A learning experience (all should read)

[diverdriver 6]

On Saturday this past weekend, we came very close to losing another skydiver. He was about a quarter second away from being a fatality. As it is, he walked away. And he had some incredible video of the experience. Through the day it was shown to small groups with gasps and swear words heard after viewing it. It is just that scary. At the end of the day Roger called ALL skydivers at the hangar (most were still up there packing or getting done with the sunset load) to come and watch this video and learn. I would estimate at least 150 jumpers were gathered around the large screen TV.
What happened: Break off from about a 15-20 way....track..track...track....deplolyment. The deployment started out somewhat ok but then quickly flipped around into line twists that started diving. Spiralling line twists is a malfunction that can not be gotten out of. (Yes, I've seen video of people doing it but it leaves no room for error and eats tons of altitude.) This jumper grabbed the lines at the bottom of the twists which were just at the top of the risers. Effort was made to kick out but when you are spinning horizontally with your canopy you aren't going to go too far. Finally the jumper went in to pull the cutaway handle. At first, the lift web was grabbed and pulled twice. Then one hand on the pillow with a pull that did not peel first. Then the second hand comes in and pulls successfully to a cutaway. You then see groping for the reserve handle. The chest strap is grabbed first. Pulled. Then another grab and the reserve handle is pulled.
Now comes the scary part: The video is from a belly mount camera looking up the chest. It shows the jumper being stood up under an inflating reserve. The canopy gets about 3-4 cells spread and you see the tops of the trees enter the view of the camera. Remember, the camera is now pointing up at the sky so seeing tree tops means he has already passed them. The slider than almost meets the riser stops and the jumper hits the ground. Video goes blurry for a second and then comes back on looking at the jumpers head laying in mud flat on the ground on his side.
This jumper DID beat his Cypres. You can tell on some rigs because of how the cutter is mounted on the rig whether the reserve was pulled or the loop was cut first.
Lessons: Know your altitude. Modern canopies need more time to open and line twists can now be a HIGH SPEED malfucntion. Roger suggested that no one of any experience level deploy below 3,000 as a minimum. Don't plan it lower. Don't do it lower. This jumper reported that he threw the pilot chute at 2,000 AGL. Beginning deployment higher would have given about 5 more seconds to deal with the situation. I watched the video before the large gathering with the jumper next to me. As soon as the canopy spun up and dove I said "That's it. Time to go." He said "yah, I should have but I didn't." I asked why he thought he could kick out of this and he didn't really have an answer that I remember.
Folks, hard deck is hard deck. I don't care what you think you can fix. If it's not flying right at your hard deck then it's time for Plan B. Spinning line twists is an automatic cutaway at ANY altitude you deploy at. The dynamics of the situation will not allow you to kick out unless you are Peter Pan.
Another thing we noticed while watching the video in slow mode was that one steering line (the right one) was VERY twisted up from not untwisting after each jump. The left one had a few but not many. The canopy was spinning to the RIGHT. Get my drift? You MUST get ALL twists out of your steering lines before jumping again. If you jump it with twists then your slider will heat the line and make the twists permanent. This is very serious stuff! Check your main. If you use a packer...make sure he/she is getting the twists out. And help your packer out by putting your toggles back on the risers securely after landing so they don't dangle and twist while walking back in.
Skydive Chicago was a quarter second away from another fatality by a visiting jumper. I think Roger did the right thing and the jumper too by getting everyone together and having a serious and frank discussion of what haapened. I tell ya...I have seen scary video before from people who lived and died. I sat numb for a long while thinking about what I saw after the gathering.
Be safe.
Chris Schindler
D-19012
ATP
www.DiverDriver.com

[Pammi 0]

Thank you for taking the time to write this. It's a good lesson/reminder. I'm glad he's okay.
'Nuthin

[diverdriver 6]

Yah, we're glad too. And I forgot to post the experience level of the jumper. I may get this wrong but it was close to 11 years in the sport and 1,300 jumps. By no means was he a newbie.
Chris

[freeflir29 0]

Tell that guy he only has 8 left......
"Here I come to save the BOOBIES!"

[Lindsey 0]

....as well as the guy in the wing suit in Elberta this weekend. Any of y'all that were there see that video?! I was on that load.... Anyway, so we're on the Caravan. Fella in a wing suit jumps with wings open.....gets a little lift and missed the tail by inches! GAWD!!!! I understand he went a few shades of pale as he saw the video....
Peace~
(and y'all be careful out there)
Lindsey
you can live in happiness too, like the oompa loompa dooba de do....

[freeflir29 0]

  Quote

Fella in a wing suit jumps with wings open

Not the smartest thing to do out of a Caravan. I wouldn't even do a back flip out the door because that damn horizontal stab is so close.....
"Here I come to save the BOOBIES!"

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Something to add:
I think the jumper said he was 190 out the door and jumping a Stiletto 150?
That's like a 1.26 wing loading for someone who was fairly experienced, so if you think your 'lightly loaded' elliptical can't do this to you - you may wish to re-visit that thought.

[freeflir29 0]

  Quote

That's like a 1.26 wing loading

Wow......Thats right at my wing loading and my canopy has always been very stable even with one or two line twists. I had a little bit of fun Sunday evening. Packed like the wind and ran to the plane to get on the sunset load with Wingnut and Lindsey. Got a great video shot of Lindsey's deployment and then dumped my own around 2700 Ft or so. Had a toggle come un stowed. No big deal but it definately took me a little bit to figure out why my canopy wanted to spin to the left if I let up on the riser..."Here I come to save the BOOBIES!"

[diverdriver 6]

Excellent point Marc! I had forgotten that part.
Chris

[GrumpySmurf 0]

I remember eeneR pointing out that she noticed in the video one of the brake lines was twisted right up, which may have caused the line twists right out of the bag and the resulting unrecoverable spiral? That Stiletto is certainly not a very forgiving fellow.

[diverdriver 6]

I have seen unrecoverable line twists on many types of canopies OTHER than Stilleto. If a toggle comes loose on opening ANY canopy can have this problem and decision making sequence. Do NOT dismiss this case just because you may not jump a Stilleto too.
Chris

[billvon 3,085]

>This jumper DID beat his Cypres. You can tell on some rigs because of how the
> cutter is mounted on the rig whether the reserve was pulled or the loop was cut
> first.
A good example of why the statement "I don't need an RSL - I have a Cypres" doesn't make much sense. They are two completely different devices intended for two different purposes, and a Cypres will not fire in situations where you don't get to firing speed before it reaches its disarm altitude. (I hope people _do_ know that there is an altitude at which the cypres disarms.)
-bill von

[skreamer 1]

I don't really think that is relevant here Bill, considering he was jumping camera.
Chris : what altitude did you estimate he cutaway at? Also, I understand he beat his Cypres but it did fire. When you say he escaped death by a quarter of a second, do you think the Cypres would have fired too late to save him if he hadn't pulled silver himself? If you don't want to venture an opinion on this, I totally understand.
Thanks for posting this story, I have started jumping with RSL disconnected recently (camera) so found this quite pertinent.
Will
"Look before you jump, don't die until you're dead"

[diverdriver 6]

Yes, he might have died had he not pulled the reserve handle himself. What altitude he actually cutaway at? I don't know. His pro-trac said he deployed at 100 feet. Now, I don't know how the pro-trac calculates opening altitude but he was definitely not "open" at treetop level. It was a very fine line and I'm not too sure how a split second later would have turned out. It's total speculation on many people's parts on Sunday. All we know is that seconds cutting away sooner would have had a seriously different outcome.
Chris

[gale 0]

Newbie here. Nope, I did not know that Cypres had a disarm altitude. Is this true of the FXC? (That's what we students use at my dz) Could you explain why this is please? Also, how fast do you have to be to fire it? It sounds like this guy was moving pretty fast, pretty low, any lower and his reserve wouldn't have deployed in time to save him. (Sounds like to me) I'm just a little clear why his cypres didn't fire.
Gale
Isn't life the strangest thing you've ever seen?

[tigra 0]

Skreamer,
My understanding is that the cypres had rearmed itself AFTER the cutaway and had started its firing sequence but jumper had already pulled his reserve. Like Chris, I am not sure what altitude he managed to cut away at, but there was definately a lot of fumbling for handles, without looking for them. His eyes were pretty well fixed on the ground. It was close, but I think everyone who was there agrees that the cypres would have been too late.
There are definately some lessons to be learned from this, and we are all very glad the the jumper walked away without injury.
maura

[billvon 3,085]

>I did not know that Cypres had a disarm altitude.
From the Cypres user's guide:
"It activates the (reserve) when it detects a rate of descent higher than 78 mph (35 m/sec) at an altitude of apx 750 feet above ground level (AGL). In the event of a breakaway below this height CYPRES will operate down to apx 130 feet AGL. Below 130 feet AGL opening is no longer useful. For this reason, CYPRES ceases operation below apx 130 feet AGL."
That means that if you do not reach 78 mph by the time you get to 130 feet it will not fire. That means that, essentially, you have to cut away above 500 feet to accelerate to ~80mph to get your cypres to fire. Also, keep in mind that even if it _does_ fire, your reserve may not open in time if it is deployed at 180 feet. This is exactly the situation that the RSL was designed for - a low cutaway followed by a momentary problem in finding the reserve handle.
>(Sounds like to me) I'm just a little clear why his cypres didn't fire.
Chris did not state that it did not fire, just that the jumper beat the cypres. He may have pulled the reserve handle shortly before the cypres fired. Since his survival seemed like it was measured in feet on this jump, waiting a few extra moments for the cypres firing to open the reserve may have made all the difference in this jump's outcome.
-bill von

[diverdriver 6]

To all,
He beat the Cypres. Meaning, the Cypres did fire. I still don't know what container he has but some Cypres instalations will let you determine if a reserve was acivated by the reserve handle or Cypres. As an example: My Relfex has a closing loop attached to the pop top cap. When the reserve handle is pulled the loop goes with the cap pulling it out of the Cypress cutter. Other rigs have the cutter on a closing flap. Once the reserve container is open then it takes the cutter off the closing loop. But, rigs like the Javelin have the cutter at the base of the closing loop. You can't ever determine if the Cypres fires who beat who. Understand now?
Chris

[MrHixxx 0]

I would love to download this video if it can be made available. these kinds of examples make for good discussion on safety day...
thanks for the info, Hixxx
"Sous ma tub, Dr Suess ma tub"

[diverdriver 6]

I imagine that it will be put out there in time. The lessons can be learned without seeing the video. The video just puts an exclamation point on the issue.
Chris

[GrumpySmurf 0]

From the Camera's POV, it looked like it was mounted on the leg strap looking up, no where near the helmet/risers/lines...and the comment, "This is why they invented RSL's." was muttered by a Rigger standing next to me while we watched the video. It *LOOKED LIKE* the cut away was clean in that he didn't appear to be spinning after chopping, like he was shot straight away from the main, and flipped straight forward onto his belly.

[MrHixxx 0]

A picture is worth a thousand words... Nothing really communicates the sense of jeopardy like video... You explain something and someone nods their head, you show video and they say oh shit and really think about it!!!
-Hixxx
"Sous ma tub, Dr Suess ma tub"

[gale 0]

OK, I'm clear now. Thanks for the information.
Gale
Isn't life the strangest thing you've ever seen?

[AndyMan 7]

  Quote

That Stiletto is certainly not a very forgiving fellow

I just noticed this. I had my Triathlon spin up. I think Missy had her problem under a Velocity. Any canopy can spin up. Don't be so cocky to think it only happens to Stiletto's.
_Am
ICQ: 5578907
MSN Messenger: andrewdmetcalfe at hotmail dot com
AIM: andrewdmetcalfe
Yahoo IM: ametcalf_1999

[Hooknswoop 19]

1300 jumps in 11 years, is 118 jumps/year under an elliptical at 1.26 wingloading. How many jumps in the last 6 months? How many jumps on the Stiletto? How many cutaways? There are different types of experience that numbers just don't express. The recommended minimum decision altitude is 1800 ft. Deploying a Stiletto at 2000, makes an 1800 ft decision altitude impossible. By the time the canopy opens 1400 ft +/- and begins to spiral in line twists, there is little time to take action.
I had a cutaway Saturday. Normal deployment, stowed slider and released my brakes. Only one brake released, the other had the finger trap for setting the brakes locked on the toggle. Yanked once, twice, dropped everything, grabbed my handles, cutaway, pointed my reserve PC skyward and fired off the reserve. Pro-Track reads 3200 ft deployment altitude. We broke off the 3 way at 5,000 ft. I pulled after tracking at about 4,200 ft. I intended to pull a little extra high (than my normal 3,000-3,500ft) because it was my first jump at a new DZ, and yes, I bought beer.
Pro-tracs round off Deployment altitudes on the display, but will give the exact speed and altitude that it stopped recording when down-loaded to Jump-Track. So an indicated 100 ft deployment altitude could be as low as 51 ft. I have a jump that indicates 100 ft deployment, but on Jump-Track shows a 57 ft deployment altitude. I wasn't in free-fall, my pro-tack can't tell the difference between my canopy ride and free-fall.
Glad he made it.
Hook