Wendy Faulkner's Wrap Stories
Incident # 1 - Inattention
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I was a more novice instructor back in these days and I was in a 3-stack at my local dz. I had a novice rotating, and while he was rotating (I was left piloting) I looked down to try and adjust my feet as they were sliding up the lines.
I.e. I was no longer watching my newbie, who got a bit aggressive on his turn in and took us out from the side..
Both the newbie and I had to cutaway as our canopies ended up hopelessly entangled.
Mistakes: I wasn't watching my newbie docker. I should have had my eye on him. He was a bit too aggressive.
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Incident #2 - Poor Dive Planning
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This was back in the days of older F111's and more of a mish-mash of canopies. We decided to do a dragplane, and we thought we'd put the newest guy on top. Unforunately he had the slowest canopy. When we went to get the grips for the downplane down below, my canopy started dancing uncontrollably and eventually tangled with the #2 guy's lines. I eventually cutaway which cleared my canopy from the other 2.
Mistakes: Don't put the slowest person on top! I had a chance to stop the dive when the canopy first started dancing but I thought if we hurried we could get the dragplane. Didn't happen...
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Incident #3 - Very Hard Dock
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I was doing a 2-way CRW with a girl who was on a Triathalon 220. We were doing simple 2 way rotations, but at one point she rotated off the top and front-risered down to me. She got low and hit her rear risers. Realized at the last second that she was coming in WAY too fast and tried to abort. This caused her to hit me with her end cell instead of her center cell and that was all she wrote. I had her cutaway immediately because I was completely engulfed in her canopy. I managed to get her canopy completely off of my body and above my head. I cutaway about 3000 feet because I didn't feel comfortable landing with that much canopy and lines entangled in mine.
Mistakes: She was docking way too aggressively and waited too long to abort. If she had kept coming in centered, we might not have wrapped..
Positives: She cutaway immediately upon request. I made sure the entire canopy was clear of my body before I cutaway. I think it would have been extremely dangerous to land in the configuration I was in so I am very comfortable with the decision to cutaway.
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Incident #4 - Coccooned
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It was a Friday the 13th. We were in Elsinore California, on the 13th Otter load which went to 13 thousand feet.
I was a row 4 wing, and my lockup Ken Oka docked 13th. I can't exactly remember what went wrong now, but I somehow ended up completely coccooned in Ken's canopy. All I remember was not being able to see, move or do anything other than with my toes. I wiggled my toes - the only part of my body that was in daylight, hoping that he would understand it as the universal signal to cutaway. Somehow he managed to figure that out, and chopped. Too much of the canopy was above me to clear, so I pushed everything on my body up and planned to chop once we got lower. I had about 10 people following me - vultures waiting for the prowl. My only problem was that I was giving a big wave-off prior to my cutaway and there were people still flying below me!
Positives: Ken figured out quickly that this wasn't going to clear and cutaway. I was in no position at that point to be able to communicate.
Mistakes: I'm all for people wanting to land with my cutaway gear, but please give a person a little space before a chop!
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Incident # 5 - Collision
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At Moss Point a few years back, we were in a stable 25-way diamond. The starburst plan was to break it into an 8-way diamond up top, 2 4-ways on the side, and a 9-way on the bottom. Unfortunately the countdown was muddled, and the top half of the formation was at 0 when the bottom half reached 2. So when my pilot pulled our 4 way off, the others were still attached. This promptly caused me to come around, where I belly-bumped my buddy Cass. He got spit off, and it was just me and the pilot. I knew the pilot wore disposable shoes so I thought we were golden and he'd kick me off. At this point, he's looking down trying to get me off of his foot, and we're turning left, and the 9 way diamond has a small problem and is turning right. I look up and we're about to hit the other diamond. My pilot tries to turn us away but slingshots me straight through. I come out the other side in a daze and free, and cutaway.
Mistakes: The starburst countdown clearly needed to be louder and clearer. We had 2 different counts going on. After the wrap, we clearly needed to be watching where we were going - fly the person who's wrapped around you away from other people. I should have waited a bit more after coming through the other side, but I was in such a state of shock at that point from the collision I was just happy to be free. I would have had to cutaway at some point because my canopy was shredded anyway.
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Incident #6 - Bad catch on the Wing
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We were in Spain and building a 16 way over Empuriabrava. Chris and I were the row 4 wings. Chris's lockup docked more of a center dock on him than an end cell dock. Also the center person of the formation did not have the grip. In this case the wing should not take the grip because if it gets heavy it can tip the whole formation.
I don't notice this is happening because my lockup is just a couple of feet from arriving on the other side so I'm looking down at him instead of up. When Chris catches the center cell, the formation tilts and my canopy goes up and around. I end up completely coccooning Juan - which is impressive considering I jump a 113 and he's frigging tall. I make the call to cutaway because he appeared to be Chinese-finger-trapped in my canopy and I couldn't even see him. He told me on the ground that cutting away was a good thing because the wrap was only getting worse.
Mistakes: Wings - don't catch someone if your center person doesn't have them - especially if they're heavy.
Wings - pay attention to your canopy - even if you're trying to catch a lockup.
Positives: I cutaway without communication because that didn't seem possible, and I knew the canopy was not going to come off of him with me attached. This helped save him from injury.
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Incident #7
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We were doing a intentional ghostplane - I was to chop my canopy and the guy above me would fly it down for a good ways in a plane formation. We were doing this from the top of a 4-stack. The guy flying the ghostplane had his foot catch on the 3rd guys canopy as he flew away, which ripped his shoe off and one side of the canopy. The canopy ended up spinning entangled on his foot causing him to go spinning through the air. He couldn't get the canopy off of his foot, but managed eventually to get his canopy to fly straight by holding lots of input. I had opened my other canopy at this point and saw what was happening. I top-docked him which enabled to him to rotate in his harness and use both the canopy off of his foot. It saved him from having a very ugly landing.
Mistakes: Need to work on the dive planning a bit more.
Positives: Being able to top-dock is a great skill and can help save your friends from getting hurt.
