Ed's Big Skydiving Lesson

I wrote this in 1997 to cement in my mind the events and lessons of a big day.

17 Aug 1997: Two big events today--qualified for my A License and experienced my first cutaway. Hit the DZ about 11, after two weekends off. Went up right away with Rick and Frank as they did a tandem with video. I spotted and did a superman at 7500'. Felt good to reorient myself to a good arch, etc. Tried a little head down diving. Took three dips, the last one about 5 seconds. Lots of roar and buffetting when I arched out of that. Felt fun. Landed about 20 yards from the pit. Close enough to count for accuracy (barely).

Second jump was a 2-way with James from 9500--I spotted again. We did a poised exit without grips and joined pretty quick. I am still too timid on my closing from distance; trying not to lose altitude as I track toward him. I need to remember that arch controls fall rate and arms and legs control horizontal movement. Don't use arms and legs to change fall rate (head pounding sound). We docked once, then released, and he did a loop, gaining about 15 feet of fall on me. I closed on him real quick--5 seconds to redock. Again I landed (barely) within 20 yards of the pit. This was my fifth official accuracy shot as required for the A license.

I had rushed the repack job and needed to take some time after this one so I didn't start feeling crummy. So I took the test and filled out my A-license application. Minimum score is 75%--I got 15 right out of 20. Whew! I never read anything to study and I'm sure we never covered some of the stuff. I used common sense on several answers--some right, some wrong. One of my wrong answers was choosing 14 knots (nautical miles per hour) instead of 14 mph when it asked about ground wind limits for students. Crummy question for sure. Anyway, I passed and James checked off the rest of my requirements, so all I need to do is send in my $20 and I'm a studly A-license holder with the USPA. With a buck it will get me a cup of coffee, and the privilege of jumping at other drop zones.

For my third jump I followed Doug, Frank and a tandem out at 9500. Thought I'd try it without a jump suit. Felt really good--not much difference in stability that I could tell. I'm not all that stable anyway probably, so no biggie. The girl on Doug's tandem was petrified and said "Oh my God!" about 20 times. She climbed out OK, but he had to peel her hands off the strut. I followed about 10 seconds later and had a really nice freefall. Felt totally free like when I came out of AFF and could do anything I wanted. It felt great to have the A license requirements behind me. It didn't matter if I spotted or where I landed--so I landed about 2 yd from the pit--my closest yet! Pretty cool.

My fourth jump was another first. We planned a 4-way with some simple points. Cathy has some history as an instructor at the DZ, but I hadn't met her before. Bill S.--another AFF instructor--just flew in from out of town and came straight over from the airport. Bill B. is another jumper with about the same experience level as me--he is ready to get his A-license, but hasn't applied yet. Bill S. suggested separate 2-ways, but Cathy talked him into a 4-way--I was up for it too. Cathy mentioned on the way to the plane that if the two new guys couldn't stay together, each instructor could take one for separate 2-ways. We did a 4 person poised linked exit. I hung way out, Cathy sat in the vee, Bill B. stood "student" facing Cathy, and Bill S. crouched in the door. We left together and almost stayed linked. Cathy and I lost grips for a moment, but all other grips held, and we relinked right away. We stabilized, then released according to the plan. Bill B. drifted away and Bill S. went with him--also according to plan. I redocked with Cathy and got a smooch on the cheek--known as a kiss-pass--unexpected but it made me laugh. We broke off at 4500 as planned, and I turned to track without first verifying position on the other two--bad mistake. At 3500 I started looking and waving and saw Bill B about 75' away. Instead of tracking for more separation--I had time--or just waiting until I saw him pull first, since he was a little higher, I threw out my pilot chute at 3000'.

He pulled a second later and immediately flew into my canopy, wrapping his lines around mine. We started to spiral out of control. Again, I should have talked to him, telling him to cut away first, as he was top man, I could see what was happening better than he could, and it seemed like I had a little more experience or better training. But after about 30 seconds of the spiral getting more and more violent, I cut away--fearing that my canopy might foul him unrecoverably, but also knowing our situation was getting worse fast. My errors here were in not talking to him--we had time to make a joint decision--and in not checking my altitude for better information. I couldn't have been lower than 2000' when I cut away. Although my emergency procedures said to pull the cutaway handle with both hands, I got rushed and tried to pull the cutaway with one hand, with my other hand on the reserve handle. I couldn't get the cutaway handle free because of the increased g-force from the spiral, so I used both hands on it. But I had already pulled the reserve handle free of its velcro, which could have become a problem. Fortunately it was not--I saw and gripped the reserve handle again immediately. I went face up for a couple seconds, turned over, and pulled the reserve. It opened fine, but when I released the toggles, it had a big steer to the left. This is most commonly caused by one of the brakes not pulling free, but I could not see a problem there. I pulled both toggles to my crotch twice, but it didn't go away. James found no problems during repack, so I was probably so adrenalin pumped that I just missed something. I was west of the runway about 50 yards, but because I had to brake so deeply just to fly straight, it was all I could do to get back to it. Thought I was going in the trees for a minute. But I made the runway with barely time to turn into the wind. The flare was a little lopsided, but I stood it up with some scrambling. Meanwhile, after I got on heading and had control, I was searching the sky frantically for canopies. I was afraid Bill had been unable to clear my canopy and would be in trouble. He said as soon as I cut away, my canopy pulled loose from his lines and flew off by itself, leaving him clear. I saw four other canopies pretty quickly, which confused me until I realized one didn't have a jumper under it. You have to look twice to see the difference. Bill lost a small chunk of meat off the end of his left index finger--looked like somebody bit his fingerprint off--which will take a long time to heal. No damage to bone or nail, but it is sure to be real painful. Must have been from the nylon lines sliding.

I doubt a jury of skydivers would convict me, but I feel this was more my fault than anyone else's. Let me recap the errors: I bought into what was a really dumb plan--not keeping a formation together so we could all keep track of each other; I did not get a good visual on everyone else before tracking; I did not create more separation when I saw we only had 75-100 feet--I could have delayed opening another 500', since his minimum opening altitude was greater than mine; I did not communicate with him when we became tangled--especially to warn him I was going to cut away. I have learned a couple big lessons--first and foremost is that I will pay much more attention to visual contact during tracking on future RW breakaways. Cathy felt bad that she influenced us into a 4-way when two 2-ways would have been safer. But I take accountability, since I wanted to try it as well. I don't think Bill B. felt quite as ready. Nonetheless, a better performance on my part would have avoided all the difficulties. Everyone congratulated me on my first reserve ride. Rick said, "I always feel so alive after I survive a malfunction." I did not feel much personal danger during the tangle, when I cut away, or after the reserve turned out not to be flying right. I was scared to death the Bill was not going to make it. My relief at seeing him flying OK, and on seeing three people standing up by the pit--although I was 400 yd down the runway--was immense. Big lesson day today.

I have thought a lot about this sequence of events and I've discussed it at length with other skydivers. One more lesson comes to mind. When things start going wrong in a small way, it often takes only a small correction or one good decision to get straight. But each successive error in judgement compounds the problem, requiring a bigger correction, and causing more pressure on the jumper. Once I realize I have a problem and the adrenaline starts flowing, the probability of good creative thought and clear judgement "on the fly" goes way down. That is why good safe habits and clearly visualized emergency procedures are so important.

By the way--I had another low-numbers jumper tell me recently, "I might try jumping with a beer or two under my belt once I get comfortable..." Well, not me! I believe I was slightly impaired by fatigue on this day, and I became much more impaired by the adrenal surge as the problem developed. If I had added a beer to that situation, I think my chances of survival would have gone way down. And I could easily have taken Bill B. with me. So this reinforces a prejudice I already had: I won't drink and jump--even a single beer. And I won't jump with anyone else who has been drinking. When things go wrong, everybody needs to be at their sharpest and ready to react properly. Anything less can get someone hurt or dead.