Stupid things I have done

[Yossarian 0]

#19, 15sec delay (raps jump, big canopy), came in for landing, lost sight of the arrow, had a bit of a brain-fry moment, ended up taking a crosswinder in 12kt winds on the runway in front of a taxiing aircraft, ripped the dz's jumpsuit from ankle to hip, ripped my leg up (flesh wounds only), canopy completely immersed in massive puddle, completely wrapped myself up in the lines on the 2nd bounce and made it worse trying to get out the way of the plane, grounded for 2 weeks :)

[bch7773 0]

I get done JMing a load of students I just taught the first jump class to. I come in for a 90 turn landing and see one of the other instructors holding out his hand for a high-five landing. I decide this will impress my students, and I wait longer before I pull off the turn. I end up about 3 feet too low, smack the ground hard, leave a rut, bounce back up, flew about 40 feet forward and hit again (luckily in the peas this time). My students are shitting their pants and the experienced jumpers are running out to me, yelling for me to stay still. I remember thinking after I bounced that I must have just femured in.

End result: A bruised and battered body and a LOT of bruised pride. I was very very lucky I could walk away from that. And all because I wanted to look cool on landing.

MB 3528, RB 1182

[dorbie 0]

Wasn't ready to PLF on a jump when my canopy stalled & collapsed in wind shear on final.

Probably cost me an ankle tib/fib.

[mjosparky 4]

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Probably cost me an ankle tib/fib

Probably, how do probably ...... an ankle tib/fib?

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[georgerussia 0]

On #21 thought I was ready to pack without supervision, and jump my own packjob. Twisted risers followed by cutaway, lost reserve ripcord and freebag. Understood the purpose of line check.

On #35 went to jump with not cocked pilot chute even though I remembered I did cock it before repack. When asked for gear check, the kill line was found white (it is very light green when it is cocked, so it still was not clear), but there was a good chance it was uncocked . So we pulled it out, and checked - it was not cocked. Off the load, went back, unpacked it, and followed an advice of experienced jumper to color the kill line (so now there is no white, only green and red, and everything is clear). Now I check PC four times during repack.

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

[dorbie 0]

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Probably cost me an ankle tib/fib

Probably, how do probably ...... an ankle tib/fib?

Can't be 100% on the alternate outcome, it was a quite a fall and although I didn't PLF the impact wasn't terribly distributed, in fact it was mostly on my knees/femurs I thought at the time, and they weren't injured. It was only after I tried to move that I realized my ankle was broken. I'm almost certain it would have been a better outcome, but you never know. Good boots would probably have helped on that one too.

Another factor was not bisecting the angle between the two switching windsock directions, so I suppose that gets into the other mistake on that jump.

Not staying on the ground with the indicated wind conditions (not paying enough attention to the wind making the decision) would have been the first.

So I suppose there's a chain of errors on that jump, but we've all probably made most of them at some point or other and walked away unscathed. Live & learn.

[Thijs 0]

Jump 33 last saturday. Excercices in the air went very good, but the landing was, well, far from very good.
There was zero wind that day. I was going to try to land a bit accurate, close to the cirkel in the grass. I had done this on the 4 previous jumps two week earlier and it went pretty well. Big difference was that there was a lot more wind that day.
I come in for landing and at a certain point I realise it is going to be difficult to hit the target in a safe way (I found I was too low to do more stearing toward the target). I decide to continu flying in the direction we were supposed to land in.
Some time later I start to realise that I might overshoot the landing area. At that time I also hear our plane on the runway or taxiway or in the air comming back. At about 200ft I'm starting to get realy concerned about overshooting the landing area and because our plane was on the runway I didn't want to cross it. I decided to start flaring, hoping that this would slow me down enough. (This is a picture of the landing area of our dropzone http://users.skynet.be/pcvmoorsele/moorsele_dropzone.jpg
I was flying toward the bottom of the picture).
After couple of seconds I realise that the flare will stop me from flying over the landing area. I continue flaring, and performed a PLF on landing. Rolled in the grass and walked away without a scratch (and a bit dirty rig).

Lesson learned: be more concerned about landing the parachute in the first place and be less concerned about hitting a target.
Altough I had just better landed without trying to hit the target there were some smart things I did (I think anyway )
-Decided to stop trying to get to the target when I saw it was going to be difficult to hit it in a safe way.
-Not crossing the runway at low altitude when you hear/see a plane nearby
-Not doing any low turns
-Once begin flaring, continuing flare untill you are on the ground
-Performing a plf when necessary.

Other lesson learned: this was my first PLF that was a 'neccesary one'. It might be good idea to do once and a while a plf, even if it is not really neccesary, so you know you are capable of doing one when it is really neccesary. People will laugh with this, but it might safe my femur some day...

[shaiziel 0]

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People will laugh with this, but it might safe my femur some day...

Gotta love evaluating how much pride it's worth to increase your skill in not breaking yourself.

----------------------------------------
6.8% - Almost there!

[popsjumper 2]

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...Other lesson learned: this was my first PLF that was a 'neccesary one'. It might be good idea to do once and a while a plf, even if it is not really neccesary, so you know you are capable of doing one when it is really neccesary. People will laugh with this, but it might safe my femur some day...

I won't comment on the approach story but this part I will.

You are spot on about doing PLFs....those that would laugh at you are sorry motherfuckers and should be kicked in the ass....HARD.

(sorry for the rant)

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

[divegoddess 0]

Dude! You're landing area is friggin huge!!!

[Thijs 0]

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Dude! You're landing area is friggin huge!!!

Yes indeed, and we have a field that is equaly large on the opposite side of the runway
It is just that everyone wants to land in the space between the hangar, the cirkel, runway and street.

[dorbie 0]

I tracked right back up jump run just after completing my AFF jumps.

I even thought it was pretty cool watching a 4-way zip past, and I suppose it was.

I soon learned that this was not the best way to end a skydive.

[darkwing 5]

Held a 9-way to 1800 ft waiting for #10 to get in. I got open about 800 ft as I recall. Long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away). Actually in Idaho, in 1974.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[simulacra 0]

Suffering a dislocated kneecap and a fractured fibula when trying not to pay for riding the subway :)

[waltappel 1]

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Held a 9-way to 1800 ft waiting for #10 to get in. I got open about 800 ft as I recall. Long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away). Actually in Idaho, in 1974.

Well, did #10 get in?

Walt

[kenneth21441 0]

it is great to be humble when one does stupid things.

if we are to do stupid things it takes a tuff live technige.

I know that from my every jump.... LOL

from birth to now...

Kenneth Potter
FAA Senior Parachute Rigger
Tactical Delivery Instructor (Jeddah, KSA)
FFL Gunsmith

[bob.dino 1]

Borrowed a rig. Opened the container to shorten the main closing loop before jumping it. Dithered about repacking it completely. Left it for a while. Closed it without repacking it. Jumped it. One riser was twisted through the other. Nearly chopped it.

My fault? The rig owner's fault? Dunno.

[darkwing 5]

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Held a 9-way to 1800 ft waiting for #10 to get in. I got open about 800 ft as I recall. Long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away). Actually in Idaho, in 1974.

Well, did #10 get in?

Walt

I believe he did--Herbie was reliable as long as he had his morning beer.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[wmw999 2,445]

Was in a night women's way (probably 7 of us) still at 2400, waiting for the 8th to make it in and make it official.

No, she didn't make it in. Fortunately, none of us went in.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Jill_UK 0]

*braces for "perhaps you should take up bowling" Posts*

well there was that time i broke my pelvis in 7 places in an accuracy competition, or the time i crashed into a tree (twice), or that time i hit a concrete wall, or the time i got grounded for not flaring on my entire AFF course, or the time i did a downwinder in 30 knot winds, you get the idea

oh well, i've made it to 300 jumps somehow hehe...

[nerd137 0]

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The local skygod comes walking by me sitting in the packing area and throws his rig at me and says "New fuck, pack this".

That shit actually happens?

[caspar 0]

well i thought id add one of my own stories... one where when i landed all i kept thinking was.. IM A FUCKING DUMBASS.

empuria this august, wasnt jumping as much as i wanted because of the weather and the clouds had been rolling in during the day. the cloud base was at roughly 5,500 ft (im comfortable with that). got in the blue porter (which doesnt have GPS as far as i know) with 2 friends - the plan being doing a 3 way way sit, exiting with 2 hanging on the strut and the third jumping out.

well on the climb to altitude everyone was looking at eachother nervously, apart from a thin layer at i think around 8,000 it was solid cloud up to 13,000ft (the pilot had to go higher than the 12500 standard just to get above the cloud.

the pilot then said, "err, i think this is the right place". i look at the guys nervously and everyone in the plane and think, fuck it, it'll be fine. hanging on the strut with daryl he lets go first, he disappears after about 3 seconds - completely lost. im in sit trying to stay nice and stable worrying about ifan who jumped out straight after me. we were miles apart at pull time (half way through the jump i saw daryl in the thin layer of no cloud, a spec miles away - i dont backslide in sit (anymore) but i think i was because i was looking my legs trying to stay super stable because of ifan above me) and the guys said that the other people on the plane pulled very close to them.

to cut a long story short, if we'd jumped out a bit earlier we wouldve of been very close to the sea and not knowing where you are or where anyone else is is damn unnerving to say the least.

already learnt my lessons from that jump.

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."

[grue 1]

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being immensely stupid, this is fairly low, around a 2-3, because I actually put a little thought into it, but nonetheless...

Eloy Holiday Boogie 2005:

One of the last days of the boogie, one of the first days with any wind. Just completed a jump with monkeycndo and skysprite, opened a few hundred feet lower than them and had the highest wingload of the first group of the load, so I expected to set the pattern. I went for the E-W main landing area with a wind out of the north, setting up for a cross wind landing from the east. As I set up on my final, I saw somebody on a pocket rocket spiral down to the other side of the main landing area and get ready to land from the west, thereby coming right at me!

Well, I only had about 80-odd jumps at the time, and I knew the legend of Burke™, so I decided I didn't want to land the opposite direction, even if I technically was on my final approach before that guy. I had a choice: Break right and land upwind, into the dirt, or break left, and land downwind into the grass. I was, again, at about 80-odd jumps, loaded at a 1.25 with about 30ish jumps on the canopy, and somehow came to the conclusion that the grass seemed more appealing.

Wow, that seemed like a fast landing. Stood up the landing (with grass stains on the soles of my shoes..), just in time to look and see everyone else from the load coming my way under canopy. Seems they'd all set up for an upwind landing, like smart people do.

Fortunately I was far enough ahead of them timewise so they really "reset the pattern", I was on the ground for the better part of a minute before they touched down, but I still felt like a shithead. Monkeycndo was worried that I was going to crash land, too, knowing it was a downwind on an aggressive canopy load for my jump numbers.

The worst part is that afterwards, someone told me in a situation like that, I could have just continued my landing in the main area as long as I wasn't actually lined up for a head-on collision

cavete terrae.

[Joellercoaster 6]

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the time i crashed into a tree (twice)

The first time I read this sentence, I thought, "how did she hit the tree twice in one go?"

Never mind, I get there in the end.

Was it the same tree?

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[Ron 10]

Bump...Cause of of this shits funny.

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