24th Jump cutaway

[London86 0]

Had an interesting day on Friday!

I had two jumps to go to get my A license - went up to the DZ, got on a load and jumped using the new Javelin student rigs, i'd downsized the week prior from a 260 to a 230, and jumped the Javelin with a Saber 2, 3 times the week before.

Opened up at 4k - the opening was absolutely disgusting, really really hard - the bruises around my thighs are still black! Had about 5 line twists which spun out by themselves, which i thought was odd. I look up and see a broken line on the left and immediately though "oh sh1t" - Check my altimiter and i'm at about 3.3k.

Unstow toggles to do steerability check, then realize that the broken line was the left steering line, immediately plummet into a downward spiral.

EP training kicked in and i run through the procedures as taught in my classes. Unfortunately lost the reserve handle, managed to keep the cutaway handle.

Totally surprised at how quick i was under the reserve canopy, I'm pretty sure i didn't beat the RSL, but pulled reserve handle anyway. Managed a nice flight down and landed on my feet under the reserve despite the terrible flare. Shouts of "BEEEEEER" as i landed.

Took a couple hours to get myself back together and went and done my 25th jump to get licensed
Kind of glad i've got this out the way early on in my skydiving career, as i've often thought about what could happen, but now i know how easy it is to deal with, i'm so much more confident.

[HapHazard 0]

If this forum had "Like" buttons like Facebook, you would have a lot of them. :-)

[riggerrob 643]

Congrats!
Good decision-making process.
Glad you got that fear out of the way early.

I had to wait until my 45th jump to pull a reserve. Vibrated like a jazz musician on cocaine!!!!!!

[sammielu 3]

Congratulations!
Now you know how you handle emergencies! Keep all that in mind when you consider making changes to your pull altitude or when it's been a while since your last jump.

[yeyo 1]

Nice you got that out of the way!
I still havent...after 1700+ jumps

HISPA #93
DS #419.5

[JohnMitchell 16]

Nice job. Glad to see you followed your EPs as taught.

Don't know if you were stable or not as the reserve came out, but some good advice I once got was "Put your feet on your butt and arch as you reach for the handles."

I've had a dozen+ cutaways, all stable, using this technique.

[London86 0]

JohnMitchell

Nice job. Glad to see you followed your EPs as taught.

Don't know if you were stable or not as the reserve came out, but some good advice I once got was "Put your feet on your butt and arch as you reach for the handles."

I've had a dozen+ cutaways, all stable, using this technique.

To be honest it's a bit of a blur trying to remember, I'm pretty sure i was unstable due to the downward spin. I remember being horizontal to the ground but before i could even think about arching the RSL had pulled the reserve out.

Crazy how quick that reserve was over my head.

One thing that i briefly thought as i looked up - it was my left steering line that had completely severed, if i had pulled down on the left rear risers, would that have stabled the canopy enough for me to get a cleaner cutaway?

I obviously didn't try because i'm new and just wanted to get rid of the canopy lol - but i'd be interested to know.

[JohnMitchell 16]

London86

One thing that i briefly thought as i looked up - it was my left steering line that had completely severed, if i had pulled down on the left rear risers, would that have stabled the canopy enough for me to get a cleaner cutaway?

Good question. I've held canopies straight until I've let go to cutaway, but I don't think you'd want to hang on AS you cutaway. Slight chance of entanglement if your RSL works quickly. Or it could just yank the $hit out of your shoulder.

Next time try the "feet on the butt" trick and I bet you'll be pretty stable, regardless of the spin.

Quote

I obviously didn't try because i'm new and just wanted to get rid of the canopy lol - but i'd be interested to know.

There might be some other folks chime in here with various experiences on this matter. But you're smart to keep it standard and do it the way you were trained.

[PeteW 0]

Good job! I posed in here about a toggle that popped off. My canopy was flying straight and level so I landed it. Any bad behaviour and I would have cutaway.

[muff528 3]

Congrats!!
Jump #16 for me. Hop 'n' Pop jump. Getting that first one out of the way early was a real confidence builder going forward.

[AlanS 1]

My reserve ride was jump #20, a high speed malfunction where the main stayed in the container and that I spent a little to time much time trying to fix.

I didn't want to leave the drop-zone with that jump on my mind, so did 4 more jumps before the day was over. (Unusual for a student at a small Cessna drop-zone), but the folks there knew why I want to get a lot of jumps in before leaving for the day, and made sure I got on the next ride up.

The scariest jump I ever did was jump #21.

I'm now at jump #253, and if I never have another reserve ride that will be fine by me.

[awdordie 0]

Mine happened on my Cat C. I believe I jinxed myself on mine as just before boarding I asked my instructor how rare cutaways were.he told me about every 1k jumps you should expect one. I learnt 10 minutes later that you should ALWAYS be prepared for one and not leave it on the back of your mind. I opened at 5k that day and had line twist, parachute was slowly turning left. When I kicked out the parachute started a downward spiral very hard to the left and I had to counterwith right inputs to get it to fly straight. Still unsure of what it was but the slider was hung up about halfway up at a 45* angle and the brake on that side was frozen and very hard to pull (looked like it was looped around the slider).I chopped at 4k with my right hand in the toggle trying to make the parachute fly straight to be more stable... DONT DO THAT. When I cutaway it about broke my hand since it was stilk through the toggle when I cutaway. Reserve came out with line twists as well and at that point I chucked both handles panicking to get them untwisted. After that flew down without Iincident.

[FB1609 0]

I've landed big canopies with broken steering lines before, not a big deal in my cases, Rear riser and PLF. I've also cut one away, because it was almost time for a repack anyways.

[FastDaniel 0]

HapHazard

If this forum had "Like" buttons like Facebook, you would have a lot of them. :-)

Like :)