Wendy's Home Page

    One of our young CRW jumpers had an accident a CRW camp over the July 4 weekend.   This page
    highlights what happened, what mistakes were made, and other assorted stuff.

     ---------

By now, some of you have heard about our experience on Sunday afternoon and I would like to share my story of what I observed: A relatively low-time novice male jumper, under a 176 with heavy wing loading, and a lowtime female jumper, under a 126 with a 1.3 wing loading, were doing a post stack at around 3000 ft. I soon watched her engulfed in his canopy as it came around. They tried to sort it out for about 20-30 seconds and then he cut away (her call) and I saw that he had a good reserve canopy and landed on the DZ without injury. Meanwhile, the young lady with her main canopy still good, was engulfed in his main canopy and it looked like she had it around the front of her body and trailing on both sides of her body. She flew to the right about 1500 feet and then she cut away her main and for what reason I don't know why. In my mind, I was questioning her judgement and hoping to see her reserve which never happened. After watching for about 10 seconds, I realized it was not good and started spiraling down harder and harder and witnessed her impact in a corn field. I was the first one to land near her, closely followed by Frank Matrone. As I was landing, I saw her legs moving. I dropped my gear and ran towards her thinking the worse as I heard her making sounds. She started communicating to me that her left shoulder was in pain at about the same time that Frank got there. Frank proceeded checking her vital signs and we started taking her gear off of her as well as Mark's canopy which was entangled around her. I looked at her gear and when I saw her reserve handle still stowed, I was mad and upset. We cut her jumpsuit off of her and by then the paramedics had arrived. I stepped away and Frank stayed with her till she left in the ambulance. I walked back to the DZ and knew that I had just witnessed a miracle and I'm still not believing it and am in awe.

Meanwhile, back at the DZ, those at manifest and on the ground witnessing such a terrible sight, knew in their minds that she had gone in. After what seemed an eternity, but in actuality was minutes, they got the word that the jumper was coherent and talking. That helped to ease some of the tension but at the same time it was one of those experiences nobody likes to see.

Eduardo retrieved the main and others in the group were able to round up her other gear. After being examined at the nearby ER, she was released with some cuts, bruises, a broken left upper arm and hopefully a valuable lesson to be learned. She was able to fly home with Frank, Lyn, Eduardo and Steve as originally planned.

I still have not talked to her myself since the paramedics arrived and I am anticipating our first conversation. Crystal talked with her on the phone when she was released and she was very apologetic to everyone and trying to sort thru what did and did not happen.

Needless to say, it's Monday night and we've just got back home and I'm still seeing it in my mind. I have so make a few comments on this. Jim West, who I look up to and respect, told me his belief was that "you need to know your emergency procedures and don't ever doubt them".

Know that before you chop that main, be clear and concise - right hand on your cutaway, left hand on your reserve handle. Bubbles, I want you to handwrite this 100 times and present it to me the next time we meet!! And for everyone else, every time you're getting your gear on to make a jump, follow thru with your emergency procedures in your head. If you don't know them, you don't need to be jumping with me!!

Jackson Hoffman
------------

I don't know the young lady and I was not there, but I have been in a good
number of wraps. I believe that she made only one bad decision, and
that was to cut away her main while she was wrapped. I really can't
think of any scenario where that would be the right thing to do. It is
tough enough to get a canopy off of you without going into freefall.
Your main canopy, regardless of anything else, is providing drag and
giving you time.

My advice to anybody in the same situation is to do whatever it takes to
get that canopy off of you, including cutting it off. But leave your
canopy alone! Even if it is part of the entanglement, the chances of
cutting it away helping you is pretty slim, IMHO. Theoretically it
could pull everything off of you, but it is more likely for it to just
leave, or to pull things tighter. Plus, you never know what is going on
up there if you can't see it -- it might feel unstable, but a wrapped
canopy around your body can make your main seem unstable if it is
inflating off and on. Your main might be the only thing keeping you
from spinning even worse. Or, it is possible that another CRW dog has
your canopy -- they may have never dropped you (which is a good thing)
or they may have got to you afterwards.

This happened to me last year -- I had nylon and lines all over my head,
and when I finally got it all off, I looked up to see that Chris Gay had
top-docked me. In addition, Nina (I think it was Nina) was still
hanging from her canopy. Had I cut away, myself and Nina would have
probably have started spinning by my neck. In my case, Nina eventually
cut away and Chris put me down in a nice plowed field, but I never did
get her canopy clear.

If you can't get the canopy off of you and you can see the ground or
your altimeter and know that it is close (500ft or so), then it is time
to get your reserve out in addition to your main. Clear your rig if at
all possible and dump your reserve. Then see if you can find the pilot
chute (i.e. it got stuck) and shove it out through any opening you can
find.

This is just my personal advice, and I'm not an expert, so feel free to
correct me if you disagree! But I do think the most important thing in
any wrap is to take the time to take stock of your situation. Figure
out what is good and what is bad, then prioritize the bad and don't mess
up the good. For example, this might be your priority list:
1) Attempt communication with anybody that might be above or below
you.
2) Clear your head and or neck to avoid risk of suffocation and allow
some visibility.
3) Clear the canopy off of your rig, in case you need your reserve.
4) Check your main to see if you will survive the landing.
No: Keep trying to get that canopy off of you, and keep it clear
of your rig. At about 500-ft, dump your reserve into as clean
of air as you can if you have not yet removed the parachute.
Yes: Try to contain the other canopy and just land with it. Do
not make any turns unless necessary and do everything very
gently to make sure that main does not inflate.

That is just an example, but I think it is the kind of survival thinking
that is required to survive a bad wrap.

Finally, from what I understand she hit the ground with only one
partially-inflated canopy, and she survived. I just have to say that
I'm very glad it turned out well and I wish her a good recovery.

Kirk Bauer
-------------------

On the last jump we tried a challenging pieces separation, with the top
4-way diamond of a 9-way diamond plus stinger separating, leaving the
rest in a wide inverted V. The top diamond part went well, but the
lower V didn't last much if anything at all.

Here comes the sad part of this report, that puts a shadow over what
was otherwise a very fine weekend of CRW amongst friends. I'd like also
to generate a little discussion over the issues that caused the
accident amongst the more experienced CRW dogs. Civilized if possible.

The accident occurred on the dive I described above, during the
post-dive docks. I was very close to both and watching, since I was
trying to dock myself. I'll relate only the facts as seen by me, or
heard directly from the mouth of the participants.

A relatively inexperienced CRW dog under a 176 attempted a post dive
stack on another relative low-timer (under a 126). The altitude, I guess, (possibly wrong,
based on the time since I last checked my altimeter) was around 2500'.
What I saw was the 176 docking centered but a bit hard and a little
high, around the girl's back maybe. She wasn't willing to take grips but
that wasn't made clear to the docking CRW dog, nor she took any
"evasive action". The two halfs of the incoming canopy joined in front
of her but it remained inflated. She then applied brakes in an
attempt to get up and away, and this only put her more into the canopy,
which now collapsed around her body. Her canopy had line twists but
was otherwise completely inflated.

After struggling a few moments she asked the other CRW dog to cutaway,
what he did right away. She kept struggling with the canopy around her
and then grabbed the cut away pillow, grabbed (or only touched?) the
reserve ripcord, and cut away. Up to this moment her main was fully
inflated and flying stable. After releasing the main she lost her grip
on the reserve ripcord and went back in free fall wrapped in the cut
away canopy that docked on her. Soon after, a cell started to partially
inflate, and then maybe one or two more. Until impact in a corn field
she unsuccessfully tried to find the ripcord. By the time she hit the
ground she had two or three half (chordwise) inflated cells over her
head. The whole mess was spinning badly.

Jackson and Frank Matrone were the first two to land by her side and
gave her first aid. We were about 1/3 mile from the main buildings
of the DZ so very soon an equipped paramedic that was there arrived to
give help. About 5 minutes later a police car arrived, and later
several ambulances. She was conscious and alert when she was taken
to a hospital.

Soon we received notice from the hospital that the only injury she---
had was a broken humerus (the long bone of the arm), and I was stunned
when we went to the hospital a couple of hours later and she walked out
of the elevator. She then flew that night with us back to Allentown and
rested in Frank's home. Lyn officiated as in-flight nurse and spiritual
counselor during the trip (thanks Lyn!).

So, this are the facts as I know them. What I'd like to discuss is what
can we do to improve on the safety of this post dive docks. I've seen a
several wraps and a couple of very close calls on this low altitude,
often times jungle rules dives. The outcome of this, in particular, was
nothing but a miracle to all who witnessed it. We shouldn't be relying
on miracles to live to do the next jump.

To finish, I'd like to thank Frank Matrone. Being the good person he
is, on top of being a Physician and an excellent and very active CRW
dog, puts him very often in the position to be called to help us in
these circumstances, what he did innumerable times. We are very lucky
to have him with us.

Eduardo Guillen
-----------

Let's make it a point to spend a little more time on safety procedures from now on at the camps. We who have been doing this forever can easily forget how overwhelming it can be when you are new to a discipline, especially CRW. We are a very relaxed group, and perhaps we need just a little more focus on safety for those of us who haven't been wrapped umpteen times and lived to learn from each experience.

I'm not one to open my mouth very often, (unless some fool gives me a microphone) but I feel that it's time we reexamine our family and our habits that we've gotten so comfortable with. As our family grows, we need to teach the crwbies a couple of things:

First: DON'T PANIC!!! Stop and take a breath during an emergency situation. Check your altitude. You most likely have a good canopy over your head, or a brother or sister is holding on to you under their good wing.

Second: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. Then attempt to communicate: Talk with anyone around you. If you can't see what's going on, ask those who can. If you can see what's going on, talk with those who can't. Find out if anyone is unconscious and save their ass. Ask the person whose foot your canopy is wrapped around if you should cut away or wait. Tell the pup whose canopy is hopelessly tied around your neck to cut away.

Third: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. If you are wrapped so badly that you can't see, and you can't get it off of you, you should have a good knife (or three) that are within reach. Start cutting the fuck out of your brother's canopy. We won't care. We can buy a new one, and we as a family will buy one for someone who can't afford to replace the one you shredded. Just survive.

On hook knives: I keep one on my chest strap and one on each leg strap in case my hands are tied to my body by your canopy. Be sure to spend the bucks to equip yourself AT LEAST as well, if not better. If you go in under my shit wrapped around you because you couldn't or wouldn't cut it up, I'll find your body and kick your ass even if I have to open the box to do it. If you cut my canopy to shreds and save your life, I'll give you a great big hug and a squeeze.

Fourth: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. If you must cut away, Take your time and be sure that there's nobody below you. Then get whatever shit that's wrapped around your reserve flaps pulled or sliced off of you. Then put your thumb through your reserve handle and close your fist on that fucker as if your life depends on it. It does. Then, and only then, peel your cutaway off and throw that bastard with all your might at the asshole who wrapped you. Get stable if time permits. Then grab your other fist and try to rip it, and the reserve handle within it from your body. Try to hit your cutaway pillow with the lot.

Fifth: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. Reach up and grab your toggles or risers, depending on your altitude. Land safely. Do a PLF just for fun.

Lastly: DON'T PANIC!!! You are on the ground. No need to check your altitude. Get out your wallet. You can afford the beer, and don't forget the rigger who just saved your life. They like champagne.

Bill Clement
---------
From dropzone.com:

---------
We had an extremely close call at a Xenia Ohio CRW camp last weekend and its been discussed greatly on the CRW mailing list. I decided to post it here as well because there are a lot of people here who aren't on that list, and I see people regularly post at dz.com about doing their first ever CRW with the a Jedei or a Stilletto or even worse cross-braced canopies - and they don't have proper CRW training. They might make the same mistakes as were made here and not be so lucky.

Anyway, what happened at this event was as follows:

The first part of the skydive (the bigger-way) was uneventful. Afterwards, a fellow on a 176 decided to try and dock on a girl who was on a 126. It seems that the dock went poorly. She wasn't expecting it and it went bad. She properly called down to him to cutaway, which he did and landed uneventfully on the drop zone..

At this point, she has a perfectly functional main, and a 176 wrapped around her. At this point, the one thing that one should NEVER EVER EVER do is cutaway - you then find yourself in freefall with a canopy wrapped around you which of course would make it quite hard for the reserve to come out. You can hack away with a hook knife, try to free it, but you don't want to go into freefall. I might try and dump my reserve into my mess at some point, but never release the only good canopy you have.

Unfortunately that is exactly what she did. She went into freefall wrapped in his canopy. She never pulled the reserve handle. Somewhere below a thousand feet 3 cells of HIS canopy inflated and she landed spinning in a cornfield in soft dirt. Everyone there thought she was dead. A couple of people landed with her, including a doctor, and after all was said and done, she walked away with bruises and a broken arm....

She's EXTREMELY lucky to be alive. In CRW, mindlessly cutting away during a wrap is not always the correct thing to do. Cutting away with a canopy wrapped around your body just made things go from bad to worse..

This happened on a 2-way with CRW squares - anyone out there doing 2-ways with ellipticals needs to be EXTREMELY aware of what can happen, how to fix things, and understand that as bad as things worse, they're 10 times worse on an elliptical wrap. You need to be knowledgable, versed, and ready to do the correct things and not panic during a wrap. I just see too many people doing CRW without proper knowledge of emergencies - and in this case someone we thought knew what to do, still failed to execute properly.

She's very lucky to be alive...

Wendy Faulkner
http://crwdog.servebeer.com/crw/crw.html

------
Based on the description of the incident above and previous comments:

BIG lesson number ONE:
If you cutaway, you WILL pull the reserve handle.
It's like: exhale, inhale...there is no alternative.

If you CAN NOT pull the reserve handle, then don't cutaway and use what you have to slow down and pray for the best.
It's basic...it's from first jump course...it's a survival move...it's simply basic...it's purely basic...
If a jumper cutaway and do not pull the reserve, I would have some serious talk to understand why and help the jumper evaluate his/her place in the sport.

Vic
----
I think she had somewhere around 300ish jumps - not so sure on that. Over a hundred CRW at this point. She was invited to be on the Women's CRW record that ended up getting cancelled. She has CRW skills but clearly needs some emergency procedure refresher training.

I'm not sure who trained her for her first CRW jump, but I know how to handle wraps and entanglements is in any first CRW jump brief I've ever heard. I also know we regularly push people to review some of the emergency procedures I have listed on my website.

As to why she cutaway? She says she couldn't see and it didn't feel "good." Someone else there said it was flying straight but had a line twist in it. This all was happening below 3k, she wasn't expecting to do CRW, and I expect it was a variety of factors:

1. Not thinking about how being in freefall with a canopy wrapped around you is much worse than being under even a bad canopy.

2. She knew she was getting low and I suspect there was a bit of panic in there.

3. She said she was worried about a canopy downplane but a canopy downplane is better than no canopy..

4. She forgot she had a hook knife that she could use..

5. She had trouble finding her reserve handle because her hand wasn't on it when she cutaway and the wrap of course made things harder to find...

Wendy Faulkner
-----

CRW EP's

CRW Emergency Procedure Scenario's & Information - point 5 in the wraps section says it all.

CRW Emergency Procedure from Wendy's site

------
I think that it was fairly well explained above, but: I saw the low jumper cutaway and deploy his reserve. At that point, it looked-- from a distance-- as if his main was mainly tangled around the higher jumper's legs. She could have had more material in her face, obstructing her vision, etc. Again, it appeared that she had a fully inflated, flying canopy and would likely end up landing with the other jumpers main around her legs. Once she cutaway, her body (belly to earth) and the other jumper's main went horizontal. She began to propeller around. The inflation really seemed minimal from where I stood. But, others closer to her landing, indicated that her descent rate really had slowed-- some guessed to 25-35 mph. So, she was flat-spinning horizontally, rather than the vertical cork-screw/streamer scenario one might imagine at landing. The impact still looked as if it would have been fatal. Perhaps the propeller action gave her lift-- maybe it was just the right orientation and a glancing hit upon initial impact that saved her.

The only thing I didn't see was the giant hand of grace/luck/God-- whatever you happen to believe in--that reached up and laid her gently down in that cornfield. I never imagined that we would find a person, conscious, alert and basically unharmed.

Robin H


Home Page	The Near Miss One of our young CRW jumpers had an accident a CRW camp over the July 4 weekend. This page highlights what happened, what mistakes were made, and other assorted stuff. --------- By now, some of you have heard about our experience on Sunday afternoon and I would like to share my story of what I observed: A relatively low-time novice male jumper, under a 176 with heavy wing loading, and a lowtime female jumper, under a 126 with a 1.3 wing loading, were doing a post stack at around 3000 ft. I soon watched her engulfed in his canopy as it came around. They tried to sort it out for about 20-30 seconds and then he cut away (her call) and I saw that he had a good reserve canopy and landed on the DZ without injury. Meanwhile, the young lady with her main canopy still good, was engulfed in his main canopy and it looked like she had it around the front of her body and trailing on both sides of her body. She flew to the right about 1500 feet and then she cut away her main and for what reason I don't know why. In my mind, I was questioning her judgement and hoping to see her reserve which never happened. After watching for about 10 seconds, I realized it was not good and started spiraling down harder and harder and witnessed her impact in a corn field. I was the first one to land near her, closely followed by Frank Matrone. As I was landing, I saw her legs moving. I dropped my gear and ran towards her thinking the worse as I heard her making sounds. She started communicating to me that her left shoulder was in pain at about the same time that Frank got there. Frank proceeded checking her vital signs and we started taking her gear off of her as well as Mark's canopy which was entangled around her. I looked at her gear and when I saw her reserve handle still stowed, I was mad and upset. We cut her jumpsuit off of her and by then the paramedics had arrived. I stepped away and Frank stayed with her till she left in the ambulance. I walked back to the DZ and knew that I had just witnessed a miracle and I'm still not believing it and am in awe. Meanwhile, back at the DZ, those at manifest and on the ground witnessing such a terrible sight, knew in their minds that she had gone in. After what seemed an eternity, but in actuality was minutes, they got the word that the jumper was coherent and talking. That helped to ease some of the tension but at the same time it was one of those experiences nobody likes to see. Eduardo retrieved the main and others in the group were able to round up her other gear. After being examined at the nearby ER, she was released with some cuts, bruises, a broken left upper arm and hopefully a valuable lesson to be learned. She was able to fly home with Frank, Lyn, Eduardo and Steve as originally planned. I still have not talked to her myself since the paramedics arrived and I am anticipating our first conversation. Crystal talked with her on the phone when she was released and she was very apologetic to everyone and trying to sort thru what did and did not happen. Needless to say, it's Monday night and we've just got back home and I'm still seeing it in my mind. I have so make a few comments on this. Jim West, who I look up to and respect, told me his belief was that "you need to know your emergency procedures and don't ever doubt them". Know that before you chop that main, be clear and concise - right hand on your cutaway, left hand on your reserve handle. Bubbles, I want you to handwrite this 100 times and present it to me the next time we meet!! And for everyone else, every time you're getting your gear on to make a jump, follow thru with your emergency procedures in your head. If you don't know them, you don't need to be jumping with me!! Jackson Hoffman ------------ I don't know the young lady and I was not there, but I have been in a good number of wraps. I believe that she made only one bad decision, and that was to cut away her main while she was wrapped. I really can't think of any scenario where that would be the right thing to do. It is tough enough to get a canopy off of you without going into freefall. Your main canopy, regardless of anything else, is providing drag and giving you time. My advice to anybody in the same situation is to do whatever it takes to get that canopy off of you, including cutting it off. But leave your canopy alone! Even if it is part of the entanglement, the chances of cutting it away helping you is pretty slim, IMHO. Theoretically it could pull everything off of you, but it is more likely for it to just leave, or to pull things tighter. Plus, you never know what is going on up there if you can't see it -- it might feel unstable, but a wrapped canopy around your body can make your main seem unstable if it is inflating off and on. Your main might be the only thing keeping you from spinning even worse. Or, it is possible that another CRW dog has your canopy -- they may have never dropped you (which is a good thing) or they may have got to you afterwards. This happened to me last year -- I had nylon and lines all over my head, and when I finally got it all off, I looked up to see that Chris Gay had top-docked me. In addition, Nina (I think it was Nina) was still hanging from her canopy. Had I cut away, myself and Nina would have probably have started spinning by my neck. In my case, Nina eventually cut away and Chris put me down in a nice plowed field, but I never did get her canopy clear. If you can't get the canopy off of you and you can see the ground or your altimeter and know that it is close (500ft or so), then it is time to get your reserve out in addition to your main. Clear your rig if at all possible and dump your reserve. Then see if you can find the pilot chute (i.e. it got stuck) and shove it out through any opening you can find. This is just my personal advice, and I'm not an expert, so feel free to correct me if you disagree! But I do think the most important thing in any wrap is to take the time to take stock of your situation. Figure out what is good and what is bad, then prioritize the bad and don't mess up the good. For example, this might be your priority list: 1) Attempt communication with anybody that might be above or below you. 2) Clear your head and or neck to avoid risk of suffocation and allow some visibility. 3) Clear the canopy off of your rig, in case you need your reserve. 4) Check your main to see if you will survive the landing. No: Keep trying to get that canopy off of you, and keep it clear of your rig. At about 500-ft, dump your reserve into as clean of air as you can if you have not yet removed the parachute. Yes: Try to contain the other canopy and just land with it. Do not make any turns unless necessary and do everything very gently to make sure that main does not inflate. That is just an example, but I think it is the kind of survival thinking that is required to survive a bad wrap. Finally, from what I understand she hit the ground with only one partially-inflated canopy, and she survived. I just have to say that I'm very glad it turned out well and I wish her a good recovery. Kirk Bauer ------------------- On the last jump we tried a challenging pieces separation, with the top 4-way diamond of a 9-way diamond plus stinger separating, leaving the rest in a wide inverted V. The top diamond part went well, but the lower V didn't last much if anything at all. Here comes the sad part of this report, that puts a shadow over what was otherwise a very fine weekend of CRW amongst friends. I'd like also to generate a little discussion over the issues that caused the accident amongst the more experienced CRW dogs. Civilized if possible. The accident occurred on the dive I described above, during the post-dive docks. I was very close to both and watching, since I was trying to dock myself. I'll relate only the facts as seen by me, or heard directly from the mouth of the participants. A relatively inexperienced CRW dog under a 176 attempted a post dive stack on another relative low-timer (under a 126). The altitude, I guess, (possibly wrong, based on the time since I last checked my altimeter) was around 2500'. What I saw was the 176 docking centered but a bit hard and a little high, around the girl's back maybe. She wasn't willing to take grips but that wasn't made clear to the docking CRW dog, nor she took any "evasive action". The two halfs of the incoming canopy joined in front of her but it remained inflated. She then applied brakes in an attempt to get up and away, and this only put her more into the canopy, which now collapsed around her body. Her canopy had line twists but was otherwise completely inflated. After struggling a few moments she asked the other CRW dog to cutaway, what he did right away. She kept struggling with the canopy around her and then grabbed the cut away pillow, grabbed (or only touched?) the reserve ripcord, and cut away. Up to this moment her main was fully inflated and flying stable. After releasing the main she lost her grip on the reserve ripcord and went back in free fall wrapped in the cut away canopy that docked on her. Soon after, a cell started to partially inflate, and then maybe one or two more. Until impact in a corn field she unsuccessfully tried to find the ripcord. By the time she hit the ground she had two or three half (chordwise) inflated cells over her head. The whole mess was spinning badly. Jackson and Frank Matrone were the first two to land by her side and gave her first aid. We were about 1/3 mile from the main buildings of the DZ so very soon an equipped paramedic that was there arrived to give help. About 5 minutes later a police car arrived, and later several ambulances. She was conscious and alert when she was taken to a hospital. Soon we received notice from the hospital that the only injury she--- had was a broken humerus (the long bone of the arm), and I was stunned when we went to the hospital a couple of hours later and she walked out of the elevator. She then flew that night with us back to Allentown and rested in Frank's home. Lyn officiated as in-flight nurse and spiritual counselor during the trip (thanks Lyn!). So, this are the facts as I know them. What I'd like to discuss is what can we do to improve on the safety of this post dive docks. I've seen a several wraps and a couple of very close calls on this low altitude, often times jungle rules dives. The outcome of this, in particular, was nothing but a miracle to all who witnessed it. We shouldn't be relying on miracles to live to do the next jump. To finish, I'd like to thank Frank Matrone. Being the good person he is, on top of being a Physician and an excellent and very active CRW dog, puts him very often in the position to be called to help us in these circumstances, what he did innumerable times. We are very lucky to have him with us. Eduardo Guillen ----------- Let's make it a point to spend a little more time on safety procedures from now on at the camps. We who have been doing this forever can easily forget how overwhelming it can be when you are new to a discipline, especially CRW. We are a very relaxed group, and perhaps we need just a little more focus on safety for those of us who haven't been wrapped umpteen times and lived to learn from each experience. I'm not one to open my mouth very often, (unless some fool gives me a microphone) but I feel that it's time we reexamine our family and our habits that we've gotten so comfortable with. As our family grows, we need to teach the crwbies a couple of things: First: DON'T PANIC!!! Stop and take a breath during an emergency situation. Check your altitude. You most likely have a good canopy over your head, or a brother or sister is holding on to you under their good wing. Second: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. Then attempt to communicate: Talk with anyone around you. If you can't see what's going on, ask those who can. If you can see what's going on, talk with those who can't. Find out if anyone is unconscious and save their ass. Ask the person whose foot your canopy is wrapped around if you should cut away or wait. Tell the pup whose canopy is hopelessly tied around your neck to cut away. Third: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. If you are wrapped so badly that you can't see, and you can't get it off of you, you should have a good knife (or three) that are within reach. Start cutting the fuck out of your brother's canopy. We won't care. We can buy a new one, and we as a family will buy one for someone who can't afford to replace the one you shredded. Just survive. On hook knives: I keep one on my chest strap and one on each leg strap in case my hands are tied to my body by your canopy. Be sure to spend the bucks to equip yourself AT LEAST as well, if not better. If you go in under my shit wrapped around you because you couldn't or wouldn't cut it up, I'll find your body and kick your ass even if I have to open the box to do it. If you cut my canopy to shreds and save your life, I'll give you a great big hug and a squeeze. Fourth: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. If you must cut away, Take your time and be sure that there's nobody below you. Then get whatever shit that's wrapped around your reserve flaps pulled or sliced off of you. Then put your thumb through your reserve handle and close your fist on that fucker as if your life depends on it. It does. Then, and only then, peel your cutaway off and throw that bastard with all your might at the asshole who wrapped you. Get stable if time permits. Then grab your other fist and try to rip it, and the reserve handle within it from your body. Try to hit your cutaway pillow with the lot. Fifth: DON'T PANIC!!! Check your altitude. Reach up and grab your toggles or risers, depending on your altitude. Land safely. Do a PLF just for fun. Lastly: DON'T PANIC!!! You are on the ground. No need to check your altitude. Get out your wallet. You can afford the beer, and don't forget the rigger who just saved your life. They like champagne. Bill Clement --------- From dropzone.com: --------- We had an extremely close call at a Xenia Ohio CRW camp last weekend and its been discussed greatly on the CRW mailing list. I decided to post it here as well because there are a lot of people here who aren't on that list, and I see people regularly post at dz.com about doing their first ever CRW with the a Jedei or a Stilletto or even worse cross-braced canopies - and they don't have proper CRW training. They might make the same mistakes as were made here and not be so lucky. Anyway, what happened at this event was as follows: The first part of the skydive (the bigger-way) was uneventful. Afterwards, a fellow on a 176 decided to try and dock on a girl who was on a 126. It seems that the dock went poorly. She wasn't expecting it and it went bad. She properly called down to him to cutaway, which he did and landed uneventfully on the drop zone.. At this point, she has a perfectly functional main, and a 176 wrapped around her. At this point, the one thing that one should NEVER EVER EVER do is cutaway - you then find yourself in freefall with a canopy wrapped around you which of course would make it quite hard for the reserve to come out. You can hack away with a hook knife, try to free it, but you don't want to go into freefall. I might try and dump my reserve into my mess at some point, but never release the only good canopy you have. Unfortunately that is exactly what she did. She went into freefall wrapped in his canopy. She never pulled the reserve handle. Somewhere below a thousand feet 3 cells of HIS canopy inflated and she landed spinning in a cornfield in soft dirt. Everyone there thought she was dead. A couple of people landed with her, including a doctor, and after all was said and done, she walked away with bruises and a broken arm.... She's EXTREMELY lucky to be alive. In CRW, mindlessly cutting away during a wrap is not always the correct thing to do. Cutting away with a canopy wrapped around your body just made things go from bad to worse.. This happened on a 2-way with CRW squares - anyone out there doing 2-ways with ellipticals needs to be EXTREMELY aware of what can happen, how to fix things, and understand that as bad as things worse, they're 10 times worse on an elliptical wrap. You need to be knowledgable, versed, and ready to do the correct things and not panic during a wrap. I just see too many people doing CRW without proper knowledge of emergencies - and in this case someone we thought knew what to do, still failed to execute properly. She's very lucky to be alive... Wendy Faulkner http://crwdog.servebeer.com/crw/crw.html ------ Based on the description of the incident above and previous comments: BIG lesson number ONE: If you cutaway, you WILL pull the reserve handle. It's like: exhale, inhale...there is no alternative. If you CAN NOT pull the reserve handle, then don't cutaway and use what you have to slow down and pray for the best. It's basic...it's from first jump course...it's a survival move...it's simply basic...it's purely basic... If a jumper cutaway and do not pull the reserve, I would have some serious talk to understand why and help the jumper evaluate his/her place in the sport. Vic ---- I think she had somewhere around 300ish jumps - not so sure on that. Over a hundred CRW at this point. She was invited to be on the Women's CRW record that ended up getting cancelled. She has CRW skills but clearly needs some emergency procedure refresher training. I'm not sure who trained her for her first CRW jump, but I know how to handle wraps and entanglements is in any first CRW jump brief I've ever heard. I also know we regularly push people to review some of the emergency procedures I have listed on my website. As to why she cutaway? She says she couldn't see and it didn't feel "good." Someone else there said it was flying straight but had a line twist in it. This all was happening below 3k, she wasn't expecting to do CRW, and I expect it was a variety of factors: 1. Not thinking about how being in freefall with a canopy wrapped around you is much worse than being under even a bad canopy. 2. She knew she was getting low and I suspect there was a bit of panic in there. 3. She said she was worried about a canopy downplane but a canopy downplane is better than no canopy.. 4. She forgot she had a hook knife that she could use.. 5. She had trouble finding her reserve handle because her hand wasn't on it when she cutaway and the wrap of course made things harder to find... Wendy Faulkner ----- CRW EP's CRW Emergency Procedure Scenario's & Information - point 5 in the wraps section says it all. CRW Emergency Procedure from Wendy's site ------ I think that it was fairly well explained above, but: I saw the low jumper cutaway and deploy his reserve. At that point, it looked-- from a distance-- as if his main was mainly tangled around the higher jumper's legs. She could have had more material in her face, obstructing her vision, etc. Again, it appeared that she had a fully inflated, flying canopy and would likely end up landing with the other jumpers main around her legs. Once she cutaway, her body (belly to earth) and the other jumper's main went horizontal. She began to propeller around. The inflation really seemed minimal from where I stood. But, others closer to her landing, indicated that her descent rate really had slowed-- some guessed to 25-35 mph. So, she was flat-spinning horizontally, rather than the vertical cork-screw/streamer scenario one might imagine at landing. The impact still looked as if it would have been fatal. Perhaps the propeller action gave her lift-- maybe it was just the right orientation and a glancing hit upon initial impact that saved her. The only thing I didn't see was the giant hand of grace/luck/God-- whatever you happen to believe in--that reached up and laid her gently down in that cornfield. I never imagined that we would find a person, conscious, alert and basically unharmed. Robin H
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