🚀 go-pugleaf

Dane,
     Just a quickie (?) response to your question.  Stay tuned for more stories
next week.

>.......................................................  I will say, however,
>that if I had been the guy on the bottom, I would not have been asking
>questions all the way down to 1200'.  My rule is 1800' if possible --
>1500' if it is not clear that I should cut away.  Anything below that
>I consider emergency territory!  Was this one of the earlier jumps that you
>made or did this happen towards the end of the trip?  Congratulations on
>getting down safely on this one.

     I agree that 1200' is a little low for comfort, and I wondered at the
time why he was taking so long.  Even after talking to him later, I still don't
know.  I think he was hedging his bets that either I would get untangled, or
the canopy would somehow work its way loose and slip off.  I was fairly sure
that neither of those events would happen, because I was pretty firmly trussed.
Besides, I frankly made little effort to untangle myself, because I couldn't
see WHAT was wrapped around WHERE, since my head was pretty much buried.  He
tried for a while to "talk" me out of the tangle -- as in, "move your left leg
back and to the right..." -- but you can guess how effective that was.  In a
way, I'm kind of glad he didn't cut-away immediately anyway.  If he had, I may
not have had a grip on his canopy yet, and it could possibly have slipped up
my lines to my canopy when his weight was suddenly released.  As I said before,
it took quite awhile for me to wriggle loose enough to find my toggles, and get
his canopy into a position that I felt I could hang onto it.  The collision
occured at about 2500', but it wasn't until we were down to 1500' that I felt
like I had the situation under control.  It was at that point that I told him
I felt I could land us both together if he wanted to, but if he wanted to cut-
away, he'd better do it now.  Apparently, he mulled over his options a few
more times before deciding to split.  I'm sure I could have landed both of us
safely, if he had chosen to stay with me, but the landing would have been
a bit rough.  I think he chose (correctly) to split because of the slight
possibility that his canopy might slip off of me 50' off the deck, and then
not have time to reinflate.  A nasty possibility.
     Anyway, this jump occured right in the middle of the Boogie, on Friday.
I jumped again a couple of hours later.  Sort of like falling off a horse --
get up and keep at it.
     Your CRW story sounds scary indeed.  Sort of convinces me that maybe I
should leave well enough alone and stick to RW.  I assume that the two fellows
involved in the wrap were not tangled in canopies or lines, thus allowing them
both to cut-away safely.  I agree with your comment that freefall problems are
probably easier to deal with, with the possible exception of high-speed
collisions.  But it is my impression that canopy wraps happen all the time,
whereas high-speed collisions are rare.
     I did make a couple of futile attempts at CRW while I was there, but my
canopy "floats" alot because it has such a high glide ratio.  Nobody could
pin me.  If I ever do try it, it will have to be with someone who has a 
similar canopy, so that we are reasonably matched.
     Well, 'nough for now.
								Ken