Skydiving

That doesn't look like fun.

"Pete C." fired this volley in news:4da703d2$0$5163 $ snipped-for-privacy@unlimited.usenetmonster.com:

Nor humorous. Unless that's a helicopter he's jumped out of, and that static line really tangled up securely, he's in a world of shit. All his equipment has been yanked off. He'd basically have to cut away AND "re- dress himself" in time to pull his reserve.

LLoyd

That's an "OH SHIT" moment if ever I've seen one...

Jon

It appears that the altitude is pretty low, so "Re-dressing" would be pretty much impossible in what is likely less than 60 seconds from

*splat*. His only hope is rescue from someone in the aircraft.

Now you gotta go do the research on if he lived or died...

dave

Wow.

rangerssuck fired this volley in news:65ff8792- snipped-for-privacy@j17g2000vbr.googlegroups.com:

Yeah, wow. It's a good thing he was jumping with a static line from a military plane. It was purely the right thing, but I never guessed they'd tie another 'chute onto his line and cut him away from inside.

LLoyd

It wouldn't have mattered that the load masters hooked up an emergency chute in my case. I would have died of raw fear before they got that far. That hanging uder the plane thing, all tied up in a tangled mess..... well that just wouldn't have set to well with my nervous system.

They guy sure got lucky. Dave

It was pretty sharp thinking. Ya gotta wonder if that trick's in a manual somewhere. Perhaps on Iggy's site?

Motto: If at first you don't succeed, forgo skydiving.

-- The United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. -- Ayn Rand

SURELY his skivvies have new buttonholes punched in them.

-- The United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. -- Ayn Rand

I actually did skydive, with a static line, once. It was interesting.

i

Tandem here, from 14,000'. Definitely spectacular and I doubt there is much of anything else like it. Certainly something to be sure to try at least once in your life.

It looked like they were using an SOP for that situation. They pulled that emergency chute out of that little red gear bag you can see in the foreground in the video. They must have one stowed on each drop plane for just such a contingency.

I wonder whatever became of the first few guys that got tangled up before they developed the SOP? Because it usually takes a few screw ups before somebody decides a policy and procedure fix is in order. Dave

I made it thorough all the static line jumps to my first free fall. Then got shipped to Viet Nam. That was more exciting that skydiving. Especially the part about landing without rotor blades... :(

Here's another static line jumper in tow situation, a sport jump in this one (warning, contains obnoxious 'music'):

I learned on static lines way back in the early 70's... as did all sport jumpers back then. We had no 'steenking' tandems, and we liked it.

Jumper in tow 'events' were extremely rare then, same as now.

In the first jump course we were taught that if ok, we were to put both hands on top of our helmet, and the jump master would cut the static line, and we were to handle it like any other high speed malfunction[1], by opening the reserve.

If you weren't ok, the jump master was to lower him/her self down the static line via locking carabiner, get hold of the jumpers harness and cut the static line. As both fell away, the jump master would immediately pull the students reserve, then open his/her main.

If you ever did end up in tow, you were NOT to open your reserve until you were back in free fall... somewhere around here I have a grainy B&W photo of a jumper with Cessna attached to his static line, all descending under a reserve canopy. Supposedly the only injury was suffered by the pilot, a broken arm. I hear there have been cases aircraft being broken up in flight.

Note the guy in the video above pulled his reserve in tow... it was a very lucky day for all concerned that he broke free. His reserve could have also inflated and flown up over the horizontal stabilizer... another very sad situation should it ever occur.

Here's another sort of related jump video caused by a maim canopy getting out while the jumper was still in the door:

Had this guys main gone over the stabilizer, the aircraft, remaining jumpers and pilot would have likely been lost.

Erik

[1] There are two broad families of parachute malfunctions. 'High speed' malfunctions are where nothing (or little) is out and for all practical purposes your still in free fall. High speed malfunctions are rare.

The second and by far most common are 'low speed', where your main is out, but something is wrong with it:

I bet Viet Nam was 100 times more exciting...

i

Reminds me of the time I had a heads down opening, hit the end of the line, did a flip right up between my risers, now having a full twist in both risers.

Capewelled and tossed the reserve, and the main nearly tangled in the reserve.

Just a shitty day all together, picking sagebrush out of the chutes for the rest of the day.

Did a number on the twins, too.

Steve