An AFF student's jump gets a little spicy when she tumbles at pull time, has a messy deployment and gets entangled with the bridle.
During an AFF Category C this student did pretty well… up until pull time! She grabbed her right lateral rather than her pilot chute and as the AFF-I reached to place her hand on the PC she looked back to locate it. She de-arched, rolled, and flipped as she found her PC. She held onto it for a second instead of releasing it, resulting in an entanglement. She was able to get the bridle off of herself… but it went right into her instructor’s legs!
Fortunately, he managed to control the bridle, cleared it from himself, and waited until the student was in a more ideal position for deployment before letting go. The student’s canopy reportedly opened without incident. Both her and her instructor landed safely.
By no means are we trying to beat up these instructors. They did well! The main-side instructor in particular kept his cool and reacted calmly, managing to not only clear himself of the entanglement, but having the wherewithal to wait until his student flipped over before letting go of the bridle. While the reserve-side instructor may have left a half second earlier than he should have, it was likely because from his view it would have looked like a very competent student had successfully reached for her PC.
It was a good jump by both of them and we appreciate their decision to submit their video so that we can use it as a teaching point!
An AFF student's jump gets a little spicy when she tumbles at pull time, has a messy deployment and gets entangled with the bridle.
During an AFF Category C this student did pretty well… up until pull time! She grabbed her right lateral rather than her pilot chute and as the AFF-I reached to place her hand on the PC she looked back to locate it. She de-arched, rolled, and flipped as she found her PC. She held onto it for a second instead of releasing it, resulting in an entanglement. She was able to get the bridle off of herself… but it went right into her instructor’s legs!
Fortunately, he managed to control the bridle, cleared it from himself, and waited until the student was in a more ideal position for deployment before letting go. The student’s canopy reportedly opened without incident. Both her and her instructor landed safely.
By no means are we trying to beat up these instructors. They did well! The main-side instructor in particular kept his cool and reacted calmly, managing to not only clear himself of the entanglement, but having the wherewithal to wait until his student flipped over before letting go of the bridle. While the reserve-side instructor may have left a half second earlier than he should have, it was likely because from his view it would have looked like a very competent student had successfully reached for her PC.
It was a good jump by both of them and we appreciate their decision to submit their video so that we can use it as a teaching point!
