Thursday, October 9, 2008

Pilot Chute in Tow

So last weekend I had a fun little malfunction with my parachute. The pilot chute, which deploys the main parachute, locked up on me during a hop and pop. It had been packed in my rig for a while and was all wrinkled. Despite my ardent efforts to de-wrinkle the thing (anyone who's seen me wearing a nice shirt knows I have no skill with an iron) it hung up on me. During said hop and pop, I jumped out of the plane at 5,000 feet and counted to six. After I pulled, the pilot chute just chilled there, as if to say, "haha, I'm too wrinkled to catch enough air to pull the parachute out" Well damn, I thought, this isn't good. The ground was still about 4,000 feet away, so I had time, so I stayed calm. I hung out there for a little while longer, waiting a few more seconds, but nothing happened, so I reached behind me and yanked out the closing pin, and the parachute deployed flawlessly and to my great fortune, lived to skydive another day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scott, You scare me to death!!! I guess that i had better quit reading your mildadventures.

Love,

mja

Anonymous said...

Its tough when an addiction can lead to situations that become difficult to manage. I am glad that you managed this one. So, now where do you turn???