Statistics on malfunctions

[FatTangerine 0]

Does anyone have stats on how many main chute malfunctions occur each year? What percentage of total jumps involve a mal?

[pchapman 261]

Very briefly, some of the stats around for years might show something like 1 in 700 to 1 in 1000. Also depends on whether one is talking about the canopy itself, the canopy system (eg, adding popped toggles), the whole main deployment (eg, hard pull).

Of course that is an average across many types of canopies and many jumpers. You'll always get the guy who did 3000 jumps without a mal, while if you miss certain important things during your pack job, you might make your next jump a mal.

[PixieUK 0]

What is it that you actually want to know? Maybe someone experienced could help more if you could be more specific.

There are so many factors involved in mals that even a percentage figure won't tell you much. Some people have mals because they jump tiny canopies that will spin up unrecoverably, some people push their luck with replacing line sets and have a line break on a hard opening, a packing error can lead to a line over or a locked brake toggle, it can happen on your own gear, borrowed gear, rental gear......

It also depends on the individual - their currency, their experience level, the altitude at which they pulled, the type of jump they were doing etc etc

I'm one of the unlucky ones who brings the stats down - someone packed me a locked brake toggle on student rental gear so I cutaway on my 19th jump on a Navigator 260 loaded at less than 0.7:1 Not a failure of the main as such, it was human error (and maybe with a lot more experience I could have fixed it or landed on rear risers). So my decision to cutaway was the right one for me and it counts as a mal statistically, but that doesn't mean it would have necessarily been a mal for someone with 1000 jumps who had pulled relatively high after an FS jump.

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

[riggerrob 558]

Read USPA Annual incident summaries. They are published in PARACHUTIST Magazine and are probably available on-line.

If you look at the USPA website, under "skydiving safety" you will find a quick summary of fatalities over the last few decades.

[Joellercoaster 6]

Likewise I think the BPA keeps accurate statistics about cutaways, which are always recorded (unlike USPA if I recall correctly?).

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[ILUVCHUTERS 1]

They can only be recorded if they're reported :)

CSPA tries to keep a record too, but I can guarantee not everyone who's ever had a cutaway has reported it.

[Joellercoaster 6]

They're also reported, if they happen at a BPA dropzone. There's a form and everything.

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[ILUVCHUTERS 1]

We have a form too, just not everyone fills them out I suspect

[Joellercoaster 6]

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[piisfish 135]

My statistics :
13 years jumping
2005 jumps
5 reserve rides
3 cutaways
1 AAD fire

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[justme12001 0]

My stats:
3200 jumps in 10 yrs
2100 tandems
1100 sport jumps
2 cutaway/reserve rides, both tandem, first one was at jump 1780 second was around 2400
0 sport reserve rides
1 intentional cutaway on a tertiary rig

[erdnarob 1]

The accidents, incidents and malfunctions even reported are rarely published. I don't know if it's for insurance companies checking or not. That maybe doesn't prompt the jumpers to fill up a AIM report.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[mik 2]

One friend of mine 18k plus jumps no mals. Another with 20k jumps is close to his "b" licence in malfunctions (50 ish). I was at 5 with 1500 jumps. It varies.

***********************************************
I'm NOT totally useless... I can be used as a bad example

[hackish 8]

I don't think the stats are particularly meaningful unless broken down by canopy type, size. loading and age. Then the sample is generally too small to be statistically significant.

Some types of canopies are very malfunction prone. Many times the state of repair also has a big impact. Open a high performance canopy 10000 times with out of trim lines and count the malfunctions and compare it to the same thing that's new with everything in trim and you will see a vast difference.

Nearly all my cutaways happened with a Diablo. If you so much as get line twist in that thing it's nearly an automatic chop.

-Michael

[Remster 24]

FatTangerine

Does anyone have stats on how many main chute malfunctions occur each year? What percentage of total jumps involve a mal?

The closest to published data points you will find are the yearly (ish) reports Bryan Burke puts out from Eloy. Unlike USPA or CSPA which relies on self reporting, Bryan (and the other STAs) will hunt you down after a cutaway to get the details.

Xbraced canopies (and aggressive elipticals) are majorly over-represented in the cutaway numbers. Surprise huh?

Can someone who bookmarks everything post a link to Burke's reports?

Remster

[uer16 1]

This one?
http://clubjumpin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/SDAZ-Accident-Summary.pdf

[Remster 24]

Thats a good start but there's a more recent one out there.

Remster