I am fallible (and the slo-mo button works)

[livendive 8]

With low turns being the leading cause of fatalities these days, I've been trying to teach all my my students about the slo-mo button. The basic idea is to drill them from day one that the proper response to things going south while close to the ground is to flare first. From that position they are set up to do a braked turn, and if time doesn't allow such a turn, at least they'll be travelling slower when they hit whatever it is that has spooked them. One of my oft used phrases about skydiving is that there is no pause button. With that in mind, I refer to this "flare first" approach as a slo-mo button. It'll slow things down, give you a little more time to decide what to do, and put you in an advantageous position for taking action once you decide on a path forward. I've also tried to drill the same thing into my head. I've done the panic turn thing once (luckily without dramatic injury) and have been wondering whether repeating this enough times would ingrain it in my head so that the slo-mo button becomes instinctual.

I screwed up somehow this weekend and found out that I do now flare first. We were doing a 3-way birdman jump and thus landing well after everyone else. I was a little high on a guy in front of me and wanted to front riser in. It looked like he was going kind of long so there shouldn't be any issues. A little right toggle stab followed by a left front riser put me into a moderate dive and I came around about 120 degrees. I realize at about 60 or 70 feet, while arc-ing out, that the guy in front of me is lower and coming up shorter than I expected. Although not in the corner, I instantly went to half-brakes and aborted. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't done that I'd have "docked" on him during my surf. Instead, things slowed down. I didn't panic turn away from him, I let up a little and just watched him very closely with quarter to half brakes on. "He's coming down, I'm going level to maybe a little up but not so much that I have to worry about his burble. I can still brake turn away if need be, here comes the ground, edge a little right, finish flare." I landed maybe 3-4 feet behind him at almost exactly the same time. It was close to being ugly and I'm pretty sure it was completely my fault. I don't know how he got there (and he didn't either when we talked about it).

The point of this? Well, I think it's important to acknowledge our mistakes. It's easy in skydiving to get into the "not my fault" routine and I'd rather just come out & publicly say "I screwed up". Even IF he did something wierd to put himself there (which I doubt...I think I just misjudged it), it's still my responsibility to ensure I don't pose a hazard to others. In this case, I did, without him even knowing it. Approaching from behind and below, there's no way he could be expected to see me coming and avoid me. We can also learn from our mistakes. I was low enough that a panic avoidance turn likely would have seriously injured me. The good news is that I didn't do that, and, well, the slo-mo button worked. I have yet to think of a scenario in which flaring first when things get sketchy close to the ground will worsen the situation. As best I can tell, it will almost always improve things. If you agree, maybe you should try to adopt it as one of your own "EPs".

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[mdrejhon 8]

Someone has a funny sig line to the tune "Flare before you hit an obstacle, even if you're landing on a policeman!".

(Edit: Funny, but a very important thing to remember. Also turbulence too. I automatically went to one quarter brakes during near-ground turbulence and flared from there.)

[NWFlyer 2]

Nice post, Dave... thanks for the reminder to always stay vigilant on thinking through how we'd deal with various challenging scenarios. As you reminded us, it goes beyond staying current on malfunction procedures.

And thanks, too, for being willing to say "I screwed up." That's really a great step to learn from the incident and to help other people learn.

Wow. Did I just get through an entire post to Dave without insulting him? Oh yeah, we're not in Bonfire.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[Trae 1]

Inreply to .....'The basic idea is to drill them from day one that the proper response to things going south while close to the ground is to flare first. From that position they are set up to do a braked turn, and if time doesn't allow such a turn, at least they'll be travelling slower when they hit whatever it is that has spooked them.'

Nice idea to teach them the slo mo..sounds good..certainly better than staying at full speed
However ....
Braked turns are usually done from mid-brakes not after 'flaring' .This tactic if transferred to a HP canopy could end up giving a line-twisting slapper..especially close to the ground.

Just a bit concerned here that you're teaching people that flaring is a cure all for 'heading south'. Half brakes with PLF is better than flaring too high and crunching in from a stall.
Of course we usually flare to land however once committed to a full 'flare' you aint got much else left .
If your student canopies are set up to stall(?) they could be in trouble here.
If misjudged 'whilst south' your students may end up high with nothing left except a stalled drop.

a fine line perhaps .....??