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Completely OT - Skydive Nagambie


Cookie

28-Jan-2009
1:44:20 PM

Has anyone been skydiving with Skydive Nagambie? i'm intrested in any good stories, bad stories... any stories :P probably not going to get much from a rock climbing forum... but hey, it's worth a try :D

drdeviousii

28-Jan-2009
2:04:08 PM

yeah its pretty good actually. You go up there & jump out of a small plane. weeeeeeeee


IdratherbeclimbingM9

28-Jan-2009
8:05:45 PM

>any stories

Old quote ...

'If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving is not for you!'

>bad stories

Have not done it at Nagambie, but have done it reasonably regularly (many years ago), in NSW. Got to the stage of 12 second freefall and scared myself on a jump by losing control and wrapping myself in shroud lines as the chute was deploying...
Climbing is way safer imo, but has commensurately less exposure.

lacto

28-Jan-2009
9:18:26 PM

dont know what the rate is but there seem to a few accidents there probably more dangerous than climbing given that an error can lead to a very hard landing

gfdonc

29-Jan-2009
9:22:30 AM

4% I believe is the number you were thinking of. Good luck.

skydemon

29-Jan-2009
10:10:50 AM

I've probably done a few hundred jumps at Nagambie now, it's a pretty good dropzone and it's got the fastest plane in Vic as well. Spent many drunken nights there :)

Best jump: aerobatic ride up in a Russian YAK plane followed by getting out of the c0ckpit which was very sketchy then walked onto the wing followed by a backloop off it.

Worst jump: Was a competition jump done in 'inclement weather'; a bunch of cloud formed up below us by the time we got to jump run but it didn't look too bad. My team got outside the door and were setting up to jump when we were called down as it was bucketing rain on the ground, everyone in the plane was shouting "No!"...which sounded a lot like "Go!"...so we went. Hitting ice in the cloud then the rain afterwards at 200km/h was not fun, we ended up on the ground bleeding from our faces and necks and soaking wet. At least it was a memorable jump I guess :)

And skydiving is no more dangerous then RC; there is a small margin for error so if you c0ck up the consequences are usually pretty bad but the very vast majority of fatalities and injuries are caused by pilot error - not by gear failure/bad weather/bad luck etc


Cookie

29-Jan-2009
10:40:10 AM

4% doesnt sound too bad... i wonder if it is comparable to other dropszones around vic....

On 29/01/2009 skydemon wrote:
>Hitting ice in the cloud then the rain afterwards at 200km/h was
>not fun, we ended up on the ground bleeding from our faces and necks and
>soaking wet. At least it was a memorable jump I guess :)

yeowch, who would have thought rain could cut!! hrm

>And skydiving is no more dangerous then RC; there is a small margin for
>error so if you c0ck up the consequences are usually pretty bad but the
>very vast majority of fatalities and injuries are caused by pilot error
>- not by gear failure/bad weather/bad luck etc

so my next question should be, is the pilot at nagambie a good one? :P we are booking in to get our A license later this year, and have heard that nagambie is the best in vic... we havn't jumped before but are working towards getting the birdman suits... nagambie also do wingsuit training too dont they? im not too fond of going to europe just for that. anyway, just gathering as much info as i can on the dropzone atm, my other option would be bendigo...

skydemon

29-Jan-2009
11:23:23 AM

Sorry by pilot error I meant the skydiver, not the pilot of the plane

You can learn WS from any certified instructor, you definately dont have to do it at nagambie. The course is usually a 30min or so brief thena jump with the instructor and that is...but youi generally need at least 200 jumps before even thinking about it

gfdonc

29-Jan-2009
1:11:38 PM

On 29/01/2009 skydemon wrote:
>And skydiving is no more dangerous then RC; there is a small margin for
>error so if you c0ck up the consequences are usually pretty bad but the
>very vast majority of fatalities and injuries are caused by pilot error
>- not by gear failure/bad weather/bad luck etc

OK, you got me curious - plus a chance to hijack this OT thread and create some relevance for the climbing community.

from http://www.hse.gov.uk/education/statistics.htm:
Risk of death from an activity:
Rock climbing: 1 in 320,000 climbs
Scuba Diving: 1 in 200,000 dives
Surgical Anaesthesia: 1 in 185,000 operations
Fairground rides: 1 in in 834,000,000 rides
Risk of gaining satisfaction from the last one is much lower, of course - unless you're the couple that were sprung on the Melbourne Eye a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately nothing there about skydiving, but http://www.skydivecsc.com/skydive/skydiving_statistics.php added:
Risk of death from skydiving: about 1 in 75,000 jumps.
(and that is from a site promoting skydiving as a sport)

Wikipedia (quoting various sources) claims a death rate of 1 in 100,000 jumps.

I'm not sure about my 4% claim but your assertion about "no more dangerous than RC" has been countered.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

29-Jan-2009
3:54:12 PM

... & by implication, my statement of;
>Climbing is way safer imo, but has commensurately less exposure.

~> validated!

Tom_

29-Jan-2009
7:23:11 PM

I haven't jumped there, but i did stage 1 of AFF at a dropzone in NZ and they recommended Nagambie when I said I lived in Vic. I'm hoping to get over my fear (let's just say stage 1 didn't go so smoothly for me) and find the time do the AFF course at Nagambie.

The roughly accepted failure rate requiring some kind of action on the main chute is about 1 in 1000. Reserves don't get deployed enough to get figures on their failure rates, but they should generally be much less so (different kind of deployment, more carefully packed etc).

But then there are the other modes of pilot error such as as hitting something on landing or trying to swoop and failing. I feel it's quite like climbing in that the systems in place make it possible mitigate the risk almost entirely, and then it's up to you as to what risks you want to take.


Cookie

30-Jan-2009
10:25:32 AM

surely they would have the CYPRES as standard on all student packs tho... so if you arent trying to do something tricky it should be relatively safe for jumps in the AFF course?... my biggest fear is blacking out... scary prospect :/ possibly even more scary than not having a chute open or reserve fail, at least then you have a few seconds to make peace :)


IdratherbeclimbingM9

30-Jan-2009
5:24:31 PM

If you black out; ... then you are already at peace!

Tom_

31-Jan-2009
10:38:48 PM

I think AFF jumps are exceptionally safe. In mine the instructor had to deploy it for me, as i was unable to locate it due to sensory overload (not quite blacking out but half way there, at least i can remember parts of it :). Even if they hadn't pulled it - say I'd managed to flick them off when i did the avvidental back flip on exit, then I probably would have tried the reserve, especially when the altimeter in my helmet started beeping at 2000 feet. Had i been totally out of it then the reserve would have auto deployed at 1000.

My problem i think was i spent too much energy mentally preparing to be able to throw myself out of the plane. I think got sensory overload on the way down and was unable to get a proper arched position and kept reaching for my hip rather than the chute. My arm was so tense they weren't able to move it to the handle and I didn't even notice them trying.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

1-Feb-2009
12:47:33 PM

On 31/01/2009 Tom_ wrote:
>I think AFF jumps are exceptionally safe. In mine the instructor had to
>deploy it for me, as i was unable to locate it due to sensory overload
>(not quite blacking out but half way there, at least i can remember parts
>of it :). Even if they hadn't pulled it - say I'd managed to flick them
>off when i did the avvidental back flip on exit, then I probably would
>have tried the reserve, especially when the altimeter in my helmet started
>beeping at 2000 feet. Had i been totally out of it then the reserve would
>have auto deployed at 1000.
>
>My problem i think was i spent too much energy mentally preparing to be
>able to throw myself out of the plane. I think got sensory overload on
>the way down and was unable to get a proper arched position and kept reaching
>for my hip rather than the chute. My arm was so tense they weren't able
>to move it to the handle and I didn't even notice them trying.
>
It seems a very different game these days to what it used to be when I was at it. Back then a couple of static-line jumps and you were right to go FF as long as you demonstrated you could hold the arch and deploy the dummy ripcord, at the required timeframe.
Altimeters beeping, auto deploying chutes ..., what will they think of next?

I agree that the mental prep for the 1st jump is huge.
I would recommend to anyone interested that they do at least two jumps ..., that way they will discover the fuller experience that was mentally short circuited due to concentrating/psyching so hard on the initial jump.


Cranky

1-Feb-2009
9:12:33 PM

I had experience about 25 years ago, back in the static line days.
On my attempted 5th jump, the plane crashed after gaining only about 200 feet after takeoff, it was overloaded a little. Unfortunatly it was not high enough to jump out, but luckily there was only a couple of minor injuries from the 13 people on board.
On my 27th jump I had a main chute malfunction after an unstable deployment. Its interesting to experience the speed you approach the ground while under a small round reserve chute. No injuries though, I must have practised the bent knee landing roll well.
I remember being kicked in the head while attempting a free fall formation with 3 other guys, and almost blacking out. This was on jump #80 ish.

Practice, practice, practice any emergency procedures you are taught. If a statistic says 1 in 1000 chute deployments will malfunction, it dosen't mean it will happen on your 1000th jump.


ajfclark

2-Feb-2009
10:26:20 AM

On 1/02/2009 Cranky wrote:
>If a statistic says 1 in 1000 chute deployments will malfunction, it dosen't mean it will happen on your 1000th jump.

Speaking of long odds, apparently your instructor could have a heart attack and die in mid-air while strapped to your back.


Cookie

2-Feb-2009
2:02:23 PM

>Speaking of long odds, apparently your instructor could have a heart attack and die in mid-air
>while strapped to your back.

not good, not good... however there was an accident a while ago, where during a tandem the chutes failed and the instructor basically used the tandem jumper to break his fall... she died of massive internal injuries and he broke his pelvis... so not even tandem is safe!!

>My problem i think was i spent too much energy mentally preparing to be able to >throw myself out of the plane. I think got sensory overload on the way down and was >unable to get a proper arched position and kept reaching for my hip rather than the >chute. My arm was so tense they weren't able to move it to the handle and I didn't >even notice them trying.

i think it will go either one of 2 ways with me 1) no issues, they wont be able to stop me jumping. or 2) ill pack it as soon as the plane starts to taxi and they will have to push me out.

Tom_

2-Feb-2009
10:08:00 PM

Just try to get a stroppy latino woman as a jump master. After she made it clear that she didn't want to land with the plane, I felt safer jumping.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

2-Feb-2009
11:23:03 PM

I like it.

Heh x 3

There are 23 messages in this topic.