To illustrate a point, we’re sharing a video of Zach Lewis cutting away from a Velocity.
With a fast decision and a Skyhook he was under a sweetly flying Optimum reserve in about five seconds after opening...
Don’t f*ck around!
Debrief
From the subject of the video…
“As soon as I hit line stretch and had my risers in my hands I knew something wasn’t right. It felt like there was at least half a twist in there by the way the risers were in my hands. No big deal, wanted to wait for deployment to stop and take a look. It tossed me around a little bit when the slider came down, but nothing too bad…
“Looked up and saw a few twists kinda high up the lines. I was still not too worried, as I’ve gotten out of twists like that several times. Canopy was turning a bit, but nothing to worry about at first. I wasn’t getting any momentum getting out of it, and then she went to the horizon. As it went to the horizon I still wasn’t getting momentum and it turned me the wrong way and onto my back. At that point… it was time to go.
It turned me the wrong way and onto my back. At that point… it was time to go.
“No need to mess with it any longer. In my experience, if you don’t have momentum twisting out when it goes to the horizon, your odds aren’t good.
“So I tucked my chin as far down as I could to keep my cameras out of the way, half way into the cutaway pull the main was gone, and by the time my right arm was fully punched, I had reserve line stretch (measured frame-by-frame 0.6 seconds)
“I haven’t jumped a 7 cell in over 1,000 jumps! Pulled double fronts on landing… but didn’t need to. The Optimum is amazing to fly.”
Zach Lewis
Too much f*cking around
Compare with this video, where the skydiver takes much much longer to make a decision, so by the time he cuts away he has a lot of spinning momentum, causing line twists on his reserve [opened by Skyhook]. He’s lucky the reserve is so stable [yay, Optimum!].
Compare the altitude he is finally under a straight-flying reserve compared to Zach. Getting a flying canopy is only part of survival. Next is finding a safe place to land and this guy has very little time left to pick a good spot. He lands between buildings close to power lines… and it’s a long time before he speaks after landing…
Malfunction video
Debrief
From the subject of the video…
“There were a number of things I could have done to prevent this skydiving emergency. On a good note, I deployed higher than normal on this jump… New wingsuit so I wanted the extra time in case something happened… A number of things I could have done would have helped.
“1. Check Altitude – I stopped checking my alt when I started spinning on my back.
“2. In the past I was able to kick out of line twists before in Wingsuits, however on this jump when I started spinning on my back the G force was building higher and higher so I cut away.
“3. In the heat of the moment I never freed my arms from the wings to help me fight the line twists. I don’t know why I didn’t do this. In the past I have always freed up my arms up asap.”
Lessons
What can we learn from this?
- If the canopy’s not right, don’t f*ck around, start your EPs
- If the canopy gets as far as the horizon and the twists aren’t starting to come out, recovery is almost impossible, time to go
- Maintaining altitude awareness is important
- Practising EPs, with a high level of calm should help to make the right decisions in emergencies
