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lmchurch

Vigil

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Has anyone had their Vigil (AAD) activate at below 150 feet...?



I know of one occasion when an experienced jumper was walking off the landing area with his canopy under his arm and his Vigil fired. Compared to what might have happened, I'd say he was fortunate.

raff
If you leave the plane without a parachute, you will be fine for the rest of your life.

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Here on tape (but no hard proof it was really a Vigil)

BTW: I like the way the girl in the background starts LHAO at the moment it becomes clear that nothing serious has happened to the jumper.
The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

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Here on tape (but no hard proof it was really a Vigil)



It looks like a Vigil cutter, but no hard prove that it fired that low. Another possibility is that it fired when it had to,but because of the location of the cutter ( under the spring) the RPC had troubles clearing the flaps.
"My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

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I know of one that occured on unit in a Sigma tandem, that was properly set to tandem.

The TI was on final and pop, out comes the RPC.

This is a tandem instructor who allways pulls high, so it was not a case of a low pull and a hesitation on the RPC launch.
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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I know that Vigils are prone for misfires.

If you look at that link http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vigil+misfire&nfpr=0 you will see few other videos. However the posted video from Abedy is called "Vigil fire- Status otkaz" . Status is the rig's model and "otkaz" from Russian means FAIL or MALFUNCTIONED.
"My belief is that once the doctor whacks you on the butt, all guarantees are off" Jerry Baumchen

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Wouldn't fret about the Vigil2. My Vigil1 did try to kill me this summer(fired@750',had a reasonable response from Vigil, it's all in another thread and I'm not getting into that here), but I honestly believe they got it right in the Vigil2. had time to work the bugs out. just remember- EVERY AAD out there adds a highly complicated electronic link in the operation of your reserve. Know how it works, know that it can and will kill or injure when it's parameters are met and it decides to activate. Most of the time- they save lives. Sometimes they don't, sometimes they short, sometimes we operate them wrong and sometimes they
just suck. Understand their limitations, weigh the decision and go from there.

-Harry
"Sometimes you eat the bar,
and well-sometimes the bar eats you..."

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Did anyone get video or pictures? I am feeling pretty crappy now since I just bought a Vigil2 and haven't jumped it yet

My wife and I have 1000's of jumps with ours, no problems. Thousands of other people do too. The odds are in your favor, so don't feel bad about your purchase. And remember the odds of staying alive in our sport favor those who use AAD's.

Are there some problems with Vigils? I don't have the answers to that. I've seen the videos of the misfires. I would imagine they are working hard to understand why those happened and how to fix the problem. I know they had the quality control issue on their cutters and worked quickly to fix that.

Since stuff can and DOES happen, review your two-canopies-out procedures.

Then go enjoy your jump.

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