Basejumper.com - archive

After doing a number of PCAs and SL jumps with no problems I feel pretty comfortable doing these types of jumps.

Don't confuse this with complacency as I am always as meticulous as I can be in my preparation prior to each jump.

Just wondering if anyone has been in a similar postion and something did go wrong.

Offheading, premature release/break of SL, dropped PCA...Just something unexpected...Anything?

Yep, most PCA's and S/L jumps go well.

There is one guy on the BFL from a S/L jump,
sadly he wrapped the bridle around his body.

I also PCA'd a friend (correctly) yet he had a 180.
Luckily he was able to land safely/ impressively
inside the antenna's compound.

Have seen people drop pilot chutes, break fingers,
and heard of shredded pilot chutes on PCA's but
luckily none caused serious injuries or fatalities.

I've seen a sl result in a 180 with half twist.

You have to wonder why they happen. My gut feeling is that it has to do with the canopy catching a riser as it's lifting out of the pack tray. Assuming that is indeed why, I wonder if putting something that prevents canopy material/riser entanglement in the pack tray would be worthy.

i was starting to feel some degree of comfortable with PCAs and then had two frightening jumps in close proximity to one another.

1) low PCA, dark moonless night. straight-ahead landing onto concrete. ~10 second canopy ride. i was wearing goggles over my glasses. the extra material of the goggle strap was dangling down behind my helmet. i jumped, and when i cleared my brakes, my right thumb caught on the strap. so when i pulled down on the brakes, it yanked my head to the right side (because my head was now connected to my right hand via this extra strap and my thumb). i tried to extricate my thumb from the strap, but dropped the brake. then realized i then only had one brake line, so i dropped the left one too. tried to flare on the rear risers, but stalled onto the concrete. lacerated elbow, bruised coccyx. 10 days limping. i was trying out some new body armor that didn't quite fit properly. the loose plastic corner caused my elbow laceration, through a thick sweatshirt. my regular gear would have helped significantly though.
Lessons: no loose straps. no loose hooks. they can and will get caught on something. practice and be comfortable landing on rear risers only. practice landing with one brake line and one rear riser too. it doesn't matter which you prefer, but you owe it to yourself to be proficient at both. body armor should fit perfectly, or it will slide out of place and then it's more harm than good. test out new equipment and techniques on a familiar jump site that you have already dialed in. only try one new thing at a time. if armor fits well, it might save you from your dumb self.

2) 350' PCA from a freestanding tower. due to hardware sticking off the sides of the tower, there was pretty much only side you could exit from. wind conditions never favored the best exit direction. and the wind was never calm here. so one night i decided to go for it, with a crosswind on exit. no guy wires, so i figured no big deal. slightly unstable body position due to inexperience and awkward exit point. PCA holder was offset a bit to the side, too. i had a 90 degree off-heading, canopy facing downwind. my body continued to swing into a line twist, an additional 90+ degrees until my body was facing the object with 15' of clearance. scared the holy hell out of me, if it had been a 180' i probably woulda stuck the tower and it would not have been pretty.
Lessons: when in doubt, climb down. no really, climb down. don't jump if the wind isn't perfect. not just for the heading performance, but because WHEN you get an offheading (not "if") the wind will blow you away from the object. if your PCA holder cant physically get directly behind you, tie off with a S/L instead. have your deep brake settings tuned for your body weight. some objects look tempting but just aren't safely jumpable due to hardware features, prevailing winds, landing area, etc. when in doubt, climb down.

as for body position effect on heading... i spent a couple days in calm winds doing freefalls, with intentionally goofy body positions, and none of them affected heading more than 45 degrees, and that was pretty severe. not very scientific, not very high 'n' number. so body position certainly affects it, but i think a little bit of crosswind has a bigger effect on me and my setup, than a little bit of low-shoulder-ness in calm wind. put them together, and the overall negative effect may be worse than the sum of their negative effects. your setup may respond differently. others may disagree with me vehemently based on their experience. when in doubt, climb down.

other lessons: I wouldn't take advice from the internet without confirming it by someone you trust. skydive the shit out of your BASE canopy and learn it's envelope inside and out. if you think you are not complacent, and that you are quite meticulous, then you are at risk for complacency. ("it's not about being paranoid... it's about being paranoid enough." )

disclaimers: i have < 100 jumps. i am non-current (hope to fix that soon). These events are from 2005 so i might not remember them accurately. most of my meager experience is slider down. i have made dumb choices.

Greetings

Hey if you lost one toggle again, would you still default to letting go of the other toggle or would you keep it this time and flare with a riser and a toggle?

This is an honest question for anyone who has lost a toggle or hasn't yet.

Was the person launching full on or just stepping off?

but it appears you have learned and are sharing valuable lessons, and for that, bravo.

@tim, i only had to pound in once to learn to never pitch the other toggle.

i jumped @ bd, once, in 2006
i was surprise to see how many ppl were jumping with their id badges 'tucked' under their chest straps or not even

bd was 'warm up' for a b jump soon there after.
it was 22 deg. my mentor didn't jump gloves. why? idk. the stairs stopped @ 660ft. we were packed s/u. we were supposed 2 go higher (b was 900+ft)it was already later then we were supposed to have jumped, but dodging security (or ppl moving around), put us behind schedule. going down 'wasn't as option' -ie busted
mentor opened low (8 sec canopy ride). when he went for his toggles, he only got 1. as he was going for the dropped toggle again, he realize he didn't need to go for the toggle, instead he grabbed the rear & turned to avoid the b across the street. now it was time to flare. 1 toggle, 1 rear. he stalled (right b4 he landed *almost flat on his back*
he jumped right up - totally fine
*luck bucket -1*
landed on the sidewalk - just missed a parking meter.

so, lessons:
practice landings in an urban environment using 1 toggle & 1 riser

I've lost a toggle twice, once at TF and once at the local low S. I had practiced landing on both rears before so both times it happened for real I chucked the other as I thought the symmetry of control inputs would be easier to handle during a high-stress situation.

Only after maneuvering on rears only at the low S did I realize how much altitude is lost even with minimal heading corrections on rears only. So in the future I will keep the other toggle to maximize the the amount of control I have over the wing. Even if you don't need to use the other toggle to make radical steering corrections, I believe (in my limited experience) that it's better to have as much control as possible, even if you don't need to use it, than throw it away immediately.

+10

sometime after i stalled on that jump, i was at the potato bridge and watched a Swedish guy do a stand-up landing without any toggles, in the field. it was a non-event for him. then i watched a Coloradish guy do a tip-toe landing (with both toggles) on the trail, in a steep section of the talus. and it was like a light-bulb went on in my head, and i thought, oh, maybe that's kinda what they mean by having good canopy skills :) duh

nowadays i'm still not as good at either technique as i'd like to be, but i just keep the extra toggle since i can't think of a good reason to throw it away anymore. that's not advice for anyone. at my objects, it doesn't really matter which one i choose

i would not practice such skills in an urban environment like some, but practice is definitely good :)