Cutaway Controversy

One night I dreamt that I had been talking with a friend after skydiving, and he said to me “I knew you’d cut away before your 100th.” The next day, it came true…

A couple weeks back, during the Everglades Boogie at Skydive AirAdventures, I experienced my first cut away. It was an enlightening experience in a number of ways…let me explain.

(And yes, for the record, I already purchased my owed case of beer.)

Friday evening we signed up for a high altitude jump first thing the next morning – after which we jumped on the sunset load to finish out the day.

The weather was beautiful – nothing quite like a sunset Skyvan load – though the wind had picked up slightly.

Naturally, this makes me a little nervous about making it back to the DZ, given that I’m under a canopy that’s proving to be too large for my exit weight. And I was right – the skydive was immensely fun, a 4-way horny gorilla – but I didn’t quite make it back to the LZ. I landed just shy of the target…in the camping area. A fellow skydiver who was firing up his grill about 10 feet from my landing spot gave me a ride back. Nice guy!

So I took this frustration and headed straight to the Aerodyne tent to ask them for a smaller, demo canopy to use on the high altitude jump in the morning.

Given the fact that there was a higher probability of my landing off on a high altitude, I didn’t want to increase those odds by flying my canopy in the higher winds that were expected for the morning.

I worked with the rep, Les, to decide on a canopy to fly. We settled on a Pilot since I was familiar with them as a student.

As he was installing the demo I asked who packed it last and if I should repack the canopy. His words: “This is a brand new canopy and I packed it myself so that should be the least of you worries.”

Perfect! So I was good to go for the morning.

That day I was nervous. Mainly because I was doing a high altitude at an unfamiliar DZ in a little bit of wind – I really didn’t want to land in the sugar cane!

But the jump went well – I was a little late out the door, but was able to hold a sit for 60 seconds or so. It was good practice.

And then, I deployed. Almost instantly (read: as soon as the bag was out of the container) I could feel that something was amiss. Looking up I said to myself  (literally, aloud) “I’ve seen videos of this shit before.” There were countless line twists above my head and I was spinning to the left.

Reaching up and attempting to spread the risers I realized the situation was too far out of hand, the lines weren’t budging. At just under 2,000 feet, I didn’t want to waste anymore time so I reached for the cutaway pillow and chopped.

Before I could even grasp onto that silver handle my reserve was above my head. Thank you RSL.

Now safetly under a crisp, white canopy, I gathered myself, stuck my cut away handle in my teeth (I wasn’t about to be the girl who lost her handles) and steered myself back to the DZ.

I thought for sure with this situation I was going to end up in a sugar cane field somewhere, but with the breeze that had picked up even more, I made it back. Though when I got there, I wasn’t penetrating the wind at ALL, so I had to pick from one of three options:

1) land on the packing tend

2) land on top of the skyvan

3) gracefully set myself down on the tarmac between the two

I went for the latter and prepared to PLF like it was my job. The winds helped set me down on my feet and luckily there were plenty of people nearby who rushed over to pluck my canopy out of the air before it touched the concrete.

As expected, Les was there to meet me after the cut away – though not quite with the message I had anticipated. He briefly interrogated me on why I cut away his canopy (to which I responded “because I wanted to live”), then, with clear frustration, he headed off to “find it.”

Lucky for everyone, both the canopy and freebag landed at the edge of the airport and were retrieved unharmed.

I was then approached by two Performance Designs reps who had no idea I was testing out a canopy, but wanted to see if I was alright and inquire about the malfunction. I instantly gained a lot of respect for PD. Throughout the weekend I talked with Karl about accuracy and tips for packing to ensure that things like this don’t happen in the future.

Feeling rather exhilerated, I disregarded the attitude the Aerodyne rep presented, and headed over to meet Rick. The extra adrenaline rush was really starting to hit me. The event seemed so clear (though now it’s rather fuzzy – wish I would have worn the GoPro on that jump after all) and I was feeling like I could do anything. Hell, I just saved my own life!

Thankfully, Thomas was available for a rush repack, so we headed up to the rigging loft. While I was waiting, Les came back to me with my canopy in hand (my personal canopy, not the cutaway). He proceeded to blame me for cutting away a canopy he seemed to believe was landable.

What gets me more than anything is that the thought never crossed my mind to be upset with Aerodyne – and yet that’s exactly how they approached me.

I was completely taken aback by the disrespect and lack of concern for my safety that he displayed, so were other onlookers.

Jokes began to fly that I cut away a perfectly good Aerodyne canopy because I knew I had a better PD reserve to use. Which of course, was not the case. Funny, none the less.

After spending time talking with lots of different folks about the incident, it’s uncertain the exact cause of the malfunction – precisely where a helmet cam would have come in handy. From body position to a bad pack job, it could be any number of things, or a combination of these factors. Regardless, as the pilot of that canopy I had a decision to make, and chopping was the right one for me. Even with some of the doubt I’ve encountered along the way, I look back with confidence and say “I had to cut that canopy away.”

One thing I’ve learned by talking to others is that other skydivers will always question your malfunction and doubt your decision to cut away. But the truth is, I was there and they were not – and in the end I learned that I can do it and it’s nothing to sweat. When you’re in that moment and you have to pull that handle, you just do it. Nothing else exists but that moment as you release your main from the container.

Though some of it is fuzzy, I look back on certain details of the malfunction with great clarity – the feel of the cut away pillow, the sound of the main releasing. I look back on the incident with an odd fondness as I walked away a more confident and knowledgable skydiver.

Blue Skies!

Ashley