This
Was Not A Survivable Scenario...
August
19, 1996
George W. Galloway and BZ Shaw Precision
Aerodynamics, Inc.
P.O. Box 386 Dunlap, TN 37327
Dear
George & BZ,
On
August 17, 1996 I was shooting video of a
friend (Troy Droguemeyer) doing some freeflying.
I had never filmed a freeflyer before so this
was a pretty exciting jump for me. The skydive
was going pretty well--- well enough that
we neglected to check ouraltimeters until
about 1500 feet. We had some vertical separation,
so Troy lost sight of me. Realizing that he
was low, Troy did what any jumper would do;
get belly to Earth and dump. He did this and
I was directly above him. I managed to avoid
hitting his canopy, and then I dumped my main.
(I probably should have gone for my reserve!)
My
Monarch opened quickly and on heading! Great,
right? Wrong! I had busted the haed deck for
my Cypres! I felt it fire as my main opened,
so I looked back. My MicroRaven
135 was opening directly behind me and out
of the way, so I decided to cut the main away
before the reserve got too close. As I cut
away, my reserve surged forward and snagged
a riser from my main. The left side of my
reserve collapsed and I started to spin. All
I could think to do was to grab the toggles
and pump them. This didn't do much good and
my descent rate was increasing. The MicroRaven
135 was struggling to inflate, but things
didn't seem to be getting much better.
I
kept pumping, flaring and counter-steering,
but I was quickly coming to the realization
that this was not a survivable scenario. I
spun violently until impact where I landed
about six feet from a road, power lines and
a tree. I feel very lucky, because not only
did I survive, I didn't even sustain a single
injury.
Thanks
to all you folks at Precision who build a
canopy so forgiving that you can screw up
as bad as I did and still make it out ALIVE
!!
Erik
K. Johnson Parachutes Are Fun Inc. Laurel,
Delawar
