Sep 6, 2005, 9:09 AM
Post #1 of 18
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2 chutes exploded upon opening in 1 day
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Hi, We jump at a very small, but quit nice (and safe)dropzone in Belgium (Europe), called PC Hoevenen. Last Sunday we had our annual Speedstar 5 club competition. Approx. 90 jumps were made on Sunday. However, in this one day, two main canopies got ripped to pieces during opening, in two seperate incidents. Both jumpers did OK and landed safe under their reserves. Something like that never happened before. Conditions were all normal (weather, jump altitudes, pull altitudes, etc). Jumpers are both experienced. They pulled under normal conditions (speed, altitude). It was there private equipment, with normal wing loads. One is a Stilleto 135 from 1992 with less than 1000 jumps on it. More surprisingly, the other chute is a Crossfire 150 (?) with only 400 jumps on it (manufactured 2000).
The pictures are at
http;//homepage.mac.com/Phaida01/PhotoAlbum10.html and http;//homepage.mac.com/Phaida01/PhotoAlbum11.html
Question: What is your idea about this. Has anybody had similar experiences. 1 out of 45 jumps that day are quite high odds for pure coincidence, no?
Sep 6, 2005, 9:24 AM
Post #2 of 18
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Re: [Vaut] 2 chutes exploded upon opening in 1 day
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Torn canopies are usually caused by hard openings. Openings that hard are often caused by bag-dump, slider-dump or line-dump, in other words "out of sequence deployments."
Sep 6, 2005, 9:32 AM
Post #4 of 18
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Re: [Vaut] 2 chutes exploded upon opening in 1 day
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Were they both packed by the same person? Any other variables that could be the same? Stored in the same location? Stored packed or not packed? Last time each was jumped?
Of course it could be coincidence. Parachutes sometimes do strange things.
Sep 6, 2005, 2:24 PM
Post #7 of 18
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Re: [Vaut] 2 chutes exploded upon opening in 1 day
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If the openings were not brutal.....than the material was week. Excessive exposure to UV rays(sunlight) before, during packing will shorten the life of a canopy. F111 would loose it's lift on landings(clue to condition), ZP just explodes. .........mike
Sep 7, 2005, 3:20 AM
Post #8 of 18
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Re: [Hooknswoop] 2 chutes exploded upon opening in 1 day
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They are (were!) both ZP. At least one opening was brutal. We could here a load "bang" on the ground, similar to the sound of e.g. a hunting rifle being shot.
Sep 7, 2005, 2:52 PM
Post #13 of 18
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Re: [Vaut] 2 chutes exploded upon opening in 1 day
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He Vaut,
That looks strange to me, I know canopies can just blow up, but like other said, this is usually caused by hard openings. I know the annual check that the riggers do in Belgium includes the main parachute as well, did they not notice any unusual wear? Were the openings unusual?
By the way.. I used to jump in Hoevenen, tell them Iwan said hi, and I'm glad everybody is ok!
Sep 26, 2005, 6:02 AM
Post #18 of 18
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Re: [arlo] 2 chutes exploded upon opening in 1 day
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One did tear on the first jump, after not having been used for a while (couple of weeks), the other at the 2nd jump of that day, the 5th of that weekend.
Both were competing in a bellyflying 5 man speedstar, on separate jumps.
I don't think there is a connection between the incidents.
stiletto.jpg
