Wingsuits and emergency procedures, not just another skydive, ever.

[RevJim 0]

EDIT: My last edit, on my last thread. I think it's good information, so I'll leave it up to others to decide if it should stay. I left the rec for the most part to avoid attitudes.

I'll stop in to the tents at boogies, and answer my PM's. Later peeps. Have fun, stay safe.

Saturday.
9,100 foot exit. Awsome, stable flight. I little less freefall than lately, but much, much more stable flight. Very enjoyable!

Old dytter goes off at 4500. Even though I'm a solo, I wave off (good habit), collapse the wings, grab on, and pull.

Or so I thought. I was wearing my thick neoprene gloves, to deal with the recent onset of the typical Wisconsin winter. I obviously didn't have a good grip, because I dropped the hackey before full extraction.

No problem, or so I thought. Back to flight to make sure I was stable, collapsed again, reached, and pulled. Being in thick gloves, I knew I had something, but now in retrospect, I'm pretty sure it was bridle. It barely moved. I pulled harder, which of course involves using more of your arms than wrists. This caused my right wing to catch air, and promptly flip me to my back. I flew out of it, back to stable flight again.

Looking at the ground, and knowing how fast those 2 trys went, I decided I had time for a 3rd try. I collapsed a third time, reached, pulled. It was just as hard, again, and once again I was unstable. I had had enough.

I flew out of the instability again. Got nice level flight going, collapsed the wings, and hit silver. Perfect, on heading soft opening on my PD126R. The neptune says reserve deployment at 2000 feet.

Things were still interesting, of course, as I was now flying a highly loaded 7 cell reserve, and it wanted to find the ground, in a hurry.

After my deployment, I quickly unzipped my wings. After quite a bit of practive between zippers and cutaway cables on the wings on the ground, I have found the time difference to be negligible. Knowing I had altitude, I chose to unzip. I did NOT attempt to unzip my leg wing though. That would not have happened. Self note: When ordering a new custom suit in the future, be sure to order the leg cutaway system.

I found my outs, which were few. I chose to land in a front yard, between a house and the road. It was not until it was too late that I realized that in pointing towards the DZ while finding my outs, I had set myself up on downwind leg. I was under 500 feet before I knew it, and rather than attempt a low turn, I took the downwind. Please, people, do not attempt to turn into the wind hard, at the last second. I'm living, walking, uninjured proof that you CAN walk away from a 1.6 load wing, landed downwind. Prepare to PLF. I didn't need to, but my feet and knees were ready.

Oh, I threw the reserve handle too. 3 reserve rides, and that was a first for me.

I got picked up, driven back to the dz, and headedout a little later to look for my stuff. After about an hour, I managed to find my freebag. I also remembered looking at my reserve handle fall away, and thinking awwww, FUCK! Why did I do that? And right into a freshly plowed field.

I found that field. After 2 hours of ground pounding, I also found my handle. Nice.

What I have learned:
1. Emergency procedures. Practice, practice, parctice. They will save your life someday.

2. Choose your outs higher, and commit to them sooner.

3. Use the cutaway system. It's there for a reason. Those few seconds difference could have been the difference between into vs. downwind landing.

4. Don't change your plan. I have drilled 2 tries into my head for years. I knew i had the time and altitude, so I tried #3. I shouldn't have. 2 tries, silver. I shall not deviate again.

5. If you are going to fly a loaded reserve, be prepared for a not so nice landing.

6. Communication. The communication on the jump of what I was doing was probably the difference between a long walk and a ride. The ride showed as I was still daisy chaining the lines.

I'll probably think of more, but I wanted to post this while it was still somewhat fresh in my head. thanks for listening.

Added in thought: The main Pilot chute pulled relatively easily on the ground. My attempts had loosened it to the point that a 4th try would have extracted it. I still will not try more than twice again.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[LouDiamond 1]

Glad to hear you worked every thing out all right. Funny you mentioned this since I was thinking today at the DZ after taking a up on a few coach flights that something needed to be said about jumping in colder conditions. Your experience is good real world proof that the added clothing and gloves can drasticaly change ones perception of what things feel like and where they are, gloves being the big one. With the addition of gloves and clothing it is wise to open a bit higher than what you normally pull at until you have the feel for things and to allow for such things as you encountered. What we teach and as you learned, unzipping is just as fast if not faster than cutting the wings away, plus it's one less thing you have to hold onto afterwards. The LQRS would of helped in this situation as you learned and I'm sure you would agree it merits the investment when it comes time to order another suit. Good job on staying calm and following your EPs, the most important one, getting stable before deploying your reserve. I'm glad your alright and you found everything.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[RevJim 0]

Thanks for the reply, Scott.

In a Bird Man suit, at least mine, the key word is symmetry, especially when pulling. The difference between left and right arms, while pulling, was most likely not more than an inch. That less than an inch difference was enough to roll me onto my back, and the fact that I didn't fly out of that position immediatly combined for an extremely fast spike on the Neptune. 156 mph (if I remember right, it's in the car), and that was also my max freefall speed, at 3000 feet. That altitude would be the "bad" part of my second attempt.

Practice you EPs people, please.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[Kris 0]

Glad you were able to un-fuck yourself, Jim! We've still gotta' flock together one of these days.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[RevJim 0]

Thanks Kris. I'd love to flock with ya someday. Me and my old Classic 1 would just be holding ya back though.
Eloy is not looking promising right now, as I'm not even on the road yet. (There's your answer, Scott. ) When I finally do get back over the road, it's a tossup week by week where I'll be, but you can bet that wherever that is, I'll have my suit and rig with me! This means it looks like alot of solos this winter. If everything goes well, meaning the jumps as well as the income, I'm hoping to have at least a GTI, or possibly a SF3 by spring. Hell, maybe even both.


For those that were wondering, no, the Classic 1 is not for sale, and NO, it never will be.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[Kris 0]

Quote

Thanks Kris. I'd love to flock with ya someday. Me and my old Classic 1 would just be holding ya back though.

Not at my wingloading, slick.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[RevJim 0]

Quote

Quote

Thanks Kris. I'd love to flock with ya someday. Me and my old Classic 1 would just be holding ya back though.

Not at my wingloading, slick.

Awww, c'mon. Your svelt bod, in that suit? 40's, easy.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[VectorBoy 0]

In a Bird Man suit, at least mine, the key word is symmetry, especially when pulling. The difference between left and right arms, while pulling, was most likely not more than an inch. That less than an inch difference was enough to roll me onto my back, and the fact that I didn't fly out of that position immediatly combined for an extremely fast spike on the Neptune. 156 mph (if I remember right, it's in the car), and that was also my max freefall speed, at 3000 feet. That altitude would be the "bad" part of my second attempt.


Practice your EPs people, please.

[kevin922 0]

Wow.. good job on saving yourself! I've got 2 on my wingsuit, definately adds to the pucker factor. See you soon.

Kevin

[ypelchat 0]

Congrats Jim, on your successful reserve ride.



Yves.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I removed all the mudslinging from this thread and locked it instead of simply deleting it. Jim related a good lesson learned in this thread.

Chuck