my beer cutaway!

[Zeemax 0]

rahhhh
Beautiful day, bright blue's lowish wind. I was doing my Warp level 6 dive which is swooping. Dive went well, broke off at the agreed 5 tracked and deployed by about 4.

*SPANK!*

Hard opening, with some pretty funky line twists. no problem, grab the risers and kick out the twists. I free the twists but the picture above my head is far from sweet. The left brake line was some how still twisted in the right risers zig zagging with the slider which is a very odd shape. The right toggle was fine, pulled it down. The left toggle wouldn't move and i was spinning up. The left end cells were starting to deflate.. joy! so i play with it for a bit leveling out the spin with the right toggle. Pulling it the messy afair trying to release it. No joy, it was stuck fast [:([]

Ok i think, here we go. May as well see if this works. I looked, located, grabbed, punched em down and arched. free fall again. The weirdest feeling ever. after a wee bit theres this beautiful reserve.
bit smaller than i was expecting, but no probs. I do a control test and practice flare. even with the toggles at arms length there wasn't much of a flare (i was aslo wearing lead so the canopy was quite well loaded). came in, PLF'd stood up straight away to make sure no one thought i was hurt.

At my home DZ it's mandatory to wear a radio until you have 50 jumps due to it being a very busy airport so i was wearing one. As soon as i stood up all i could hear over it was.. BEER!

Reserve drills rule, and i now know i have no problems if it ever comes to second pull time

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
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[Viking 0]

no no NO!!! you were supposed to ride it down to 800 feet and then chop it to impress everyone!!! j/k

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[Cornholio 0]

Congrats!!

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so i play with it for a bit

Any idea what your altitude was before you started to play with it and what it was when you were under your reserve ??

Butthead: Whoa! Burritos for breakfast!
Beavis: Yeah! Yeah! Cool!
bellyflier on the dz.com hybrid record jump

[dterrick 0]

Congrats 'Zee...

...my beer cutaway was a high speed mal. No time to play or assess jump #20) but everything else was the same down to the radio. After I dropped my "single parachute rig" back in the loft (my ride was a 24 foot ROUND reserve!!), I drove to the offsale, bought the 24, and returned to find out I had been manifested forthe next load. Did a hop n pop from 5k with the DZO ( that was actually a treat as Hutch was breaking in a fresh kidney and was told 'not' to jump).

Then we drank the beer.... and actually had to buy more butthis time someone else treated
-Dave

Dave

Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

[Muenkel 0]

Great job! Sounds to me like you handled it really well and kept a level head.

Chris

_________________________________________
Chris

[Casie 0]

You did an AWESOME job....congrats!

~Porn Kitty
WARNING: Goldschlager causes extreme emotional outbursts!

[skydiverbrian 0]

Any cutaway you live through is a good cutaway. Congrats.

In a world full of people, only some want to fly... isn't that crazy! --Seal

[ladyskydiver 0]

Good job!

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[suz 0]

Wow Zeemax...I'm glad you lived to tell the story

Don't bother me, I'm living happily ever after

[jtval 0]

SWEET!!!!! funny abou tthe radio and BEER! lOL

BTW- I am concerned about one thing!
did YOU pull your reserve or did the RSL pull it?
it kinda seems that the RSL did by the way you typed.
if so, PLEASE , if you need to cutaway again PULL your reserve even if the RSL beats you to it. it will help with muscle memory. and in the event the RSL breaks you will be in the process of pulling anyway and WONT loose any more altitude while thinking WTF?
glad you owe beer

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[Zeemax 0]

yup, i was under canopy by about 4 grand. Tried to release the tangled mess above my head then decided there was nothing more i could do except look and locate

I cut at about 3 grand so plenty of height to make it back to the landing area.

JT, yes there was an RSL, but i did punch the reserve handle too. Landed with both in my teeth grrrrrrr!!! lol

i'm heading up to the DZ today to take the beer i owe and speak to some peeps to see what could have happend. i figure the line twists were what screwed up the brake line. oh well.

Funniest bit was one of the instructors whose also a master rigger asked me in the bus back from the landing site if my reserve had worked.. it made quite a few people laugh...

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[jtval 0]

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JT, yes there was an RSL, but i did punch the reserve handle too. Landed with both in my teeth grrrrrrr!!! lol

COOL THANKS!

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Funniest bit was one of the instructors whose also a master rigger asked me in the bus back from the landing site if my reserve had worked.. it made quite a few people laugh...

he WAS joking, right??lol

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[Zeemax 0]

[reply he WAS joking, right??lol

[jtval 0]

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[reply he WAS joking, right??lol

the funniest bit was he wasn't! it had been a long day and he'd just done a tandem, i dont think he meant it to come out the way it did. mucho amusing tho.

[Zeemax 0]

!! what do you mean, in my accent?!?!?!

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[jtval 0]

HAHA! well it not ME who has one! LOL

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[Zeemax 0]

chah! as if... the language is ENGLISH.. so i dont have an accent, you do...

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[jtval 0]

LOL...well on my side of the pond we speak American (cant call it english as we've used all kindsa languages and added to our own)

so we made it more modern! LOL

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[Zeemax 0]

oh purrrrlease....

in school you went to English classes not american.. give it up!

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[Fast 0]

Glad you came through it!

~D
Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me.
Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

[jtval 0]

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Glad you came through it!

LIKE a cheap tissue! LOL

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[Zeemax 0]

ewwww... kitten juice everywhere...


Just re-read the replies
it was weird. I looked at my handles two or three times before i decided that i was going to use them. I'd pulled quite high so had time to think about it and work out what i was going to do. At no point did i think oh shit, this could be messy. Reserve drills are totally worth it. I was really really calm, in fact my only worry was i wasn't going to get the packing credit for packing this rig! IT wasn't till i got down and everyone was like, are you alright etc.. and dont worry, you've had a mal. Sit down.. i was like, eh?? LOL. I guess i owe it to good instructors. It was actually kinda fun (dare i say it )

Thanks again all for the nice words

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[jtval 0]

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ewwww... kitten juice everywhere...


... At no point did i think oh shit, this could be messy.

YIKES!!!!!

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[Zeemax 0]

thats why you need a quailty brand of tissues... like kleenex. no soak through

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[jtval 0]

Geez, you really know how to SOIL a good thread about your BEER cutaway!

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