Electricity: 1, Parachute: 0
A skydiver gets a shocking surprise after overshooting his intended landing area on an off-DZ landing.
He thought he could fly through the opening in the trees, but he didn't notice the power lines running along the driveway until it was too late.
Here's what the SIM has to say about power lines:
1. Power lines typically appear along roads, between buildings, and along straight-line paths through wooded areas.
2. They may be invisible, except for their poles.
3. Power lines can be extremely dangerous: if there is no other alternative, landing in trees, in water, or on a small obstacle may be preferable to landing in power lines.
4. Sharp turns close to the ground can be equally dangerous, so it is important to identify power lines and steer clear of them while enough altitude remains to do so safely.
1. Drop any ripcords.
2. Pull both toggles to the halfway position, prepare for a hard landing, and turn your head to one side.
3. Touch no more than one wire at a time.
4. If suspended in the wires: the parachute can conduct electricity, so the power needs to be off before making contact with anyone or anything on the ground.
Off-heading openings suck, especially when you're suddenly flying towards the building construction site you just jumped from.
You know things have gone badly when your shoe swoops farther than you!
My friend Mike lost his shoe, his breath and a little dignity on this one — I think he even had enough time to cutaway and deploy his reserve on that bounce. 😜 I especially love the altitude awareness; one last alti check after he hit the ground just to make sure it was all over. "Yup, I'm down."
All jokes aside, I can't believe he walked away without a scratch.
A premature opening is never a good thing, especially at high-speeds when you're sit flying with a group of friends.
Luckily no other skydivers were directly above him when his main canopy deployed!
It's hard to say exactly what caused this premie, but this should serve as yet another reminder to use freefly-friendly gear — a freefly pud on your pilot chute, a tight BOC on your container and a bungee cord on your legs straps so you don't fall out of your harness.
Either this AFF instructor missed his connecting flight, or he had a really close call with a plane in freefall.
It was GoPro close.
I was close enough I could see the pilot freaking out.
As the jumper turned to track away at break-off, he saw the plane and acted quickly to avoid a collision:
I slammed on the brakes to stop tracking and started backsliding as hard as I could.
Fellow jump pilot J.P. Furnari shared some helpful information about air traffic control (ATC) and clear airspace:
"There is no requirement for other planes to stay clear of the airspace.
We (jump pilots) rely on radio announcements (which would require the other pilots to be on the same frequency), ATC to call out traffic when they can, and the jumpers themselves spotting.
So spot like your life depends on it."
Having your toggles magically tied together as your parachute opens definitely puts some FUN in malFUNction.
What do you think might have caused this strange malfunction?
He definitely should have cutaway, but Efrain was confident he could fix it:
I can fix it. I can fix IT. I can FIX it. I CAN fix it. I CAN FIX IT!!! Whoahahaha!
Don't try this at home kids.
You know how skydivers talk about cameras being a snag hazard? Well, it's no joke, this stuff does happen.
As this group was exiting, one of the jumpers' bridle got caught around a camera.
On the bright side, at least they held the "dock." 😉
Power lines, rooftops and trees, oh my!
It started off with these skydivers taking a long time to climb out of the plane and nobody checking the spot before jumping.
Once they were under canopy, they were really far away from the dropzone (P3 Skydive in Panama).
This skydiver tried to make it back to the DZ, but he realized he wasn't going to make it and chose an alternate off DZ landing — a decision he admits he should've made earlier when he had more altitude to spare.
I wanted to land in the big empty lot in the residential complex, but once I turned into the wind, I knew I was in trouble. I should have made the decision [to land there] earlier.
He ended up in a tight spot, skimming the rooftop of a house with power lines on his left and trees on his right.
I had to improvise by lifting my legs to clear the roof — I felt like a tandem passenger. And I almost pissed my pants.
As this swooper was coming out of his turn, he admits he was a little too fixated on the spectator standing in the landing area.
The end result was a close call at high speed with the spectator ducking for cover — a little too close for comfort.
Target fixation or not, there's a reason why most DZs don't want spectators standing in the landing area.
