorter and more positive recovery arc than their smaller counterparts. Your loading wasn't the problem though IMO. The problem was making s-turns and not having the experience to fly a proper pattern enabling you to land where you needed to. Whether you realized it or not, you had complete target-fixation on the peas and failed to maintain control of your canopy and return it to level flight prior to touchdown. That was the problem that I see. S-turns should never be taught (and aren't by any decent canopy instructor I know) as a method for landing on target. They are dangerous, as you learned, and are hazardous to someone coming in from behind you on approach.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[jumpwally 0]

What made you hang it up? Not that jump i hope?

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[likearock 2]

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S-turns should never be taught (and aren't by any decent canopy instructor I know) as a method for landing on target. They are dangerous, as you learned, and are hazardous to someone coming in from behind you on approach.

S-turns are not just dangerous to the person doing them. They are also dangerous to the people behind you in the pattern who can get suddenly very close at a very low altitude..

[encinoadam 0]

Matt... I agree with you 100%. Personally, I didn't feel it was a canopy issue, either... I think I could have pulled off that stunt with a wide range of parachutes. But anytime people have landing incidents, people always ask those questions (wingloading, etc)... so I thought I would answer them up front.

I agree too about not having the experience to fly the pattern to where I needed to land... and using the s-turns to compensate for the lack of knowledge. I take full responsibility for using the s-turns that low. I was never taught to do that.

I definitely didn't realize the target fixation then... but I do now. That's one of those lessons that can be really cheap or really expensive.

Thanks for your input.

[phoenixlpr 0]

Well. It sound like my accident where I broke my ankle on a Nav220. I had a slow approach with 1/4 breaks and I've released my breaks ~20-25m. The ground was coming really fast......and crash.

I don't think it was a S-turn in your case. I vote for bad input/low turn.

[Dougiefresh 0]

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While my canopy HAD evened out

No, it hadn't. The video clearly shows you're still in a turn.

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I vote for bad input/low turn.

Ditto. I'll leave the lecturing for others.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. --Douglas Adams

[phoenixlpr 0]

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Ditto. I'll leave the lecturing for others.

The ground had done it already.

My test was honored by a steel plate(medical).

[FrogNog 1]

I had a similar experience, except basically all the contributing factors were my own fault, and I had 150 more jumps, and I broke my fibular instead of just bruising myself.

So after I was healed I went back to my first canopy size, jumped a lot more, and now I'm downsizing just...one...size.

Some of my friends are asking why I'm going to a 170 when, given my weight (I lost weight) and jump numbers I should be fine on a 150. (The size I broke my leg on.)

I think the biggest sin I committed (and paid for) was downsizing two sizes. 5 or 10 jumps on the intermediate size just weren't enough to do anything to my skills and perception of flight on a two-sizes-smaller, .2 lbs / sf higher wingloaded canopy. I even had a couple of "whoa, this seems too fast!" landings on the 150 that should have scared some sense into me but they didn't.

Now anytime I jump and I'm really comfortable under canopy, I'm worried. I'm worried that everything is _not_ hunky-dory, I'm just allowing the "critical concern" portion of my brain to be lazy.

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

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While my canopy HAD evened out

No, it hadn't. The video clearly shows you're still in a turn.

Semantics. I meant that it evened out from where it was. Clearly the canopy wasn't done evening out or I would not have hit the ground so hard. Clearly the canopy had come pretty close to evening out, or I'd be femured or dead.

-ac

[Ron 10]

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Maybe I should not have been doing a film jump. Again, I FELT ready for it. I was not trying to show off. And in fact, this is really the point of my post:

Even up until the last S-turn, there wasn't a DOUBT in my mind that I was going to make it. I never thought I was in over my head or that I could femur-in or worse. Obviously I was wrong.

And thats the problem. Success is a muther.

You do pretty well, and then you think its cake. Then one bites you. Up to almost the second you hit, you think you have it made.

Ever wonder why we always preach safety and people ignore us? Its only that one second before you hit that you realize that there is a problem. Many of us have seen it so often...We see it long before that one jump.

I should know. My 350 ish jump I creamed in. I thought I was going to have the swoop of the year till I hit. Others saw it coming long before I got on the plane. I didn't see it till I hit.

One group told me to get a 97 Stiletto, one said to get the 120. If I had listend to the 1st group, I might have died.

The 1st group was my friends. They told me I would be fine. The second group was John LeBlanc, and some old pain in the ass jumpers that were always preaching saftey.

Glad I listened to the second group.

The point is:

YOU often think you are "good to go"
Your friends often don't know either, or you avoid those who don't agree with your self image.

Sorry you left, glad to see you did it on your terms.

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

[Peej 0]

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Its only that one second before you hit that you realize that there is a problem.

I remember my "oh shit, i'm low!" moment with crystal-like clarity. It happened exactly three seconds before i snapped my fib and tib.

Nice post Ron.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[billvon 2,997]

>I thought I was going to have the swoop of the year till I hit.

Jack Gramley, the former manager at Perris, spoke to dozens of people who broke their ankles/legs/ribs/backs doing hook turns at Perris. He told me that every single one said basically the same thing - "I thought I had it." These were people from 20 jumps to thousands of jumps, and all of them had done something similar before and gotten away with it.

[lug 4]

Bummer must have hurt. I am not going to bash anyone only the skill so this is my opinion. I don’t encourage, condone, or teach the S-turn skill, there is nothing safe about it in achieving accuracy for competition or landing in a tight spot.


I have witnessed the exact scenario played in the video at every DZ I have called home or visited in the past ten years with some bad and fortunate results. S-truns make no sense at all, and I don’t understand why people do it or why it is condoned by many others. I have been behind people doing the dance of the S-turn and three things happen. First, the jumper is not flying a predictable landing pattern confusing others, second they are slowing the landing pattern down, everyone behind them, forcing action to be taken in avoid collection, and third they run the risk of injury from a low turn.


Sure it bleeds some alt but so does sinking the canopy with better results. People learn and teach sinking a canopies effective, it is a life saving skill. S-tunes won’t help you if forced to land in a tight spot.

Memento Mori

[FrogNog 1]

How does sinking the canopy not slow the pattern down, resulting in the people behind them "catching up"?

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[kelpdiver 2]

it's at least predictable. With differing canopy speeds, people already know how to go around. But when that persom makes a violent lateral movement (as I ran into once while visiting a new DZ), little crazier.

(that said, the directive at that particular DZ was to do neither, and just go long as there was plenty of space in that direction. No space short. )

[Liemberg 0]

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How does sinking the canopy not slow the pattern down, resulting in the people behind them "catching up"?

If you did that (sinking), I could be next to you within 10 meters distance and there's no harm done.
If I'm 'overtaking' and you go "ZIG", while I predicted you to go "zag", we might end up inside eachothers lines @ 300 feet.

Not good.

"Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci
A thousand words...

[lug 4]

Your right, it can slow the landing pattern down if one is following directly behind, but when following a sinking canopy that is fly straight it is a more predictable approach. The person that is following can see that they are overtaking the sinking canopy, check air space, left right and below, and change their flight path.

Imagine for a moment four canopies flying a straight in final and the LZ is wide enough to land four canopies abreast with out disturbing each other. Now lets say one of those four canopies makes is turn from base to final ahead of the other three and imagine them S-turning on final. What will happen to the other three?

Memento Mori

[phoenixlpr 0]

***Imagine for a moment four canopies flying a straight in final and the LZ is wide enough to land four canopies abreast with out disturbing each other. Now lets say one of those four canopies makes is turn from base to final ahead of the other three and imagine them S-turning on final. What will happen to the other three?

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I don't think that you can not recognize an S-turn on final. They all land into the wind.
So, if you can recognize it, what is your problem? If he is overshooting his target why do you have to overshoot too? I think swoopers can mess up more with pattern than S-turners.

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[Remster 30]

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I don't think that you can not recognize an S-turn on final. They all land into the wind.

Scary....

If I'm coming in, on final, and am slighly lower and to the side and behind some guy who decides to do an S turn, I wouldnt be happy.

The swooper who does a 270 is much easier to spot, this comming form a guy who does 90s to final.

Remster

[kelpdiver 2]

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I don't think that you can not recognize an S-turn on final. They all land into the wind.
So, if you can recognize it, what is your problem?/reply]

You recognize it when you're suddenly right behind the guy instead of well to the side. It ain't cool, and certainly not very safe. How do you predict when a guy will chose to do that instead of going long like he is supposed to?

I still have trouble reading what the swoopers are going to do, but I usually know where they want to go, and keep that vertical airspace open. (they also tend to pass me on the way down with their higher wingload)

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[phoenixlpr 0]

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If I'm coming in, on final, and am slighly lower and to the side and behind some guy who decides to do an S turn, I wouldnt be happy.

Back to the roots. Who is doing S-turns on final? Swoopers have their accuracy without this basic trick. So we can suspect off-students or intermediates. Experienced fly under high WL. So where is the problem, why you 1000+ guys are complaining? You can almost fly around someone with low WL.
Know you jump buddies so you'll know what can you expect from them.

[thepollster 0]

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If I'm coming in, on final, and am slighly lower and to the side and behind some guy who decides to do an S turn, I wouldnt be happy.

Back to the roots. Who is doing S-turns on final? Swoopers have their accuracy without this basic trick. So we can suspect off-students or intermediates. Experienced fly under high WL. So where is the problem, why you 1000+ guys are complaining? You can almost fly around someone with low WL.
Know you jump buddies so you'll know what can you expect from them.

Not all experienced people fly a high WL. Even if they did, when you are at a DZ with multiple planes doing multiple passes, s-turns get really scary/dangerous. If you jump at a single, small plane DZ and are in the habit of s-turns for accuracy, how will you break the habit when in traffic at a boogie?

[popsjumper 2]

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...S-truns make no sense at all, and I don’t understand why people do it or why it is condoned by many others. I have been behind people doing the dance of the S-turn and three things happen. First, the jumper is not flying a predictable landing pattern confusing others, second they are slowing the landing pattern down, everyone behind them, forcing action to be taken in avoid collection, and third they run the risk of injury from a low turn.

Sure it bleeds some alt but so does sinking the canopy with better results. People learn and teach sinking a canopies effective, it is a life saving skill. S-tunes won’t help you if forced to land in a tight spot.

Thanks, lug...makes a lot more sense than zig-zag all over the pattern with canopies behind you regardless of skill-level of the followers.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239