Stupid Hurts

I have had my fair share of close calls. Most of you have heard my stories about horse training, farming, and the car accident. The sad part is, most of theses were avoidable by doing some common sense thinking and action taking.

Yesterday I had another close call, I was in total control of the situation.... I just messed it up. It was a stupid mistake, and it could have cost me a lot more than a talk with a concerned superior. What happened? Well here's the whole story.

I'm a novice skydiver. I have been working on higher licensing with my skydiving. I have been dedicating a lot of time to it, and am very passionate about it. My ultimate goals involve teaching the sport, becoming a tandem master, and eventually competing at a professional level. I am very concerned with safety, and with precision. I take any mistakes very seriously, and welcome all advise of my fellow divers and instructors. Everything happens in a few seconds. I jump from 12500 feet and and pull at 3500 feet. Time elapsed? Around 50 seconds.

In order to move up in levels, you have to be competent in different tasks and skills, just like any other activity. My pull height is 3500 feet. When you are going to deploy your main canopy, you take a few steps to make sure everyone else in the air is safe and we all know where we are in relation to each other. 1st, you track (move your self forward into open air space away from anyone else to avoid a collision) 2nd, you wave off (wave your arms in front of your head to clearly signal your intent to deploy) 3rd, continue your motion of the wave off, and pull your pilot chute, 4th check your canopy to make sure you are not having a malfunction (correctable or not), and take the needed action.

The equipment I use has a safety device called a Cypris. What this does, is measure the altitude and fall rate. If you are traveling above a certain speed at a certain height, it deploys your reserve chute. (it fires at 1000 feet) It's designed to save your life, and I came very close yesterday to proving it's worth.

My dive was going fine, I was practicing my skills, checking my alti to determine my height, everything normal. At around 4100 feet, I started my track, as usual. When you track you do a 3 count, get stable and move to step 2, wave and deploy (count to 3 in your head and you have fallen 1000 feet). I messed up my count. I stayed in my track too long and ended up coming out of it just below 2500 feet.

I was already reaching for my pilot chute as I was checking my alti (a habit I have). Instantly I realized I had messed up and was way to low. All that was going through my mind was PULL! Get that chute open NOW! It snapped open, was flyable and safe, and I checked my altitude. 1450 feet, my main chute beat my Cypris by less than 2 seconds. I landed on the first spot of open ground I could find. Some of the guys came to get me with the gator. The first thing out of their mouth was "What the beep were you doing in the basement?!" What could I say but, I screwed up. On the way back, one of the instructors waved us over. One of the guys pointed out that I wasn't going to "get away with it". Not that it mattered, as I told them, I would have come clean anyway. Taking responsibility for your actions isn't something you just talk about.

While it was happening, I was calm. I my training was in place and I took charge of a bad situation, did what I had to do, and came through it alive. A situation that could have been a lot worse. But when I was talking to my instructor later, and explaining what happened, I was very upset. I felt like a fool. I made a stupid mistake, and it could have gotten me killed. At that height, a cut away is very risky. Then there's the other factors, what if my Cypris was malfunctioning and I didn't really have it as a back up? What if my equipment didn't have a Cypris in the first place? What if I didn't check my alti?

There was a lot that could have gone wrong, which is why there is so many safety checks built into every jump. Check your gear when you put it on, have someone check it for you before you get in the plane, and again before you jump. While in your jump, check your altimeter every few seconds and stay aware of your height. Check your air space for others. When in doubt pull! Always pull before 2500 feet. These are the rules we follow, and they are in place for a reason.

I have a shirt that says "you'll be fine as long as you don't do anything stupid". I think it's more true than ever, and I have learned something valuable. It will aid me in the future, and hopefully help others avoid my mistakes.