CG07

You can also do Eustachian Tube exercises regularly to improve your ability to clear your ears. A couple times a day (3 or so reps each time) fill your cheeks with air and swallow it. This was recommend to me by my ENT prior to some surgeries I had on my eardrums to reduce the pressure during the healing process.

That's what the instructor told me afterward too. I probably would have held onto my main with my leg and sent my reserve into it

It was the 3.5k one. I actually ended up going back the next day to do it since it was the only thing besides the 25 jumps that I still needed on my proficiency card. I knew thinking about it would eat me up if I waited.

I felt the need to tell this somewhere... Working my way to my A license I finally decided to do the jump I was dreading the most, the hop n pop. My DZ normally jumps out of an Otter but for hop n pops they use they the C182. The slower airspeed messed with my exit (mostly mental) and self induced paranoia to pull quickly resulted in me rolling on my back as I was pitching the pilot chute (I took hop n pop a little too literally). As I watched it stream up between my legs I knew I was in for some trouble. I got tossed around a bit as the canopy opened and somehow ended with my left leg, up to the area behind my knee, caught in the risers on my right side. I then started to go into a pretty fast spin. I tried a couple times to free myself but I was so contorted that I couldn't move my leg back any farther to get it out. At this point I decided I need to chop. When I looked for my handles I saw part of my cutaway sticking out from under my leg. I was able to barely get my hand on it but had no leverage to pull it. I messed with it a few more times, even trying with both hands, but my leg was firmly blocking me from pulling the handle and I decided that it wasn't happening. This is when the seriousness of my situation really started to hit me. I looked at the ground and then at my canopy (which looked like it was directly in front of me) and realized how fast I was spinning. I hate to say it but for a few seconds I just sort of started to accept my fate. All I knew was that I had an out of control canopy, had wrenched myself around trying to get out and was unable to execute my EP's. I remember thinking "wow this is actually happening!" I couldn't think of anything else to do. After the couple seconds of self pity I snapped out of it and told myself "No! you are finding a way out of this!" I looked up to assess the whole situation and saw that I had a fully deployed main but my leg was pushing down on the front risers and causing me to spiral down. I figured my best option was to yank on my rear risers to counteract it. I instantly felt myself slow down and was able to get my body up higher to do a full flare with my rear risers. After a few flares I finally worked my leg out (It was MUCH easier to move without the force of the spin throwing me around) and was flying the canopy normally with a little less than 1000ft below me. Never been happier to see the ground. Not sure if I acted correctly but it ended up working out. One huge mistake I made after I corrected the situation was not checking my handles since I had been trying to work them free. When I finally took my rig off I noticed my cutaway handle was detached from the velcro and could have easily been bumped and cut away my main as I was landing.