Teaching TOTAL MAlfunctions to Students

[AFFI 0]

Will other instructors please email any thoughts on how I am teaching the total malfunction to students?

AFFI@dropzone.com

Three easy steps in dealing with a malfunction:

1.Stay Calm - Don’t Panic
2.Visual Assessment
3.Immediate and Appropriate Action

Total Malfunctions (Deploy the Reserve)

A) Cannot find hackey handle or extract the pilot chute
Two vigorous attempts:
I.After the first attempt let go and arch, you may be inadvertently grasping part of your jumpsuit or gear.

II.On the second attempt, stay calm, place you right hand on the back of your thigh and feel your way up your leg to the bottom of the container in a last effort to find your hackey.

III.In the event that you have extracted part of the pilot chute and it is flapping in the wind, don’t chase the hackey, on your second attempt, follow your hand up the back of your thigh, grasp the fabric of the pilot chute nearer to the BOC pouch and throw it. Keep in mind to maintain an arched body position and your hand kept facing skyward to prevent a potential entanglement with the pilot chute bridal.

Remember, this is a high speed situation, you are loosing altitude fast.

The USPA SIM 2005 states: “If altitude permits, the jumper should make no more than two attempts to solve the problem (or a total of no more than two additional seconds).

B) Pilot chute in tow (a Pilot Chute hesitation might be occurring)
Right when you throw your pilot chute, start counting:

One Thousand, Two Thousand, Three Thousand – “Shouldn’t I be feeling something by now?

In the event you are experiencing a pilot chute hesitation, look over your left shoulder to recognize, this will spill air across your back and disrupt your burble. Train yourself to look over your left shoulder, because it keeps your altimeter and reserve deployment handle close in your view. If you observe that you have a pilot chute in tow you should be able to recognize it easily trailing behind you.

The USPA SIM 2005 states: For a pilot-chute-in-tow malfunction, there are currently two common and acceptable procedures, both of which have pros and cons. An instructor should be consulted prior to gearing up, and each skydiver should have a pre-determined course of action.

Pilot chute in tow procedure 1: (what I teach students)
Pull the reserve immediately. A pilot chute- in-tow malfunction is associated with a high descent rate and requires immediate action. The chance of a main-reserve entanglement is slim, and valuable time and altitude could be lost by initiating a cutaway prior to deploying the reserve. Be prepared to cutaway.

Pilot chute in tow procedure 2: (It was suggested by a very experienced instructor that this response for students requires less for them to think about, “if the pilot chute come out, cutaway)
Cut away, then immediately deploy the reserve. Because there is a chance the main parachute could deploy during or as a result of the reserve activation, a cutaway might be the best response in some situations.

C) Pilot chute bridle wrapped around arm/leg, the parachute is not out.
Two attempts to clear the entanglement by presenting the extremity with the bridle caught on it skyward, away from your body and into the wind.
If you cannot clear the pilot chute, now you have to find out if the pin has been pulled or not to determine the type of malfunction you have by looking over your shoulder (visual assessment).
Total or Horseshoe (partial)?
Remember, this is a high speed situation, you are loosing altitude fast.

1.Don’t panic.
2.Do a rapid assessment of the situation.
3.Take immediate and appropriate action.

If your pin has not been extracted and the container is closed you have a total malfunction, deploy your reserve. <<>>

This is a preventable situation by maintaining good body position and keeping your hand skyward during the deployment of a throw-out pilot chute BOC system.

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[larsrulz 0]

I only have coach jumps and the training necessary for the I proficiency card, but how I, and the instructors at my dropzone, do it is until a skydiver is proficient enough to understand the consequences of various actions, then their sequence (unless some sort of rare circumstance, such as low altitude emergency egress) is 1-2-3. They pull ripcord, then cutaway, then deploy reserve. When you start increasing the number of inputs and potential outputs, then a student who doesn't completely understand the consequences of any one action will be wasting precious time thinking about what they should do. If you start saying that emergency procedures for pilot-chute-in-tow is different than a baglock, then they have to consciously process what it is they have above them and then determine what course of action they need to take....it begins to get far too complicated for someone who doesn't understand why they are doing what they are doing. I think it is a lot like bold face for EPs in flying. One problem has only one response, and that is what you do; you memorize what the response is, so when you see the engine begin to smoke, you can say over your emergency procedure as you do it.

I'm not trying to give you any recommendations, more so curious for recommendations on how I teach total mals. Getting my SL-I in two weeks, and the one thing I'm truely worried about is incorrectly teaching something to a student.

I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

[JohnMitchell 16]

Quote

Getting my SL-I in two weeks, and the one thing I'm truely worried about is incorrectly teaching something to a student.

Your DZ should have a syllabus of what is taught to students at each level. When in doubt, teach what the other instructors are teaching, or better yet, ask the DZO what they want taught. It changes from DZ to DZ, so when I start working at a new place, I always spend some time finding out how they like things done and taught.

[riggerrob 643]

Keep it simple for first jump students.
If it is not square, revert to plan B.

[larsrulz 0]

I certainly have read the syllabus through a number of times. I guess I'm not so much worried about doing something "wrong" as much as looking advice to help me improve...I'm far from being a 4000 jump instructor and have a damn lot to learn. I still would like critique with respect to those things I'll be teaching.

I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

[JohnMitchell 16]

Ahhh, I understand. Yes, when you first start out it takes a lot of work to teach quickly but effectively. You'll find yourself sometimes struggling to explain a concept to a student and be rewarded only with blank stares and questioning looks. Here's a few ideas that helped me.

-Always use a well thought out lesson plan. This will help you organize your thoughts, keep your lesson in a logical order, and will make sure you don't forget anything. I use 3" x 5" index cards for my notes.

-Watch other instructors and shamelessly steal every lesson plan they have, word for word if you like. I'm still swiping good material from other instructors every time I watch someone else teach.

-Always look for simpler ways to explain concepts to students, such as a new approach to the subject, or even smaller words. I joke that my FJC lesson plan is so simple I could teach it to a bunch of 2nd graders.

-Every time you confuse a student, try to figure out where your lesson plan confused him. Then fix that part of the lesson plan.

-Watch out for ambiguous statements. Words will mean what they can. Don't let some student stand in the back row and take something you said completely wrong. Keep it simple.

-Whenever a student performs poorly, try to find a better way to teach that task, or simply put more emphasis on it.

I've really enjoyed being an instructor. We're lucky to have such an interesting subject, skydiving, to teach. It's fairly simple yet easy to hold the students' attention. I could never teach something hard and boring, like Chinese algebra or Latin.

• Quote

[tkhayes 348]

I try to keep it simple for almost all malfunctions:

try once
try twice

Go immediately to plan B

While very generalized, of course there are many more specifics we cover. But I try ot hammer than into their heads that if they have already tried twice, to fix, adjust, assess, deploy, untangle, kick out, whatever, then they are now simply wasting time.

TK

[lug 4]

You are an AFF instructor therefore you should be fallowing the guidelines outlined by the USPA, which it sounds like you are. Where the ISP describes two methods for handling a particular malfunction, for example the PC in tow, I feel it is important for all the instructors, at same DZ, to teach one method in the early portion of the AFF program regardless of what the instructor’s personal beliefs are. This means they are fallowing a DZ training syllabus and if your DZ does not have one develop, they should, it does make it a lot easer for the instructors to do their job with less confusion for the student when working with multiple instructors at various time.

When a student are going through their ground preps for the upper level D or E jumps I introduce the second method for the PC in tow and tell them where they can get information on the Pros and Cons for either cutaway and pull reserve or pull reserve, like this web site and to ask other jumpers. Of course in the same breath I reminds them until they are A license qualified they are still students, even while they are on the coaching program, so they must fallow the DZ syllabus regarding the PC in tow. Once they are A license qualified they then can change their method.

Memento Mori

[dropzonefool 0]

the PC in tow, I feel it is important for all the instructors, at same DZ, to teach one method in the early portion of the AFF program regardless of what the instructor’s personal beliefs are. This means they are fallowing a DZ training syllabus and if your DZ does not have one develop, they should, it does make it a lot easer for the instructors to do their job with less confusion for the student when working with multiple instructors at various time.

When a student are going through their ground preps for the upper level D or E jumps I introduce the second method for the PC in tow and tell them where they can get information on the Pros and Cons for either cutaway and pull reserve or pull reserve, like this web site and to ask other jumpers. Of course in the same breath I reminds them until they are A license qualified they are still students, even while they are on the coaching program, so they must fallow the DZ syllabus regarding the PC in tow. Once they are A license qualified they then can change their method.<<<<<


I like this, This makes sence. I was struggling with the same question. I have my E procedures but we teach differently to our students and I have been struggling with it. Durring a PC in tow I'm pulling my cutaway before reserve (alti. permitting). But thats my way.

How would you, or anyone else feel about an Instructor statment "Oh don't worry, their wearing an AAD" teach them to cutaway first. I think a student reaction time is slower, an every PC in tow would result in a ADD fire= every PC in tow would result in a main reserve entanglement? What do you'all think?
Thanks
J

[riggerrob 643]

"Oh don't worry, their wearing an AAD"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

... is a cop-out used by lazy instructors.
First jump students should know enough to handle malfunctions, on their own.
Since IAD and S/L normally deploy at 3,000', they have a good 10 seconds to stare at a malfunction before entering AAD scaring range. Even if they hesitate, they still have plenty of altitude to pull more handles before entering AAD scaring altitudes.

At Pitt Meadows, we try to avoid mentioning AADs until their third or fourth jump .... when we start teaching gear checks.

[billvon 2,991]

I agree with pretty much everything except this:

"If you cannot clear the pilot chute, now you have to find out if the pin has been pulled or not to determine the type of malfunction you have by looking over your shoulder (visual assessment)."

I think that's a bit much to ask of a student. Imagine someone who has never been in freefall before this jump, and who has never trained to see his pin before, trying to figure out what's going on. Two tries to clear it, then cutaway/reserve, is a more comprehensible (I think) plan of action.