Learning from the mistakes of others.

[Jimbo 0]

In the spirit of learning from the mistakes of others, I'm curious, what's the stupidest thing you've ever done? You know the one, you look back on it now and say to yourself "What in the hell was I thinking? I could have been [killed|maimed|broken]" How did it turn out? What was the lesson you learned?
Personally, I've had a couple of them and luckily have survived each one. Probably the one that struck me the most though was kicking out of line twists until right about 1,000 feet. That was early last year and since then I've been very aware of my altitude under canopy.
-
Jim

[AggieDave 6]

Mine was jumping gear that I knew was old and wore out. The result? A blown up canopy that could have gone bad, but ended well. I knew something was wrong with the canopy, but it was flying and flared ok, so I landed it.
A human cannonball, I rise above it all
Up higher then a trapeze, I can fly

[ChromeBoy 0]

Landed downwind with 25mph winds because I did not want to land off and have to walk back to the hanger. I was ok but I could have easily been hurt.

[billvon 2,989]

>I'm curious, what's the stupidest thing you've ever done?
Oh, jeez, I did a lot of stupid stuff.
Stupidest thing that resulted in an injury - landed 10 feet from the treeline facing the trees so I could land near the trailer. Then, after essentially falling 40 feet when my canopy stalled, I tried to stand it up. Then, after I'd torn up one knee and broken my other foot, I insisted in walking to the trailer to "prove" that I hadn't been hurt. Then, when the pain got too bad, insisted on driving myself to the hospital in a manual-transmission car.
BASE jump alone, in the fog, at night, from 230 feet. Enough said about _that._
Trying to force a Cessna 172 onto the runway after a downwind landing. Someone saved my life by mentioning on the unicom "Uh, four six quebec, we don't have an overrun area here."
Intentionally continuing VFR flight into known IFR conditions.
Launching a 4 way from 4000 feet and turning 7 points. The stupid thing was that we _knew_ we were going to go low but did it anyway. Two cypres firings from that one.
Trying to climb El Cap with enough water and food for 3 days, but lacking the skills needed to do it.
Paying $250 for my first rig (you get what you pay for.)
Once, at Perris, we were doing 60 ways. On jump run, just before climbout, the pilot turned around and yelled "Hold! We have traffic below." The video guy closed the door and took his helmet off. Five seconds later he yelled "Shit!" put his helmet on, opened the door, and dove out. We all followed him. How dumb was that? Getting out when you _know_ there's traffic under you?
The waitress from that bar after my first demo - definitely a mistake.
-bill von

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Are we talking skydiving related only? Cause some of the crap I've pulled while driving certainly warrants Darwin Award nominee - the worst, last year, being hellbent on passing a car on a 2 lane country road only to miss an oncoming car by 6 feet (him, I'm guessing he was doing 55, and me, in excess of 75) - with a mid-engine car, guarenteed fatal.
Otherwise there was the dearching while deploying, flipping over and having the bridle wrap around my leg on jump 13, that slightly sucked...then there was downwinder in 20+ winds cause I didn't want to turn low, and slid on my back about 100 feet around jump 40 something, then there was one of my first and only swoop attempts where I skidded/landed on my knees, while wearing shorts - took over a month for the skin to grow back, also around jump 40-something.
But still ticking

• Quote

[skybytch 273]

Trying to get the main under control as it drug me across the dirtlanding area, across the taxiway and into the transient aircraft parking area.. instead of just chopping it as soon as I hit the ground. I learned not to jump big canopies in high winds that day.
Borrowing Jim's Racer with the pull out for a jump and doing my standard lazy "throw out" pull and having nothing happen, then having to reach back, find and grab a handful of bridle and _pull_ to get the main container to open. Learned not to jump borrowed gear with unfamiliar deployment systems that day.
Doing tandems. I learned I'm not invincible and that, for me anyway, no amount of money is worth that amount of risk to my body.
And I really shoulda bought that motorcycle and ridden around the US with Dawnette after high school graduation.
pull & flare,
lisa

[jceman 1]

My most stupid? Easy -- Quincy '98 -- Friday evening, helicopter jump, I'd been doing nice carving 90s all week and having some fun swoops under my Spectre 210 (remember I mass 260 plus gear). Well on this jump, I decided to really have a big swooooop. The last group had already headed back to the convention, and I was going to be the first down (big surprise), so I didn't have an audience to perform for, just going to have fun. Yeah, right!
There was a regular wind flag and a windblade on the landing hill, nicely perpendicular to the wind line. Perfect setup. I downwinded between them, and from almost the same altitude I had been doing 90s all week I snapped off a 180 toggle hook! As i started my flare, all I could see was dirt -- only got the "F" sound out before impact.
The gal that was closest to me in the air said i bounced 3 times. On the first impact I knew my leg was broken, just didn't know if was still attached. At some point I felt my neck sprain, now I didn't know if I would have any motor function if I survived, that is. Came to rest after the fourth impact and realized I was still here, so did inventory. Last thing I checked was my right leg and upon looking in that direction thought "Cool, it's still in my jumpsuit at least!"
Bottom line: a shattered femur resulting in all the hardware I still carry, two operations, about $85K in medical bills, four months off work, and 9 months, 1 week and one day on the ground. Doc said he had never seen a femur so badly exploded without many other major injuries; guess it just wasn't my time to die, but I sure tried!

[Stacy 0]

"misunderstanding" the flight characteristics of an elliptical.... who would have guessed that you stll have to flare a HP canopy??
falling in a turtle hole on landing
chicken fighting with the US CRW team
believing that Mags really did do a topless body shot, feeling bad for her and matching her feat. little did i know...
trying to freefly in the tunnel (i am not a freeflier by any stretch of the imagination), and falling out. nice bruise there.
the whole walk like an egyptian incident.feel free to add to the list.
Stacy
http://users.snip.net/~stacy

[lazerq3 0]

First time under a Crossfire 169 after flying a pd 170 doing a toggle turn about 180degrees form 300ft.......yeah not too bad for you swoopers but for me it wasnt a pretty landing!!
jason

[Ducky 0]

Hmm in my short career I haven't too many on my list. I am sure that in the future I will look back and realize perhaps there were more, but here are a few....
Jumping sunset load on jump #9 my second solo from 16k, after official sunset, w/o my glasses and landing downwind cuz i couldn't see the windsock. I think the peanut gallery's comments were something like "he's safe at 1st, 2nd and 3rd!!!!, oooh but out at home too bad" No injurys there luckily just a chafed butt.
Doing jumps 15-19 from 4,00- ft from the cessna in sleet and snow, maybe not dumb, but damn that sucked.
Missing the fact that someone had disconnected the RSL on the rental gear I use when i did a gear check not once, but on two occasions. A very gracious instructor caught it while boarding the plane both times and quickly chewed my ass the 2nd time and made me check every rig in the DZ when the beer light came on.
Not giving proper separation between exits w/ a free fly 3 way, I opened right in the middle of the 3 wondering why THEY were so damn close to me.
ummm I think that's it for now, I hope that by learning from folks like those here on DZ.com that I will keep this list short in years to come.
kwak
Stupidity is a crime.

[fred 0]

Actually planning my landing pattern has been a matter of stress for me. At a strange dropzone, doing AFF after I'd started on SL at home. At home, I had all these visual cues and the landing pattern was easier.
So, I'm up at about 2000' and I'm visualizing how fast I'm going, where I'm going to turn at 1000', 500', and 200'. I have an entire course plotted out in my mind.
At about 1500, I realize that I'm way further along than I thought I would be for my 1000' turn. Instead of altering the rest of my plan, I did a sharp 360° turn to lose a couple hundred feet.
Thank god my cypress didn't fire.
In the end, I lost my couple hundred feet, and landed safely, with a long walk. So, not only did I make a "low" turn to put me in danger of a 2-out situation, I didn't even have the right plan to begin with.

[kallend 2,026]

Got married.

[bhale 0]

There are a couple of noteable occasions, but I will share my favorite. MANY years ago, trying to pack, late at night, after too many brews, with too many "friends" helping. They would pull the canopy out of the bag, pull my cutaway handle, etc.... All the things that make you want to kill. After the last cutaway handle pull, I threw my hands in the air and walked away. The next morning, much to my surprise, my rig was packed. It was a cloudy day, so we were prepared to do hop and pops. I jumped at around 2,800. Did the usual canopy play-spirals, bow ties, etc...
Flared for landing, feet touched the ground, canopy seperated from my container. Turns out, with all the horse play the night before, my three rings had never been hooked up. Definitely one for the books!!!

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Yikes, that's just plain scary! I guess the nylon developed enough of a 'set' to hold in place?
So did you buy a few lotto ticket right afterwards?

[bhale 0]

It was that day that I knew, there is a greater power looking over you!! Can you say, "Twilight Zone"

[steve1 5]

My Mother drank a lot before I was born, which may explain some of this.
1. Pulled once at about 800 ft. while watching the ground come up to get me.
2. Sometimes would jump with over 20 knots of wind with a round canopy.
3. During my first rodeo I was knocked out for over 45 minutes and broke my arm. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital and spent the night. When I was released I got on the phone and entered another rodeo for the following weekend. I rode with my free arm in a cast.
4. A few weeks later I was almost kicked in the face by a bareback horse at a rodeo when I landed on my feet behind it.
5. I hung up a huge Tamarack tree while falling timber in another tree. I later turned my back on it while working under it. The top of it slapped down right next to me. It could have smashed me like a bug.
6. The top of a dead snag broke out once. It put scratches on my arm when it crashed to the ground. I never saw it coming.
7. Twice I smashed up my saw while trying to run out of the way of a snag coming down. At the last second I'd drop my saw to get out of the way, only to have it smashed. I have plenty more logging stories.
8. Fell asleep once driving my Volkswagen Beetle down the highway. I woke up just before a head on.
9. We flew across the Bob Marshal Wilderness in a rental Bonanza plane. We were up at around 13000 ft. flying around thunder-heads for over an hour. We finally dropped down below the clouds on the other side of the mountains. We were low on fuel and lost. Finally found a town with an airport.
10. Shot a black bear in the chest with a recurve bow at about nine yards. It ran right by me.
11. Started sliding toward the edge of a cliff after slipping on some snow and ice. I was trailing a mountain goat that I had hit with an arrow. I grabbed a small tree before going over the edge.
(There are more stories, but these are some of the better ones.)

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

Stupidest thing that resulted in an injury - landed 10 feet from the treeline facing the trees so I could land near the trailer. Then, after essentially falling 40 feet when my canopy stalled, I tried to stand it up.

I'm with Bill - this is so far my only big mistake skydiving. Be VERY careful of treelines, especially on windy days. It's easy to think of wind going over trees if you picture water falling over rocks. Wind does the same thing.
I got off easy, I sprained both wrists and both ankles. Most people at the DZ did not think I'd walk away from it, but I did.
_Am
ICQ: 5578907
MSN Messenger: andrewdmetcalfe at hotmail dot com
AIM: andrewdmetcalfe
Yahoo IM: ametcalf_1999

[Geoff 0]

Well I downsized from a PD 210 to a Sabre 150 (loading at about 1.1) after only 40 jumps. Then turned low to face upwind instead of taking the cross-winder. I biffed in fairly hard - enough make all the spectators look up at the sound of the impact and wince at the sight of me bouncing forward through the risers. I was very lucky to walk away with only bruises and sprains.
BTW I count that as 2 separate mistakes. 1- downsizing too fast 2- turning low.
Stay safe y'all!

[GrumpySmurf 0]

'T-W-I-L-I-G-H-T Z-O-N-E' - there Then you gotta wonder, if the risers held in place that well - would have a cutaway (with the rings hooked up properly) have worked, if you needed it? Sounds like 2 lessons learnt - make sure the full 3 ring assembly is hooked up before jumping and flex the webbing once a month as per manufacturers instructions?

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Going to work in Nigeria during a civil war there......a thousand ways to die each day, and none of them under my control...
Cya
D

[slotperfect 7]

skybytch, my dear, you are a HOOT!
Respectfully,
SP

[scotts 0]

FJC, within 1 hour doing 1st solo canopy flight. end result. landed in power lines. cause: NOT listening to radio/NOT remembering what i just spent 5 hours learning. damage done: scarred leg. suggestion: you'd better be paying attention.
pulled reserve pin to remove cypres for 4 yr check. reserve pilot chute slams me in the face. cause: stupidity / anxiousness (1st rig). damage: stunned (please wait 30 seconds while i get my senses or senselessness back) and amazed. something to laugh about for a long time. suggestion: don't try this at home.
LINE DUMP. cause: packing error. damage: cracked rib and blown out end cell on canopy. shit hurt/s. suggestion: see #1. YOU'D BETTER BE PAYING ATTENTION TO EVERYTHING.
going for poster child status :o)