This is a compilation of a recent email thread about safety in big ways.
Wendy Faulkner
1. I wasn't there, but it sounds like the incident over the beach was handled
extremely well. When the guys were wrapped at the bottom of the diamond, the 4-way diamond stayed together, flew stable, and gave the bottom guys time to work out the issues. If they had been dropped, it almost certainly would have been a double cutaway. Kudus to the people involved there for handling the situation well.
2. On Friday, there was a whirly where 2 people were spat off entangled. There were at least 10 of us who weren't attached to the formation then, yet only Stan and I chased equipment. Once there is a cutaway, the skydive is over. People need to
a. follow the reserves
b. follow/catch the freebags
c. follow the mains.
I landed 3-4 miles off in a field all by myself with a freebag and near a
main. I believe Stan landed by himself with a main and a freebag, and at least
one of the reserves did as well. Especially at a place like Moss Point, where
landing areas sometimes aren't as nice as they appear, no one should land off
alone. If I had been injured on landing, it might have been difficult to find me.
I was very pleased Saturday evening that a lot more people chased gear and landed with people/equipment. That's what needs to happen all the time. No one should ever land off alone on a CRW jump.
3. Remember if you're a lockup to a wing, you MUST dock on the inside person first. If you're a wing, you don't want to be catching a lockup and hinging yourself dramatically - this will cause problems with the formation. It will often make you MUCH heavier and float the other side. This is what caused the Saturday night wrap.
I actually accidently on one flight did catch my lockup before the inside person.
I was far forward and was concentrating hard on flying my wing to keep from coming around. My lockup arrived, I glanced over and thought the inside person had him so I threw my feet back and promptly went back to flying my wing. I knew I was a cell or two in so I walked him over with my feet without every looking down. I could have caused a problem with the formation because I accidently did this, but it worked out because I didn't walk over with my hands, and I never took my eye off of my canopy as I walked him over. I honestly didn't realize till I was told on the ground that I had caught him first.
If you're a wing, fly as light of trim as possible. Ideally inside brake. Most
of the skydives I flew only inside brake - it certainly makes it nicer to fly out
there when you're arms aren't getting tired.
I saw several people on HEAVY trim - at least once I watched a 2-1 assist at full arm extension - realize that you can't hold that much front riser and still have your canopy be flying. You're putting such a large crease in it, its not much of an airfoil anymore. If you feel you need that much weight, ask your lockup to get heavy, or pinch off a cell of his or something, but holding that much trim will only make the other wing have to hold trim which will make it worse for you and it destroys the dynamics of the whole formation. If you can't fly the wing without holding that much trim, you need to get off the wing because the formation will not be flying anymore. Even on the rare occasions I pull my 2-1 to my shoulder, it cocks my canopy dramatically - very evident on video. I try to avoid that as much as possible - I prefer never holding more than a couple of inches of outside trim.
When you're on a wing, look across. Your canopy should be level with the rest of your row and the opposite wing's canopy. At one point, I looked over at my
opposite wing and I could see his top-skin. That means he was WAY too heavy. That caused the whole left side to fold in shortly thereafter. As a wing, you should be looking up as much as possible. Make sure your canopy isn't forward, and keep it level with the rest of the row.
A couple of times, I had (and witnessed on other wings), lockups docking on wings with a lot of forward speed. It almost pushed me around on one load. If you find yourself high, this is not the time to come down on front-risers and dock like a rotation jump. The wing is a hinge and can't absorb your speed. Get down low and have your forward speed bled off before you touch them, A few extra mph of speed can be enough to force the hinge of the wing around.
As a lockup, watch your wing, There was a couple of times I tried to kick my feet and holler down for heavy but wasn't noticed. Watch for those things. I don't ask for it often, but when I do, I really need it :-) If you ever see yourself
floating up past the knee of the wing, go ahead and get a touch heavy as well.
Remember to arch. Most of the people I saw were doing a pretty good job of it.
Just another thing to remember. It really helps keep the wings back.
All in all a great weekend. Lots of people got to try new things, and all went
well.
--
Scott Chew
I guess I'd second the motions on safety and add to watch out for others
lurking near you. It is easy to have a collision when you're watching the
formation and not watching where you're going.
I'd encourage lurkers to use cross-control, front riser dumps etc to hold
position instead of sashaying which takes up more room and causes greater
relative movements making collisions harder if they do occur.
--
Wendy Faulkner
> I guess I'd second the motions on safety and add to watch out for others
> lurking near you. It is easy to have a collision when you're watching the
> formation and not watching where you're going.
Yes. That is a good point. Remember that unless you're the point of the
diamond (4,9,16 etc) you should NEVER cross the center line - it is the line
of death - by not crossing it you'll minimize the chances of collisions. Also
if you're behind the camera guy you're too far back. He should never have to
worry about avoiding CRWdogs in the air as we all should remain in front of
him.
Also, while waiting in echelon, lockups should never be closer to the
formation than the wing-man they're following. I have had to fly my approach
around lockups and others who were supposed to be docking behind me. I should
only have to be worrying about the jumpers who are in the diamond before me -
all the jumpers who are docking later than me should never be closer to the
formation than I am.
> I'd encourage lurkers to use cross-control, front riser dumps etc to hold
> position instead of sashaying which takes up more room and causes greater
> relative movements making collisions harder if they do occur.
Good point. This is great to practice with. When we say cross-control, we're
not talking a small touch. When I use cross-control I have my 2-1 pulled down
to my shoulders as well as my toggle. It dogs out your canopy really well and
makes it much easier to sit in place by warping it strongly. Practice this on
the small stuff as it can come in handy on the big stuff.
I also like to use rear riser stalls - basically I makes sure no one is behind
me, I grab the rear risers, then stall my canopy backwards. When it starts
falling backwards, it will dive forward. It works like a ferris wheel - a
very efficient way of staying in place.
These techniques can help you avoid large sashays and makes it easier for
other people to set up to dock after you as well.
--
Mike Fedak
The good news is, if you are the point of these diamonds, you OWN the
center line. The bad news is, you just don't have the room to sashay.
You must stay in the narrow corridor of the center line. Two ways to do
this; cross-control and rear riser/brake stall followed by front
risers. The cross-control method is smoother and doesn't involve a
canopy bobbing up and down behind the formation, but both work.
We really needed some time spent on echelon flying at Moss Point. As
Wendy said, we had a significant number of pups and they had a fuzzy
idea of where they needed to be between leaving the plane and docking.
I feel the most important point Wendy made, however, is when a wrap and
cutaway happens, the skydive is over. Letting someone land out by
themselves is never a good idea. When they have been involved in a
collision/wrap/entanglement, they may need a lot of help and need it
soon. If you are inthe air, land with them. If you are on the ground,
use resources available to determine the location and condition of
someone who lands out. Until you determine otherwise, assume they are
hurt and need help. Start looking at their general location, determine
what roads/paths can be taken to get into the area. If cell phoneS are
available, USE THEM!
As we progress in our skills and knowledge about large offsets, we seem
to be forgetting some of the basics of safety.
Safety starts on the ground. Look at the dive, look at the people on
it, look at the weather conditions and the intended landing area. I'm
glad the beach jump wrap was handled well, but I don't think the load as
planned should have left the ground.
--
Wendy Faulkner
One more thing I forgot to mention earlier - when you dock on a
formation, before you take another dock, verify that the people you're
docking on have the correct grips. When you're accepting a dock,
double-check that you have the correct line.
If the person above you has a wrong grip on you, holler up "Grip!
Grip!" Do NOT accept another dock until the grip is fixed. Almost
always, a wrong grip will cause you to be much heavier than normal. If
you're at the bottom of a 9-way it may not be much of a problem, but by
the time that 9-way becomes a 36 way it may be impossible to carry the
weight. If its a wing-dock, and the person you've docked upon has a
wrong grip, you need to get it fixed. It will make you heavier, which
in turn will be transmitted to the other side of the formation, and
things go downhill from there. At one point this weekend, I held off
docking the row 4 wing because I noticed that the row 2 had a wrong grip
on the row 3. This would make my side (the left) heavier than normal,
and if I docked I would just compound the problem. I flew nearby
hollering grip, and although I doubt I was heard, they did fix the
problem and I subsequently docked. But docking before the problem was
fixed would have been a bad idea.
--
Scott Chew
Front riser dump: If you pull down hard on front risers you move forward
and down faster but if you pull down very hard you just go down, and even
slow down relative to the formation then if let go of them quickly the
canopy just snaps and stays at the new location rather than surging forward.
another technique is to intentionally fly behind someone using their burble
to destroy your lift momentarily.
