Hard pull / trapped pilot chute Q

[popsjumper 2]

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I didn't give a shit about any of my equipment, I just wanted to land in the biggest field I could safely get to (the airport).

'Nuff said. Good job, big guy.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

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chopping a black main into pine trees was what convinced me all my canopies need to contain obnoxious colors that don't occur in nature.

And everybody gave me shit for my "rainbow".

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

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My hard deck is 1800 feet. This means if i find myself in freefall below 1800 i go for my reserve. If there was altitude for the 3rd grab i would go for my main again, if not then reserve.

See now guys? Thrillstalker has a plan. Good stuff mi amigo!

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[monkycndo 0]

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My hard deck is 1800 feet. This means if i find myself in freefall below 1800 i go for my reserve. If there was altitude for the 3rd grab i would go for my main again, if not then reserve.

See now guys? Thrillstalker has a plan. Good stuff mi amigo!

This is a good plan. Something to consider. Most of us touch our handles in the order we expect to use them: main, cut away, reserve. But if we find ourselves at (or below) our decision altitude and haven't even tried for our main, it will be very hard to break the muscle memory and skip the main and go straight to reserve. Been there, got my two out. As part of our EPs, I suggest as you pass your decision altitude on the climb to altitude, practice going straight to reserve handle. It will build both altitude awareness and muscle memory in unison, just in case you find yourself hurling towards the basement with no nylon over your head.

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You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[popsjumper 2]

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I suggest as you pass your decision altitude on the climb to altitude, practice going straight to reserve handle. It will build both altitude awareness and muscle memory in unison, just in case you find yourself hurling towards the basement with no nylon over your head.

I love it!

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[devildog 0]

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I suggest as you pass your decision altitude on the climb to altitude, practice going straight to reserve handle. It will build both altitude awareness and muscle memory in unison, just in case you find yourself hurling towards the basement with no nylon over your head.

I'll be doing this for sure. Thanks!

You stop breathing for a few minutes and everyone jumps to conclusions.

[monkycndo 0]

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I suggest as you pass your decision altitude on the climb to altitude, practice going straight to reserve handle. It will build both altitude awareness and muscle memory in unison, just in case you find yourself hurling towards the basement with no nylon over your head.

I love it!

Holy shit. Pops actually liked an idea that wasn't his first.

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You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[riggerrob 643]

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That's a really long spot! I've never seen it anywhere near that far, winds must have been smokin'. ...

"

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I have seen a spot that long.
I completely missed the country and landed in France!
My square main mal'd, so I cutaway and opened a round reserve (at maybe 2,000 feet AGL). A quick look revealed forest, a small pasture, wires, fences, a railroad, a gravel road, a row of hangars and a small river between me and my intended landing area (a grass runway).
I opted for a small, grassy clearing in the swamp.

I did not even realize that I had landed in France, until after I walked back to the airfield!
Hah!
Hah!

[thrillstalker 0]

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I suggest as you pass your decision altitude on the climb to altitude, practice going straight to reserve handle. It will build both altitude awareness and muscle memory in unison, just in case you find yourself hurling towards the basement with no nylon over your head.

I love it!

me too! it's a great idea and something i have never thought of.

"Never grow a wishbone, where your backbone ought to be."

[Skydivesg 7]

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....and I reached back and really pulled for all I was worth. Got a little unstable doing so, but I got it out and had to kick a few line twists out. Landed fine.

Lots of very good stuff from everyone.

And let me give you kudos for trying to learn from your experience and for taking the canopy course from Flight-1. You will discover that some on this site will spend most of their energy calling people, like you, stupid for one reason or another. I'm not one of those.

One thing that no one has mentioned though is the "unstable" reference, so I will.

We all agree that altitude awareness is key.

Regardless of how many tries you make or how long you take doing so, set a hard deck for your EPs and stick with it. But what is also critically important is your ability to remain stable while trying to deploy.

Now, it seems that, maybe, you only went a little unstable during this incident but evidently it was enough to create line twists on your main.

It's imperative that you remain calm enough and focused enough to keep your stability during your deployment process, be it main or reserve.

What would you have done had you gone completely unstable, rolling and tumbling, while trying for your third pull only to discover that the main was not going to deploy? (it happens to many more people than want to admit)

How much altitude would you have lost? Would you have been forced to pull your reserve while on your back? If so, would that have caused a reserve malfunction?

Most stabilty problems come from relaxing the arch (especially in the hips/pelvis) and then allowing the head and upper body to pitch forward giving you the feeling that your going head down. This combined with reaching for the main p/c often causes the person to roll (usually to the right) and there you are; on your back and diving at the ground. So pay attention to your stability.

Also, I think you would have been better off landing in the big area you flew over half way to the highway. Even though you made the airport (just barely) it looks to me that you didn't have much room to spare. Winds will often change pretty dramaticlly below 1500 feet. You could have very well found yourself over the highway or river without the tail wind to get you back, inviting a low turn into the wind. Land safe not close.

I'll leave you with this: While most of the advice on this thread has been spot on, be very careful when seeking advice whether it be on here or at the campfire. There is a lot of very bad advice perpetuating in our sport. You don't have to have thousands of jumps to have good critical thinking skills. And just because someone has thousands of jumps doesn't mean they are right. Question everything you hear and use your common sense and people you trust to verify the information.

In other words; Choose your mentors carefully.

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

[devildog 0]

Thanks for the reply, and just for the sake of clarity on any follow ups, there are two stories here. Mine is the stuck pilot chute w/ normal landing. There's another a little further down where divermike was wanting to get back to the biggest field he could (the airport).

But back on topic, yes, I'll be keeping in mind stability as well. I didn't roll or tumble (though I could see how one might), but pitched and turned some as I yanked that last time.

Anywho, my game plan as of right now is to really pull each time (as opposed to the relax grip I sank into at some point), and if the first fails, take a sec to ready for try number two (to stay stable) and if that doesn't work, go to the reserve. Since I usually pull around 4, going through all that calm and deliberately ought to put me near 2k (and have an alt check as well). Though if my needle isn't in the yellow or red, I'd be over 3k, and if I'm stable, I'll give it one more try.

You stop breathing for a few minutes and everyone jumps to conclusions.

[DiverMike 5]

Yes - I am sorry I mishmashed this thread by adding my incident to it.

As far as not landing in the field, we can agree to disagree.

For the same reason I jump off a perfectly good diving board.

[Skydivesg 7]

My bad on mixing up the two posts.

Keep asking questions and sort the answers with a dash of skepticism and you'll do fine.

And again, choose your mentors carefully.

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

[Skydivesg 7]

There is much more to your decision to get back to the airport than you might think.

You obviously don't know me so here is what I would suggest.

Contact Ian along with your picture and a desciption of your jump including altitudes. Ask him what he thinks of your choices made. I know he will be happy to help you with follow up since you took his course.

If you need his contact info, PM me.

I'm not trying to dis you. I'm just concerned you may be thinking that this decision was the right course of action.

I teach in my canopy course to make a decision on where to land by 1000 feet. You mention that you weren't sure until 300 feet. That's just too low. And with all the obstacles between the end of the runway and the last open field (which by your account is about a mile) you took a healthy dip out of your luck bucket my friend.

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

[sundevil777 102]

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I teach in my canopy course to make a decision on where to land by 1000 feet. You mention that you weren't sure until 300 feet. That's just too low. And with all the obstacles between the end of the runway and the last open field (which by your account is about a mile) you took a healthy dip out of your luck bucket my friend.

Quite right! The choice of staying on the other side of the river has a big impact on how long it will likely take to get back to the DZ, how long of a walk you'll have to make to get to help, etc. That impact is enough to encourage people to try and get back when they know it isn't worth the risk. I would have been tempted to just stay by the golf course, then hanging out at their bar while waiting for a ride would have been comfortable. Plus I think landing at a golf course would be fun.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[Skydivesg 7]

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I teach in my canopy course to make a decision on where to land by 1000 feet. You mention that you weren't sure until 300 feet. That's just too low. And with all the obstacles between the end of the runway and the last open field (which by your account is about a mile) you took a healthy dip out of your luck bucket my friend.

Quite right! The choice of staying on the other side of the river has a big impact on how long it will likely take to get back to the DZ, how long of a walk you'll have to make to get to help, etc. That impact is enough to encourage people to try and get back when they know it isn't worth the risk. I would have been tempted to just stay by the golf course, then hanging out at their bar while waiting for a ride would have been comfortable. Plus I think landing at a golf course would be fun.

Now you're thinking.

I've done that more than once.

And remember...... it's better to walk a mile than get carried 10 feet.

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

[devildog 0]

No worries. And thanks for the info. I do appreciate any and all input, including watching out on who to listen to :)

You stop breathing for a few minutes and everyone jumps to conclusions.

[monkycndo 0]

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I would have been tempted to just stay by the golf course, then hanging out at their bar while waiting for a ride would have been comfortable. Plus I think landing at a golf course would be fun.

On a verrrrry long spot, one of our vidiots took the out and landed on the local golf course, after making a cool swoop right onto the tee box. One of the golfers about to tee off handed him a club. With rig still on, he took a swing and put it on the green.

Let's just say the golfers were mighty impressed, for a multitude of reasons.

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You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[popsjumper 2]

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Anywho, my game plan as of right now is to really pull each time (as opposed to the relax grip I sank into at some point), and if the first fails, take a sec to ready for try number two while checking altitude (to stay stable) and if that doesn't work, go to the reserve. Since I usually pull around 4, going through all that calm and deliberately ought to put me near 2k (and have an alt check as well). Though if my needle isn't in the yellow or red, I'd be over 3k, and if I'm stable, I'll give it one more try.

better

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[tbrown 26]

First pull my hand slipped off the hackey and I thought nothing of it. My second pull was more forceful, and that was when I realized the PC wasn't coming out. So, at this point I'm thinking, "Oh God, here comes a reserve ride" but I instead decided to try one more time and I reached back and really pulled for all I was worth. Got a little unstable doing so, but I got it out and had to kick a few line twists out.

[TitaniumLegs 8]

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I completely missed the country and landed in France!

I did not even realize that I had landed in France, until after I walked back to the airfield!

Schweighofen? Maybe Baden?

(>o|-<

If you don't believe me, ask me.

[riggerrob 643]

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I completely missed the country and landed in France!

I did not even realize that I had landed in France, until after I walked back to the airfield!

Schweighofen? Maybe Baden?

.........................................................................

Schweighofen sounds familiar????

It was a little, grass airstrip that the Karlsruhe Parachute Club (Karlsruhe Fallschirms Verein) shared with some glider pilots. The airstrip was a half hour's drive west of Karlsruhe, less than a kilometre from the French border.

That was during the period that I was stationed at Canadian Forces Base Baden in West Germany.
While I was stationed in Germany, I often jumped -on the base - with the Black Forest Parachute Club, but I got off-base every chance I could and enjoyed jumping in Texel, Strassbourg (sp?), Leutkirke, Ampfing, Bad Tolz, etc.

I even spent a week Jumping at the Bundeswehr Luftlande und Lufttransporte Schule in Altenschadt, Bavaria!

[devildog 0]

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Don't do it again.

I dont :)

You stop breathing for a few minutes and everyone jumps to conclusions.