Bridge Day Safety Video Comments
I picked up Johnny Utah's "Bridge Day Safety Video" and it serves as a good wake up call concerning the bad things which can happen to people in the BASE environment. If I may I'd like to outline each malfunction type that Johnny shows in his video and maybe we can start a dialog as to how to try and prevent many of these problems so that newbies like myself actually have a chance at surviving some BASE jumps. Going Head Low
This seems to be one of the chief culprits in a BASE jump gone bad. So many other bad things seem to result when a jumper goes head down. It's my understanding that when we exit, we should exit head high diving up and out looking at a 45 degree angle above the horizon? Is this correct and how often have your experienced BASE jumpers seen people go head low?
Over rotating
This is something which a newbie like myself won't be trying for a while, but what is a good way to try and prevent this? Practicing your exits at a swimming pool or just staying away from these sort of exits?
Bridle wrapped around the body
Assuming that we're not head low, when else can this be a problem and how can we prevent it?
Stalling in freefall
I would assume that one needs to get some sort of acrobatic experience (either in a swimming pool or with a gymnastics coach) before one really starts doing acrobatics. But it's also a good idea to not try acrobatics off of objects <500 feet until you really have your shit together (packing, exits, deployments, etc, etc, etc).
Line Twists
Out side of going head low (or other poor deployment body positions) and poor packing. What other comments would you people like to make about line twists?
Hard Pulls
I would assume that practice touches are paramount prior to jumping once you're going stowed, but is this also a packing thing or something else?
Bad Throws
Outside of poor deployment body positions, what else should we be thinking about here?
Pilot Chute in Tow
In most of the "pilot chute in tow" cases on this video, the jumpers appeared to be using converted skydiving containers, but what about BASE specific containers? I am aware that a certain amount of slack must be utilized on a pin closure rig (using the cheater velcro strip), but what else should one think of to prevent this ugly beast from killing us?
Snivel
Is this a packing issue and is it mainly a slider up deployment issue?
Slider Hang up
Is this another packing issue? What should one know about this malfunction type?
Tension Knot
Yet another packing issue?
Lost brake lines
This one was a little confusing in the video. We can clearly see the brake lines fluttering after opening, but was that because the brakes were not properly stowed? Did the brake lines break? If they did break, how often does this sort of thing happen and what can we do to prevent it? Obviously if our brake lines do fail, we must fly and flare the canopy with the rear risers. But what else should we be thinking about?
Line Over
On slider off/down jumps, the use of a Tail Gate can help prevent line overs. But what about slider up jumps? What must we know here? When packing, lines to the inside, fabric to the outside and the lines taunt? What else?
Canopy Collisions
Dang ... obviously we shouldn't be jumping with others until we have the necessary experience to pack well and deploy stable. Also I'm assuming that the openings must be staggered vertically and the lower person must always deploy last? What else?
Hard Landing
Not counting line twists or other canopy malfunctions, these are the sort of problems which we can prevented through proper canopy size selection, not jumping in winds unsuitable for your wing loading and just plain good canopy control? Anything else?
