Witnessed first cutaway today

[DTOXX 0]

I doubt this counts as an incident so I am posting it here.
Myself and a friend are officially off of student status and are mixing fun jumps with the requirements of getting an A license. Today we went up in a 182 with just the two of use (well 3 with the pilot). We intentionally spotted the plan so that we had to either track in or fly the canopy into the landing zone. I stepped out on the platform, he was in the doorway, I counted and on three we went.
The dive went great. We had planned for me to barrel roll, front flip, makes some turns and to track a bit. He was to keep a heading on me. We BOTH agreed to track away at 6000, lock on to the altimeters at 5500 and PULL AT 4500.
Well I pulled on time and then under full canopy hear him comming down. He was about 400 feet north of me and I watched him pass me with nothing deployed. Then just lower than me I see his main deploy and I undid the brakes. When I look back down I see his main is, well, crap. He sighted a line over and the pilot chute was wrapped under it as well. As I looked down I thought "cut, cut, cut". He cut away and deployed his reserve with out incident. It did take about 45 minutes to find his main. Even thought I said exactly where it when down then message was misrelayed to the pickup vehicle.
I found it odd that from my view point he looked sooooo much lower then he was. He said he had full canopy by 1500 but I thought for sure I was watching my friend of 14 years pile drive into the dirt.
I did chew his ass a bit for NOT following the dive plan. We discussed the fact that we may not be at the same altitude once we start the dive. This is why I stepped out and we did have a small gap in our exit timing. So at 4500 I pull. I know I am lower than him so I thought he would open at 4500 and then cork screw himself down to my elevation under canopy. He, in mid flight, desided to freefall down to my elevation and attempted to open at same. I reemed him for changing the plan.
Oh yes, he now owes a case of beer to the DZ and a bottle of Vodka to his new best friend. The rigger... Payments are coming on Sunday when we will be jumping all day.

-------
D.T. Holder
SIMstudy

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

I found it odd that from my view point he looked sooooo much lower then he was

It's always like that. People look like they are about to burn in shortly after they pass you. Congrats to your friend. If he had a pilot chute over the nose he was backsliding when he dumped. Might tell him that .....

[howardwhite 6]

"Myself and a friend are officially off of student status and are mixing fun jumps with the requirements of getting an A license."

I'm puzzled about how you can be off student status (graduated AFF?) and not yet A licensed, yet jumping with someone of equally low experience.

This seems to me:

--inconsistent with USPA guidelines;
--dangerous;
--not a good learning experience.

HW

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

I'm puzzled about how you can be off student status (graduated AFF?) and not yet A licensed

Once graduated from AFF you are now a "Novice" jumper and no longer considered a "Student" Differen't places have differen't rules about who you can jump with during this novice period. I know I could jump with anyone I wanted and was doing 4-6-8-18 ways before I had an A license. I lived.....

[howardwhite 6]

"Once graduated from AFF you are now a "Novice" jumper and no longer considered a "Student" Differen't places have differen't rules about who you can jump with during this novice period."

Things have changed a lot; check your current SIM. I don't have it in front of me, but basically after AFF you have to jump solo or with a coach/instructor until you have completed your A check dive. If " Differen't places have differen't rules " and the "places" are USPA, they're not supposed to.

Sure, you lived, and I did too, but I don't think "novice" is still in the USPA vocabulary.

And I still think it's unwise and dangerous; 20-jump wonders don't know whether it's their fault or the other guy's. But happily, the fatality reports don't reflect problems in this category.

HW

[Hooknswoop 19]

Until you have an "A" license you have to either 1) jump solo, 2) Jump w/ an USPA coach, or 3) jump w/ an USPA Instructor. This applies at USPA DZ's only, of course.

Also, 500 feet for tracking is not enough, especially for sub 20 jump skydivers. By the time you turn 180 degrees, begin to track and flare out from the track, you've gone all of about 50 feet (or less), for a total seperation of 100 feet. If the other jumper has a line-over (figure the odds ;-) ) and you have a 180 opening w/ line twists, the resulting canopy collision and entanglement can kill you both.
Plan on a minimum of 1500 feet for turning, tracking, flaring, waving off, checking your airspace and pulling. More for anything larger than a two way. Like I always tell people that want to move break-off down 500+ feet, if you need the extra time, just get better at flying :-).

Hook

[freeflir29 0]

Quote

Things have changed a lot; check your current SIM

Woops...sorry. It's hard to RE-LEARN all the rules again. That's pretty crazy but probably a good thing. Of course....after last weekend it seems it's the the 100-300 jump wonder crowd are the ones that keep trying to hurt me..... I'll jump with newbies any day. At least I KNOW not to take my eyes off them.

[christoofar 0]

Quote

Quote

Things have changed a lot; check your current SIM

Woops...sorry. It's hard to RE-LEARN all the rules again. That's pretty crazy but probably a good thing. Of course....after last weekend it seems it's the the 100-300 jump wonder crowd are the ones that keep trying to hurt me..... I'll jump with newbies any day. At least I KNOW not to take my eyes off them.

Bitch.

I resemble that remark.!

Hahahahaha

____________________________________________________________
I'm RICK JAMES! Fo shizzle.