Surviving the WFFC

[billvon 3,058]

Summer is upon us, and soon the hordes will descend upon Rantoul for this year's World Freefall Convention. Lots of people will jump. Unfortunately, some will get hurt, and some may die. How can you make sure it's not you? Presented below are some tips to help keep you alive at the biggest skydiving boogie in the world.

1. Do only one new thing at a time! Many jumpers show up and are awed by the array of canopy demos, big ways, new planes (with new exits) and new styles of flying. Indeed, the WFFC is a great place to try new stuff and jump new planes. But showing up, grabbing a demo rig with a tiny main, getting on a new type of airplane, and trying head down for the first time is not such a good idea. Want to try a new rig? Great! But first make a few jumps with your old rig. See if the canopy traffic near the landing area is OK with you. If it gets a little too intense, you're still in good shape, because you are familiar with your canopy, and are in a better position to handle lots of traffic. After your first few jumps on the new canopy, you can make a better decision whether a smaller canopy is a good idea, or if you want to land that smaller canopy in an alternate (i.e. larger, lower traffic) area.

2. Make small changes. If you do decide to jump that demo rig, talk to the folks at the canopy tent and get a canopy they recommend. I would hesitate to downsize more than one size at a time at the WFFC, no matter how good you think you are.

3. Know who you're jumping with. You're generally not going to know everyone on the dive, but at least make an attempt to not to jump with all unknowns. Skydiving is still small enough so that your friends probably know their friends, so ask around to determine their skill level. Ask them how many jumps they have, but be aware that this isn't always indicative of skills, and people sometimes lie about their number of jumps (which is really stupid.) The WFFC organizers are a good option here, since they have a lot of experience matching people and planning safe dives. Even if you don't want to jump with them, you can ask them for recommendations on other people. Chances are one of the LO's knows them or has jumped with them at some point. Also, avoid jumping with people who seem to have taken an excessive amount of drugs recently. All too often I've noticed drunk or drugged up skydivers do stupid things and get hurt. Which leads to:

4. Jump with a clear head. The WFFC has some excellent parties. But if you were up all night, maybe it would be a good idea to get a little sleep before jumping. Adrenalin can't always make up for a hangover.

5. Plan your outs. The main landing area by manifest is popular, but a lot of people have gotten hurt trying to land there. If dense canopy traffic worries you, land somewhere else. Also, if you open and you're far out, pick your outs at 2000 feet, not at 50 feet. You don't have too many options left at that altitude.

6. Learn to flat turn and flare turn! This is really important. You will be in big crowds of jumpers flying back. At some point, someone will cut you off. If it happens at 50 feet you have three choices: make a hard toggle turn (and plow into the ground) run into them or flat turn away. Two examples: Four years back I watched them life flight someone out after he had turned way too low. The story was the same - he never did hook turns, yet here he was turning hard at 50 feet because someone cut him off. Honestly, i think he would have been better off colliding with the other jumper at 30 feet and falling the rest of the way. At least his canopy would have had a better chance at slowing him down. On the same day, one of the load organizers was landing in a bean field when a pickup truck pulled right in front of her. She flat turned away and flared immediately afterwards. Total damage - muddy knees on her jumpsuit. (The people in the truck laughed and drove away, without even offering her a ride. Ah, Quincy locals.) So be sure you can both flat turn (turn with minimal loss of altitude) and flare turn (turn right and left in the flare) before you get to the WFFC - it can be a lifesaver.

The WFFC can be a dangerous place. But with a little planning and some common sense, you can spend your time at Rantoul jumping and partying rather than taking the "other" helicopter ride.

[Newbie 0]

while i won't be attending the WFFC, this was good advice none the less. Could you please explain flat turns for me though, as i have no idea what they are or how to do them and i want to get an idea asap.
Thanks

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[riggerrob 643]

Flat turns start by pulling both toggles to 1/2 brakes, then pulling one toggle to 3/4 brakes. This results in a turn with minimal altitude loss because you don't swing out from underneath the canopy. Depending upon how low you finish your flat turn, you may just keep that toggle at 3/4 and pull the other toggle down to match it. Flat turns not produce dramatic turf surfs, but at least you will walk away from the landings.
Flat turns are commonly used to bleed off altitude when landing in confined spaces or to avoid collisions with people who fly with their heads where their asses should be!
Oh, and practice flat turns long before you need them, say at 3,000' over your home DZ, on a slow day. Then when "someone with far more ego than eyeballs" cuts you off at the convention, you can pull a flat turn out of your bag of tricks and save the day.

[fred 0]

I would really like to go to the WFFC, but I am a pretty new jumper. (30 jumps so far, if July goes as planned, I'll have more than 50, but not by much). The web page states that you need to have 50 jumps as a minimum (or else you can register as a student jumper, it seems).

I've heard horror stories, and it would be pretty overwhelming to be in the air with that many canopies, seeing as I'm used to my Cessna dz.

So a couple questions:
(1) Will there be any jumps that will be "safe" for a lowtimer like myself? Or should I pretty much plan on staying on the ground?

Well, I guess that's it. I'll definately try harder to go if I'll be able to jump some, but I'll probably try and go anyway just for the wind tunnel and the parties. All depends on how finances work out (a place to stay wouldn't hurt, either.).

[billvon 3,058]

>(1) Will there be any jumps that will be "safe" for a lowtimer like
> myself? Or should I pretty much plan on staying on the ground?

That's up to you; you will have to deal with more traffic than normal. In terms of jumps, we do set up jumps specifically for lowtime jumpers (3-4 ways) and spend more time than normal covering safety items. This is a good way to safely plan the freefall, but you still have to fly back and land.

Perhaps one idea would be to get on an organized load, make one jump, land as far away as possible (there are a lot of alternate landing areas) and then decide if you feel safe continuing. A lot of jumpers with 50-100 jumps jump at WFFC do just fine. As I've said before I would strongly suggest learning flat turns and flare turns before getting to the convention, since they are a good defense against getting cut off.

[thrillseek 0]

One point that has yet to be mentioned:
With all of the increased canopy traffic at WFFC, you also have to be 20X more aware of your surroundings. I know it might sound absurd, but just because there are more people in the air, it doesn't mean that people are more on the lookout for one another...target fixation will kill you just as fast at your cesna dz as it will at the WFFC. Be safe out there!

[Kris 0]

Fred,

If you are thinking about jumping at the WFFC it would behoove you to spend some time at a busier turbine DZ for a couple of weeks before going. This will help to get you used to being in the air with a greater number of canopies and open your situational awareness.

Make sure that you talk to staff or an instructor at the DZ before jumping about what their policies are concerning load order, separation, opening altitudes, traffic patterns and misc. rules.

As an example, most Cessna DZ's are free-for alls while a turbine DZ may have rules such as no opening above 4K without prior permission, only left-hand patterns flown, freefliers out last, etc...

This will help build your awareness and give you some survival skills. Also, practice flat & flare turns until your are sick of them. Then practice some more. Remember to keep your head on a swivel while under canopy.

Before I went to the WFFC two years ago with 51 jumps under my belt I spent a weekend at Skydive Dallas and it was really an eye-opening experience and helped prepare me.

As it was, the first load at Quincy was a zoo but it helped to have a little knowledge beforehand.

The load organizers at the WFFC are top-notch and will help you get on small loads with an experienced jumper and one or two others of your skill level.

Just my $0.02.

Kris

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

I've heard horror stories, and it would be pretty overwhelming to be in the air with that many canopies, seeing as I'm used to my Cessna dz.

Even though there's tons of different planes, and literally thousands of skydivers, WFFC does a pretty good job of keeping separation between the loads.

What this means, is that unless you're on a multi-plane formation load (which, trust me - you won't) you are generally in the air with a single plane load of people. Or, if there is more then one plane-load in the air, they're going to be at significantly different altitudes. Normal jumps at WFFC doesn't have THAT many canopies in the air at the same time.

Rantoul also has an absolutely HUGE landing area. When I mean HUGE, I literally mean hundreds of acres of mowed grass just waiting for you to set down on.

You can land every jump as far away as you like, and have all the airspace you need.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[billvon 3,058]

>What this means, is that unless you're on a multi-plane formation
> load (which, trust me - you won't) you are generally in the air with a
> single plane load of people. Or, if there is more then one plane
>-load in the air, they're going to be at significantly different altitudes.
> Normal jumps at WFFC doesn't have THAT many canopies in the air
> at the same time.

I think that for many jumpers, especially for new jumpers from small DZ's, 45 people in the air is a pretty big crowd - especially since most want to land in one area. I've noticed that when I jump a really large canopy (say, a demo Silhouette 230) that the fastest canopies from the load after me land about the same time I do.