[rec.skydiving] Hang on Dude

a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs) (11/21/90)

     Not too far off topic, one day I was doing a floater exit when
the zipper on my jumpsuit let go just as we left.  I had this feeling
of things coming loose, followed by instant paranoia until I figured
out what happened.

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP
"There I was at 2200 feet under a streamer!  So I quickly reset my
altimeter, deployed my apex, and made a DC on the DZ with my PC."

cap@ifi.unizh.ch (11/21/90)

In article <1990Nov17.003424.1117@athena.mit.edu> jnrees@athena.mit.edu (Jim Rees) writes:
>
>I believe something like this happened to a cameraman at one of the
>recent Thai boogies.  He forgot to hook up the chest strap, and as the
>last one out of a large tailgate on a large formation he was in a
>steep track until his rig blew right off his back.  If this is
>inaccurate, there was an article about the incident in Skydiving
>Magazine. 
>
>Too bad for the guy in Hawaii.  I occassionally have dreams of this
>kind of thing happening, and it really makes me remember to get an
>equipment check on every load.
>

Phewewewew - I nearly succeeded ending up in a similar situation when
starting to jump squares several years ago. I used to jump rounds before
that and a hard tension on the chest strap gave me the idea that I had 
it fastened. That was okay for the rounds, but the square was in a gear
with a velcro on the chest strap. So I just fastened the strap with the 
velcro, everything looked alright, I felt that tension and boarded
the plane. It was my instructor who happened to find out, that I did
close the strap just using the velcro - and that I had a totally
wrong routing of the strap. Hm.
.


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nraoaoc@nmt.edu (Daniel Briggs) (11/21/90)

In article <1990Nov20.213144.10267@ifi.unizh.ch> cap@ifi.unizh.ch writes:
>In article <1990Nov17.003424.1117@athena.mit.edu> jnrees@athena.mit.edu
(Jim Rees) writes:
>>I believe something like this happened to a cameraman at one of the
>>recent Thai boogies.  He forgot to hook up the chest strap, and as the
>>last one out of a large tailgate on a large formation he was in a
>>steep track until his rig blew right off his back.
>
>Phewewewew - I nearly succeeded ending up in a similar situation
>[...] I had a totally wrong routing of the strap.

A friend of mine in fact did exactly that.  She had buckled the chest
strap, but somehow the webbing was not threaded through the buckle
correctly, and the chest mount altimeter obscured the misthread.
Friction held it in place, and she jumped it.  It came undone in
freefall, and scared the hell out of her.  She folded both arms across
her chest and (somehow) pulled her main.  It deployed normally and she
landed safely.  Still, it must have been a real eye opener!
-- 
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