close calls

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AcoG275
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close calls

Post by AcoG275 »

Now, i'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination(12 jumps?) however, it seemed like i had one too many close calls:

Collided with a 240 gunner in the air(thank god i bounced off)

Ran off of someones parachute..."shit, it's gona collapse, it's gona collapse"

Narrowly missed getting drilled by another guy about to land....

Thinking about going back in, and i hope i got all the close calls out of my system :)

Anybody ever used they're reserve and if so what was that like?
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Post by Spartan »

Cool - I never ran across the top of anyone else's canopy. That must have been a trip. Only had a weird twisted bunch of 550 cord above my head once and that was probably the wildest bike riding I'd done in my life to get it untwisted.
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PocketKings
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Post by PocketKings »

I got tangled with an AF SERE instructor in Airborne School. We leapfrogged in. Turns out some jumper a a few pax up from me sat down in the door and messed up the flow. He and I jumped out at almost the same moment. I went to check my canopy and there was a zoomie in it. That was jump 4. Jump 6 was Ranger School and I landed in a swamp. Jump 7 I broke my back.

Seems like you're par for the course.
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Horned Toad
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Post by Horned Toad »

I have never pulled a reserve.

I did have a 2400-foot snivel of Vieques Island one time thanks to a SF Team Sgt. Him, this will be the best opening chute ever. Me, ummm I weigh 150, I don’t need a slow opening chute, and they are slow enough. Him, awww this will be great. Me, hey isn’t that slider thing supposed to be up top. Him oh yaa thx.

Pull at 4500 and the chute opens at 2000. My personal rule was if I didn’t have a canopy at 2000 then I would cut, since I snivels all the time and they were no big deal. I was reaching for the handle on that one.
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DixieRat
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Post by DixieRat »

I never had to pull my reserve. I did go into another jumpers canopy on a Huey blast, but came back out OK. Jumping in Alaska out of a C-130, my snowshoes hung on the door and turned me down the side of the a/c with my nose about 2 inches away. I was literally counting rivets.

While in the 82nd, I had a cherry jumper land on me. Heard a swoosh, looked up and took boots to the face. After I kicked his ass and schooled on how a little heads up would of been appreciated, he apologised and we went about our business.

Little incidents are gonna happen when you jump. In 7 years on jump status, I saw a lot. Folks get hurt, some get killed. All you can do is make sure you follow the proper procedures, stay alert, and don't pull any BS. You'll stay healthier that way.
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Post by Rangerguru »

My first attempt at skydiving, I was jumping in Tuskegee with this guy named Chuck ( I'm sure some of you know him and how fucking crazy he is) anyways, so I'm hanging from the wing strut of this little piece of shit cesna that has been stripped out except for the pilot's seat(BTW he was wearing a chute too) and I looked over to Chuck who was sort of the jumpmaster and he gave me a nod, so I nodded back and let go. Instead of preforming a good arch, I reverted back to static line jumping and assumed the "hit-it" position (NEVER, NEVER do that) so I started flipping through the air uncontrolably, and I was thinking to myself "well this can't be good" so I flattened out and that stopped me from flipping except I was still looking up at the sky, so I pulled in an arm and leg and turned over and assumed a good body position. I started thinking, "this shit is cool" then I realized that the ground was coming up rather quickly, so I pulled the ball and performed a near perfect landing very close to the big X, as I was securing my chute, I could hear Chuck laughing all the way to the ground. He landed withen about 20 feet of me and fell over he was laughing so hard. He came up to me and told me that I should enter the X-Games, cause that was the craziest shit he had ever seen. Nedless to say, th first entry in my jump log is by him and it says "You saved your own life today, work on your exit and body position"
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Post by rgrjoe175 »

I hated jumping in the military. If it could happen, it would happen to me on a static line jump. After I went to JM school it seemed to stop. :lol: :lol: Civilian skydiving. No problems other than a few really hard openings, my own fault. Oh and the one time stepped in a fookin hole and twisted the shit out of my ankle. I have jumped a few aircraft as a civilian that I just prayed it would get to an altitude I could jump... :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Viking
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Post by Viking »

Rolled off my TL's chute jumping into Puerto Rico. Don't ask me how that happened, I came out of the bird and ended up in his chute.

Spent about 5 minutes out cold on the DZ at Bragg. I don't know what the malfunction was but I hit hard, burst three IV's in my ruck and bent the frame into a diamond shape. CM'd, of course..


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colt1rgr
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Post by colt1rgr »

I bent one of the old M16A1 barrels like nothing on PLF on the ROCK upon return from Honduras in 86. Could of covered my six from the two. Once on trip to Dugway for Quick Force exercise, we left Savannah, went to Cambell to pick up SF team and then flew all the way out on 130. Upon going to altitude, MFF JM forgot a little important fact, the change in altitude between sea level and Dugway Utah. I remember riding my altimeter thinking "damn that shit looks close". Finally I looked around and noticed I was only one who HADNT pulled and quickly pulled my shit. I reached up, grabbed the risers, gave a couple good shakes and "BAM" hit like a ton of shit. The SF team who had went in on first pass came running over yelling "You HOLLYWOOD FUCK!" thinking I had rode the shit in to be cool. This was my first (Cherry) MFF in BN. I layed there thinking I was dead for several minutes. The JM ran up and said "You alright?" He later apologized for the error, but only after asking "didn't the ground look close". Also missed landing on one of them damn horses on Garcia buy two feet. Chute fluttered in the wind and spooked the fucker or I would have made it, cut away and rode into the assembly area :roll:
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Post by KW Driver »

riding a reserve? T10 sucks...

there I was with my main on my back, about 8" of static line coming off the pack closing loop...

the drogue shit (with spring pins) hit me in the face so hard I saw stars and I thought I was going to break both my legs in several places once I saw the ground coming. bent my 203 receiver and 16 barrel.

I was not pleased in JM when they said the T-10 reserve had a 60% opening rate.
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,

Post by Chiron »

2nd batt jumping in at HAAF June 1982. I was 2nd from the door with my M224. (Just gun not bipod/base plate) I jumped and looked up and instead of a full canopy I was under a poncho at least that’s what it looked like size wise. The twists were from the back of my neck to the canopy and I was spinning like a top. I went for my reserve but looked at the ground coming up fast and decided to make the most relaxed and best PLF I could. Rode my ruck and mortar in as well there was no time to lower them hell I didn’t have the time to spit. After my best PLF ever I laid there in pain thinking that I broke my hip. I looked up and saw others in the same position and one trying to deploy his reserve as the ground came up. I broke my 7th thoracic vertebrae. There were other Rangers that broke bones that day.

Conclusion: Either the C-141 was going too fast and too low or the riggers fucked up in packing. So no matter what your experience is always be ready for Murphy’s law to prevail.

I jumped again 3 months later and the Co gave me the door position. It was 02:00 and it rained but stopped just in time for the jump and it was windy as hell. I went backwards looking into the wind faster than I ever ran with the wind! I was steering by looking over my shoulder and decided for a tree landing. It was like landing on a soft pillow. Climbed down my reserve and shot an azimuth to the collection site went there and the A co 1SG greeted me. I told him that the chute is on that tree gave him the back azimuth and he said, “You’re lucky as hell they called off the jump, all Rangers that landed on the DZ got hurt.â€
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Re: close calls

Post by jbrown »

Never had a close call in the air but I almost smashed into a SUSV with a TV camera guy on the roof filming. My ruck blocked my view... Got to love those 130 tailgates in Alaska.

I remeber in jump school a pvt rode his chute in with a big ass hole in his canopy. He was smoked right there on the DZ by a black hat. I think it was SFC Church that smoked that guy.
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rgrokelley
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Re: close calls

Post by rgrokelley »

I pulled on for real once, but only due to a partial malfunction. Then there was the Alvin C. Williams liberation jump. Back in the early 1980s we had a rigger, Alvin C. Williams, who cut parachutes and reserves. He did it in such an area that it wasn't detected, at that time, during the inspection. During a jump one of the 82nd Airborne company commanders, Captain Lawrence Hill, was killed by a Williams packed chute.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=7 ... 56,1930674" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the subsequent trial Williams was found not guilty. We were not thrilled, so on one jump everyone below the rank of E-5 pulled his reserve after landing. We all claimed it was accidental. That was about 400 reserves the riggers had to repack. I still have the rip cord hanging from my rear view mirror.

I wonder whatever happened to Alvin Williams? Last we heard he was moved to Alaska due to death threats, and was packing chutes up there.
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Re: close calls

Post by Jim »

In a C-119 during Ranger School, I took a boot in the helmet during a night jump. The jumper on the other side of the plane was a tad slow exiting. Or maybe I was too aggressive in my exit.
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Joshua
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Re: close calls

Post by Joshua »

Maybe not a close call but at least one of my worst jumps.

During one of our deployments we were stationed in South West Africa (Namibia) at a base called Rundo, about 10 km from the Angolan border. We were told that we are deploying with a 12 man team on a 7 day LRRP somewhere in Angola to achieve objective x and y. And we will be inserted by static line that night. To make provision for the operation, our kit weighed here in the region of 80 or 90kg, full of food, water, ammunition, radios etc.

In the afternoon/twilight a truck rolled up at our tent and we loaded kit and parachutes and were taken to a waiting C130 on the tarmac. We fit chutes inside the plane , applied cammo cream and off we went.

We have flow for about an hour and a half (about 750 km behind enemy lines) when the side doors opened, ready for us to jump and all we saw was total darkness. There were no light to be seen anywhere. About 4 or 5 seconds before the pilot gave the green light, the pilot started to lift the plane of the deck and the g-force added to the heavy backpack hanging on your chute crushed you into the floor of the plane. I remembered we all dragged our-selfs to the door of the plane with the hookup cables, as the g –force were that strong.

Exit was good and we emptied the plane rapidly as all of us were veteran jumpers with an average amount of jumps off about 70 jumps each. As my chute opened I looked up to do the drills and I could not see my chute, as it was so dark, I could not even saw my hands. I was not free-falling and I have felt the shock of the chute opening. I therefore assumed my chute is open. The next thing I noticed was that I was wet. Were did all the water came from and it struck me it was raining. I looked down to see if at least I could see the ground. Nothing. Just blackness. The next thing I felt is me hitting a tree, with my kit still strapped to my harness. Luckily both my backpack and I went thru the tree without breaking.

Then it struck me, we just did an operational night jump behind enemy lines, so dark that you cannot see the ground and plan you landing, in the rain, with a DZ, full of trees and bushes, with heavy kit and at a very low altitude, so low that I did not had the chance to release my kit or for that matter to use an emergency chute if need.

When we regrouped, all of us had similar experiences and not one of us had a chance to release his kit. Luckily no one had any major injuries. Two troops had some minor cuts to their faces as they went thru a tree.

After that jump all other jumps were a picnic in comparison.
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