malfunctions and time shifting, was cutaways

[Bob_Church 7]

"My left hand hadn't even gotten to the reserve handle by the time my right hand pulled the cutaway. (No RSLs are used in CRW) As I pulled the reserve, I looked down and saw that I was directly over that set of sewage tanks that Bob described. There's pretty much nothing to do on a cutaway following the reserve pull other than stay stable and hang out. I didn't even want to look over my shoulder for fear of getting unstable. I know now that it was a pretty quick deployment, but I had time to think that maybe cutting away wasn't a good idea, because those tanks were getting big very quickly. Just then, the reserve opened. I popped the brakes loose, thinking, "OK, which way was the landing wind ?" At the same time I realized that I was too low to turn and landed straight ahead. The reserve ride was approx. 20 seconds. "

It's really amazing how time shifts during a malfunction. On the jump we're talking about someone watching probably would have trouble seeing the lines clear, it would happen too fast, but I felt each rubber band separately, pop......pop.......pop....
then woke up under the open SAC. Those 20' canopies open hard.
My first malfunction was on my 9th jump still on student status. I'd been given a canopy that wasn't supposed to be jumped, it had knots tied in the lines so of course the sleeve never budged. Those student rigs had the shot and a halfs wired up so we couldn't accidentally cut one away. When you lay a belly mount reserve on the packing table with the bungees attached and pull the handle you can't even see the flaps retract, it's that fast. I felt like I was watching one of those stop motion films of a flower opening up. It just slowly and lazily folded back. I had enough time to think that it wasn't going to open. It did, but it was a spooky sight watching the white reserve with no pilot chute to hold it taut dancing beside the straight as an arrow sleeve being held by its pilot chute. Once the reserve opened I sighed with relief, then *BAMMMM*. I'd forgotten about that stainless steel spring in the pilot chute.
Then I started thinking about things we'd said about steering an unmodified round reserve and decided to try slipping but as I reached up two things happened. One, it started to oscillate a lithe, and I looked down and saw that opened reserve pack where there's always been a canopy packed and waiting. It was a stark reminder that I was down to my last parachute so I just folded my arms and told it to take me wherever it would.
But that time shift thing, if you could do that on command even when not skydiving you could rule the world.

[riggerrob 643]

Adrenaline!
Yes!
Adrenaline
What a marvellous drug.
Best things about adrenaline is that it is free and legal!
Bad thing is that you need to approach the threshold of breaking bond before your body starts producing adrenaline.

Adrenaline routes blood to major muscles. As blood rushes to major muscles, it improves strength and reaction times. The disadvantage is that you become clumsy, deaf and too narrowly focused.
Better athletes learn how to tap into adrenaline and also how to adjust arousal levels so that they enjoy the focus and strength, but not too focused to lose peripheral vision.
A large part of police and military training is keeping arousal levels low enough that they can react to threats from the side.

[obelixtim 150]

Curious about the capewells "wired up". Hard to see one being accidentally cut away, you needed a bit of force to pop them in the first place. (unless, as a few of the boys did, filed the lugs on them so opening the covers practically initiated the cutaway).

My early jumps were with a B4 and belly wart, but with a PC as a main, so cutting away was the drill with a pilot shot reserve....Hand deployed reserves had gone out of fashion where I jumped in the mid 70s.

But with a non pilot chute reserve then I can see that if jumping a round military surplus main, that doesn't spin up so fast as a PC or Pap.

Had a horseshoe on my first FF, and time seemed to really slow down although I had no drag at all.

Reserve open at 500 feet, time seemed to speed up then....dumped me right in the telephone lines on the roadside.

Its funny how the brain works under stress.

Dodged a bullet that day......

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[Bob_Church 7]

"Curious about the capewells "wired up". Hard to see one being accidentally cut away, you needed a bit of force to pop them in the first place. (unless, as a few of the boys did, filed the lugs on them so opening the covers practically initiated the cutaway). "

They were two shots. The jumpmasters and DZO said that they did that to keep someone from accidentally pulling one at 500 feet. It was my first jump, so my response was "ok."

[mark 107]

obelixtim

Curious about the capewells "wired up". Hard to see one being accidentally cut away, you needed a bit of force to pop them in the first place.

This is from the days when a reserve was used in addition to, not instead of, a malfunctioned main. That is, if the main malfunctioned (total or partial), just deploy the reserve. Works okay when they're both round parachutes. Wiring the capewells shut prevents them from opening accidentally, and you weren't planning to cut away anyway. Plus, civilians didn't have to jump in winds where cutting away on the ground might be a possibility.

The big controversy in those days was whether to have a pilot chute on your reserve. For a total malfunction, it wold be better to have a pilot chute. For a partial malfunction, you wouldn't need a pilot chute to throw the (chest) reserve down and in the direction of the spin.

Mark

[Ex1985 0]

For low speed mals, we were taught to hold the flaps with left hand while pulling the handle so not to let the pilot chute "escape" (Italy, 80's, military training; emergency was an Irving something).


Stefano

[obelixtim 150]

Bob_Church

"Curious about the capewells "wired up". Hard to see one being accidentally cut away, you needed a bit of force to pop them in the first place. (unless, as a few of the boys did, filed the lugs on them so opening the covers practically initiated the cutaway). "

They were two shots. The jumpmasters and DZO said that they did that to keep someone from accidentally pulling one at 500 feet. It was my first jump, so my response was "ok."

Ah, I thought you said one and a half shots.....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[Bob_Church 7]

I've been thinking about it and now I'm not sure if they were shot and a half or two shots. I'll ask Andy next time I see him. We have a Bidwell reunion lunch once or twice a month.

[Bob_Church 7]

I haven't heard back from Andy (dzo at the time) yet but Spurgeon, who was a jumpmaster then says two shots.

[riggerrob 643]

I did not experience any time distortion during my first reserve ride. I pulled the main ripcord and it pulled me uptight. My first hint that something was wrong was all the wind still roaring past my ears. I also saw the - rapidly approaching - ground in my peripheral vision. Half a glance told me that I was too low to continue free falling.
I looked up to see the (Crossbow) stabilizers all knotted together. I asked myself: "Can you land this?"
I replied "Yes! But you will break a lot of bones."
So I laid my left hand over my chest-mounted reserve and pulled the ripcord. I started to hand deploy the reserve canopy, but wind tore it out of my hands. I landed that 24 flat reserve in a plowed field off the end of the runway.
All that adrenaline kept me vibrating for hours afterwards.

The whole debate about hand-deploying reserves started with wimpy, sissified, girly, limp-wristed springs in the original "umbrella" pilot-chutes.
Also consider that most chest-mounted reserves were deployed by soldiers who exited around 1,000 feet and were already hanging under partially-inflated mains.
Capewells were designed during the 1950s after a few US Marines got dragged to their deaths. Capewells were originally designed to be opened after landing.
Using Capewells to cutaway malfunctioned Para-Commanders proved "problematic."