Basejumper.com - archive

WE all make mistakes, sometimes they end us.
Most of the time we are able to learn from them.
I would like a thread talking about things we've
either done or seen that could have been fatal.

What I have seen in order of severity:

bridle through a leg strap x2

brakes set on wrong risers x1

pilot chute attached wrong x1

brakes set incorrectly x3

twisted leg junction x4

Personally my OCD does not lend itself to those
kind of errors, instead mine are more oriented
towards either judgement or performance as in:

Bad exit, too head high, pitched unstable x9

Short delay, slider-up, affecting heading x3

Over delay, LZ fixated, landed in tree x1

Land up hill on asphalt in cheap boots x1

Inviting 12+ people to a free stander x1

My hope is an entertaining thread that makes us
experienced guys/gals laugh and newbies learn

I have seen alot, but my biggest mistake I can remember, was answering the phone while rigging. I forgot to tighten the links, and while climbing the bridge, I went trough my whole rigging and packing sequence, and remembered I did not thighten them. I climbed back down.

Rule number one "When shit goes to shit, everything goes to shit!"

Not the best idea to stow your PC under your chest strap while climbing to the rail (as you´re going hand held anyway). Or at least if you do this, make sure you take it out from the right side.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/.../something_wrong.png

You haven't seen shit until you've watched someone BASE jump a daisy chained rig over solid earth. But that's a story for another day.....

Anyway, here's my input: http://www.bridgeday.info/malfunctions.php

Bring back the Tombstone Challenge!!

I'd say my biggest fuckup was jumping Wanda in those shit winds against my better judgement. I'm reminded of it everyday and it occured in 2009

"Wanda" is one of Green MAchine's local objects, a 300ft longline special in BFE, GA that can be jumped reasonably during the day, but has 60ft tall pine trees on all sides extending about 120-150 ft out from the base of the tower. With a handheld go n throw you're picking your feet up to clear the trees, flying straight away from the tower.

Long story short it was just way to windy, we all knew it, I even said at the beginning of the climb, "if the towers whistilng at exit, Im not going"

We all climb up anyway, because half the load drove 8 hrs through the night to get there. Of course the steel is whistling like a freight train at the exit point, and all the trees in the LZ are flopping all over the place, it was probably blowing a steady 15-20 gusting to way too much to jump. The three other jumpers all exit and land without incident, canopy flights were a little bumpy, but nothing major. I decide to go for it against my better judgement, and got dealt all the shit cards that noone else got, slight hesi, slight offheading, barely clear the trees, start ascending under canopy then as my feet are up flaring my downwind ass off I got rotored by the same trees and landed square on my ass, felt something pop between my shoulder blades and curled up fetal in the LZ. I honestly believed that I just broke my fucking back, I knew better, Im an idiot and my wife is gonna be so pissed. I cut away and just laid there while everyone came running over.

I toughed it out for the rest of the day by drinking heavily and moving as little as possible. I was laid up on the couch for three weeks. No insurance, so no hospital visit and no pain meds. I still feel it in my upper back almost daily, and definitely after a few jumps and packjobs.

The last thing my wife said to me that morning before I left the house was " Don't come home drunk or hurt" I failed miserably at both.

That was actually my second incident jumping in stupid winds, The first incident I got away unscathed, in retrospect it was a lesson I failed to learn.

Nowadays I don't jump unless conditions are absolutely perfect.

Watching that scared the shit out of me.
I too thought you just broke your back!
Thank God it was a dirt field, because
the same landing on concrete and we
would have been wheelchair shopping.

I went first on that load and definitely
remember agreeing with you that the
smart move would be to climb down.
You went last, so you get exit shots
of Me, Jake, andCurt, some of which
are in the Great Book of BASE, right?

You did a go and throw and the strong
15+ tail wind blew your pilot chute and
bridle blown into the lines on jumper's
left, which dampened your input/flair.

At the time didn't you own a canopy
sized 300+? I forget what brand it was.
Please remind, of course the same could
have happened with any parachute and
your choice to now only jump in perfect
conditions is the true moral of the story.

My wife sometimes lets me go play with
similar admonishments : "Have fun but
do not do anything sketchy!!" ha ha ha

Yup, I was jumping a dagger 315 in a warlock that I got for free. That was the end of my attempting to "save money" on gear

Immediately sold it afterwards and dropped 3k on a seven280/perigeepro combo that has been great to me as an experienced basejumper. I would not recommend the seven as a first base canopy for anyone.

jumped without tightening my leg straps.
we were waiting on top of a cliff for ages with strong intermittent winds with multiple get ready/stand downs, it went calm for a bit, rushed to jump. 3 second slider down. had the chest strap hit me acrsoss my eyes and couldnt easily reach the toggles. very embarassing.

also jumped low cliff with wind coming from behind over the top but dead calm at the bottom....monster PC hesitation from the downdraft, only survived cos I slid in between two big boulders