1 - he's on his back and clearly as soon as he did that, his fall rate increased. It doesn't have to, but in the shot, he accelerates away from his partner. Faster fall rates cause more stress during opening. That's why belly deployment is good as it gives a more likely chance that deployment happens at a speed that the canopy was designed to open at.
2 - containers aren't designed for deployment in any orientation than belly to earth. he opened on his back. that adds more stress at deployment
3 - beginner jumper clearly shouldn't have a camera - he might be distracted from feel what's going on back there - if it would have mattered
4 - beginner jumper doesn't know how to backfly - if he's spinning and the main comes out - that would also add stress on the opening sequence
5 - beginner jumper chose to go on his back even though told this is not a rig friendly to other orientations - that's bad judgement (not surprising with this jumper if he's using a camera, freeflying, all before A license - and, in fact, doing all that simultaneously). Honestly though, mods to rigs to make them more freefly friendly should be done on all rigs - especially rentals - newbies get unstable, AFF students tumble - hard to justify avoiding those mods.
the camera may or may not have contributed - but it looks like it did encourage him to be on his back. being on his back likely did cause (directly) the premature deployment and aggravated the stress on that canopy
I suspect also, that the canopy might have been weak too. But that doesn't excuse the newbie from his mistakes - video this early, freefly this early, practicing backflying on a rig not meant for that, etc etc etc.
choices choices choices
hope he learned a bit about learning curves and gear selection though
(This post was edited by rehmwa on Apr 20, 2012, 10:54 AM)
Edit Log:
Post edited by rehmwa
() on Apr 20, 2012, 10:54 AM
