During a jump, have you ever had to deploy your reserve parachute?

2017-05-29T07:29:14-04:00

I'm a 5 jump chump and all my jumps went fine, thankfully. I was wondering who here on RP ever had to pull their reserve chute during a jump, and what that experience was like. Or, if you saw this happen to a friend, etc. Would enjoy some stories.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 7:45 AM

2017-05-29T07:45:21-04:00

I have never had the need to use mine. It happens, it is rare but it happens. It is much more likely to use it when you don't need to then to ever have the need to use your reserve chute.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 7:57 AM

2017-05-29T07:57:17-04:00

Nope.

Response by 2LT Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 8:56 AM

2017-05-29T08:56:14-04:00

I didn't have time. I reached up to pull my slip for landing...wound up holding my canopy silk. Bad juju, but a few seconds later I was on the ground, confused about why I couldn't stand up.
Lol, medic told me to stop moving, called a MEDEVAC, the chaplain came over and started praying. It turned out to be a great story, and after reconstructive surgery, I've still had several deployments and still run more than 90 points on my 2 mile run.

I did have a friend in Italy who had a Total Malfunction. Pulled his reserve, landed just fine with no injuries.

Response by SGM Erik Marquez made May 29 at 2017 8:56 AM

2017-05-29T08:56:50-04:00

Nope, never had to deploy my reserve, in a lot of jumps up to and then well past JM school and earning my senior wings, had only two jumps where I had interactions with other jumpers and never with the aircraft.
Now landings, ya, had a bunch of bad landings.

Response by SSG Robert Webster made May 29 at 2017 9:46 AM

2017-05-29T09:46:21-04:00

Never used mine.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 10:36 AM

2017-05-29T10:36:45-04:00

I've got a little over 50 jumps and I've never had to pull mine.

Response by LTC Peter Hartman made May 29 at 2017 11:24 AM

2017-05-29T11:24:44-04:00

I never used mine. One guy in my chalk had to. He was fine.

Response by LTC Jeff Shearer made May 29 at 2017 11:51 AM

2017-05-29T11:51:06-04:00

CPT I was on jump status for more or less 20 years, I have no idea how many jumps I have, its a bunch out of all kind of A/C. I am not sure how many pair of foreign wings I have but I have never had to pull my reserve. Never! Thank God! I was even a jump master but the truth is jumping was not my favorite thing to do. I did it so I could do all the other cool stuff we did, not to mention it was part of the package. It was not always without incident, I have seen a few bad things on the DZ and those are the things you take up with you every time you put a chute on. Even on a bad day I would never have changed what I did. Oh, when I was young I heard there were two kind of jumpers; 1) tree jumpers 2) those who were going to be tree jumpers hahahaha

CPT from one paratrooper to another I wish you the best, don't run with the wind and keep your feet and knees together.

Response by LTC Jeff Shearer made May 29 at 2017 11:53 AM

2017-05-29T11:53:50-04:00

CPT being a towed jumper scared the hell out of me, just saying.

Response by LTC Jeff Shearer made May 29 at 2017 11:55 AM

2017-05-29T11:55:20-04:00

...I dont know how to explain it was scary but I loved and I hated it. I don't miss it hahaha

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 3:05 PM

2017-05-29T15:05:56-04:00

CPT Aaron Kletzing thankfully I never had to. I have seen a few pull while I was on the ground looking up. All thankfully ended up ok. I did however have a "funny" story from Airborne school. We had a guy pull his reserve every jump at school just because he was so nervous he pulled all five times. He said he never dropped the handle as it would have cost him money....

Response by MAJ Keira Brennan made May 29 at 2017 5:20 PM

2017-05-29T17:20:13-04:00

I've seen a Jumper land with a reserve on Sicily DZ back in the mid 2000s. Scary to see.

Response by SSG Ray Murphy made May 29 at 2017 5:22 PM

2017-05-29T17:22:19-04:00

Not me but a fellow student in BAC pulled her reserve for no apparent reason, I think, on our 2nd or 3rd jump. She was dropped from the course.

Response by LTC Stephen C. made May 29 at 2017 5:50 PM

2017-05-29T17:50:05-04:00

CPT Aaron Kletzing, I NEVER had to dump my reserve, EVER, on a military jump. However, as a civilian skydiver, I did have a malfunction that required a breakaway from my main, return to free fall, and then I pulled my chest reserve. Unlike Army practice which is to retain the main canopy and deploy the reserve (at least when I jumped), generally civilian skydiving practice is to breakaway (cutaway) from the main, return to free fall and pull the reserve.
I had performed a routine 30 second delay from 7500', separated from the other jumpers, and then pulled. I checked my canopy and had a Mae West (see photo). They can be dangerous, because with a descending round canopy, much of the area designed to catch air is gone. Your rate of descent increases dramatically. It was totally my fault, as civilian jumpers pack their own main parachutes.
I cutaway from the main and went back into free fall. Since the canopy releases are on your front shoulders, you begin to fall backwards (inverted) and the reserve was on my chest. I pulled, and the pilot chute just lay there, as the spring was old (and not springy)! I screamed SXXT, pushed the pilot chute off my stomach and it caught air and the reserve deployed. I had an uneventful ride down, and landed on the DZ.
We retrieved the main canopy and it was not significantly damaged.
By then, I was already a USPA licensed advanced parachutist and a rated jump master and instructor, so I immediately chuted up again, took up three students, put them out and jumped again!
Was I scared? Yep. But the training takes over and you take care of business. I was also lucky, because some have not been so fortunate (thinking of the Navy SEAL this past weekend).
I was also licensed by the FAA to pack reserves and saw a jumper ride down a reserve I packed. That was immediately scary but ultimately most gratifying as the jumper enjoyed a nice ride down on the reserve that I packed! LTC Stephen F. 1SG(P) Private RallyPoint Member SSG Chris Erickson ENS Private RallyPoint Member CPT Private RallyPoint Member MAJ Javier Rivera

Response by LTC Stephen F. made May 29 at 2017 9:46 PM

2017-05-29T21:46:58-04:00

Thanks for asking an interesting question CPT Aaron Kletzing. I also only went through the five required military parachute jumps to be airborne qualified at Fort Benning in August 1979.
Thanks fro mentioning me LTC Stephen C.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 10:59 PM

2017-05-29T22:59:32-04:00

Not i, but i did watch a British paratrooper burn in with a total malfunction and survive

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made May 30 at 2017 12:13 PM

2017-05-30T12:13:34-04:00

I jumped off the high board a few times, but never had a chute on.

Response by SPC Rob Lewis made May 30 at 2017 1:26 PM

2017-05-30T13:26:26-04:00

I saw it happen to two different guys in jump school, one is a friend for life the other I bumped into while in Germany.

Response by SSG William Nievaart made May 30 at 2017 7:08 PM

2017-05-30T19:08:06-04:00

I've been fortunate enough not to do that. Then again I only have 16 jumps under my belt which is not much.

Response by MSG Pat Colby made May 30 at 2017 7:24 PM

2017-05-30T19:24:28-04:00

Once, as a PFC. Looked up to check canopy and saw (what I thought was) a ruck-size hole in my canopy. Wasn't willing to take the chance of the Gore blowing out. Training kicked in and I did the old down and away. Rode the main and reserve down. Landed FLAT on my back due to the 2 chutes doing their thing. People tried to give me shit until they saw the hole. It was MUCH bigger than a Ruck.

The Commander made me be a strap-hanger on a Hollywood jump within a week. I guess they didn't want that experience stuck to fester in my head until the next Unit jump.

I retired as a Master Parachutist with 97 total jumps.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made May 31 at 2017 2:07 PM

2017-05-31T14:07:09-04:00

My fist jump in school I almost did. I noticed I was descending at a greater rate of speed compared to those I could see around me. I only weighed 210, but I guess that was the reason because it was the same case in every other jump I did.

Response by SGT James Wilson made May 31 at 2017 5:59 PM

2017-05-31T17:59:22-04:00

Never deployed it on purpose or on accident with 30+ jumps...However the one time I needed to my chute collapsed at what is estimated at approximately 80 ft off the ground landed like a sack of bricks. Broke my back hip and ankle discharged shortly after.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2017 2:56 AM

2017-06-04T02:56:36-04:00

Never had a malfunction on a military jump but did doing civilian skydiving. My fault. Training kicked in and I landed just fine with reserve. We recovered my main and then I bought the jump master who packed my reserve a drink.

Response by MAJ Javier Rivera made Jun 29 at 2017 12:59 PM

2017-06-29T12:59:18-04:00

I had a cutaway on a MFF Jump, does that counts?

Response by SFC Jon Vandeyacht made Jul 7 at 2017 9:15 PM

2017-07-07T21:15:55-04:00

I've pulled twice. One was an AWADS jump and I blew past at least one other jumper. The other time, I had a slow opening and at 7 I pulled only to end up with two full canopies.

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 7 at 2017 9:40 PM

2017-07-07T21:40:17-04:00

Nope.

Response by LTC Jeff Shearer made Jul 28 at 2017 5:58 PM

2017-07-28T17:58:59-04:00

I would think that number will rise a good bit with the introduction of the square chute in static line jumping, maybe? what y'all think?

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 28 at 2017 6:13 PM

2017-07-28T18:13:05-04:00

Never had to pull my reserve or seen it *have* to be pulled, but I have seen it pulled nonetheless. Just an accident where the reserve deployed on the jumper after his main canopy had already deployed. So the the reserve did not actually deploy itself but just shot out.

Response by SP5 Peter Keane made Jul 28 at 2017 7:20 PM

2017-07-28T19:20:34-04:00

Whille not a military jump, I went behind a fellow that did. On the ground, he told me all the way down he was saying to himself, ton of shit, ton of shit.

Response by Sgt Wayne Wood made Jul 28 at 2017 9:47 PM

2017-07-28T21:47:03-04:00

Yup... still have the handle

Response by SSG Donald O'Shei made Aug 1 at 2017 11:48 PM

2017-08-01T23:48:15-04:00

I have seen static line reserves deployed about a half dozen times and I had to deploy my reserve on a HALO jump at Luzon DZ at Camp Mackall.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 21 at 2017 2:44 PM

2017-09-21T14:44:39-04:00

25 Jumps and never had to pull my reserve.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 8 at 2019 2:00 PM

2019-03-08T14:00:36-05:00

Two jumps ago we were doing a night combat masstac, and a fellow jumpers canopy deployed inside of mine. We both pulled our reserves which ended up tangled underneath us, and the other jumpers canopy collapsed. We rode mine all the way in, packed our stuff and Charlie miked.