Saturday's Jump- Minor Malfunctions

Let's start positive. Here's a video of the landing. Very nice-



I had to use a rig with a larger canopy than the one I normally use and doesn't fit as well. No big deal, maybe... A woman who also rents gear actually put this rig on by mistake after I checked it over and everything. We switched back just a few minutes before loading.

We got out at about 13,000 in a bit of a hurry to avoid some incoming weather. I did a bunch of sit flying which went pretty well. Not perfect on the position, and I spin constantly, but I'm sitting :-) !

Just below 5,000' I waved off and threw the pilot chute... oops, nope I missed. Got it with the second try.

I feel it catch me and turn me upright. I start watching it ... watching it.. watching it o..p..e..n..
It stayed in a nice pretty square a bit longer than I'm used to, but eventually opened up, sort of.
It opened with the left side closed up a little with what is called an end-cell closure. Great, it put me in a left turn. No big deal though, all you do to open up a closed end-cell is release the brakes, called 'toggles', which are used for steering and hold them down until it opens.

So I release the toggles and pull both.....pull.. pull.... nope! They both came free but the left toggle's line is tangled up and won't allow it to come down. Now I'm spinning hard to the left and dropping quickly. The procedure for this malfunction is to counter the spin by pulling all the way down on the right toggle. I pulled the right side down and it mostly flew straight without dropping too quickly.

Of course at that point I started yanking VERY hard on the left toggle to free the line. It came free after a few tries and I believe I tore the fabric loop that holds the brake line clear off the riser. Whatever, it flew straight.

I didn't get to have any fun under canopy because all of this drama carried me pretty far down wind so I needed to fly straight into the wind to make it back to the landing area.

FUN STUFF!

This jump made me very happy that I do a lot of reading about malfunctions and how to handle them. I also read all the incident reports across the sport and participate in forums that critique the jumpers decisions. Dropzone.com and USPA.org are invaluable resources for self safety education.

The problems on this jump weren't very bad ones in comparison, but an unprepared jumper could easily have caused their own death with a spiraling fall if they weren't educated on the proper procedures. Too many jumpers are out there jumping towards a certification or attempting to learn something 'fun' without taking the time to learn about safety and improve their ability to make decisions in critical situations. It's a very, very rare malfunction alone that causes a death. Poor decision making in critical situations due to poor metal preparation is a root cause of a high percentage of skydiving fatalities.