erdnarob

Physics again sir. If your leg straps have slack in them... well expect to have a snatch force at opening which adds to the main bag snatch force and the parachute opening force. Explanation: when you want to break a little rope attached to a parcel with your hand, you let it loose, have a swift gesture with your hand to accelerate it while holding the rope. When the rope is taut and your hand is at full speed the rope is likely to break since the force applied on a mass (the parcel) is proportional to the acceleration. Coming back to your loose leg straps, you are going at 120 mph when you launch your pilot chute. This one almost stops as an anchor. But you keep on falling at high speed. At the line stretch you accelerate in a fraction of a second and at high speed the mass of the main bag+ the main (which is almost stopped by the pilot chute). This is the snatch force, then comes the opening force from the canopy inflation, then comes the snatch force from the slack in your leg straps since they have the tendency to stop but your body momentum when you leg straps are taut (they were loose) gives you an extra force. In this case you are adding 3 forces instead of 2. And there is no slider in the leg straps to dicrease that force!! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If you read my thread "An unususal malfunction" on this forum you could read that I had a total mal and pulled my reserve handle which is equivalent of an AAD firing which cuts the loop in the sense that in both cases the reserve pilot chute takes charge of pulling the reserve bag out of the reserve container. I was equiped with a Skyhook which released automatically as designed. If you have the chance to look at a rigger packing a Skyhook equiped reserve, ask him to show you how it works. It is very simple. No rocket scientist diploma needed. You can see it at work at the UPT VECTOR web site. Skyhook 2 modes: 1) in case of cut away the Skyhook a) pulls the non riser RSL cable to make sure you are free both side risers from the main parachute b) pulls the reserve pin c) pulls the reserve bridle making the reserve deployment in 75-100 feet instead of 150-200 feet. The reserve free bag/bridle/pilot chute assembly stays generally attached to the main parachute and therefore you are chasing one assembly instead of two. 2) in case of a total mal when the jumper pulls the reserve ripcord handle or if the AAD fires, the reserve pilot chute is responsible to launch the reserve bag and the Skyhook is designed to release automatically from the RSL still in its place. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have been a direct witness once about a pen repack but it has been done by a DZ operator and the worst...it was on a tandem rig (involving 2 persons when jumped). That DZO wasn't very bright (he wasn't a rigger) since he left the former seal on it while writing an unreadable signature and packing location on the reserve packing card. However the "new repack" date was clear. That DZO doesn't have a DZ anymore but he is still a tandem master. Since the fraud was obvious, the rigger who originally really packed the reserve (the rig was back to his loft) reported the fraud to the proper Association committee chairman. Always pull your reserve when it is due. That gives you a unique chance to "feel" the amount of force required to open it. Your brain will register that force and therefore you will be more efficent in an actual emergency situation pull. Many years ago I remember that a famous rigger in Pennsylvania (namely, Dave De Wolf) was asking 100$ more than the regaular fee for a reserve repack when the owner omitted to pull and open it. Dave was very wise but I don't know if he ever applied those conditions. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A Vector III with Skyhook and riser cover magnets + a Sabre 2-210 (loading 1.16 for you) for the most powerful flare and you have the best rig now available. Add a Vigil II and you are equiped like a king. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

According Paragear catalog which uses the PIA method for canopy volume evaluation, the Spectre has 370 cubic inches of volume therefore, the Storm should have a comparable volume. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The blast handle with the center post on necessitates a hard pull when done at angle with respect to the housing direction. Mine had the center post removed and only the semi circular metal snaps at the top of the handle were holding on the circular groove of the cable housing ending. It worked fine for me (2 cut away) but the acquired "bad reputation" of the blast handle was going on and on. When I was showing up at DZs people were scarred until I told them that my blast handle had the center post removed and it was easy to show them. The advantage of the blast handle was that there was no need for a ripcord pocket since it was just holding tightly on the housing ending. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I know that I am a bit out of the subject but here is my chance to warn the people about having the extra metal cable and ball of the ripcord handle unprotected. This concerns especially the rear floater when he/she pushes his/her body against the fuselage near the vertical rear edge of the Twin Otter, Caravan, King Air, Pac 750...door. The protruding extra cable and ball can become caught in a little slot of the door metal structure. At the launch that can generate an instant reserve activation with possibly the reserve canopy caught in the A/C tail and stabilizer. That occurrence happened in Germany few years ago and reported in Skydiving Magazine. The jumper got his reserve clear after few seconds but for a little while that situation scarred everybody aboard. Since I read this article I always put that extra reserve cable + ball inside the reserve pocket. We could call that post Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

30 MPH gusty winds is certainly not compatible with a demo jump in a stadium even with fast parachute. Not only jumping in those conditions is against BSRs but a high wind passing over and around obstacles makes "rollers" or vortex which are completely unseen. If the air passing over obstacles has to go up at some places, at other places the same air goes down. That can create a negative angle of attack followed by a sudden depressurization of the parachute cells and a stall. There is always a pressure on the jumpers doing a demo jump since money is involved and they also want to perform for future contract in mind. But when an accident happens, the unaware public will hear nothing about bad conditions and will consider the jumpers as not professional giving to the face of the world a very bad impression about skydiving. We really don't need that kind of bad publicity. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The amount of steering line excess depends also on the make of the canopy. For instance, the Spectre has a lot of excess while the Katana has quite less. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A VFR pilot has the obligation to check on VFR maps where he is going to fly and what area he has to avoid or fly over with caution like: a DZ like Pepperell Mass. (where it happened) was certainy identified on the VFR map as a jumping area, it could be a training Air Force area, a cannon firing range area or a blasting area. The safest place to fly for a pilot going over a DZ is flying well below the opening altitude where open parachutes can be seen and better yet doing so and passing downwing over the DZ. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Maybe a solution would be to buy TRULOCK toggles for UPT Vector. That garanties that a minimum of steering line excess is left floating free. For those toggles you need 2 channels on the inside of the risers to pass the excess of steering line. But you still will have to take a second or 2 before grabbing the toggles properly. Nothing is foolproof. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Theoratically it takes 3.5 second of free fall to reach 35m/s or 78 mph (the Cypres firing set up for Expert and Tandem mode or the Vigil Pro and Tandem mode). With the air resistance say lets add 2 more seconds which makes 5.5 seconds of freefall. A jumper cutting away at 1500 feet will make a vertical distance of about 400 feet within 5.5 seconds which makes an opening at 1100 feet (840 + 260). This exactely the firing altitude of the Vigil (1100 feet) when in an upright position like it is the case at opening and since there is not anymore a differential pressure (260) between chest and the back on the jumper). In the same upright position the Cypres will fire at 1010 feet (750 + 260)). I know that a jumper cutting away at 1500 feet may choose to pull his reserve immediately while others will prefer to have some speed. But suppose now that the jumper is cutting away at 1300 feet or lower. As I said he is likely to get his AAD fire if he prefers a slight delay for a more positive opening. Note. I don't think so there is a big difference in vertical distance traveled for a complete opening between doing a hop and pop and waiting 3-4 seconds before pulling after a cut away. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi John, glad to hear about somebody who knows what is a blast handle. I got one with my first Wonderhog in 1977 but its center post was drilled off. I made 2 flawless cut aways with it. Don't start laughing too much you and your girlfriend but the picture of myself in attachment was taken in 1979. You can see on it the blast handle and the belly band for the pilot chute. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi John, glad to hear about somebody who knows what is a blast handle. I got one with my first Wonderhog in 1977 but its center post was drilled off. I made 2 flawless cut aways with it. Don't start laughing too much you and your girlfriend but the picture of myself in attachment was taken in 1979. You can see on it the blast handle and the belly band for the pilot chute. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

There are several factors contributing to the opening forces like : canopy type, pilot chute size and fabric, line stows length, right sort of rubber bands, the way the slider is placed, the jumper position at opening, use of tuck tabs on riser covers...One can read about it on Performance Designs web site. What can likely happen is that the slider moves down a bit on the lines when doing the 3 folds and bagging the canopy. A slider just one inch away from the stoppers can make a really hard opening. Therefore, at the bagging one should comb the lines up in order to make sure the slider is still against its stoppers. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

OK I am with you. There has been another thread on this forum about a jumper (with video) who intentionally pulls suddenly the left toggle and get line twists. I answered that one by saying that was a problem of conservation of angular momentum. The body doesn't follow the canopy right away and line twists are the result. If that happens because of a misconception of what should be a good canopy piloting, well, below 1500 feet it depends on the behavior of the canopy. If the canopy is not landable (like spinning in the same direction than the line twists) a cut away would be necessary but remember that if doing so, the AAD is possibly going to fire. That bad canopy piloting will result in a costly bill (reserve repack, a new AAD cutter and possibly the lost of the main parachute and reserve free bag and pilot chute). An expensive lesson. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

About the direction of the reserve handle pull, I am really looking forward to see the reserve rip cord made of 1000 lbs Sectra line (with a bungee inside) get TSOed. Bill Booth made a presentaion of this ripcord at the last Reno Symposium. Bill explained that using a Spectra line decreases the friction a lot especially when the pull is as much as 40 degrees off the direction of the housing. The fact that that kind of ripcord is equiped with a bungee making sure the handle cannot be floating doesn't hurt either. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I don't like the idea to not seal a tandem or student packed reserve even if CSPA does not require it. I know that those equipments have a rough life and that the seal breaks easily but it is a bit like not washing the hands of a kid because he plays too often in the sand. The seal is the visible trace of a job done properly and not sealing a student or tandem reserve is maybe an invitation for some people to not take the repack cycle seriously. I have seen DZO pen repack their tandem reserves, a very sad approach. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Choosing the color of a rig can be a very long exercice. Here is what I do. 1) choose a theme for the container (classy or flashy). For me the harness/container system colors have to be classy. I choose a dark color (black or navy blue) with always the binding tape of the same color than the container. Then I put some colorful piping on the middle flap. Please don't match the color of the cut away handle with the color of your rig, it's about safety. 2) choose a theme for the canopy colors (classy or multicolor or flashy, symetrical or not). I choose my canopy colors to be well distinctive from the ground and not symetrical. To get them looking brighter as seen from the ground put some black. Always use a computer program to test your choice. Most of the harness/container and canopy manufacturers are offering that service. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A spring loaded pilot chute, especially the main parachute one can be caught in the foot of a jumper or make possible that the bridle is going around the foot or leg of the jumper and that way generates a horseshoe malfiunction. You have to remember that there is a partial vacuum behind a jumper in freefall. Since the spring loaded pilot chute is heavier than the throw away pilot chute it can possibly stay in that partial vacuum and do weird things. In the seventies, a guy of 900 jumps making a demo over Niagara Falls got a horseshoe malfunction because his spring loaded pilot chute/bridle get caught on his leg or foot. He couldn't solve the problem and died. Earlier spring loaded pilot chute were equiped with air vanes to get them more stable. However those vanes type pilot chute were the best design to get hooked by the foot. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Ripcord handles located on the front of the jumper were most of the time used for spring loaded pilot chute both for reserve and main like it is still the case for a modern reserve. When Bill Booth invented the springless throw away pilot chute, it needed a pocket and pilot chute which first were located on a belly band with the handle on the right side. Then the pilot chute pocket moved to the front of the leg strap then to the rear. Those 3 locations were involving velcro going from the pocket to the rear right side of the main container to steady the bridle. Later on in mid-eighties came the BOC or in other words the pilot chute handle came on the right bottom corner of the main container and the pilot chute in a pocket stitched below the main container. The BOC advantage is that there is few to none of the bridle exposure and no velcro. The disadvantage is that the handle is no more visible which can cause a problem sometimes. A lot of manufacturers tried their own way to locate a handle to trigger the main parachute opening but the throw away system became the standard and later came the pull out system which is less common. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A lot of good advices here but I think there is no general rules to solve a line twist problem. It is indeed a case by case solving. 1) if the canopy is fully inflated and flying straight you can take some time to undo the line twists by kicking the legs and/or using you hands on the risers to start untwisting them. I would not recommend at all to unstow the brakes. The unstwisting starts always slowly and go faster and faster. 2) if the canopy starts spinning in the same direction than the line twists, you are in trouble and you should decide quite early to do your cut away. Note: in case of severe line twists it has been seen that a cut away is impossible to perform since the cut away cables are so tightly squeezed at the riser level. That's why I recommend everybody to have risers equiped with anti twist channels in plastic or preferably in metal (to be installed by a rigger) to avoid yellow cables to be caught by the twisted risers. How to avoid line twists: a) stow your parachute as symetrical as possible in the POD. b) leave between 18" to 2 feet length of suspension line unstowed. Too short of a length can make line twists since one side of the POD can leave the container before the other side and starts a spin. c) after throwing away your pilot chute (or pulling it out), make sure you are still flying straight by looking at the horizon. Looking at your pilot chute and parachute deployment might generate a line twist. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I understand you wanting to practice packing when alone but for that I am afraid you have to buy your own parachute or get one lent to you. There should be a person at your DZ who can show you how to pack a student parachute on a rainy day. This is an investment for the DZ to teach people how to pack since you are their future customer. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Excellent reminder indeed to take a second or two to make sure you grab your toggles the proper way. Since I started jumping I have always paid a lot of attention to set the brakes at packing and undo them after opening. However Murphy's law exists and what could happen did happen. I was at the Summerfest at Skydive Chicago last July and one morning at the first jump after opening I grabbed my toggles and undid the brakes. I let them go in order to collapse my slider but when I grabbed my toggles again, I had the right one locked. First I thought that the toggle had gone around the steering line just above the guide ring and I tried to clear that up but the locking was very stubborn and then I decided to fly it that way. Having a Katana didn't help but since the locking was high enough the canopy was flying quite straight. I did some test at altitude to make sure I could flare it at landing and it worked provided I put my whole weight on it. I landed OK slipping softly in the grass but the flare wasn't easy to perform. What was the problem? Under the rear right riser are 2 channels to stow the excess of steering line. The excess of steering line was only going thru the top channel and the toggle had passed in the excess loop below the top channel. Pulling at it was making a lock of the steering line around the top stowing channel. It was so tight that I had to use a Swiss army nail file to undo the knot. I couldn't believe it happened. I guess that happened when I suddenly released my toggles to take care of my slider but it is really hard to believe it happened that way. A brakes stowing mistake ? Maybe. I always do the brakes myself when I use a packer. Anyway, another good lesson for me. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A friend of mine just reported the same type of problem. To be solved by choosing the right mode as said already. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.