First tandem malfunction

[cpoxon 0]

Being a fairly active tandem instructor (for a UK based, weekend warrior at least), I suspected that my next malfunction would be on a tandem, and this weekend, that came true. I had my first tandem malfunction on Saturday (10th March 2006) and yes, I bought beer.

It was the second of 3 tandems performed that day. After an uneventful free fall from 12,000 feet, I pulled the drogue release at around 5,500 feet or just below. The drogue released normally and I felt the bag leave the container but I soon felt an awful sick feeling when I didn't get the usual sensation of being pulled upright. I looked over my right shoulder. During this brief glance I could see that the lines were at full stretch but it appeared that the canopy hadn't left the bag. From the angle I was looking from and the short time I spent doing so, I couldn't see exactly what was wrong but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to resolve itself. I did very briefly consider giving the risers as tug but quickly decided against that idea as being fairly futile in a high speed situation. I elected to cutaway and deploy the reserve. I had no problem locating the reserve loop but had trouble grasping the cutaway pad. I became slightly alarmed by the fact that the aging Velcro on the reserve handle parted and the handle detached, albeit in my hand, before I had managed to grasp the cutaway. I was wearing three layers on my hands (silk liners, summer gloves and winter gloves) but I don't feel that my dexterity was greatly diminished or that this was the biggest factor in my ability to grab the pad. I was also worried about the amount of time it seemed to take to grab the cutaway handle and pull it. It crossed my mind how embarrassing it would be to have the Cypes fire, not to mention the possibility of a main-reserve entanglement! After what seemed an eternity, I was able to pull the cutaway, followed by the reserve, as my 3k alarm on my Neptune was going off in my ear. My altimeter showed that I was just below three thousand feet. The reserve opened quickly and uneventfully although it was bucking as tandem reserves are won’t to do before the brakes have been released. I had held on to the drogue release whilst pulling the reserve. I wanted to get the brakes off to stop the canopy for surging but felt I had my hands full and for some reason passed the drogue release to my student with the instruction, "Hold onto that!" I placed the cutaway and reserve cables between my teeth (why didn't I do that with the drogue release as well?). As I unzipped my jumpsuit to secure the handles, I watched my student casually drop the drogue release! D'oh! At least it was a £5 handle and not a £50 one! As I was stuffing the handles away the bagged main canopy whistled past us about 6 feet to the right! :-o (Has anyone ever been hit by one of those?!) I performed a quick control check on the canopy, got a bearing on where I was and tried to keep an eye on the main for recovery and then headed back to the dropzone. A cameraman from another tandem came and flew by me to check me out and see if the main was still in the container. I landed back on the dropzone and stood it up as well. When we landed I asked my student if he wanted to know a secret? He said yes so I told him what had happened. He said it felt a bit weird towards then end. I'm not sure whether he really did notice. Yes it did get a bit wobbly when I was trying to get the reserve out but how much is a first time jumper really going to notice? Once I got inside that I started to think about things, I was a little shaken, but I soon recovered and went and did another tandem!

The main was recovered fairly quickly and was bought back pretty intact. The two mouth locks were still stowed (although one of the rubber bands had snapped, there was enough integrity still left to hold the stow). There was a line over the bag and partly around the drogue bridle (although this could have happened after cutaway). An experienced Tandem Instructor/Examiner as well as reserve packer speculated that there may have been some line dump, a line got loose and went around enough to prevent the canopy from coming out of the bag. I'm pretty careful about stowing my lines in the container and I'm pretty sure that I didn't pack that in. Who knows? The main was an Aerodyne A2 384 with around 40 jumps on it (although it was no trouble to pack). The freebag was recovered a little later and the safety stow had gone.

Due to the glorious English winter, as well as going to Thailand for three weeks, I am fairly uncurrent tandem wise. In the UK we are required to demonstrate our emergency drills to another instructor every sixty days, whether we have jumped with a live student or not. If we don't take at least one student every 90 days we are required to take a C licensed skydiver on the front which I did last weekend (thanks Zoter!). I also took a real student after that. The second one following those is the one I had the mal on. Due to my lack of currency, I did practice locating my handles in during freefall on all jumps.

However, I realise I have been doing something a bit foolish, something which I've been doing since I did my first bag jump on my tandem course; I've been locating handles, in freefall, individually whilst stabilising myself with the other hand out in front of me. This is not a realistic drill since during a real (main canopy) emergency it is my intention to locate both the cutaway and the reserve at the same time, therefore not having a spare hand to counteract the manoeuvre. With the drogue collapsed, and the bag locked, I would estimate that the drag was about the same as a fully inflated drogue; it certainly didn't feel any faster, albeit the centre of the drag was located much higher than normal above my shoulders from the risers (but not enough to sit me up at all). Flying without using my arms whilst locating the handles felt unnatural and may have accounted for the student being aware that something was wrong. From now on, when I locate my handles in the air, it will be done simultaneously. More foolish is that this discrepancy had occurred to me before, and I’d even seen other instructors doing their drills in the air, on video, locating both handles at the same time and yet I still didn’t change mine. I’m not sure why; I guess because it’s the way I’ve always done it, and it is easier. I’ve just had a look at the DVD from my tandem course and I am not the only one doing it this way. It was never noticed or picked up, either on my course or since. I’ve also had a look through the Vector 2 tandem manual and the Sigma manual and can find no recommendation for locating the handles in freefall.

Secondly, due to the high, outboard location of the handles and my trouble grabbing the cutaway pad, I will favour containers that have two loops from now on, such as the Next or the Atom. To me the ease of pulling that handle is more important than having different looking/feeling handles, especially when there is minimal snag risk (or is the reason to make it more difficult for a confused student to reach back and cutaway?)

The jump was not videoed, which has its pros and cons. It would have been nice to have video to perhaps see if the reason for the bag lock was apparent as well as the ability to analyse how I reacted and dealt with the emergency. Having said that, it might have been embarrassing to see how much I was flailing! If the student is being videoed I tend to wave off at 6,000 feet to be releasing the drogue at 5,500. If I don’t have video I tend to take it a little lower, down to about 5,000 feet. I deployed the reserve at about 3000 feet, with approximately 5 seconds to spare before the Cypres fired. I am still considering these altitude choices.

Some facts and figures: this jump was my 1660th, and it was my 335th tandem since I qualified in July 2003. My previous malfunction was on the 13th of April 2002, 1008 jumps ago (you can read about it here). I had one malfunction prior to that, on jump number 28, during my post-AFF consolidation jumps. You can read about that here. In the past twelve months I have done 320 jumps (128 tandems). In the past 6 months I have done 103 jumps (45 tandems). In the past 3 months I have done 25 jumps (4 tandems).

I am both happy and disappointed to have had this mal. I’m glad to prove I can do it (not that I didn’t think I could), but it’s a shame my 1000+ jump run without a mal is over. It’s a pity it wasn’t a low speed malfunction so I could say the classic line asking if they enjoyed the jump and if they wanted to do it again! Perversely, I would also have liked to experience the long wait after cutting away before the reserve opens (ok, maybe not!). I mostly pack all of my own tandems (99%) and I mostly PRO pack so I thought the chances would be that this would be the cause of a mal. I’m a little annoyed that I’ll never really know what caused this mal. But I’m annoyed the most at giving the drogue release to the student for him to throw away!

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[Deuce 1]

Great write-up, Craig. I've had three tandem chops in three consecutive jumping days (over two weekends) hopefully you won't need to get that current. No, there's nothing like that first sub-terminal chop.

With the drogue collapsed, and you going tandem terminal, it would seem your quick move to cutaway would be the very best one.

What is your hard deck for collapsing the drogue?

-I had a good laugh at your comment about being embarrassed about the possibility of a Cypres fire. A couple years ago at Eloy I had a dubious chop and remember wondering if I could land out and not have anybody notice. "You know you've been skydiving a while if...."

Well done.

[bodypilot1 0]

Craig, good job, glad you didn't die!



Be safe
Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[karlm 0]

Good Job ... nice write up.

Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

BEER!
A couple of comments.
First of all, sitting in the saddle at 3000 with a high speed isn´t bad. Once the drogue is collapsed things happen fast.
Second, Steve Janz was hit by his main under tandem reserve a couple of years ago in Abbotsford. The canopy recovered and Smiley got some free adrenaline.
Third, When I read your account, the first thing I noticed was you had your hand on your reserve handle before your cutaway. While you had the presence of mind not to pull them in the order you grabbed them, I don´t think this is the best idea. You talk of grabbing them at the same time on your practice touches. I think the muscle memory benefits of grabbing them in the same sequence you plan to pull them is important and you should keep doing it that way (I would even suggest that it has already paid off in your case and may have helped stay your left hand when your right hand broke the sequence). By all means stop separating the touches the way you have been doing, but keep the sequence IMHO.
Fourth, Why couldn´t you grab the cutaway handle? Is the harness too long for you? Do the handles ride up your torso? If this is what happened what will happen on a mal where you are pulled upright in the saddle? Check out the position after deployment on your next jump. Don´t just touch them, actually grab them like you are going to pull them.
Fifth, Doesn´t the ripcord hurt your teeth? I had a mal the other day. I put the main drogue release between my teeth and got a fat lip for my efforts as we tipped a bit on cutaway and I got a nice riser slap.
The quality of the bottle you buy your rigger is an indicator as to the quality of pack job you want them to do for you.

[cpoxon 0]

Thanks for the good wishes from everyone. I was worried someone was going to pick a hole (or worse) in something that I hadn't considered.

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Second, Steve Janz was hit by his main under tandem reserve a couple of years ago in Abbotsford.

:-o

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The canopy recovered

Phew! but wouldn't like to count on it! That sort of CRW I can do without!

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By all means stop separating the touches the way you have been doing, but keep the sequence IMHO.

Good point. I'm pretty sure the grabbing of the reserve, due to getting a thumb in the loop, was instantaneous and unconcious, whereas the gripping action on the pad took longer and some thought. If they were both loops I think I would have had them both at the same time. Of course, I wouldn't rely on the RSL or the Cypres, but the priority, in this situation, above the hard deck, is to cutaway the main, so maybe a little more attention could be paid to that handle, at first anyway.

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Fourth, Why couldn´t you grab the cutaway handle? Is the harness too long for you? Do the handles ride up your torso?

This system is used regularly at the dropzone by a tandem instructor (who is also the DZM and an AFFI), who is a little bit smaller than me, and as such, it is adjusted for him, so if anything this particular harness is a little bit small for me but I don't think that was a factor. Doesn't everyone find outboard tandem pads difficult to grab? Or is it just me? If the handle was in board or even on the main lift web (over the pectoral) it would be a lot easier, but having bend the arm at the elbow as far as it will go whilst pushing the arm back to grab the outboard handle whilst having the strength and dexterity to pull it does not feel natural for me! I'm not saying I don't think I can do it (as I've proved) but it is awkward, no? Like I say, crooking a thumb in a loop (that is also proud from the harness lessening the effect of the geometry on one's arm) seems a lot easy hence my favouring two loops.

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what will happen on a mal where you are pulled upright in the saddle?

I suspect it will be a lot easier to grab and pull (although maybe not initially located due to the change in position and depending on the severity of the malfunction). When a load is applied to the harness it tends to exacerbate any slack in the system creating space that would again lessen the geometry of the pull. Assuming a generally vertical pull from the risers, the harness may also be lifted a little from the body, although the attached student woul dgreatly diminish this.

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Check out the position after deployment on your next jump. Don´t just touch them, actually grab them like you are going to pull them.

I will do it again.

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Fifth, Doesn´t the ripcord hurt your teeth? I had a mal the other day. I put the main drogue release between my teeth and got a fat lip for my efforts as we tipped a bit on cutaway and I got a nice riser slap.

I wouldn't know about that! Do you mean the metal reserve cable (or even the cutaway on a Strong)? I never noticed. If you mean the drogue release then because I was still at terminal, I didn't take the time to move the drogue release before locating (or at least trying to!) my handles. :-)

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The quality of the bottle you buy your rigger is an indicator as to the quality of pack job you want them to do for you.

I did offer but he elected for just a pint (or two)!

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[OnYourBack 0]

"Doesn't everyone find outboard tandem pads difficult to grab? Or is it just me?"

I used to have difficulty with this until someone showed me that if you just sinch the chest strap tighter it will bring the handles into a better place, well for me anyway. But this may not help all body types.

[Zoter 0]

Nice report ....GYDD
Good job it wasnt on your recurrency jump .....or I would have thought you were just showing off and trying to scare me....

[littlejohn 0]

glad to see you made it out

death before dishonor

[JohnMitchell 16]

Nice write up. Your question about the baglock. A buddy of mine had his chopped baglock smack right in the middle of his opened round reserve. Knocked a bunch of air out of it and made him drop a bit again. Aaaack!

[skypuppy 1]

Good point. I'm pretty sure the grabbing of the reserve, due to getting a thumb in the loop, was instantaneous and unconcious, whereas the gripping action on the pad took longer and some thought. If they were both loops I think I would have had them both at the same time. Of course, I wouldn't rely on the RSL or the Cypres, but the priority, in this situation, above the hard deck, is to cutaway the main, so maybe a little more attention could be paid to that handle, at first anyway.

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Fourth, Why couldn´t you grab the cutaway handle? Is the harness too long for you? Do the handles ride up your torso?

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what will happen on a mal where you are pulled upright in the saddle?

I suspect it will be a lot easier to grab and pull (although maybe not initially located due to the change in position and depending on the severity of the malfunction). When a load is applied to the harness it tends to exacerbate any slack in the system creating space that would again lessen the geometry of the pull. Assuming a generally vertical pull from the risers, the harness may also be lifted a little from the body, although the attached student woul dgreatly diminish this.

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Check out the position after deployment on your next jump. Don´t just touch them, actually grab them like you are going to pull them.

__________________________________________________

I had my first tandem mal a couple of years ago. In fact, I had two in three jumps, all in the same day.

I also had problems locating the cutaway handle, but not for the problem you had. Mine was a spinning mal due to a steering line hangup. I don't think I really believed I would have a mal, so I spent perhaps a bit too long trying to correct it -- then, with the student remaining in his arch, I had problems locating the cutaway pad, had to keep physically crossing the student's arms in front of his chest to look for the pad, and as soon as I let go of them he would get into his arch again.

so the handles were hard to find because
a) with the canopy open, the harness had moved up probably a foot, and initially I was feeling down too low on the main lift web

b) couldn't see the handles because the three rings really were in the way, eventually I really had to crank my head around past the risers to look up and down the harness

c) until I managed to get the student's arms crossed for about the 3rd time and tell him forcefully to keep them crossed, they continued to get in the way of just feeling up the main lift web until you find the handles....

As I said, after spending time trying to get rid of the hangup, then not finding the cutaway right away, I was starting to get real dizzy by the time I got them. The same thoughts went through my mind about when would I find the handle and about the aad firing, but again I think I was open around 3000 feet. Once I found the cutaway it was easy to match it and find the reserve on the left, then pull in sequence.

At our season review last week, we put harnesses on and tried to see if a student's arch really interferes that much with finding the handles, and it seemed to depend on the size of the people, with a small TI and a wide student in an arch, it did interfere. A large (or wide) tandem master, it didn't seem to make much difference, the handle sat out to the side far enough that it was accessible.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone