First Reserve Ride

[slcooper 0]

I'm embarrased to post this but I am so that others can learn from it. I had my first reserve ride on Saturday at Skydive Spaceland because I failed to deploy my PC in freefall. I was on a 2 way with another newly licensed jumper and had an uneventful freefall, broke at 5K, tracked, and planned to pull at 4K. I reached for my hackey and touched it with my fingertips but could not grab it. I reset and tried again only to get the same results. At this point I started to panick, check my altimeter and I was at 2,500. For a last attempt, I reached behind my back with my left hand, pressed my container against my body, and attempted to deploy my main with my right hand. These actions caused my head to duck and as a result I found myself head down at 2,000 ft. At this point I was thinking silver was my best chance, bellied out, and pulled my reserve handle. I settled in the saddle at 1,000 feet, very shaken up, but had a perfect landing on my PD 218 reserve.

I never thought anything like this would happen to me, at least for not being able to find my hackey, but it did! I'm thankful to my instructors for teaching me what to do in this circumstance. I walked up to the DZ with my reserve in my hand and my main in place in my container, nothing wrong with it. I fully expected to get my ass chewed for doing something wrong but all I heard from people was that I did the right thing. All I can say is that my next few jumps will be nothing but practice handle touches and deploying above 6K, until I regain confidence in being albe to deploy my main safely.

Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Cause the door was open!

[pchapman 279]

I'll say the standard stuff and hit the obvious points:

Good going; you got a canopy deployed; you learned something; you should be more confident and relaxed for the next time.

Though I also trust you can see that even with the high initial pull altitude, altitude flies, and it is easy to try a little too long and get low quick. If an experienced jumper with a fast canopy pulls near the minimum limits, it isn't so surprising if they end up open at 1000' after a mal. But given that you are newer to this all, and started a lot higher, it is getting low. Remember how many tries they told you to do before going to silver?
Pushing or bracing the container with the left hand can indeed be a good technique to make the right side more reachable. Do figure out why the reach was difficult: Was the harness misadjusted or not fitting well? Unfamiliarity? Handle slipping out a couple inches due to the way the PC was packed?

[slcooper 0]

Yes I remember how many times they told me to try something, TWICE, but I didn't want to be the guy who couldn't find his hackey walking up to the hanger carrying a reserve. A couple of seconds later it turned into "I don't want to be the guy who made a large crater in the runway".

I think my situation was caused by the lack of a good arch at deployment time, which would have brought my hackey closer to my hand, and a little extra material hanging out that caused the hackey to flap when I reached for it. I will be switching to a freefly hackey soon to try to solve the issue.

Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Cause the door was open!

[BillyVance 34]

You know what first reserve ride means....

BEER!!!

Oh and don't forget to give your rigger a bottle of his choice.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[HoldtheIce 0]

Glad you made it throught this day Bro! With me, each time I fuck up, I learn a little more. If you don't make mistakes and move forward….you are not learning. In an obscure way, I can’t wait to get my first reserve ride behind me.

Blue Skies Dude!

Cause they know, and so do I, The high road is hard to find
A detour to your new life, Tell all of your friends goodbye

[fasted3 0]

Could have been worse.
Good job staying alive.
Isn't it funny that in the midst of these kind of events we are thinking about what people will say?
Last weekend as I was sliding on my face into a ditch I was thinking, at least I'm behind the buildings so nobody will see this.
Unfortunately as I got up I saw the load wating to get on the plane with a perfect view my antics.
I'd rather get laughed at than be dead. It's all good.

But what do I know?

[alkiax 0]

I don't know if i had it to do over again if i would have liked to have already had a reserve ride or not, I sure wasn't looking for it when it found me thats for sure

[Airman1270 0]

.....At this point I started to panic, check my altimeter and I was at 2,500. For a last attempt, I reached behind my back...
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

This was fine. Nothing wrong with a main pull above 2000' even if it was the third try. Isn't this what those high pull altitudes are all about? You had altitude awareness and you were focused on the task at hand. I thought this was going to be another AAD story but you pulled and were under reserve at 1000'. Nothing wrong with this.

Cheers,
Jon S

[slcooper 0]

No AAD fire here, I knew it was coming in a couple of seconds but I refuse to wait for a device to save my life. I grabbed that silver handle and pulled straight down as hard as I could. I felt the spring loaded PC pop out and almost instantly a bright orange canopy was over my head, prettiest sight I have ever seen. I took a quick glance to see where my free bag was floating and then looked to see who was watching. ?Surprisingly no one saw it but a bunch of wuffos who didn't know what just happened.

Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Cause the door was open!

[regulator 0]

I had my first reserve ride as a student in 07 at Spaceland. Aupon deployment of the main it started spining...noticed one of the suspension lines was wrapped over the front of the canopy inducing the turn to the left. I was going to try and clear it by pumping the brakes but I was afraid of cutting away and forgeting my hands in the toggles so I just cut away. I had to explain what happened to the other jumpers, but most importantly the reserve deployed (via rsl before I could wrap my hands around the silver handle) and I walked away unscathed. I was up on the next load to get over the bubbleguts feeling I had and was fine. In a month or so when I'm caught up on my bills from being unemployed, I plan on being at the dz...perhaps we can get some jumps in togther. Nice to see you payed attention to the instructors and are able to jump again.

[finch 0]

good job man , ive personally seen that happen twice and im sure it wont be the last. U walked away and all that matters !

"Never go full retard"

[airathanas 0]

It's good to read that you followed emergency procedures and was able to save your life.

I'm going to add my 2 cents in here: Remember that 2500' is decision altitude. Meaning, that if you need to have a good canopy over your head by then. Instead, you saw that it was 2500' and you decided to reach once again instead of going straight for silver. Then again, it is very easy for me to make judgments when I haven't experienced this situation myself.

Glad to hear that you walked away with no injuries and that you didn't depend on your AAD (although you came close!). Congrats!!

http://3ringnecklace.com/

[fencebuster 7]

I had the same thing happen to me at 400+ jumps. New rig, it shifted in FF and at pull time I could touch the hackey but not get my fingers around it. Like you I made three unsuccessful tries and went to silver. I had that same thought about bringing my main back in the container with my reserve out but I quickly decided that being alive was better than being cool.

Good work. Anytime you survive something like that you become a better and more heads up skydiver.

Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208
AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I
MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger
Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

[BrianM 1]

Quote

I had that same thought about bringing my main back in the container with my reserve out but I quickly decided that being alive was better than being cool.

This is the second comment in this thread along these lines. I really gotta speak up here, because you guys have this all backwards.

Going in because you didn't deploy either canopy is NOT cool.
Having an AAD save your life for you because you messed around with a problem for too long is NOT cool.
Opening really low on your main because you got lucky and managed to get it out right before going in is NOT cool.

Being alive and well because you dealt correctly with a problem IS cool. VERY cool! There is nothing uncool about deploying and landing a reserve (with or without a packed main still on your back).

You weren't faced with a choice of "alive or cool". You were faced with a choice of "alive AND cool", or "dead and NOT cool"! Easy choice to make!

"It's amazing what you can learn while you're not talking." - Skydivesg

[fencebuster 7]

I completely agree with you. It was a stupid thought in free fall -- I recognized that. The most important thing is to be able to skydive again. If the Reserve didn't have a purpose, we wouldn't be jumping with them. I have no hesitation to cut-away or use my reserve in the first instance if things are not going right and the procedures call for it. It was just a crazy thought as I am reaching as hard as I could for my hackey and just grazing it x3.

Charlie Gittins, 540-327-2208
AFF-I, Sigma TI, IAD-I
MEI, CFI-I, Senior Rigger
Former DZO, Blue Ridge Skydiving Adventures

[slcooper 0]

Quote

I completely agree with you. It was a stupid thought in free fall -- I recognized that. The most important thing is to be able to skydive again. If the Reserve didn't have a purpose, we wouldn't be jumping with them. I have no hesitation to cut-away or use my reserve in the first instance if things are not going right and the procedures call for it. It was just a crazy thought as I am reaching as hard as I could for my hackey and just grazing it x3.

Same here! I couldn't control was was going through my mind at that point, just stating what I happened to be thinking.

Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Cause the door was open!

[The_Don 0]

. I will be switching to a freefly hackey soon to try to solve the issue.

[BrianM 1]

Quote

Quote

I completely agree with you. It was a stupid thought in free fall -- I recognized that. The most important thing is to be able to skydive again. If the Reserve didn't have a purpose, we wouldn't be jumping with them. I have no hesitation to cut-away or use my reserve in the first instance if things are not going right and the procedures call for it. It was just a crazy thought as I am reaching as hard as I could for my hackey and just grazing it x3.

Same here! I couldn't control was was going through my mind at that point, just stating what I happened to be thinking.

I figured as much, and just to be clear, I wasn't criticizing either of you. My comment was aimed more at those who may find themselves in a similar situation in the future. Lots of new jumpers hang out here, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to mention that there is nothing wrong with landing with a packed main in this situation - because people have spent the rest of their lives trying to deploy their main!

Hey, I landed with a packed main myself (almost 15 years ago), so it MUST be cool - oh, wait.... nevermind!

But yeah, it is funny what goes through your mind at times like this - often several thoughts at the same time. I had a reserve ride after a PCIT last year, one of the thoughts going through my head as I reached for silver was "No! I don't want to waste my reserve pack job!" Funniest part is it was due for a repack anyway, and as a rigger it doesn't even cost me anything.

Here's a non-skydiving one: A couple years ago, a couple friends and I were in my truck while it was sliding down the interstate on its roof. I had three distinct thoughts going through my head at the same time: 1. I can't believe this is happening! 2. I hope we don't get hurt or killed. 3. No! Not my truck!

Anyway, congrats to both of you for dealing with the situation!

"It's amazing what you can learn while you're not talking." - Skydivesg

[slcooper 0]

Quote

. I will be switching to a freefly hackey soon to try to solve the issue.

Please explain this. How the hell will it fix the problem you had ?