According to this video submission, a load went up and – after about half of its jumpers had landed – a weird weather pattern rolled in. The jumpers left in the air were suddenly being slammed by 35 knot winds, were hitting a lot of turbulence and were flying backwards under canopy. This jumper was not flying directly into the wind, experienced a rough landing and got dragged across the ground.
Jumpers are always at the mercy of the weather. At some dropzones, experienced jumpers can see a front rolling in and know that they should ground themselves. But "surprise weather" is actually a thing and sometimes there’s just no way to see it coming.
Watching canopies under you start to shake and partially collapse is a terrifying sight, especially for a newer jumper. This jumper was watching his friend ahead of him and was probably – and justifiably – nervous about what he was seeing. He was probably also apprehensive about landing on obstacles underneath or behind him.
The orange canopy beneath this jumper, as well as a blue and white one in the distance, can both be seen turning directly into the wind in order to make the best of a sketchy situation. This jumper should have done the same thing but instead they were drifting cross-wind and had a rougher than necessary landing… not a terrible PLF though!
As this jumper lands, his canopy starts dragging him across the ground. This is a potentially dangerous situation. In this situation, the immediate reaction should be to pull a toggle and steering line to collapse the canopy. Alternatively, a jumper can disconnect their RSL and pull their cutaway handle.
Every jumper has heard the phrase,
You’d rather be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground.”
If you haven’t experienced a jump where that's been the case, then this video is a great opportunity to see what it’s like. As noted, these jumpers said there was no way to predict that this front would roll in, so we’re not saying they did anything wrong by jumping -- we just think the video is a great chance to show newer jumpers why that truism exists.
During a CRW jump, this videographer was flying behind the stack in order to film their attempts at a maneuver called “threading the needle” when suddenly a freefly group fell between the videographer and the stack. The CRW jumpers then got entangled, resulting in a few cutaways.
How this occurred is a matter of some conjecture, but this is our guess:
Anytime there are multiple planes in the air, communication is critical. If there are high pulls, low passes, CRW/XRW jumps, wingsuiters, etc., it becomes even MORE important. Manifest, pilots, ATC, and the air boss all HAVE to be on the same page.
If the dropzone knows that they’re dropping CRW jumpers while operating multiple planes, the CRW dogs NEED to fly offset from jump run and not turn into the regular canopy traffic until after they’re at an appropriate altitude, 2,000ft AGL or so.
When possible, and when advised by ATC, some drop zones have their pilots follow CRW/XRW/Wingsuit/etc. groups to provide a beacon for ATC and ground staff.
Freeflyers sometimes just let belly jumpers check the spot and then only worry about group separation. This is a bad habit that can result in incidents like this one. You should always check your spot! The group ahead of you may have made a bad decision and/or the situation may have changed since they got out. Realistically, these freeflyers may not have been able to see the canopies under them either way, but the point still stands.
In reference to the CRW wrap, we’re not saying to give up… but if a maneuver just isn’t coming together, and you’re fatigued to the point where you’re not flying safely, give it up and try again on the next jump.
It looks like the jumper whose buddy’s main was caught on his leg tried to reel it in. As skydivers, we’re all inclined to help each another out -- we’re a family! -- but the safer decision in a situation like that is probably to hook knife those lines and let it go. (And we’ve mentioned this before… is your hook knife part of your gear checks? Because it should be!)
This skydiver had line twists on a high performance canopy, followed by a cutaway and more line twists on his reserve canopy. Not fun!
There’s some debate about whether or not line twists are considered a malfunction, so what do you think: do you consider this incident to be a “double malfunction” or do you consider line twists to be a nuisance rather than an actual malfunction?
The initial line twists were of an indeterminable cause, the body position looks decent but it’s hard to tell. On a high performance canopy the tiniest bit of body position, a weak pilot chute throw, or even a worn out pilot chute, can cause a problem. Or a possible packing error! Who knows?!
The real focus of this video is the line twists that the jumper found himself in under reserve. He noted in his submission that, despite jumping without an RSL or Skyhook, he didn’t take his time to get stable before pulling reserve. He’s pretty sure that’s what caused the line twists under his reserve.
In their submission this jumper was the first to admit that their emergency procedures had been so hard wired that they couldn’t help but cutaway and then immediately pull their reserve handle despite having plenty of altitude to take a moment and get stable again. Taking a moment to regain stability could have potentially prevented the twists under reserve.
As for his difficulties clearing the line twists, we see this jumper ultimately reached up, tried to even out his risers to stop the dive, tried to bring them together, got the twists further down, and got out of them... but it took him a minute before he took those steps. Doing so a bit earlier would have likely helped get the line twists out faster.
While this jumper had plenty of altitude to regain stability, jumpers should never sacrifice a safe amount of altitude in order to do so. Getting too low and deploying at an unsafe altitude is potentially far more dangerous than deploying unstable. In recent years multiple fatalities have occured due to jumpers cutting away too low and not getting their reserve over their head in time.
While this jumper attempted to fight his line twists, he stuck his hand between his lines in what appears to be an effort at stopping further twists. This is a very easy way to catch one’s hand in a high friction, high pressure, situation that could result in serious injury. Jumpers should be careful to not place their hands between lines that are spinning up.
This jumper willingly admitted he could have probably gotten out of this malfunction but decided to chop. There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s almost never the wrong decision to get rid of a canopy that isn’t flyable as you hit your decision altitude.
This jumper says he made a bad decision with his landing pattern, placed himself in a bad spot over some trees, got no forward penetration, and was stuck in a position where the only out was a trail with power lines running parallel to it.
We don’t have the full video of this jump prior to him being in a spot with no good options. But -- based on the HUGE swatches of grass on either side of this strip of forest -- we can assume he failed to make the correct decisions at the correct altitude.
This one is pretty simple: when you’re jumping in an area with trees, buildings, parking lots, power lines, rivers, lakes or just about any other obstacle you wouldn’t want to land on, make the decision to land away from it early so that you can set up your landing pattern accordingly. If you’re at 1,000 feet and finally realize your intended pattern isn’t going to work, you might be too late! The moment you get under canopy you need to start checking whether you’re getting the penetration needed to get you to your intended holding area. If you’re not? Start making decisions to find other viable landing areas.
It looks like this jumper didn’t really flare. Just for propriety's sake, let’s note that regardless of whether you’re landing off, in a tree, on a building, in water, on the top of a car, in power lines, etc., you should always FLARE!
This was reportedly a "large" tracking jump. Only two jumpers were flying together in the group when suddenly a third skydiver flies in like a meat missile and hits one of the jumpers from behind.
Based on the speed with which the third jumper enters into the first view, it would appear that they weren't in control. Maybe they were inexperienced and didn't know how to slow down their approach, maybe they lost control, maybe it was something else.
A bigger picture consideration: this was allegedly a "large" jump but we only see four people, one of whom is just a tiny little speck off on the horizon. If this was indeed a “large” tracking group, then a lot of people didn’t make it in. That suggests the varying skill levels on this jump may not have been safe for jumping in a “large” group… alternatively the definition of “large” has changed and some guys can now go around making claims about size that would have previously been lies 😉
The third jumper obviously came in way too fast and didn’t adequately control their approach. Their impact could have caused serious injury. Regardless of the reason for this, jumpers need to always remember the three steps to approaching any formation: “Level. Slot. Dock.” Always approach other skydivers in control of speed and direction.
It's important that skydivers be honest with themselves and with organizers about what they're capable of doing safely. Like we said, this was supposedly a large tracking group but only three jumpers were in the formation and only two were flying together safely. We all want to do gnarly cool stuff in the sky but we should never sacrifice safety to do it, and we should always be honest with organizers and ourselves about our skill level.
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!
After a tracking jump and under canopy, this jumper had a dangerously close call with another jumper from a different tracking group who fell through the same air space. #MoreSeparation
This is a short video with little context, so it’s difficult to tell exactly what happened. However, based on the limited comments provided with the submission, it would appear that two tracking groups were separated by several jump groups but still wound up opening in the same airspace. More than likely the second group traveled in an unsafe direction, although it’s possible the first group had done so as well.
If you’re “experimenting with full openings, instead of stowing the brakes” then you can expect to have a pretty shitty parachute opening — like a line over and a cut away — which is exactly what happened to this skydiver. Not to mention losing a camera, but at least a dog found it pretty quickly once it hit the ground. Haha. Good boy!
As this jumper stated when he submitted this video, he didn’t stow his brakes and was expecting his canopy to open up into full-flight upon deployment. Unfortunately, when brakes are left unstowed, these types of incidents are possible and even somewhat likely.
Because this jumper didn’t stow their brakes, the excess lines that are normally kept taught were loose and flapping around during the deployment process. It’s hard to see if this is exactly what happened — line overs can also be caused by packing errors, acts of god, etc. — but it’s very likely.
There are a few other reasons for stowing your brakes as well:
In the video the jumper intentionally unstowed his brakes, but at the office we were talking about this clip and we realized that a few of us differ in when we stow our brakes. For some, probably most, it’s the first thing we do on the ground after landing. But, for example, one person wears gloves and likes to do it once they’ve laid down their canopy to pack it because the gloves. The important takeaway is that we all agree on one thing: stowing our brakes is an integral part of our process that we do the same way every time because it should be ingrained into packing as a key step.
A swooper bails on his turn to hit the gates (on the edge of the runway) to avoid a plane taking off with a glider being towed behind it. Fortunately he corrected his course and avoided a bad day -- propeller blades hurt! 😲
Without more information, it’s hard to tell the full story behind this video… but we’ll try to fill in the blanks. First off, this swooper was focused on setting up their turn and lost situational awareness about what was happening below them. Next, that swoop lane (we’re presuming that’s what those cones are set up for) is SUPER close to the runway. Last, there are possible questions about communications between the jump plane, manifest, and other aircraft.
Obviously the first step is a solid spot and a good look at your target area before performing a turn. Yes, given a grass runway like this, it’s not that easy to spot the plane on the far end... but an experienced skydiver familiar with the dropzone should be aware of planes taking off.
WHY IS THE SWOOP LANE ADJACENT TO THE RUNWAY!? This could have been prevented by moving the landing area further away (perhaps into that huge grass field that seems to stretch on forever?). It doesn’t matter if you’re swooping or bringing in a tandem, landing immediately next to an active runway seems like a bad idea. Not only because there’s the chance you might hit a plane that's taking off or landing, but also because planes cause turbulent air that can easily collapse a canopy. This skydiver did mention that their canopy got hit by turbulence.
Again, we have no idea if this was a factor, but it’s worth discussing. Dropzones that have activity in such close proximity to a runway need to have good communication between their planes, the ground, other aircraft and/or ATC. If any one of those groups knew there was a pass of swoopers getting out while a plane was taking off, they could have held the jumpers or held the plane and prevented this incident from occurring.
