Stupid things I have done

[masher 1]

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Dist to target TFTM

to far to measure??

--
Arching is overrated - Marlies

[mikeat10500 12]

Yes TFTM=to far to measure....it was about 3000m or so.

-----------------------------------
Mike Wheadon B-3715,HEMP#1
Higher Expectations for Modern Parachutists.

[tbrown 26]

Hadn't been jumping a square for very long, this was back in '79, when I was descending toward the peas, deep in the brakes on a 5 cell canopy. Noticing a whuffo with a camera snapping pictures of me, I decided to "give him a scare" and let my toggles up, real fast. Gave him a hell of a scare. Gave myself an even worse scare and pulled those toggles all the way back down FAST, though it didn't do much good. Managed to get up and hobble away, pretending nothing was too out of the ordinary. I wouldn't recommend trying that on today's canopies, unless your affairs are in order.

Also packed and jumped a soaking wet canopy once. Believe it or not the opening was completely normal. I just couldn't get the right brake to come loose, it was so waterlogged it had swollen up and jammed. Had to cutaway, but not 'til I'd dicked around with it down to about 1200 ft.

Oh to be young & stupid again !!

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[friflaj 0]

1: Out for a trip to a DZ I used to frequent but hadn't been for a while, with my regular skydiving buddy. I knew the planes, I knew the staff, I knew most of the jumpers. Little wind, *big* ass landing area. By all accounts, this should have been fun and easy, but for some reason, my buddy and me were *extremely* nervous. We did two jumps with mounting tension, and at the 3rd jump we found ourselves facing each other at some 10-15 meters after opening... yow! Lesson learned: listen to your heart. Even if you've driven 3 hours to get to that DZ, sometimes it's best to just accept that today's not for skydiving, regardless of the weather.

2: After we had been moping around the DZ waiting for the storm to calm down for what seemed like ages, the winds finally dropped -- a little. Everyone in our group went up, so so did I. *Big* mistake. The winds were still very high and turbulent, and at the end of a superfun dive we found ourselves miles out. The others find a little field to land (although I did see some tumble during their tailwind landing), my options were limited to trees, more trees, a busy road, some smaller roads with powerlines across, or a small patch of grass between the trees and the road. Seemed to be working our OK until I came near the treeline, and I *think* the turbulence from the treetops did something funky with my canopy, because the next thing I remember was me lying on the road I had vowed to avoid, laughing through the pain about the cyclist that had fallen off his bike as my crash landing beside him scared the bejeezus out of him. That incident took me out for 9 months. At the start of the season :< Nasty open fracture of my left leg, broken vertebrae. Fortunately, I lived to tell the tale, and most of the damage healed.

[jumperconway 0]

Waiting to hear my second and third beeps from my pro-track watching jaws drop below me decided to just pitch. 20 second canopy ride with 1 flat 90 degree turn. Still unsure if my Cypres works.
Don't depend on gadgets. Use your eyes and your common sense.

[Mr.g 0]

About jump 27, my first jump with my own rig. Im waiting to board the King Air when a senior jumper remarked ‘That’s not right’ pointing to my chest strap. When I looked I found that I had misrouted the chest strap.

Round jump 40 I decided to mess around after a 2 way instead of tracking away. The other guy had the same idea and when I looked down I saw the he had done a feet-first and was now waving off just below me. Had to track like hell and dump in the track to miss him.

Live and learn I hope.

Respect my authoritah!

[pccoder 0]

Reading this thread

PcCoder.net

[mjosparky 4]

Quote

Reading this thread

You have something better to do with your time? You might learn something.

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[Casurf1978 0]

1. Coach freefly jump tracked straight up the LOF at breakoff. Lessons learned: chill out more and dont rush things. I wanted to get away to deploy and shouldve taken the extra second or two to establish which way to go. Rather just go.

2. Broken arm/elbow when I "reached" on a landing. Lesson learned, PLF PLF PLF and dont mix Vicodin with beer.

[Ron 10]

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Reading this thread

I guess you are already to good to learn anything?

Shame, you are the exact reason I started this thread...So people like you could learn from the mistakes of others...And as a place to tell the stories of your mistakes, without being bashed so that others could learn from them...

I guess you have nothing to learn and have NEVER made a mistake?

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

[Harksaw 0]

Jumped a PD230 in winds so high I landed backwards and was dragged about 50 feet.

Also, once packed a sabre and did something else before putting the bag in the container, when I got back I confused the proper way the bag was supposed to go in. I accidentally put the bag through the lines and packed a step-through with a bunch of line twists.

__________________________________________________
I started skydiving for the money and the chicks. Oh, wait.

[jimbarry 0]

Quote

Quote

Reading this thread

I guess you are already to good to learn anything?

Look, to each his own, but I need to jump in here and balance that other comment out.

Ron: Thanks!!! for starting this thread! Needs to be said.
To the dozens of others: Thanks!!! for all of your candor and details.

As a newbie round canopy jumper and soon to be AFF student, I hope I'm speaking for a quite a few others who have really appreciated this thread so far.

Just how the hell did you all pass information and learn from each other, cross country and around the world before dz.com? So, thanks sangiro, or whoever it was who stuck their neck out, put in the effort and started it. If I've only got 5 minutes online, I go here to "Safety and Training" first and only.
(only then will i consider adding my own political diarrhea to Speakers Corner)

That said, I hope I never have to post to this thread as my training progresses. And thanks to you all, I'm sure you've made it less likely, whether you all know it or not.

But I probably will (crap), so in that case, I'll be back... Keep the thread a-rollin'...

[pccoder 0]

mjosparky - actually I do have other things to do with my time. skydiving is my hobby. not my life

ron - i never said i was too good to learn anything. by the way, thanks for giving ME credit for being the reason you started this thread.

Actually, I can't really even remember why I wrote what I did in my original post. I think I was reading some obvious completely asinine mistakes people were making and hastly posted. I suppose I should have read and thought a little more before posting my response.

So, sorry about that. Everyone be sure to read this entire post and try not to relive and of the mistakes others have made.

PcCoder.net

[badlock 0]

Stupid things I've done:

No1.: During examination, pulled totally unstable after hop'n pop exit. Glad the big fat F111 canopy was so nice to me and opend good .

No2: I did a solo skydive on a cloudy day.
The plan was to pull at 3200 ft.
At arround 400 ft I felt into a cloud and wanted to pull, after I were out of the cloud.
A really stupid plan. I left the cloud at ca. 2500 ft and pulled immediatally.

No3: Did a RW jump with instructor.
The plan was to dock him, track away and dock once again.
I docked him, tracked, got a brainlock and tracked back straight to the instructor .
Glad he was smarter than me and managed the situation.


Really stupid things - but I've learned my lesson and hope to be smarter in the future.

Don't be a Lutz!

[Ron 10]

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In keeping with on of Bills threads....I thought I would post a few of my really stupid things I have done.

Learn from them...Make fun of them....I don't care. Most on here think of me as a saftey nazi...there is a reason for this...I survived my dumb mistakes and have seen others make the same mistake and not live to learn from them.

Well here are two more....Well one just shit happens, and the other stupid.

#1. I broke off from a 16way Saturday. There was one guy low and we lost him right before break off due to clouds. I turned and tracked as hard as I could to try and get the hell out of dodge. I entered a cloud at around 2800 feet and I broke out about 2500...The problem was there was a deploying parachute right below me....When I say right below me, I mean I not only saw the canopy, but the stitching on the canopy. I was maybe 150 feet above it. I had enough time to think "Shit" and "Keep Tracking"....In truth, I don't think anything Iwould could have done would have helped...I cleared the canopy by a few feet but only because I was already in a max track.

Lessons:
#1. Try like hell not to jump when there are clouds, when they are in the 2 grand to 4 grand range....I got lulled into being OK with this due to the fact that the 16 way was full of really great jumpers all but one of them had several thousand jumps.

2. Deploy before a cloud, or take a delay after passing through one....More so if you went low on breakoff.

#2..(I had a busy weekend )

The bad hook on Saturday.

The plan was a 180 degree hook from the mockup towards the deck with a 90 degree carve to the right towards the trailers after my surf was started.

The problem was while I was in my dive towards the deck I saw two canopies coming in from the hanger towards the swoop pond accross my curent flight path.

I had two options:
1. Continue my path and maybe collide with one of the two canopies, or if I make the carve before them, maybe make them turn to avoid me and maybe they get hurt....Both not good options.

2. Continue to turn my canopy so that I ended up parallel with their flight path taking the danger away from them and risk breaking my own leg.

My stupid deed, so it should be my broken leg. So I turned. This is the turn people saw, not the first hook.

I knew I was low and it took all of the dig I had...Any more and I risked a high speed stall.

As it was, I planned out and never hit the ground. It was close, but the only part of me that touched was my feet, and only after a very short swoop.

If it had not been for me having almost 2,000 jumps on the same size/type of canopy...I am not sure I would have been able to pull it off.

Have fun

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

[dorbie 0]

Well on about jump # 10 I tracked back down the line of flight, thinking it was really cool when I flew past the 4 way that exited before me. When I told my instructor they set me straight in a hurry.

On about jump #30 I almost exited with my helmet & goggles still through my chest strap, the pilot pointed out my error.

When on student status I got geared up without activating my AAD. An AFFI caught it in a gear check.

[Scrumpot 1]

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It was close, but the only part of me that touched was my feet, and only after a very short swoop.

Ron, you weren't really too far "in the hole" then! Not until/unless you had pulled up your feet (lest planting them in the ground), and your THIGH was then the only thing to touch the ground before you eventually stabbed/dug it out.

C'mon bro, be real!

Actually, in the vein of the purpose of the thread then though, ...what, if anything do you think you could have done so as to have AVOIDED getting yourself into this "corner" (not a swoop corner, but an options corner) in the 1st place? Was your view of the other canopies before setting up for landing somehow obstructed? Were the other canopies/pilots setting up somehow completely out of your lane of vision/anticipation for the swoop pond compared to what you had planned? You stated that your swoop (path & location presumably) was "planned". When was this planned? ...During your canopy decent, so that it would have been virtually impossible for anyone else to have otherwise known this, or sometime before, so that prior COMMUNICATION could have potentially averted this situation?

Fair questions?
Please let us know.
THANKS!
-Grant

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[Dumpster 0]

Let's see -

Jump # 16 (Static line progression-) Learning to track - Went tumbling - lost altitude awareness - FXC fired at about 1200 feet - Became a poster child for altitude awareness.

Jump number 60 - Packed my rig on a Friday night with a three-beer-buzz going - Result = Cutaway on the first jump on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Jump # 100 - Took out the base on a 12-way - Learned the value of baggy jumpsuits on bigger formations.

Jump # 342 -Broke left ankle (Tib & Fib) - Uphill landing in light winds with a 1.36:1 wingloading wearing hiking boots (I normally wear fairly slick-soled sneakers-).
Still recovering with 1 plate and 8 screws resident.

Easy Does It

[Scrumpot 1]

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Jump # 100 - Took out the base on a 12-way - Learned the value of baggy jumpsuits on bigger formations.

If this is the lesson you think you've learned from this, please go back and reconsider/re-"learn"! You haven't learned ANYTHING from this by this indication/quote.

Not "ragging" on you. Legitimately concerned by this for your (and others) future safety, if this is what you truly believe.

Think about it/get some input on it during your down time. My best wishes to you for a hopefully speedy, and full recovery.

Blue Skies,
-Grant

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[Dumpster 0]

I was wearing a rather snug RW suit and was one of the last out of the plane - So by the time the rest of the formation and got together they had slowed down alot and I couldn't flatten out enough. Oh yeah - I learned alot over time and through a polite but to-the-point debriefing afterwards- I soon ordered a baggier suit/ swoop cords to slow my 180 pound frame down a bit-

Easy Does It

[Scrumpot 1]

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I soon ordered a baggier suit/ swoop cords to slow my 180 pound frame down a bit-

Although "dressing for success" CAN be a PART of the equation, I do still fear here, that you are not fully getting it.

I myself, at my peak pushed over 219 lbs (that's nearly 250 total with gear ...out the door), yet with only ONE (R/W) jumpsuit could just as easily (and have been) either in the base, or as well as late diver on as big as 40-60 ways. You do NOT want to be RELYING on your baggier suit and swoop cords to be what (puts you into and then subsequently is what you are then relying upon as a result to) get you out of these situations!

Please talk with your more experienced up-jumpers who regularly jump big (or biggER)-ways in your area and who may know you, who can help you out with this. Either that, or we can take this to PM's so as not to further "hijack" the thread.

Blue Skies,
-Grant

coitus non circum - Moab Stone

[firstime 0]

Jump#50, first jump on my new rig. Open door and
Mr Dickhead (me) gets out. I get out on my back as
normal to watch the rest get out and the guy after me is looking out and down to me with arms out as
if to say "what the f$%^ are you doing, I flip back to my belly to see the drop zone which has 2 10,000'
runways about 2 miles away. How in the hell does
someone miss a drop zone that can land 747's.
It's easy if you dont watch the spot. The next few days everyone wanted to know if I brought my compass for the next jump. DOH!!!

[kallend 2,026]

Stupides thing I ever did had nothing to do with skydiving.

I turned down a professorship at Yale!

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[firstime 0]

[qStupides thing I ever did had nothing to do with skydiving.

I turned down a professorship at Yale!
uote]

ditto!! don't go there otherwise this thread would turn
into 100,000 posts

[jumpinjackflash 0]

ROFLMAO

Damn Ron, this explains alot.

Now I know why your such a safety freak.


It's a wonder you didn't take yourself out of the game early on.


Glad your around to beat on us.




j

It's a gas, gas, gas...