naarepus74

I'm glad you liked Triangle Skydiving. I'm going for my first time this month but I chose No Limits in Victoria VA since they seem to cater to the casual tandem jumper but Triangle is so much closer if I choose to do it a second time. Good to hear positive feedback =D

And you believe everything you hear on TV? No I misunderstood the narrator's explanation about the parachutes being trapped. To correct my post he actually said "Inside the parachutes' container the cords are snagged. They trap the main chute and the reserve. There was no chance of either of them ever deploying properly". I thought they were "trapped" before he even jumped. But if I understand correctly, he pulled the ripcord for the main parachute and it snagged which caused it to fail to open properly and also impossible to cut away completely. And when this happens the reserve will tangle with the main. Sorry, should have put this under General Skydiving Questions.

In the episode it said that they were already tangled up in the pack and that he had no chance of either one successfully opening. Can that only be a packing error? Its called a main/reserve entaglement, it can happen for myriad of reason but usually its because the the reserve is deployed, before the main is properly cut away. Here are some youtube videos to show what it looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFSivezl80E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqJ752JS5eY

I recently watched the NatGeo special from a few years ago about Michael Holmes' malfunctioning parachutes. I looked up forums on here about it and most seem to have a negative impression of that episode. Being new to skydiving (I am jumping in August!) I have so many questions and found the episode fascinating. I don't really understand how two parachutes become entangled like that before they are deployed. Is this a packing error? Can that happen while you're falling even if it had been packed properly? I don't think the episode ever specifically said how that happened. Thanks everyone.