Every year I receive hundreds of incident reports from the British parachute Associations and a confidential reporting system, resulting in reserve rides, hospital visits and occasionally a fatality.
Ask yourself one question, can the chances of becoming one of these statistics be reduced?
The answer is YES
Chain of Events
We have so many ways of preventing repetitive problems
Its never just one reason but a whole chain of events, by removing a single
link in that chain, repetitive incidents can be prevented
Each of the following categories can be classed as a single link in the chain of events. Get all of those right and you have a good chance of not becoming one of the statistics. Get one of them wrong and you increase your chances of having an incident
• Choosing the Right Equipment
• Have it correctly assembled
• Repair and Maintenance
• Is it correctly packed
• BPA Systems
• Survival Skills
Choosing the Right Equipment
Choosing the right size and type of parachute for your weight and experience
is the first stage in preventing those trips to the hospital that has
happened over the years.
This is easier said than done as all 5 of the following points have to be considered equally and this can get confusing.
Size
Type and design
Weight of jumper and wing loading
Experience
Currency
The best advise here is talk to as many instructors, riggers, dealers and manufacturer's as possible because buying wisely will keep you with a good safety margin, ready for those mistakes that will be made, as no one is 100% alert? All the time. Whilst making sure it will last you for those first 500 jumps without getting bored with the canopy. Don’t go to small to soon. For the very experienced skydivers consider how often you jump before you go for the smallest, fastest and most unforgiving canopy.
As well as the main parachute, it’s also very important that the
container is suitable for the type of skydiving that you intend doing
and being prepared for a change in discipline. The sport has changed so
fast and the equipment has changed to keep pace with it, however not all
containers are suitable for all disciplines.
Choose the reserve that will keep you safe when you need it most, for
example, if you end up on a reserve other factors could also develop and
finding yourself over obstacles with very little landing area whilst on
a very fast, small reserve will not keep you safe.
When listening to all the advice that every one will gladly give you, it can get even more confusing so don¹t forget to ask the reason behind the advice your getting, i.e. are they biased to a particle canopy or container because they get financial incentives. Have they the experience on many different types of systems to be able to give advice for your requirements, do they give advise and get feed back on a regular basis and finally have they got your best interest at heart? Good luck because this is probably the hardest decision you will ever have to make.
Assembly
Many mistakes have been put down to the person assembling your system
and packing the reserve ready for service, which is something beyond the
control of most skydivers, or is it ? Don¹t be led into believing
that all qualified packers and riggers are equal, for example one reserve
packer may have spent the past 10 years packing only a couple of types
of rigs and has had no experience on your system. You could just as easily
find a rigger who has spent the past few years just repairing equipment
and not packing any reserves.
Training, experience and knowledge are the key here. A newly qualified reserve packer or rigger can be better qualified than an experienced reserve packer or rigger or vice versa so how do you decide who to trust with your life?
The answer is simple, don¹t trust just anyone without getting to know them, find out how well trained they are, how experienced they are, are they current and knowledgeable about your system. What reputation have they got, are they very safety conscious, are they working in a controlled safe environment, have they a thirst for knowledge and keen to keep up to date with the latest safety information.
You can make a difference by doing your own research, make sure you are completely happy with your choice of packer or rigger and it¹s a well thought out decision. Remember as packers and riggers have to justify themselves the standards will stay high and you will be safer in their hands.
Repair and Maintenance
This category is very similar to the assembly in the way that the same
research can be done to choose the right rigger that will keep you safe.
The main aim when looking at maintenance is that you should take the advise
of a rigger and spend a little extra on changing that Velcro, line or
pilot chute before it becomes a problem, preventative maintenance is the
best method of avoiding an incident.
Have regular inspections on your own kit and if you have the slightest bit of concern don¹t hesitate to get advice. When your rig is due for a reserve repack ask for a main canopy inspection if you think it needs it, get the lines checked as the main parachute is not part of the reserve inspection procedure.
Tell your rigger if you have had any problems no matter how trivial you think they are, get to know what safety notices have been published reference your equipment and was it mandatory or advisable so you can decide, or at least discuss the options and possible consequences Broken lines, premature toggle release, pilot chute hesitation, line slump, incompatible components etc can all be prevented by having a keen eye and keep questioning the serviceability
Packing
Packing has become an art and there are many ways to achieve the same
results however far too many reserve rides are down to poor packing so
even though most people are fairly happy with their pack jobs the incident
reports would disagree.
Its very difficult to self criticise your own pack jobs, after all, they have worked very well for probably hundreds of jumps so why revisit an old skill. My thoughts are that after a short period of successful pack jobs it becomes very easy to become complacent, resulting in a skill never having been mastered, this is especially true when a change of canopy has taken place as new packing techniques have to be learnt.
Imagine being part of a weekend four way team having a great time for years and suddenly you all get a coach and learn tricks you have never heard of before, well, its an obvious conclusion that you suddenly get better and the same can be said for packing skills
Tips can be demonstrated to prevent the following types of malfunctions: Line over, Bag lock, Twists, Line slump, off heading openings, hard openings etc. Keep watching and asking why so many skydivers pack so differently however only take the advice that is relevant to your system.
The last part of packing that can be overlooked is being familiar with your container and especially the deployment system. If you move to a pin pull system get to know how it can malfunction when packed badly, if you have a kill line system, can you be sure it’s cocked and the biggest most common mistake:, is the bridle line correctly routed
Packing should also be considered a survival skill, when your parachute
opens, ask yourself one question:, “did it stay on heading”.,
If not, do something about it as one day you will get an off-heading opening
at the same time as another skydiver and collide causing a serious accident.
Because skydivers get used to parachutes opening off-heading it becomes
the normal expectation instead of the rare occurrence that it should be.,
learning to pack correctly can help make sure that you open on heading
and fly away from other skydivers especially if some one has done a poor
track during separation.
BPA Systems
Over many years the BPA have adopted systems that are vital in preventing
previous incidents from recurring, these systems have been developed by
experience and have proven their worth when used correctly.
Many times in the past jumpers have been inspected prior to boarding an aircraft and stopped from jumping, as something was wrong with their equipment. This prevented an incident that was about to happen. Or a keen eye has spotted a problem while in the aircraft, again stopping someone from jumping and having a serious accident. The rules are there for safety and if we want to keep skydivers safe we need to follow sensible rules.
Some of the rules that prevent you getting in an aircraft with unsafe kit are as follows:
First is choosing the right packer or rigger who has had to abide by many safety rules to insure you are kept safe. Then it’s the kit inspection that all BPA drop zones have to do annually. This is in most cases the second inspection that can pick up some of the problems and is well worth doing just for peace of mind as it’s usually done by a person independent to the reserve packer.
Thirdly the ‘flight line check’ (This is the inspection you receive to make sure you are properly prepared for your skydive) can be the last check that you will receive before jumping. As long as a conscientious skydiver does this check with the aim of looking for any faults, rather than just going through the motion, then it’s well worth it. Next time you get checked, remember it’s in your own interest to have this done well, so if you find you have been missed ask a friend to check you out: it could prove well worth the effort
Survival Skills
This section can be put down to bad/lousy altitude awareness, not pulling,
poor tracking, poor emergency drills and unawareness under canopy.
Loss of altitude awareness has caused quite a few reserve rides with skydivers pulling very low or as is stated in many reports the Cypres has been deploying the reserve. This is true for experienced jumpers working hard on a four way team as well as a student trying hard to pass an AFF level or category system jump.
I have always believed in using the altimeter as the first option of altitude awareness with regular checks during the skydive, and using an audible altimeter as a back up to remind you when you get it wrong. If you rely on just the audible altimeter - as many professional competition teams have to- then make sure you have the best for the team and you all have them and jointly agree that every one is responsible for altitude awareness.
Not being able to find or deploy the pilot chute is also a very regular incident and one that can be reduced by more ground practice. This needs to be a very natural skill and the best that can be done as well as plenty of practice, is to keep locating your pilotchute to build up the muscle memory and always check it prior to exit. A good deployment is very important so if you have had a pilot chute hesitation at any time, consider weather it was due to a lazy pull instead of a good throwaway if not, get it checked by your rigger.
Having good reserve drills can count for a lot when suddenly faced with having to cut away. Practice this survival skill on a regular basis, when your reserve is due a repack put it on and deploy the reserve for real as if you needed it.
Good tracking should be considered a survival skill as it’s important to move away from all other skydivers as far as possible within a short period of time, to insure that when your parachute opens its not possible for you to collide with another skydiver.
Finally keep a good look out for other parachutes around you and select your own safe landing area away from other skydivers, make sure you do a predictable approach pattern and follow local drop zone rules.
Survival Skills
I have written a lot about what can go wrong, however the reason for this
is to make sure you become an educated skydiver, if you are inquisitive
and safety conscious then skydiving can be a very safe and enjoyable sport,
the main issue that you have to take note of is don’t trust anyone
until they have proven trust worthy.
Allan Hewitt
My qualifications are listed below and proof can be found on my web site, however if you have any further questions you can contact myself or either the BPA (British parachute Association) or the USPA (United States Parachute Association) for further proof.
BPA Parachute Instructor Since 1990 with 4,000 + Jumps
BPA Tandem Parachute Instructor
BPA RAPS Instructor
BPA Canopy Formation Coach (National Champion 2003) Senior Team
BPA Formation Skydiving Coach
BPA AFF Instructor
BPA Approved Rigger, Advanced Rigger and Rigger Examiner
BPA Display Jumper
USPA Tandem Parachute Instructor
USPA AFF Instructor
USPA IAD Instructor
USPA Formation Skydiving coach
USPA Static Line Instructor
USPA Safety & Training Adviser
Freefall Cameraman
Parachute Test Jumper
Former Chairman of BPA Riggers Committee & Member of BPA Safety &
Training Committee
Military Parachutist 9 years
Red Devil Parachute Display Jumper 5 years
GQ Parachutes Project Engineer 3 years
Aero Sports Connection Powered Parachute Instructor, 600 hours
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