Aug 13, 2006, 6:56 PM
Post #1 of 11
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Scary Opening
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I did a high altitude hop n' pop from 9,000 ft. due to haze and smoke way up high. After I deployed (I was not perfectly stable) the risers twisted around my neck. I was wearing a big helmet and had trouble getting my head through. After a few tries I was able to get my head through the risers and fly my canopy. There was only one twist which was around my neck.
Was this weird opening due to bad packing or poor body position?
Secondly, if this happens again.... should I cut away with a chance of my neck being ripped or should I just try to take the helmet off?
PhreeZone (D License)
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Aug 13, 2006, 7:29 PM
Post #2 of 11
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By "around your neck" do you mean that your head was held to your chest by the risers? I don't suppose you'd be typing this if they were literally around your neck.
Do you watch your canopy inflate during deployment? Or do you just keep looking at the horizon until it's over? If the risers were holding your head to your chest [and you generally watch deployment], the line-twists happened before the canopy began to inflate [I.E. before the main was extracted from the bag].
Linetwists that early could come from any number of things. It could've been a packed twist, it could've been bag instability [from double-wrapping your locking stows? I dunno, I'm not sold yet.] or it could've been your instability on deployment [how unstable are we talking here?]. I'm sure there are other reasons that I haven't thought of - I don't know shit.
How have your other openings been?
(This post was edited by MB38 on Aug 13, 2006, 10:09 PM)
It was the double-stows at a sub-terminal opening causing the bag to bounce around more erradically than usual. That's all I'm going to say on the matter. It's your jump.
It was the double-stows at a sub-terminal opening causing the bag to bounce around more erradically than usual.
No offense, but how do you know that for a fact? Did you see the pack job? Did you see the body position? Did you see the bag come out?
I guess the fact that she ended up "swimming" to get stable has no bearing on the opening results? A very experienced jumper who was in the group and who watched her deployment wasn't surprised she had line twists.
Could it have been the double stows? Maybe. Could it have been body position? Maybe. Could it have been packing? Maybe. Could it be all the above or a combination of two? Maybe.
It's important for all of us to hear different perspectives to more fully understand the pros and cons of doing things one way or the other, but making a judgment like yours because it may fit into your theory without knowing the facts can be dangerous.
You're entitled to your opinion and you are more experienced than I am, but we may have to agree to disagree on this debate.
I did a high altitude hop n' pop from 9,000 ft. due to haze and smoke way up high. After I deployed (I was not perfectly stable) the risers twisted around my neck.
What is the reason to deploy not perfectly stable if you are high???
