Gearing up before getting in (was: Tandem Fatality)

[AggieDave 6]

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I can be somewhat of a prick when it comes to helmets on during take-off and roll and up to at least 1-1500' before removing it. My prickness was validated when a friend and former student was ejected from the plane crash while wearing her helmet. Instead of having reconstructive surgery to the right side of her face, she needed a new helmet.

I leave my helmet attatched to my chest strap. I've seemingly always did this. When the engine quit at 200ft a few years ago, I put my helmet on for the off field landing.

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

[lilchief 1]

I've heard a story about a cameraman who got on a load and was going to film a tandemjumper. Aparently he got on the plane without his rig and jumped. After the exit the tandem jumper or student pointet at himand looking freaked out. he then realised that his rig was somewhere else then on his back. He took of his helmet and waved good-bye to the camera...

It sound fishy(actually, I hope it is'n true) and I want to see if it's true or just hoaks. Anybody heard of such incident?

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return." - Da Vinci
www.lilchief.no

[NickDG 23]

It's true except for the TM or student noticing it and the bit about talking off the helmet and waving, sheesh, where'd that baloney come from?

I saw the video. He didn't realize he wasn't wearing a rig until he reached back for his pilot chute after the tandem deployed. He was wearing an older style video camera with a separate recording deck worn on the chest. This deck had it's own harness and that's probably why no one in the plane noticed he wasn't wearing a rig.

It is said later he'd been doing a lot of camera jumps that day with fast turn-a-rounds and he was mentally very tired . . .

All jumpers of the day were shocked this could occur and even to this day new jumpers find it hard to believe.

NickD BASE 194

[artistcalledian 0]

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>Not being ready to exit the plane immediately upon reaching a jumpable
>height endangers your own and more importantly the lifes of the people
>around you.

You think that's bad? I was once on a load where a jumper jumped in with an unclosed container and proceeded to try to close the container as we climbed. And we _did_ have a problem on that load. He had fortunately just finished packing when the problem arose.

i'm nervous enough as it is, if i'd seen that on a lift i was on, i'd have been shouting my head off that i was scared out of my mind by his actions

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[artistcalledian 0]

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For those of you who do NOT put on your helmets for at least take off roll and initial climb,

I can be somewhat of a prick when it comes to helmets on during take-off and roll and up to at least 1-1500' before removing it. My prickness was validated when a friend and former student was ejected from the plane crash while wearing her helmet. Instead of having reconstructive surgery to the right side of her face, she needed a new helmet.

we have to have our helmats on at manifesting up to take off, we can take them off at about 2k feet, but we have to put them back on at around 9k... once we start the protracted handshakes LOL

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[Zoter 0]

I think that relates just to students and not licensed skydivers at Langar.

[artistcalledian 0]

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I think that relates just to students and not licensed skydivers at Langar.

aye, i think you're right

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drive it like you stole it and f*ck the police

[riggerrob 643]

As Dave DeWolf explained - (May 1988) a few months after the accident - the photographer had just finished working night shift.
And this was not the first time ... a few weeks earlier, he tried to board the airplane without a parachute, but some one caught him.
The day of the fatality, he walked to the airplane before everyone else and sat - in a dark corner - with his back against the cockpit bulkhead. He remained seated until his tandem was halfway out the door.
It is also rumored that he had some personal problems, and some suspect that this was a suicide.

[phoenixlpr 0]

Thanks for clearing up this urban legend!

[NickDG 23]

I'm not so sure about the suicide angle. Why take a chance on being spotted gearless on the plane when he could have worn a rig and just hummed it in like Harley did?

And if you watch the video it seemed pretty clear he reached for his pilot chute. The only explanation would be maybe an insurance deal, (was their any?) but most people who commit suicide want people to know they intentionally did away with themselves . . .

I suppose we'll never really know.

NickD BASE 194

[flyangel2 2]

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For those of you who do NOT put on your helmets for at least take off roll and initial climb,

I can be somewhat of a prick when it comes to helmets on during take-off and roll and up to at least 1-1500' before removing it. My prickness was validated when a friend and former student was ejected from the plane crash while wearing her helmet. Instead of having reconstructive surgery to the right side of her face, she needed a new helmet.

Aren't you glad when you and I are both on the same plane giving those without their helmets on for take off, the evil eye

More then I can count, I have ordered people to get their helmet on or strap it in. It's not that I'm worried about their head, I'm worried about myself. Yes, I'm a selfish bitch!

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[NickDG 23]

>>I have ordered people to get their helmet on or strap it in.<<

I've always thought some are too anal about the above. If it comes to the point where a flying helmet comes into play, you are going to be in the midst of a much bigger problem . . .

NickD BASE 194

[marks 0]

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However, sitting on the floor of the plane often loosens your legstraps

it shouldnt, not even in the slightest.

with that being said, the harness with articulation is going to "feel" loose on the plane because of your body position, but it should stay right where you put it. if it doesnt, have a rigger, "master rigger" take a look at it...

sorry if this has already been said, i have not read the thread..

[marks 0]

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>>I have ordered people to get their helmet on or strap it in.<<

I've always thought some are too anal about the above. If it comes to the point where a flying helmet comes into play, you are going to be in the midst of a much bigger problem . . .

NickD BASE 194

then you havent been in that situation. buckle your helmet to your head or your rig, no need for floating shit in the cabin in any circumstance.

"much bigger problem"? ya, your probably right. no reason to add to it though.

[popsjumper 2]

I agree, Mark...I never could understand why anyone would think that loose stuff flying around would be OK, regardless of the situation....????HUH????

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

[Scrumpot 1]

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sorry if this has already been said, i have not read the thread..

Actually Mark, in all the "din" since posting on this & Kristi's reply to my post, no it hadn't! ...Good catch, and good advice!

Same as how loose some chest straps can "appear" if the jumper is sitting on the floor leaning back and pushing their rig significantly up their back. If the strap has been properly routed around the tensioner and the end secured in the first place, it should stay relatively where you had set it. I will always say something to somebody I see with a routing "issue" to their chest strap (and in 11yrs now I have actually seen -unfortunately- several), but I will never say anything to anyone about "tightness". As that to me, is a personal preference thing. ...How many times have you seen a low time jumper comment on "wow that chest strap sure seems to be awfully loose" when one is positioned as I have described above?

Just yet another "angle" (for some of you out there) to think about.

Blue Skies,
-Grant

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[flyangel2 2]

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>>I have ordered people to get their helmet on or strap it in.<<

I've always thought some are too anal about the above. If it comes to the point where a flying helmet comes into play, you are going to be in the midst of a much bigger problem . . .

NickD BASE 194

Your profile says you have been in the sport for 30 years. Have you forgotten about the Perris crash. If I recall correct, there were bodies and helmets flying all over the place. I thought we learned from that accident.

Edit to add: I see you do know about the Perris Accident.
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1864554;#1864554 So why then would you think it's okay to have helmets flying around?

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[NickDG 23]

When I got to the crash site the Otter's tail was sticking almost straight up in the air. My girlfriend Anne Helliwell was first on the scene and she was pulling dead friends out of the way trying to find live friends, but there weren't any. What killed those sixteen people was impact and sitting between the legs of the people behind them. The four who survived were in the back and landed on top of the pile, the rest were crushed and worse, and so much worse, I won't put it into words here.

Even wearing seatbelts (the floor mounted type) would not have helped as everyone would have slid backwards out of them. Most Otter operations went to bench seating with seatbelts after that. But in the same type of crash that would probably just snap your spine. The best thing is probably hooking the seatbelt around one aft-wise main lift web so as to distribute the shock load using your harness.

I'm pretty sure no one died at Perris that day from flying helmets . . .

Besides, I don't get using a helmet and not wearing it for takeoff anyway.

NickD
BASE 194

[flyangel2 2]

I'm sorry you had to witness that. My sister was in the ER when those people where brought in.


Okay, we have learned our lesson on how to attach and wear a seatbelt correctly, let's learn our lesson on flying objects in an emergency landing.

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I'm pretty sure no one died at Perris that day from flying helmets . . .

Even if you could prove that, I still don't think having a helmet flying at me is a good position to be in. Not to mention the one friend Keith typed about. Got thrown from the aircraft, and only had to replace her helmet, and not her face.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[tbrown 26]

You think that's bad? I was once on a load where a jumper jumped in with an unclosed container and proceeded to try to close the container as we climbed. And we _did_ have a problem on that load. He had fortunately just finished packing when the problem arose.