crwmike

CRW is springing up all over! The number of boogies and camps is ...phenomenal. For the first time ...ever, I have to actually decline attending some of the CRW events. In the next few months, I have been invited to have the honor of being on: 1) a new Ohio State Record (a memorial jump for Patt Valley) -Xenia 2) a new California State Record- Perris 3) a new night record (first night 16-way diamond) Perris 4) a new POP's record- Carolina Sky Sports 5) a new World Record- Lake Wales 6) demo jumps at Spring Break -Panama City Beach Check out the CRW Calender of Events on Wendy's site: http://crw.boxofclue.com/skydive/calendar.html Life is Good! Michael D-6139 Never anger a dragon, for you are crunchy and you go well with brie.

Wraps are usually not difficult to clear, you can usually pull them off or 'swim' your way out of them. Entanglements are a bit more tricky. When you see someone (or several someones :) coming around at you there are two schools of thought. 1) Curl up in a ball, hoping you'r smaller surface area will go completely through lines (resulting in an entanglement which you both have to cut away from). 2) Spread your arms and legs WIDE (my choice, unless it a body coming at me). Then you stop the canopy/lines from engulfing you and must throw it clear. Mike Lewis wrote an excellent paper on emergency procedures and I'll include it in this response. This paper, and more on CRW safety and training) are maintained on Wendy's site. The articles are required reading for anyone invited to the 2003 CRW World Record attempts. http://crw.boxofclue.com/skydive/crw.html ------------- CRW Emergency Procedures by Mike Lewis The first step towards solving an emergency situation is to have a plan. It must be a good plan gleaned from the wisdom of experts. You should have only one plan for each possible situation. The second step is to practice it. You should practice your emergency procedures so that you know them. An emergency is not the time to be confused or indecisive. The best time to review emergency procedures is whenever that natural fear of being out of control starts to creep in. This will replace the negative fear with a positive plan, and the plan will be the first thing that comes to mind in an emergency situation -- not the panic. The third step is to do it! An emergency is not the time to get creative and try something that wasn't thought out during a less stressful period. In other words, stick with your planned emergency procedures. CRW emergencies can be divided into two categories, i.e. wraps and entanglements. A wrap is when a parachute is wrapped around a jumpers body. An entanglement is when the parachutes are entangled with each other. WRAPS A wrap is similar to a low speed malfunction. The top jumpers parachute will remain open. This gives you more time to deal with a problem than you would have with a freefall emergency. You do not want to land a modern square parachute with two people under it. You may have incredible forward speed because ofthe increased wing loading· The general rule for wraps is that the bottom jumper cuts away first. The top parachute usually remains open, so there is no reason to release it. Also, if the jumper who has the parachute around him cuts away (the top jumper), he will go into freefall with the bottom jumper's canopy wrapped around him. That will only make matters worse. Usually you can climb out of a parachute by sliding the material down your body. If not, then the bottom jumper cuts away. That will release the tension and make it easier to climb out of the fabric. ENTANGLEMENTS An entanglement usually results from one jumper passing through the lines of another jumper's canopy. This causes the two parachutes to be entangled, with the pilots dangling beneath them. This situation almost always requires both jumpers to cut away. Usually one person will be suspended higher than the other. The general rule for entanglements is the top person goes first. If the bottom jumper releases, his lines and risers may recoil upward and wrap the other person. When the top person releases first, he may bounce off the bottom person on the way by, but he won't have much momentum. The top jumper usually is the one who passed through the lines, and many times his parachute will pull itself out of the mess after being released. This is a bonus for the bottom jumper. Sometimes the entanglement will start spinning, with one jumper hanging downward and the other one orbiting the entanglement. In this situation the orbiter should cut away first. This will fling the orbiter clear of the entanglement without changing the other jumper's orientation. If the jumper hanging downward releases first, it will change the orbiter' orientation to the mess and could make his situation worse. COMMUNICATION When involved in a wrap or entanglement the first thing to do is to communicate with each other. You need to communicate the altitude, the problem and the plan of action. When someone has a parachute wrapped around him, he may not be able to read his altimeter. In all the excitement, he'll probably forget his last altitude reading, and you don't want him to panic and cutaway. When you are totally engulfed in nylon, it is very reassuring to hear the altitude called out every 500 feet. It also helps to hear that your parachute is okay and if "you crawl to the left" it will come loose, or some similar instruction. If you cannot get any response from the person wrapped up in your canopy you should go ahead and cutaway. The jumper probably has nylon around his face or neck and you need to release the tension by releasing your risers. If you are the one who is wrapped in parachute you should communicate that you are working on the situation. Speak to the other jumper at regular intervals. "Don't cut away" is the wrong thing to say as the other jumper might only hear the last part and jettison his canopy. Once the decision to cut away has been made, you don't want to panic. First get your hands on both handles and check that you are clear of any lines. You should peel the cut away handle off the velcro, but leave the reserve handle in its pocket. If you have a hard pull on the cutaway handle you can release the reserve handle and use both hands to cut away. Keep your eyes on the reserve handle so you can grab it quickly. Be ready to make a freefall delay if you have sufficient altitude. If more than one person is going to cut away, the first one out needs to freefall for five to 10 seconds. This will allow sufficient vertical separation for the next person to open a reserve. The foremost thing we can do to keep a margin of safety is to respect the altitude. Most problems start during docking or break-off. USPA says the limit for docking is 2500 feet. The real question is "How low do I want to be in a wrap?" The next question is "How low do I want to be in freefall" USPA says the decision to cut away should be made by 1800 feet and the procedure started by 1600 feet. These limits were determined by years of experience and should be respected. I do not recommend that you cut away below 500 feet. At that altitude you should save yourself by deploying your reserve without breaking away. It is better to add more nylon to the mess than to accelerate towards the ground at such a low altitude. DOCKING What causes wraps and entanglements? Most are caused by bad docks. The three factors most often involved are speed. angle and distance from the center. If you have too much speed your body continues to travel after you have docked. The point where your canopy has been gripped remains stationary, but the rest of the canopy continues to move in the direction your body is traveling. if you warp the parachute too much it wil lose pressurization and wrap the other jumper you are docked on. Because things tend to swing in an arc, it is common for the parachute to wrap securely around the other jumper. There are good and bad docking angles. A straight in aproach, directly behind a jumper at zero degrees is the safest. Docking head on, or 180 degrees, is obviously the worst angle. Docking with your parachute at 90 degrees relative to the other jumper's heading will still give you too much speed. The most efficient angle is at 45 degrees relative to the other jumper. Docking with an end cell is more likely to cause a wrap than docking with a center cell. These factors combine to make a dock safe or unsafe. FORMATION FUNNELS Another cause of wraps and entanglements is when the formation funnels. This can be the result of a mismatched or "misflown" canopy that is collapsing. it can also be caused by a stalling canopy. In a planed formation the nose of the parachute below you is pushing on your brake lines. Your canopy could stall if you apply as little as half brakes. If someone docks and wraps the corner of a formation it can cause part of the formation to funnel. It can also funnel at breakoff because the trim of the formation changes and the wing people aren't paying attention. Another problem is people not looking where they are going. You should always look before you turn and not just watch the formation. Many people have gotten wrapped by not looking where they are going on opening. If you are staring at your toggles right after opening, you may have an unpleasant encounter with someone else doing the same thing. Avoid tunnel vision. AVOIDING PROBLEMS What can we do to prevent or minimize wraps and entanglements? The foremost preventative measure is a thorough dirtdive. That is the time to share techniques that work for the type of formations and transitions that are pianned. CRW is very three dimensional and therefore complex. Participants can easily miscalculate an approach if they are trying something new. Don't just dirt dive the formations, share any information that you know. If someone is docking badly you can spread out your arms and prevent the parachute from wrapping you. Even if it does wrap, you can extract yourself more easily because you won't be cocooned so tightly. Nylon will stick to itself like a Chinese finger trap when it is wound tightly around you. But if you can give it some slack it will come loose. You can grab the area of nylon With the most tension on it then lift it by as little as an inch. As you let it down, it will then loosen and start sliding down your body. If you are in a formation and someone beiow you gets wrapped, it would be good to hold on to him until he can sort things out. This will give the jumper more time, and less worry, by keeping his parachute on heading. If someone is entangled in your lines you can apply light front riser pressure. This keeps tension in your nose and tends to keep your parachute from spinning. The jumper may then be able to slide up your lines which will allow his parachute to stay inflated. This front risering must be done immediately, because once the two parachutes become entangled one or both of you will have to cut away. If an end cell wraps around your foot it can be difficult to release. You can't lift the jumper's weight up with one leg and it can also injure you. As the canopy comes around your foot, stick the other foot in there also. This will enabie you to lift the lower jumper up and get your hands on the canopy. It should also help prevent injury. If just one foot is wrapped, grab your risers and turn yourself away from the other canopy -- you'll be facing backwards under your canopy. Now you will have a 180 degree wrap around your ankle instead of a 360 degree wrap. This should make it a lot easier to shake off the canopy. If the canopy is collapsing and reinflating, don't fight it. Have the bottom person cut away. The snatching action can really damage your ankles. The bottom line in preventing or easing wraps and entanglements is to wear proper equipment. All participants should wear shoes, socks and long pants Or a jumpsuit. Wrist mounted altimeters am not recommended and your RSL should be disconnected. Automatic openers are fine. If I am that low, going that fast, I want my reserve out. You need a CRW parachute to do safe and sane CRW. Opening at 2000 feet under your little Micro-lined skyrocket is not the time to learn CRW. Most importanty, learn from an expert not another novice jumper. And always respect the safety margin of altitude.

I agree with himself. Course I think the real reason not to jump airlocks in high winds is trying to deal with that muther after landing :) Skies, Michael

I fly my canopy up to a limit where I feel the potential from the bumps and bruises. You fly your canopy, presumably, to the same limits through more turbulent winds. Do the air locks make you safer? Michael

Get your ass on down to PCB, we need you in the quad. I'm not sure where we will be so call me on my cell when you get in. We're getting in Thursday evening, so get there earlier if you can. Michael This Wednesday I'll be at Thomaston, but I'm going to be heading down to Panama City Beach on Saturday... I may be able to stop by the DZ for a few hours on the way down on Saturday, but after that I'll be out of town for a week. Chris

Hello Shaun ...and welcome to the dark side I sent your post to the CRWDog mailing list maintained by Wendy Faulkner. If you wish, you can get on this list by emailing Wendy at: faulkner@boxofclue.com CRW Skies! Michael

Mustwrap is the best! All the CRWDogs enjoy him...frequently.

Hello Jennifer. No doubt about it, the chance exists that your cutaway main could come out (fairly good chance) and entangle with your reserve (low odds but I would really hate to be a statistical exception). The argument that it would be better to have two canopies out and deal with that has frequently been voiced. I agree with their argument ...assuming that you would have two canopies out and not two entangled with eachother. What are the odds on each of these event? Hell if I know. And that brings us back to ...time. Time from awareness of a problem, determination of what kind of problem it is and what procedure to initiate. How many students would die from a main reserve entanglement vs the number would fuck with it too long? My personal emergency plan is to deploy the reserve without cutting away, but would I teach this to students and low-timers. After factoring in the time (several hundreds of feet) spent figuring out what is happening and what plan to initiate, I think the one plan method the better life saver. There is no clear winner here and all the plans discussed have merit. Choose the one you think is best to teach and drill, drill, drill. Michael

The scales tip toward your end of the discussion only if you accept that the time spent determining what is going on and what procedure to implement is negligible. I don't accept that. Not under a good canopy ...chop/reserve. Cutaway handle not visible? try once, try twice ...reserve time. There are pros and cons to each philosophy. Half-ass instruction, well, there's a lot of it out there but you need to factor in the time (altitude!) delay in the student determining what is wrong and what to do about it. I think it wise to minimize this time. BSBD, Michael Michael [Absolutely, so why not teach them well on the ground with a procedure that is more likely to keep them out of trouble (going straight to the reserve on a pc in tow)? If you teach it well, they WILL do it when the time comes. If you half-ass your instruction, then they might be confused and execute the wrong procedure...there are no bad students, only bad teachers. It's a waste of time to cutaway in a pc in tow...and what happens if their cutaway handle is rolled under/they can't find it/they dip their head to look for it/ they pull both hands in to reach for it...the list goes on. What I'm getting at is that, in freefall, a less experienced jumper might not keep stability while they're doing all this moving around...not to mention the time they're wasting as they're cruising along at 120 mph. Students tend to have less spacial awareness during a skydive, so they may not understand how much time they're wasting. IMO, If you're not confident that your student knows their emergency procedures and is smart enough/well taught to make the skydive, then you have no business putting them out of a plane. Keep teaching until they know it...burn it into their little brains...it may save their life later on.

Thanks, Bill My age and limited experience with "smaller canopies" is showing, I guess. I'm jumping a PD Lightning 176 and it is the smallest canopy I have ever jumped. As it is a CRW canopy, it is built for stability and will allow me to do all this without creating new problems.

Listen to this guy ...except land cross wind :) Michael

Well, it took 29 years of skydiving before I finally had a water landing. I've always kept B-12's (yeah, I know, WTF is a B-12?) for this reason and was quite happy to have them. I landed in deep water with a strong current. At about 6-700 feet (when it became glaringly obvious a water landing was going to happen) I unbuckled my chest strap, and popped one B-12 (feels a little ...tentative but made no difference in landing [or is that watering?]), hit the water and popped the other B-12 ...was out of my harness within seconds of hitting the water. Wind direction? Cross wind provides the best bet to not have your canopy on top of you. I did learn a couple of lessons. 1) Wear flotation gear when a water landing is *possible* 2) It was a chilly, early morning jump and I had several layers of clothes on, the top most a heavy pullover which I could NOT get off in the water. Had there not been a handy boat nearby (actually I aimed for it) well, the water was deep and I was getting deeper in shit. Soooo, I only wear clothes with snaps now. BSBWD, Michael reply]is it always a good idea to cutaway from your parachute once you've touched water? Do people actually do this if youre close to shore with no real danger of drowning? I imagine cutting away would be more suited if you landed in a river or real far off the shore. Am I right?

All have their pros and cons. I strongly agree with Tom that the decision should be make and practiced on the ground. I lean towards ONE procedure (for students) for ALL functions. I believe the argument that choping (with a total, for instance) takes more time and you want your student to GET SOMETHING OUT!. Well then, teach them one system and drill them on the ground. You are eliminating (as much as possible) the number one altitude eater ...figuring out what to do. But hell, I havent taught a student in over a decade,so WTF do I know? BSBD, Michael

I agree and once again recommend medical professionals specializing in Sports Medicine. My surgeon for my ruptured achilles tendon is the team surgeon for the Miami Heat and the Miami Dolphins (the guy the brought in to rebuild Dan Morino's ankle). My PT worked for the Heat. Their whole emphasis is to get you back into the game.

1.25-1.35 (out the door) should put you relative with just about everybody else. Don't worry about the heavy wing loading. It won't be a safety factor for 99% of the skydive ;) Michael D-6139

It's not so much the number of jumps you have as it is the experience and judgment of the person(s) you are doing CRW with. With the more experienced Dogs, you could start at any time. CRW Skies, Michael D-6139

"Fuck, what was that!?" "Dunno, something big, fast and orange just ate your ass up, dude. I think we're safe for a while. He fell off you, reinflated a few rows down and looks like he's gonna scare someone else for a while." :) Hey Chris, you coming to Panama City Beach? We're gonna steal the show, brother. CRW Skies, Michael I've been doing CReW for about 4 years, 300 CRW jumps, and I have yet to have a CRW cutaway. I think the main reason I've had such a record has been the highly experienced people with whom I've been jumping. Several times that I know of, I've done some things that were likely to cause wraps and cutaways, but Dogs around me were ahead of the game enough to avoid such problems. Chris Warnock

THEM TOADSUCKERS will be there and there are no finer judges of swimwear. We thought we wouold show up and steal the show ...and a few hearts CRW Skies, Michael D-6139

Size can be a problem on the upper and lower end of canopy size. For example, no canopies larger than the L176 (and not many of them) will be allowed on the next World Record. That, along with the new, lighter wing loading is why I have been on a diet and exercise program for the past 2 1/2 years. I can't even remember what what a cheeseburger tastes like On the smaller end of the scale the 113 and the (probably) soon to be released 106 are a bit of a 'fit' problem but have one tremendous advantage. It is MUCH easier to fly one of these on the wings and is why people flying these hankies are the first choice for row 7 and 8 wings. So if want the glory slots, smaller is the way to go. As an example, the person assigned the row 8 wing slot on last years record was a CRW newbie on a 113 and he did a great job. All this advice is for serious or mega large offset or sequential CRW. For smaller, fun stuff, size is not as important as wing loading. Rusty Vest at PD has been working closely (and participating) with the world record team and I recommend getting his advice. You can reach him at: CRW@performancedesigns.com Good Luck and CRW Skies! Michael D-6139

Welcome to the dark side

Cool, got it. I'll work on the top posting thing.

OK, Lets give this a try. faulkner@boxofclue.com

Drop Wendy a line at: faulkner@boxofclue.com She'll put you on the list. CRW Skies, Michael

Send this to the CRWDog mailing list at crwdogs@boxofclue.com. You can get on this list by emailing Wendy Faulkner: faulkner@boxofclue.com CRW Skies, Michael