RyanMarshall

No doubt it's that moment at the door that really counts, where fear is strongest. I had to trick my brain in order to do it. I would tell myself things like I'm in the military and I must do this for my country. One thing that really helped me was to keep focusing on the idea of getting out of the door and worry about everything else later. Physically I am capable of doing that no matter how mentally terrified I was. From my experience, as soon as you jump out of the plane, all of the fear melts away.

Wow. This really makes me rethink sending my rig in the mail. I just received my first rig from Chutingstar shipped via UPS without problems. I work with all 3 major shipping companies in the US quite a bit (UPS, FedEx, USPS) and the only thing I can say is that FedEx does the best job overall. I've had lost packages with UPS and USPS, as well as other problems, but FedEx has been on top of things from my experience. I hope justice prevails with this one.

Nice!!

I also had to cut away on jump #18 during training due to tension knots that caused me to dive to the left and spin rapidly. I knew that I had to jump again or the fear may grow more intense, so the first thing I did was manifest myself for the next load, which was my first jump without a coach. I was definitely very nervous because of the cutaway but it was such a great feeling when I was under a working canopy. I've jumped 4 times since the cutaway and it has gotten better. I find peace of mind in the following: -I performed proper emergency procedures as I was trained to do -My gear didn't let me down. It did what it was supposed to do. The reserve kept me alive. I'm still here! -Understanding that cutaways are inevitable, that's why we have reserves -I got my first cutaway over with early in my skydiving career. I'm more confident that I'll be able to react properly during the next one. -Sure it was scary, but it helps me to not become complacent and disregard safety concern -Research on why my particular malfunction happened, what I can do to prevent it in the future, and how to best react if it happens again. As well as thoroughly researching and practicing all malfunctions so that the response is second nature -I have a great story to tell With that said, I still have jitters every single jump, even before the cutaway. Overcoming that fear is part of the fun for me. Once I jump out that door it all melts away. I love it! It does get easier though. My last jump I was even thinking how much less nervous I was and more so looking forward to doing front flips on the exit. Hope this helps!

I was curious about this and asked this when I started STP training. The instructor told me as long as it's a real malfunction on rental gear then the DZ will absorb the costs. I just had to cutaway today on my 18th jump while still in training because of tension knots. It was rental gear and it was packed by a staff member. They were having a hard time finding it, not sure if they ever did. In my opinion if it's a real malfunction on rental gear then the DZ should be responsible. It won't take them long to make up the costs with the amount of jumps I plan on doing there.

Great article, thanks for sharing. As a newbie this really helps emphasize the importance of proper gear checks. I'm going to have my rigger show me this malfunction on the DZs tandem gear out of curiosity.