Stupid things I have done

[mjosparky 4]

uberchris

rigged up a brand new collapsible pilot chute by myself, the complete wrong way and i wondered why it was having problems cocking properly, but jumped it anyway.
after deployment of my PC, i waited about 5 seconds, grabbed my reserve handle, when it finally popped my main pin and deployed my main.
i then learned how to PROPERLY hook up a collapsible pilot chute.


been skydiving blackout drunk before. not cool, esepcially when you forget your chest strap while donning your tracking suit. never mixing booze and skydiving again, its pathetic, and a danger to yourself and everyone around you.

I would say that you are not the sharpest tool in the box. Hope you live long enough to get all that shit out of your system.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[Quagmirian 40]

I have attempted back and head up flying without coaching or briefs on kit I knew wasn't freefly friendly. The worst thing that happened was that my legstraps got a bit loose, but looking back I am becoming increasingly aware of dumb I was.

[ChuckMartin 0]

Jump 40ish I landed in a tree that was right next to a wide open field. S&TA asked me why I didn't just land in the field and I said that it would have been a downwind or cross wind landing. Then he asked me if I thought a tree landing was better.

A week later I was on a road trip with my girlfriend, now my wife, and two skydiving buddies one with about 400 jumps and the other with 14,000. First jump at Eloy, gusts to 36 We looked at each other and decided to go anyway. We had just drove 16 hours and would have jumped in a hurricane at this point. Didn't get hurt but landed off going backwards. I don't think anybody made it to the grass on that one and we left right after that and went to Perris.

[likvidskaj 0]

The first "big one" among many:

with previous 17 military static SL jumps, two years after the last one (at the time I was flying sailplanes), I did my first freefall ever on a night off-DZ jump. Completely illegal stuff, even in my country back then. I'm still proud of it but if something have happened to me, more than a few people would end up serving jail-time.


The second one was an omission I still regret:

I was in Kuala Lumpur with no BASE experience at the time and Dwain Weston suggested I should do my first jump from the KL Tower doing a 2-way with him, riding on his back on exit and than he would pull my PC. I wasn't current in skydiving at the moment and I kindly declined the offer. It was a reasonable descision but I'll never get over it.

[potatoman 0]

Not going to the WFFC.

You have the right to your opinion, and I have the right to tell you how Fu***** stupid it is.
Davelepka - "This isn't an x-box, or a Chevy truck forum"
Whatever you do, don't listen to ChrisD.

[trigger 0]

Got marriedwhich had a adverse effect on my ability to jump as often as i like.

.CHOP WOOD COLLECT WATER.

[mistercwood 287]

Yay, I get to play! Finally got back to the sky this weekend after a year off (busted my shoulder maybe an hour after finishing AFF1 last January). On stage 2, had a seriously messy exit that led to me throwing off both instructors within a few seconds. I'd been briefed that losing one instructor was acceptable, losing two meant go for your handle. Of course I kept trying to get stable to do this but wasn't exactly succeeding - did at least 3 near perfect backloops along the way though so I've got that out of the way already . Finally managed to get belly to earth and hold it long enough to get my hand on my handle, just as both instructors docked on me again. So I squeezed what I could from the dive plan into the time we had left then had an uneventful deployment.

My stupid thing was that from exit to the moment they redocked when I was about to deploy (I read 10k just as that happened), I hadn't checked my alti - I'd lost 4000ft in that time. My arms were in view the whole time I was tumbling, so there really wasn't much excuse for not at least getting a read at some stage.

You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

[Boogers 0]

mistercwood

My arms were in view the whole time I was tumbling, so there really wasn't much excuse for not at least getting a read at some stage.

Well, you also know that you lose altitude at the rate of about 1,000 feet every 5.5 seconds. So checking your altimeter in the top half of the dive isn't as important, as checking it on the bottom half. You're not going to magically hit warp speed to zoom down to 5,000 feet in just a few seconds of tumbling.

[airtwardo 7]

Boogers

***My arms were in view the whole time I was tumbling, so there really wasn't much excuse for not at least getting a read at some stage.

Well, you also know that you lose altitude at the rate of about 1,000 feet every 5.5 seconds. So checking your altimeter in the top half of the dive isn't as important, as checking it on the bottom half. You're not going to magically hit warp speed to zoom down to 5,000 feet in just a few seconds of tumbling.

Time compression during stress is real...especially in students, he should have been checking his altimeter.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[mistercwood 287]

Surprisingly I wasn't as stressed as I may have otherwise expected - I still kept catching glimpses of both instructors so I knew they were close "ish", I was mainly just trying to focus on arching and trying to get stable so either they could dock or I could pull (the video shows each time I did get belly to earth I'd drop my head, sending me into a near perfect backloop again - I think this means I get to skip stage 7? ). To be honest my internal dialogue was less fear and more facepalm - "Ok, exit's a bit tumbly, we're flapping a bit, oh there he goes, oh great there SHE goes, you twat how did you lose them BOTH? Muppet. Now fix it!"

While it was nice I didn't panic, you're entirely right that I effectively got tunnel-vision and burned through about half my working altitude before my next alti check. Lesson learned, altitude awareness is KEY...

You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

[airtwardo 7]

mistercwood

Surprisingly I wasn't as stressed as I may have otherwise expected - I still kept catching glimpses of both instructors so I knew they were close "ish", I was mainly just trying to focus on arching and trying to get stable so either they could dock or I could pull (the video shows each time I did get belly to earth I'd drop my head, sending me into a near perfect backloop again - I think this means I get to skip stage 7? ). To be honest my internal dialogue was less fear and more facepalm - "Ok, exit's a bit tumbly, we're flapping a bit, oh there he goes, oh great there SHE goes, you twat how did you lose them BOTH? Muppet. Now fix it!"

While it was nice I didn't panic, you're entirely right that I effectively got tunnel-vision and burned through about half my working altitude before my next alti check. Lesson learned, altitude awareness is KEY...

'Panic' and stress are related but for the sake of discussion here - kinda separate things.

The 'time compression' thing can happen to anyone at anytime, I've experienced it while doing high pressure demos with a busy & technical dive plan - suddenly I'm wondering 'where the time went' - adding MORE stress!

Now...in this stage of your learning is when you need to develop that strong foundation of habits regarding safety.

We've figured out that by having a mental 'checklist' of sorts... a systematic way of doing certain things the same way - in the same order - at the same time, you will pretty much automatically perform those tasks correctly regardless of the outside environmental influences.

Works for everything from packing to gear checks in the aircraft to checking your altimeter in freefall.

The really good thing is you are aware of what you did & didn't do...correction is a whole lot easier when that happens!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[CaptnCrunch 0]

Here are mine:

AFF1: Radio didnt work well (my hearing also not the best)
and flared to high, landen into my STRAIGHT LEGS and ruptured my Meniscus (i was one week down and did about 10 more AFF Jumps with that rupture and no surgery)

AFF6: Flared to low and fell forward, on my shin (now the right leg) the colours the legs had the week after went from dark red, blue yellow to unseen shades ...

After (only) 19 AFF Jumps to get SOLO cert. i was actually
a pretty "okay" Canopy Pilot - and started landing on my
feet .... i pretty much PLFed through my AFF as i was
honestly afraid to get more Leg injuries.

Jump 50: Sunset Load and Wind changed while in the Plane, we actually were informed by the Pilot of "changes in wind" but the message to us was "upper winds" - so the first person down set the wrong pattern and we all did a nice
downwind .... me not actually checking the Windsock
or missreading it - flying a normal pattern ... that was not
any different then normal ..... about 12ft above Ground i
am thinking... mhhhh THATS F*'**' FAST ... Flaring the SH**'t and sliding in on my right side. ankle bruised...

I am now at 90 Jumps, much more confident about Canopy after taking a good Canopy Class for my B.

Got my own Gear and jumped it at about Jump 75
(Safire-2 260sq) with 1100 feet snivel openings ..
they concerned me so much that i "downsized" the
slider now - (the old slider was actually a special for a 300 Pound guy) - now at least have positive openings that
dont scare the shit out of me anymore ..

more to come, i am sure ,)

[airtwardo 7]

CaptnCrunch

Here are mine:

AFF1: Radio didnt work well (my hearing also not the best)
and flared to high, landen into my STRAIGHT LEGS and ruptured my Meniscus (i was one week down and did about 10 more AFF Jumps with that rupture and no surgery)

AFF6: Flared to low and fell forward, on my shin (now the right leg) the colours the legs had the week after went from dark red, blue yellow to unseen shades ...

After (only) 19 AFF Jumps to get SOLO cert. i was actually
a pretty "okay" Canopy Pilot - and started landing on my
feet .... i pretty much PLFed through my AFF as i was
honestly afraid to get more Leg injuries.

Jump 50: Sunset Load and Wind changed while in the Plane, we actually were informed by the Pilot of "changes in wind" but the message to us was "upper winds" - so the first person down set the wrong pattern and we all did a nice
downwind .... me not actually checking the Windsock
or missreading it - flying a normal pattern ... that was not
any different then normal ..... about 12ft above Ground i
am thinking... mhhhh THATS F*'**' FAST ... Flaring the SH**'t and sliding in on my right side. ankle bruised...

I am now at 90 Jumps, much more confident about Canopy after taking a good Canopy Class for my B.

Got my own Gear and jumped it at about Jump 75
(Safire-2 260sq) with 1100 feet snivel openings ..
they concerned me so much that i "downsized" the
slider now - (the old slider was actually a special for a 300 Pound guy) - now at least have positive openings that
dont scare the shit out of me anymore ..

more to come, i am sure ,)

Nobody will ever say you're easily discouraged!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[topdocker 0]

airtwardo

***Here are mine:

AFF1: Radio didnt work well (my hearing also not the best)
and flared to high, landen into my STRAIGHT LEGS and ruptured my Meniscus (i was one week down and did about 10 more AFF Jumps with that rupture and no surgery)

AFF6: Flared to low and fell forward, on my shin (now the right leg) the colours the legs had the week after went from dark red, blue yellow to unseen shades ...

After (only) 19 AFF Jumps to get SOLO cert. i was actually
a pretty "okay" Canopy Pilot - and started landing on my
feet .... i pretty much PLFed through my AFF as i was
honestly afraid to get more Leg injuries.

Jump 50: Sunset Load and Wind changed while in the Plane, we actually were informed by the Pilot of "changes in wind" but the message to us was "upper winds" - so the first person down set the wrong pattern and we all did a nice
downwind .... me not actually checking the Windsock
or missreading it - flying a normal pattern ... that was not
any different then normal ..... about 12ft above Ground i
am thinking... mhhhh THATS F*'**' FAST ... Flaring the SH**'t and sliding in on my right side. ankle bruised...

I am now at 90 Jumps, much more confident about Canopy after taking a good Canopy Class for my B.

Got my own Gear and jumped it at about Jump 75
(Safire-2 260sq) with 1100 feet snivel openings ..
they concerned me so much that i "downsized" the
slider now - (the old slider was actually a special for a 300 Pound guy) - now at least have positive openings that
dont scare the shit out of me anymore ..

more to come, i am sure ,)

Nobody will ever say you're easily discouraged!

That is not always a positive....

top

Jump more, post less!

[CaptnCrunch 0]

airtwardo

Nobody will ever say you're easily discouraged!

lol,i cannot tell you how many
times i actually sat in the Car on that Parkinglot with tears in
my eyes calling it a day ...

For some People it just takes a little longer ..

[craddock 0]

Trusting my buddy on top to fly us properly and know when to abort the "back yard" attempt when we landed a compressed stack on x braced(I was under 84)

That spot isn't bad at all, the winds were strong and that was the issue! It was just on the downwind side.

[airtwardo 7]

craddock

Trusting my buddy on top to fly us properly and know when to abort the "back yard" attempt when we landed a compressed stack on x braced(I was under 84)

YOU probably understand my sig line then!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[craddock 0]

Sure do. It sucks if your wrong though! Btw. We put those same canopies in a downplane up higher as long as we could hold them. Took us a couple tries to get it and be able to hold on for any length. Then we went up to get aerial footage with a third canopy but no luck. And my trust started dwindling and I had enough of it. I just started to give a tip here on how we did it but then thought the better of it. I sure wish we had video of the downplane though. Otherwise it didn't happen.

That spot isn't bad at all, the winds were strong and that was the issue! It was just on the downwind side.

[mrkeske 0]

I already learned from some mistakes I made, fortunatly, no serius injuries. Still a relatively newbie on the sport

At about 20 jumps, still a student, I forgot my wristaltimeter. I had an audible and deployed at 5000 feet when it beeped. Happened to me a second time 1 day later and that time an instructor lent me his for the jump.
Lesson learned: check your gear

At about 40 jumps I was entering an airplane wiht my chest straps untight. Got yelled at and the I fastened them.
Lesson learned: CHECK YOU FUCKING GEAR

At about 120 jumps forgot to put on my goggles on a solo jump. First jump without helmet, so I could put on the goggle during freefal and everything went OK.
Lesson learned: take extra care when you do something different (in any way). I was excited to do a jump withou a helmet and simply forgot to put on the goggles

At around 170 jumps I made a 180 degree turn to close to the ground to fly into the wind (no HP landing), flared to agressively and my canopy got too much lift and flew some feet upwards before falling to the ground. No injuries, but a serius blow to my confidence in flying my canopy.
Lesson learned: better to land downwind than trying to get into the wind

At around 210 jumps (about three weeks ago) I jumped with a jumper with 30 jumps and I was supposed to film him oppening his parachute at 5000 feet and then track away. Unfortunatly, the jumper lost altitude awareness and dia a backloop at about 4000 feet, and deployed at about 3200. So to avoid a collision I tracked away and deployed at about 2000 feet. Fortunatly an unaventful opening and I landed safely. Talked to the jumper afterwards.
Lessons learned:
If you brief something and It doesen't go as planned (his deplyment at 5000 feet) abandon the dive and go away
Get a rig with a RSL/MARD (i have one without). When you for some reason have to pull lower to avoid other hazards, it will make any emergency procedure safer - below 1500 feet I feel that that 1 second you take from cutting your main and going to your reserve can make the difference, and also because you can get distracted because of the "shit that just happened" and take longer for a procedure if you need it.
Always take extra care when you jump with someone you never jumped before and they have less jumps than you (especially when you both have less than 500 jumps)

[theonlyski 8]

mrkeske

At around 210 jumps (about three weeks ago) I jumped with a jumper with 30 jumps and I was supposed to film him oppening his parachute at 5000 feet and then track away. Unfortunatly, the jumper lost altitude awareness and dia a backloop at about 4000 feet, and deployed at about 3200. So to avoid a collision I tracked away and deployed at about 2000 feet. Fortunatly an unaventful opening and I landed safely. Talked to the jumper afterwards.

Pretty much every lower than anticipated pull I have while doing video was filming a jumper who wanted to see their opening on video and lost altitude awareness.

Then I started jumping with a dytter. Fuck their video if they can't pull on time.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[potatoman 0]

mrkeske

At about 120 jumps forgot to put on my goggles on a solo jump. First jump without helmet,

Here by me the rule is 500jumps min for no helmet, heck, I think that includes the fraphat.

I have forgotten my goggles once too. Lucky me, pilot had a couple in the front, for idiots like us.

You have the right to your opinion, and I have the right to tell you how Fu***** stupid it is.
Davelepka - "This isn't an x-box, or a Chevy truck forum"
Whatever you do, don't listen to ChrisD.

[Joellercoaster 6]

theonlyski

Fuck their video if they can't pull on time.

This.

--
"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?

[dgw 8]

Joellercoaster

***Fuck their video if they can't pull on time.

This.

The one and only time I ended up low was just this, and I knew it was happening as it happened. Cameras are a distraction.

[devarona 0]

This:

http://www.rightthisminute.com/video/skydiver-takes-huge-risk-untangling-his-chute

Stupidest thing Ive ever done, evah!

[CJosJumper 0]

Serious accidents happen at all levels; 10 jumps, 200, 4000, whatever. No helmet is like no seat belt. Risky, stupid, and very bad example to the newbies.
I have seen lots of minor accidents that would have been life changing if the skydiver had not been waring a full face helmet.
Been there myself.