accidental AAD activation on ground with bag & vacuum cleaner

[pchapman 280]

A rigger who will remain nameless had an "oops!" moment that was too good not to share once I heard the details. (No, it wasn't me!)

He had rigs and canopies sitting around in heavy duty plastic bags, and had started to use a vacuum cleaner to suck some air out of the bags to make them smaller for storage.

One day he did this to a rig in which he had installed a new Vigil 2, which he had forgotten to turn off, after checking that it worked. There was a quiet but expensive little 'pop' shortly after he turned the vacuum cleaner off.

The AAD had seen the rapid increase in altitude from the vacuum cleaner being turned on, and then a still fairly fast descent back towards 'ground level' as some air leaked back in to the bag while removing the vacuum and tying the bag off. (I recall that a vacuum cleaner could create an altitude rise of 3 or 4 thousand feet, from when I had tested FXC's in a large test chamber box.)

The Vigil readout later showed only 74 mph, not the 78 for firing, which as the company explained, is because the readout is a heavily time-averaged value, so it lags behind the actual data that the Vigil uses for its firing calculations. (There has been a thread or 2 in the past where Vigil graphs are shown. The peakier red trace is what the Vigil is looking at, while the slower reacting yellow trace is the averaged speed that is used for the readout data.)

Even though the Vigil's design philosophy makes it more sensitive on the ground (needing 150' not 1500' climb before it arms), I don't know if anything would have been different with any other brand AAD.

[phoenixlpr 0]

Nice example of creative stupidity.

[dragon2 2]

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I don't know if anything would have been different with any other brand AAD

As this scenario is too fast/weird to be a real plane ride an AAD might react similar to the pressurization of an aircraft, in which case I think a cypres 1 might have turned itself off untill shipped back to manufacturer for a checkup (now THAT would've been expensive and annoying for the owner too...), cypres 2 and argus would likely just have turned themselves off, Vigil 1 would have fired too.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[Skybear 0]

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now THAT would've been expensive and annoying for the owner too...

Definitely not. Airtec gives a full lifetime-guarantee on Cypres 1 and 2, as long as it was serviced within the last four years before such an incident. Under these conditions each repair is FREE.

[dragon2 2]

I meant more like expensive/annoying as in you're out a AAD for a while and it needs to be shipped, plus you need a (partial) repack or 2.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[SansSuit 1]

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I don't know if anything would have been different with any other brand AAD.

Isn't there a thread going on about what to do with expired Cypres? Here is the answer.

Peace,
-Dawson.
http://www.SansSuit.com
The Society for the Advancement of Naked Skydiving