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Re: Deputies try to raise doomed sub
"Karl S. Luttrell" wrote:
> [snip] Overlearning, from lots of
> practice, until you exhale normally every time without thinking about it is
> the best insurance policy.
>
> Like minded instructors and I have been criticized for being too demanding
> or "wasting time" on critical overlearning tasks. I believe that there is
> no safe alternative.[snip]
I totally agree with Karl's words.
I would like to add something else on the positive effects of automated
reactions when emergency stress occurs.
I'm a scubadiver and a skydiver, in both the sports the word "practice" is well
known. In skydiving we keep statistics of all accidents occurring all over the
world and the safety and training procedures are often updated due to the
experience.
When you're a student you're asked to simulate and repeat several times the
various and most probable malfunctions you could experience along your career.
But you're still encoureaged to keep practicing - periodically - malfunctions
and emergency procedures, expecially when you bring your rig to the packer for
the periodic reserve inspection and re-packing.
Since the parachute need to be opened, you're - often - asked to wear it, and
then somebody else start shaking your body and telling you which kind of
malfunction occurred to your parachute, you're expected to react to this
simulation the proper way, if you makes something wrong you're told you're
dead...:-)
It's very important to understand there're several malfunctions and some of
them request a quick reaction (no canopy at all over you head) and others
require a cut-away procedure before jettisoning the reserve (or you're dead
again).
It was proved (or maybe speculated) several cases of fatalities were probably
due to an uncorrect emergency procedure.
You were trained to properly react to a certain malfunction and - during
training - you always did it well. But, during your life in the sport you
probably had a chance to do it for real, you did it and you're OK.
You did it, you didn't practice anymore... and here's the mistake.
There's a mental process which assimilate the positive result of a certain
reaction, that unconscious process will - probably - condition your mind if you
don't practice again.
Now, you're in free-fall, you're excited by the jump (happy if it was a good
one, frustrated if it was a mess) and you pull. Nothing happen... you're still
in free-fall, you're 2,100 feet and less than 15" from the impact... you've two
handles (one is the cut-away handle, the other one is the reserve handle... but
you borrowed the rig and nothing is in the same usual place), you pull it...
nothing happens again (10" from the impact now) you realize, you've the
cut-away in your right hand, you made a big mistake... (no reason to release
the main if it's still in its bag), now you're only damning yourself because
the stupid mistake...7" to the impact... you're frozen... impact (THE END).
(You still had the reserve handle in its pocked and the reserve parachute was
ready to save your life but you didn't use it... ).
You can't even imagine how many fatalities in our sport history were due to the
above scenery. The sensory overload and a lot of adrenaline sometimes cause you
to automatically react to an emergency and you probably do the same actions
which proved to be safe when previously experienced something like this. But,
due to a series of factors, something is different now and would request a
different procedure... if you didn't practice it you're probably exposing
yourself to a big mistake. I can say, in the past, a good 75% of the fatalities
resulted in cut-away but no pull (the reserve).
Now things are quite different thanks to the wide diffusion of modern automatic
activation devices applied to the reserve parachute. And thanks to an AAD,
which fired the reserve when he was already finding the green spot of his
impact inside a corn field (true words from him), a swiss skydiver (and a
computer analist) could tell us about his own experience and his thinkings when
doing exactly what I described above. When he realized he pulled the wrong
handle he realized the mistake but didn't react, he discarded the reserve and
was almost relaxed waiting for the impact, observing the fast narrowing
panorama...Then the AAD fired (he just mounted it two weeks before) and he
safely landed his reserve. :-)
(Don't be scared, statistically (and realistically) skydiving is a safe sport
and very fun too, but when an error occurs it's probably one-way).
Only a good knowledge of your rig (p-sub) and practice, practice and practice
(I would suggest practicing emergency procedures in a totally obscured and
messy environment) will save your life if an emergency occurs.
I safely did two cut-away and one total malfunction. Practice is the key...:-)
Blue skies and deep blues
Paolo
--
Paolo Velcich
industrial designer
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