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RIGGER160

Vigils Suck

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Last Tuesday I had a 4 way zoo dive at one of my favorite DZs and while in a track I looked over at one of the guys I jumped with have a Vigil fire while he was also in a track. Needles to say he was shaken and bruised. Reserve fire while in a track...not cool. Buy a Cypress

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He was close to 4500 when it happened as we broke off at 5000. Yes he did turn it on at the DZ and no I dont believe it was his first jump of the day, I think he waited to get on the same load as his GF and dad that were doing tandems.

It was also fairly new I think. He normaly jumps accuracy canopies for the Air Force academy and I think he had only put a few jumps on this new rig.

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True but there is no rosy smell for a S@#tty situation like that



I agree that a premature AAD fire and reserve deployment is a highly undesireable situation. However, "JohnDeere" and I both know a jumper who had a premature main deployment last year while freeflying, who is now quadraplegic. If your friend is walking and talking.... good deal! From that perspective.... I do detect a distinct aroma of rose in your story.
The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

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True but there is no rosy smell for a S@#tty situation like that



I agree that a premature AAD fire and reserve deployment is a highly undesireable situation. However, "JohnDeere" and I both know a jumper who had a premature main deployment last year while freeflying, who is now quadraplegic. If your friend is walking and talking.... good deal! From that perspective.... I do detect a distinct aroma of rose in your story.



That aint no shit! For the situation it smells good to me.
Nothing opens like a Deere!

You ignorant fool! Checks are for workers!

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If it is fairly new does this make it a VIGIL 2?

Personally, I only sell my customers Cypres 2. I have recently sold a single Vigil 2 but I was very hesitant.
I dont know much about the Vigils as for the past few years all I have seen is complaints and them being banned on dropzones. Now the vigil 2 is out it seems loads of people choose it as a cheaper option ($150?) to a cypres 2.
However I have always been waiting for the vigil 2 complaints to start coming in after the vigil 1 having so many issued fixes or being banned or whatever. The original vigil was always having some sort of issue and it makes me wonder if this is the start of the complaints for the vigil 2.


I have not heard a single complaint about it until now. I really do hope this ends up being a one off situation for the sake of all those that so quickly jumped into buying a vigil because it has the number 2 next to it ;)


.Karnage Krew Gear Store
.

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The fact that you mention no information at all, about this (mis)fire. And conclude that one should buy a CYPRES, Makes one wonder.

You could give more information and then state you don´t like Vigil, and think one should buy CYPRES or Argus.
The trouble with skydiving; If you stink at it and continue to jump, you'll die. If you're good at it and continue to jump, you'll see a lot of friends die...

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I am glad your friend is ok after this incident.
As for your recommendation for not buying a Vigil, and this is my opinion only, I think it should be up to each an every one of us to decide what we are using for gear. The cool thing is, that we do have a choice. There are few containers, mains, reserves and AADs out there so we are not stuck with only one. I am not going to debate which one is better or not, they all have their good and bad sides. Just remember they are all MAN MADE :)

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Personally, I only sell my customers Cypres 2. I have recently sold a single Vigil 2 but I was very hesitant.
I dont know much about the Vigils as for the past few years all I have seen is complaints and them being banned on dropzones.



I know of a couple of instances where a cypres 2 has fired when it shoudn't.

Why are yo so hard on vigil?

At least they have the balls to publish the problems they have and speak about then openly.

airtec brushes them under the carpet and tries to act as if they never happened.

A good friend of mine could have been killed by a cypres 2 when it fired a1 900' when he had been flying around under canopy (tandem) for a few minutes already. considering that unit is supposed to fire at 2000' not 900' that is a shithouse thing to happen.

did he gat ant response form them?

NO!

None of these units are perfect and you shouldn't act as if they are.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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>At least they have the balls to publish the problems they have and speak
>about then openly.

That's actually not one of Vigil's strengths. I was at a shouting match between a manufacturer and Vigil at one of the PIA conventions. The topic was their reluctance to give the details of the cutter-insert problem.

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Last Tuesday I had a 4 way zoo dive at one of my favorite DZs and while in a track I looked over at one of the guys I jumped with have a Vigil fire while he was also in a track. Needles to say he was shaken and bruised. Reserve fire while in a track...not cool. Buy a Cypress




The real cool thing is a Vigil tells the user a lot about the previous jump before you even send it in. And, when you send it in, they send you back a complete graph of speed, time, and altitude.

You will be able to discover why it fired.

Let us know what you find.

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Hi Bill

I was in the same meeting and it was only that manufacturers opinion that more should be done as an explanation as to what was acceptable and what should be replaced with regards to damage to the plastic insert. Before the PIA Symposium was over the bulletin had been issued on the request of the manufacturer.

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A good friend of mine could have been killed by a cypres 2 when it fired a1 900' when he had been flying around under canopy (tandem) for a few minutes already. considering that unit is supposed to fire at 2000' not 900'...



Huh? Are you sure you don't have those numbers reversed?

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Huh? Are you sure you don't have those numbers reversed?



For a tandem isnt the Cypres2 set to 2000 foot?

It sounds like it actually fired at 900 ' while the tandem pair were under canopy.
Thats plain scary [:/]

And to the OP// more info needed on this vigil incident...Like jumper name, DZ etc otherwise no one can collaborate it :)

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What do you mean?

he deployed the main at 5500' and was flying around and just below 1000' the cypres2 fired and he had the reserve pilot chute in tow for a little bit, then it pulled the reserve out and he had a 2 out situation, they were landing on the beach so he opted to land in the shallow water and made a good decision because the canopies were fighting each other and he/they had a very hard landing, and he ripped himself a new asshole (literally).

that is what happened, it was a cypres 2. Airtec gave him no explanation, but a number of units were recalled.

i must add that the component that was faulty ( i found out from another source) is used in all the current digital aad's.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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The real cool thing is a Vigil tells the user a lot about the previous jump before you even send it in. And, when you send it in, they send you back a complete graph of speed, time, and altitude.

You will be able to discover why it fired.

Let us know what you find.



That is a cool feature. I cant wait to see why it fired.

As for his name and what DZ it happened at...His name is Justin and he was visiting and made this jump at a DZ in NW GA

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You describe it as a "zoo dive." Was there anything about the jump that might have contributed to an AAD believing it had met its firing parameters? I ask because sometimes folks do choose to turn their AADs off for jumps like tubes or magic carpets that put the jumpers into unusual in-air attitudes that may create odd pressure readings.

Will be interested to hear what the data says, too.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Here's the scoop:

This unit fired at Atlanta Skydiving Center at approximately 4000 feet. The jumper was making his first jump at ASC in Georgia after traveling from Colorado.

It is possible the unit malfunctioned under proper operation by the jumper.

It is also possible the unit was not operated properly by the jumper due to being left on from traveling and still recognized the Colorado ground as zero.

The unit and rig were brought over to ChutingStar the next day, where we removed the unit and sent it to Vigil USA. Vigil USA sent it to the manufacturer.

Right now, the unit is at the manufacturer being tested for both scenarios. The company also released the information bulletin today, which is posted here:

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3572566;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

Mike
ChutingStar.com

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>The unit and rig were brought over to ChutingStar the next day, where
>we removed the unit and sent it to Vigil USA.

Did you read the data out of the unit before you sent it back?



It was flashing cutter fired or something like that and I think the only way I could have read it with my IR reader was to replace the cutter with one from stock and restart the unit...and I didn't want to disturb the inside of the unit in case there was an issue there...so I just overnighted it to Vigil USA.

A long way of saying no.

Mike
ChutingStar.com

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It is possible the unit malfunctioned under proper operation by the jumper.

It is also possible the unit was not operated properly by the jumper due to being left on from traveling and still recognized the Colorado ground as zero.



I'm curious as to the uncertainty of improper operation. Is this because the jumper didn't check his/her gear prior to making the first jump at ASC, or is it because the jumper is not sure whether the unit was already on and/or shut down and started fresh prior to making the first jump?

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