chopchop 0 #1 September 23, 2002 I'm not sure where to put this so I'll put it here, and gear and rigging and safety. Everyone should check their gear for this problem. No shit, there I was.... Sunday afternoon, doing a FF 3-way with outside video for my 400th. Exit in a nice but spinning flower, so we break it and have a tight little head down campfire for a while culminating in my 1st head down dock with Alex Allen. Transition to a sit and Alex and Go start carving around me. I start spinning facing Go. Keith (outside video) is carving the other direction. The jump was perfect with great video from all 4 cameras. I was sooooo happy. Break off is uneventful except for all the love and joy in the air. I deploy and the opening is so hard it shuts off my camera and I reach up for my risers only to get my fingers cut to shit by lines. The lines on my Spectre have broken in the same place as they did on my Triathlon 3 months ago. Coincidence? I think not. Only more lines this time, center 3 A-B lines and my left brake line. Last time it was the right side. Anyway, gotta chop it. Alex videos the cutaway and follows the parts down. Even recovers the toggle I dropped. I run out the downwind landing on my reserve. 400th jumps rarely get more exciting than that! So, Jack takes me to the Loft with my dripping bloody fingers and Larry (the rigger) and I start to try to figure out what happened. There are a few contributing factors to lines not lasting over 150 jumps in that container. The reserve container is sewn about 3/4" inside of the inside edge leaving a serious corner for linesto snag when the reserve is packed tight. What is positioning those lines there is that my risers (the ones I got after my loss in Quincy last year) stop 4-5 inches above the bottom of the reserve container - this leaves lines going down the side 4-5 inches and then turning in around the corners that can trap them. As we inspected the lines, it appears that on deployment, they catch a little resulting in wear that is kind of melting the lines. This problemhas now cost me $500 in line sets, 2 pretty torn up fingers, $140 in repack, PD pull test, cleaning blood off reserve, chaffing strip repair and a new reserve ripcord bent up by my RSL, not to mention 2 close calls . Totaling over $600 and another bottle of Jack Daniels for Keith Wyatt. chopchop gotta go... Plaything needs a spanking.. Lotsa Pictures Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
weid14 0 #2 September 23, 2002 who made the container? and what year? oh, good job on the whole problem identification & resolution Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chopchop 0 #3 September 23, 2002 Javelin J-5 mfg. 2001 - not an Oddysey chopchop gotta go... Plaything needs a spanking.. Lotsa Pictures Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rgoper 0 #4 September 23, 2002 QuotePD makes canopies all day long, you only have one life, when in doubt, cut away... wise words! cut-away, walk away, to jump another day! glad you weren't hurt more severely. when you make further investigation, would you posts results? thanks!--Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riggerrob 643 #5 September 24, 2002 May I propose 2 solutions? In the short run, stop bending your lines around the lower corners of your reserve container. Lay your lines and risers straight down the outboard edge of your main container all the way to the bottom of your main container. Hint, follow the row of stitching that attaches the backpad to the main container. Bending the lines around the corner of the reserve container went out of fashion several years ago because too many students, sky-boarders, etc. tore their reserve containers off of their backpads. In the long run, ask your local master rigger to sew in something that reminds you not to bend your lines around the corner. If you look inside a recently built Sidewinder, you will see an extra little triangle that extends the reserve side wall halfway into the main container, forcing you to lay your risers and lines straight. The triangles (Al MacDonald calls them "line guides") also re-direct the risers if you deploy unstable, making it easier for the main risers to slide off the bottom corners of the reserve container. This not a new idea. I first saw it on Para-Flite's EOS container circa 1992. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ernokaikkonen 0 #6 September 24, 2002 >If you look inside a recently built Sidewinder, you will see an extra >little triangle that extends the reserve side wall halfway into the main >container, forcing you to lay your risers and lines straight. I posted a picture of just such a thing to Gear and Rigging. Erno Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
