Non-fatal container lock

[fudd 0]

Hi
The second jump on my newly purchased Vector II rigg i made a crucial mistake while packing. I manage to get the bridle under the third flap when I was closing the container. This made it impossible for the pin to come loose.
I put on my rigg and asked an experienced skydiver to check my gear. She missed it. When in the plane, another skydiver checked my pin, and he missed it to.
When I pulled at 3000' nothing happend. Just a pilote in tow. I realized something was horrible wrong and did my emergency procedure. Cut and pull the reserve. Looking at my altimeter wasn't what I thought of when I hang in my reserve, but I guess I had a fully inflated canopy at about 1200'. I spotted a nice place to land, and landed without injury. Guess I were a little lucky, because my firelite reserve loaded at 1.14 had an incredible speed when I came down. A PLF probably saved me some broken bones.
Lessons to be learned:
1. Check your gear before jumping. Be sure nothing stops the bridle from pulling out the pin.
2. When you check others gear and your're not sure if what you are seeing is correct, ask someone else to verify. It's scary that two people didn't see that the bridle was wrong. I guess most people just look and see that the pin is well into the closing loop.
3. Don't jump riggs with too small reserves (unless you know what you're doing). It's pretty stupid to get seriously hurt during landing a small canopy you don't know how to handle. I dare not to think how my landing would have turned out with a reserve loaded at 1.4
I'm still alive , and won't do this mistake again. By posting here, I hope some else won't to, and that you all checks the bridle when checking some elses rigg before they jump.
This was my 38th jump and first reserve ride. Shaken but not stirred.
CASE!!!
-fudd

[narcimund 0]

Thanks for this story. I know that when I give pin checks I often forget to look for bridle routing problems. I'll definitely include that in my routine from now on.

Congrats on a safe landing.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[Skyrad 0]

Thanks for posting, that ones gone straight to my memory banks.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Spy38W 0]

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Thanks for this story. I know that when I give pin checks I often forget to look for bridle routing problems. I'll definitely include that in my routine from now on.

Same here, when I do pin/gear checks I have been neglecting to look at bridle routing. Thanks for sharing.

--
Hook high, flare on time

[ifallout 0]

thanks for sharing. You said the bridal was routed wrong that it went under the third flap... do you mean that you ran the bridal to high and that it went under the flap on the way out? i am just trying to get it here... because my mind sees that the bridal belongs under the third flap on a Vector or second depending on how you choose to do the flaps, i have seen Vectors with the flaps numbered both ways so left first or right first shouldn't matter. I do top, bottom, right, left on them. One time i ran mine to high up and it caught on the bottom flap on the way out, is that what you are saying happened?
Please let me know a litlle more if you would. If it is, you really don't want people doing a gear check to pull that bridal out every time... especially in the plane. I don't see a way to check that without pulling the bridal out and re-routing it yourself. Any ideas?

Bill

have fun, love life, be nice to the humans

[TRL 0]

Hello,
VERY glad to hear you weren't injured! I'm curious as to what happened when you cut away. Did you main leave you or were the risers just released from the rings and flapped above you with the pilot?
I have fewer jumps than you and my training leaves it to personal choice as to when to cut away and when not to. Various scenarios have been explained to me (and practiced). I lean toward cutting away on total mals and not partials but, individual circumstances need to be evaluated.
Thanks and good job,
TRL

[skydiverbrian 0]

Glad you made it down okay, fudd. Congratulations on your first reserve ride -- BEER! Now let's hope you don't have any more.

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my training leaves it to personal choice as to when to cut away and when not to

With so many possible mals, there are just as many courses of action. Low-timers (and High-timers, too) should definitely seek out the advice of your S&TA regularly. With some container lock situations, if you don't chop the main before you pull the reserve, you can actually cause the container to open and the main to inflate into/around the reserve. Obviously, that would not have happened in this case, but how would you know while you're hurtling towards the ground?

A good training idea: sit through the first-jump course again. I try to do it regularly and always learn something new (or am reminded about something I forgot).

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

[rgoper 0]

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Did you main leave you or were the risers just released from the rings and flapped above you with the pilot?

if he had a pc in tow, there was no d-bag, or main out. risers don't always release just because you cut-away.

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I lean toward cutting away on total mals and not partials

what are you basing this on? just curious.

--Richard--
"We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

[TRL 0]

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I lean toward cutting away on total mals and not partials

what are you basing this on? just curious.

[ernokaikkonen 0]

I think he meant it was routed like this(see attachment and forgive me for the artwork. red line represents bridle).

Erno

[fudd 0]

Hi again...
I did a reconstruction. Attached is a picture of how it should look like and how it definitly should not look. If you're unsure of which is correct, then you should not do pin checks before you are sure.
As for when to cut away or not, my opinion is to allways cut away. You don't have time to evaluate what is wrong, and almost allways it will be correct to cutaway. The last thing you want is your reserve entangled in your main.
The only time I would go directly on my reserve handle, is if I have lost altitude awerness and are way to low. I don't want to pull my main and have the cypress fire one second later.
If you're not sure, you are sure.
-Fudd

There are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

[TRL 0]

I want to correct something I posted earlier. I posted a total mal was when the bag is off you and a partial is when it is not. This was bass ackwards. But whatever you call it I had the response correct. Referencing SIM page 101. If its a coincidence that emergencies are on page 101 then its a pretty good one. I'd like to think someone was clever enough to think of that.
Regards,
trl

[rgoper 0]

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A total mal is one in which the bag is off you and you don't have a controllable canopy. i.e. bag lock, crap overhead, something spinning you.

a "total" malfuntion is when you deploy, you have NOTHING out. a pc in tow is a partial mal, same for a streamer, lineover, baglock, etc...let's say you go to deploy, and you experience a pc in tow? cutaway? it could turn out good, and it could turn out bad. one of two things could happen, you cut-away and deploy reserve, and d-bag stays in container, in which case it's a good thing. but if you deploy, and have a pc in tow, don't cut-away, and deploy reserve, reserve is deploying, all of the sudden your main decides it's going to deploy as well, and you haven't yet cut-away, ugly scenario, but possible, just some things to consider when initiating emergency procedures. in any event, constantly rehearse your emergency procedures for every scenario, read all you can, buy the sky diver's manuel and read it, research all you can, so when the time comes you'll be better informed as to what your options are. be safe, take care.

--Richard--
"We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

[ifallout 0]

both your top jpg and the drawing are the same... so you might just be right... and someone that did the gear check should have noticed that... BUT... it is a serious packing flaw and the packer, whomever it is, might consider packing more slowly, or another packing class maybe. That has to be done before you ever close the container... it should have been very clear there was an error to anyone... I guess you just can't be too careful.

No harm no foul I guess...

Bill

have fun, love life, be nice to the humans

[petur 0]

I've seen this happen a couple of times when people have opened their container and closed it again without extracting the D-bag from the container. People seem to get a bit confused when entering the packing-sequence at another stage than the starting point. I always pay extra attention when re-closing the container... I think everybody should :)

---
P.
"It Hurts to Admit When You Make Mistakes -
But When They're Big Enough, the Pain Only Lasts a Second."