1 Aug 20. My first high speed malfunction after 366 jumps and my reserved fired through my main risers. Had a bit of a hard landing and only sustained non life threatening injuries.
After a fun tracking jump with my coach, I broke away at 5,000 feet and commenced my deployment. My pilot chute did not deploy my main within the normal delay. I did not look back immediately to see what was happening to my pilot chute. I panicked. I commenced my EP as trained in my home country. This meant that I placed a hand on each handle. I pulled my cutaway first with my right hand, and then pulled my reserve handle very quickly, with my left hand. There was approximately half a second delay between the two pulls. My container was a Talon FS with a single RSL attached. Reflecting back to my packing, I think I folded my pilot chute differently due to a lack of concentration and haste. This may have resulted in the pilot chute delaying in its inflation and subsequent deployment. The lesson for me here is don't panic, delay the reserve pull after the cutaway. Maybe this might have been the cause of the reserve firing through the main riser or maybe not.
I was not prepared for the subsequent malfunction with the two entangled canopies. I wish I had that telescopic hook knife! Rightly or wrongly, my focus was (a) to keep both canopies stable and inflated and (b) land somewhere safe. I thought about deploying my reserve brakes but I chose not to because I feared it may have caused further instability and collapsed or wrapped the canopies. I did not have any control in direction and was at the mercy of the wind. I was lucky to clear a cemetery full of hard marble tombs and a set of power lines (about 2 meters). I pull hard on my right riser with the intent to miss the house and land in the trees. Unfortunately, it was not enough and I set up for a PLR in the farm house's driveway. As I descended at what seemed at a 1:1 ratio, I was heading straight towards the back of a car and had to abort my PLR. I put one foot out to deflect off the car, then ricocheted off the car and body slammed on the ground on my back. I did not loose consciousness but I was winded for about 3 minutes. In the end my only injury was an ankle injury.
29 авг 2024
