Finally Had My Cutaway

[tbrown 26]

Not my first cutaway ever, but my first back since returning to the sport four years ago. What happened was a brutal slammer opening that knocked the crap out of me and my canopy.

After a 22 Way Sunday dive at Perris, I tracked, cleared myself, waved, and tossed. BA-WHAM !! Felt like hitting the end of a chain, my chest strap slammed me in the Adam's Apple and jaw, while my leg straps cut into my thighs and I felt like I'd been slammed face first into a stone wall. Looking up at my canopy, a 210 Pilot, and saw it had transfomed itself into a 7 cell, with a lot of daylight and blue sly visible through several tears and holes in the otherwise orange/yellow fabric. Lots of bracketa-fracketa hanging off the ends and the tail, though the canopy as a whole was still stable. Made a quick decision that I couldn't possibly land the thing, especially if it decided to split in two at 500 ft, and chopped. The ride down under my PDR193 was lovely. Opening was quick, soft, and on heading. The sweet thing flew consevatively, but reliably, and a one stroke flare with my feet and knees together for good luck yielded a comfortable, if not perfect stand up landing on Perris' green strip landing zone.

As to why my Pilot could've opened the way it did, I'm baffled. I do my own packing, a not terribly neat pro-pack that has always yielded lovely soft openings in the past. Post-mortem examination on the ground showed that the slider was fully opened, but had also come whistling down the lines with enough force that it was stuck over the main toggles, something I hadn't noticed in the air before chopping. The canopy is trash and I doubt I'll have it repaired. I got slammed hard enough to see my doctor, who is generally positive about jumping, but has recommended a month off to give everything a chance to heal up, to which I'm in general agreement.

I had even replaced two rubber bands on my d-bag for that last pack job - I do my own packing, thank you. But I don't know why this one packjob had such a different result, hurting me and trashing the canopy.

The cutaway was perfect, though the evidence is that my RSL beat me to the punch. I punched the 3 Ring with one hand, looked at the reserve handle, grabbed and punched it, then got line stretch. The big pigtail bend on my ripcord tells me the RSL beat me to it, but that's what it's there for anyway, isn't it ?

Other than a few aches & pains, I'm fine. I'm just wondering why my canopy would open so hard after more than 200 lovely openings, if there's any explanation beyond "shit happens".

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[diablopilot 2]

Parachutes do go "rogue" on occasion. That's my guess.


edit so Tim can't make fun of me.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[hookitt 1]

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Parachutes do go "rouge" on occasion. That's my guess.

Like the color? Or are you thinking more like jewelers or optical rouge?

Yeah. Somehow I've never blown up a canopy like you just did Mr Brown. I've been put out of commission before though. Hurts worse than most car wrecks doesn't it? I'm happy you're not too injured

You simply can't beat an RSL with out pulling slightly out of order. Congratulations on the cutaway.

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[Amazon 7]

Way to go Thomas Aint the new stuff fun....

Come on.. deep down dont you miss your old round reserve

I had 5 reserve rides on rounds... and 3 on squares.....isnt that whole standup in the landing area so... boring... I mean the old days......you got a bit more excitement.. of where you were going to land the thing

[jimmytavino 16]

.
.
.
.
. so how was the 22 way ?????


jmy
p s. whew that's rough...good thing you haven't reached the point of being too brittle...
remember...
you're younger than you feel !!!!

[tbrown 26]

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Way to go Thomas Aint the new stuff fun....

Come on.. deep down dont you miss your old round reserve

I had 5 reserve rides on rounds... and 3 on squares.....isnt that whole standup in the landing area so... boring... I mean the old days......you got a bit more excitement.. of where you were going to land the thing

Oh Jean, how right you are. I especially miss the way a round reserve would "exhale" and almost invert itself after the initial opening, then re-inflate itself. Damn squares just want to open and stay open.... Best landing under a round reserve I ever had was in 10-15mph winds in a flooded field. Touchdown on my feet was actually gentle, but then the canopy yanked me off my feet in almost a foot of water (Perris sometimes floods in winter). Hit my head against a submerged rock, I guess, splitting my helmet in two and then I was off to the races, being dragged fast enough to make my own wake in the water behind me. Trying to haul in on the lines with slippery muddy gloves was especially entertaining.

Kids today have no appreciation for the kind of fun we yoosta have with some good gear. Or that we yoosta "spot for our reserve", back when skydivers actually KNEW how to spot. Or that we would actually stand our landings up, in sneakers, under those things.

Of course I'm 60 lbs heavier now than back then, so I'll whimp out and keep my PD.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[Andy9o8 2]

So you ruined a perfectly good Pilot.
That's just wrong, man.

Dude - glad you're ok.

[SansSuit 1]

I would bet that when that time machine is invented and we can go back and find out WTF, alot of these openings would be caused by the slider somehow coming off the stops during the packing process. More than once, somebody has complained about hard openings. I told them what I thought about the slider. They concentrated on keeping the slider in place after that and the problem openings went away. Even an inch off the stops can cause the slider to get a head start and affect the opening speed.

FWIW

And for the record, it REALLY hurts on a naked jump.

Peace,
-Dawson.
http://www.SansSuit.com
The Society for the Advancement of Naked Skydiving

[diablopilot 2]

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Perris sometimes floods in winter

Sometimes?!

I always thought "Lake Perris" referred to the DZ!

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[chopchop 0]

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The ride down under my PDR193 was lovely. Opening was quick, soft, and on heading. The sweet thing flew consevatively, but reliably, and a one stroke flare with my feet and knees together for good luck yielded a comfortable, if not perfect stand up landing on Perris' green strip landing zone.

I don't know why your Pilot went BOOM but I do remember a few nice rides I had under that particular PDR193.. one of them was even in Perris!

Good on ya, Tom!

chopchop
gotta go... Plaything needs a spanking..

Lotsa Pictures

[LloydDobbler 2]

Woo-hoo! Welcome back! (I say that, as if you haven't been doing this for almost as long as I've been alive.)


As to why the Pilot suddenly decided it was time to blow itself up, question for you - when you say 200 jumps, did you buy it new, or is that how many you've put on it?

I was just thinking of the study that was presented at PIA last year about sunlight exposure weakening canopy fabric. The damage was particularly bad in canopies with neon colors - I definitely remember magenta being one of the "bad" colors, but can't remember right offhand if orange or yellow also showed increased propensity for wear. I've got the study on CD somewhere, and can email it if you'd like to take a look....

Still, if you bought it new, at 200 jumps there's no way that amount of weakening should have come to pass by then.

Regardless, congrats! This was your first jump on a square reserve, eh?

Signatures are the new black.

[tbrown 26]

As to why the Pilot suddenly decided it was time to blow itself up, question for you - when you say 200 jumps, did you buy it new, or is that how many you've put on it?

I was just thinking of the study that was presented at PIA last year about sunlight exposure weakening canopy fabric. The damage was particularly bad in canopies with neon colors - I definitely remember magenta being one of the "bad" colors, but can't remember right offhand if orange or yellow also showed increased propensity for wear.
Still, if you bought it new, at 200 jumps there's no way that amount of weakening should have come to pass by then.

[jman 0]

I agree with SansSuit. I've only had two hard openings with my canopy. They were back to back jumps. After the second jump as I was getting ready to pack, I overheard a conversation about how a slider even a little down from the canopy can cause hard openings. I've been paying closer attention to keeping the slider in place and have not had a problem since.

[bwilling 0]

Maybe Bill's got it figured out...

"If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

[AlRedler 0]

That clip has a load of great explanations. I think I now understand my cutaway and my hard opening better just from listening to Bill's comments.

[tbrown 26]

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Maybe Bill's got it figured out...

Watched it once and will have to watch it again. The fact that all my injuries occurred on my left side only makes me wonder if I might have hung up a tuck tab. Something to think about.

I'm pretty much healed up now and will be back in the air soon. Aerodyne had a look at my canopy and informed me it was beyond repair.

They also made a very generous offer to replace my canopy with a brand new one, straight off the shelf, for a very generous price - like less than most decent used canopies. And I even told them I was not the original owner. I would like to commend Aerodyne for their wonderful and generous customer service.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !