I used to be a Paratrooper in the Australian Army. On a couple of occasions I have been in the same predicament
As I see it, what happened here is a combination of a couple of errors;
The Pilots were a bit late in activation of the "green" clear to jump light, this can be confirmed by the group you see off in the distance that were part of his "stick" (the term for a group of static line jumpers) were also over about the centre of the DZ (drop zone) so they were already out the door a bit late, the later out the door the further up the DZ.
Secondly, the guy with the camera that found himself in the woods, he was a bit slow in getting out the door, only 2 seconds but at about 100kts, which is what the aircraft would have been doing, 2 seconds is a long way along the ground. its actually 50m per second. So these two points combined causes old mate to end up in trees. Hes also a very lucky boy..
Actually I just watched it again, he was 3 seconds getting out the door after the last bloke. Once he realised his predicament he immediately started trying to "steer" the chute, he does this by pulling on the "risers" in the direction that he wants to go, now these this do not steer very well, imagine driving your car with 4 flat tyres! you can achieve about 6 knots of forward drive with the risers.
+14 1. Bigdog1971 commented 11 years ago on video Tree Landing
As I see it, what happened here is a combination of a couple of errors;
The Pilots were a bit late in activation of the "green" clear to jump light, this can be confirmed by the group you see off in the distance that were part of his "stick" (the term for a group of static line jumpers) were also over about the centre of the DZ (drop zone) so they were already out the door a bit late, the later out the door the further up the DZ.
Secondly, the guy with the camera that found himself in the woods, he was a bit slow in getting out the door, only 2 seconds but at about 100kts, which is what the aircraft would have been doing, 2 seconds is a long way along the ground. its actually 50m per second. So these two points combined causes old mate to end up in trees. Hes also a very lucky boy..
Actually I just watched it again, he was 3 seconds getting out the door after the last bloke. Once he realised his predicament he immediately started trying to "steer" the chute, he does this by pulling on the "risers" in the direction that he wants to go, now these this do not steer very well, imagine driving your car with 4 flat tyres! you can achieve about 6 knots of forward drive with the risers.