Camera Jacket causing malfunction.

[Jabeln79 0]

I have recently had two separate malfunctions while flying video on tandems. While filming these past two tandems I was sit flying with wings, I have done this many times with no problems on my other set up (Javelin/Firefly camera suit) This is a newer cameral jacket I picked up off the jumpsuit rack at SDC.
The first malfunction happened just after the Tandem master deployed. I rolled back to my belly and deployed uneventfully and had a good velocity over my head. I began to release the camera wings, as I released the right wing my right riser was released the left riser still in place. I wasn't sure why at this point. I began spiraling very quickly and tried to figure out what happened. At first it appeared my cut away handle was gone, but I was able to find it buried in my wing, cut away and deployed the reserve.
The second malfunction happened the next time I was sit flying on my camera wings filming another tandem. This time I deployed my main I initially thought everything was ok, I head a great opening. I performed a handles check to make sure they were still in place after the last malfunction. My reserve handle was out several inches. I looked over my head and found my reserve was already out. I had two canopies out in a biplane. 2nd malfunction in 3 times wearing my camera jacket. I jump an Aerodyne Icon rig with a Tony suit camera jacket with large wings. I just started using this camera jacket, its nice in the summer to wear shorts and a wing coat to film tandems. I have jumped the camera jacket many times on my belly and havent had a problem. I have jumped large wings hundreds of times on a Javelin and never had a problem. My rigger at work thinks it may be the wing inflating forward in a sit and wrapping around the handles then pulling the handles out when I roll to my belly from a sit position and the wings inflate behind me. Its cost my 2 free bags which is lucky. Either malfunction could have been a lot worse. Any thoughts on why these malfunctions may be happening? .

Blue Skies
Joe
"Knowledge is the antidote to fear."
--- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

My rigger at work thinks it may be the wing inflating forward in a sit and wrapping around the handles then pulling the handles out when I roll to my belly from a sit position and the wings inflate behind me.

Any thoughts on why these malfunctions may be happening?

Your rigger's theory sounds like a plausible one to me.
Stay the heck away from that jump suit!

[davelepka 4]

Your rigger is correct. Some bigger wings are not compatible for sitting because they billow up too much, or the 'hole' where the wing goes over the lateral is too big.

Just don't sitfly in that suit. Belly fly the dive, and then sit way up on the wings and look straight up to film the deployments.

I have two Flite Suits I use for video. One is a freefly suit with a generous cut under the arms and a set of swoop cords. I use this for every tandem from 130lbs up to however brave the TI is. I'll freefly with the big guys, and belly fly with the lighter ones.

The other suit is a proper camera suit with a big wing that attaches to the leg with a clip/velcro sandwhich. This suit is only used for the lightest of students, and I just accept that freeflying is not the way to go on those jumps. I did freefly with the suit when I first got it with no problems, but it was a lot of wing to manage, and just thought better of it as time went on.

It's all about the right tool for the right job.