saturday southern CA chaos

[westcoastchica 0]

well, after seeing two reserve rides before noon at elsinore, grasshopper and i decided to head for perris, to see what the vibe was over there. (leaving my rig at elsinore, so that i wouldn't be tempted to gung-ho it for one quick load with the rest of the .com family.)
after taking two steps and looking up to see j.c., i screamed with joy and attacked him and knew things must be going better over there. WRONG. after an hour of wandering around with j.c, i had to let him go to take a student up, and that is when i ran into mark (shark) and viking and carl, etc. and they said that nelson broke his leg. ugh. poor nelson!!! then i turn around to see someone turn right into the ground, and out came the police, the fire department, and the paramedics. man. then, after no sight of kimmer, zclubber, or michelle...i decided to retreat back to my comfort zone, elsinore. poop.
sorry i missed you guys. i think giving this record thing another shot in a few months is an awesome idear. then we can have a kimmer, a clubber, and even a michelle on the load. and maybe, since he can't join in, we can just set nelson up with an ice chest full of beer and see how loaded we can get him by the end of the day. hee hee. and maybe next time, we can plan it for one day. so we are all coordinated and what not. i dunno.
anywho, i would love to give jumping at perris a shot, but what do you guys think about maybe going for the record over at elsinore next time? ooh ooh, perhaps we could link it with the skydiving chicks rock boogie in october...i know the guys would be all for that. ha ha ha. well...hmmm, guess that is a month or two away and we can talk about it then.
k, chat at ya later guys!
Lara

[zclubber1 0]

Yeah, it was a little wierd at Perris Saturday. 2 injuries (I feel horrible for poor Nelson) AND an accidental cypres fire at 4000'. Not to mention at least a few reserve rides. Too bad I missed you there. Michele and Albatross were at the hospital for most of the day, but I stayed at the dz and jumped. I was around, but I guess we just didn't find each other. I'm sure we'll hang out next time though.
-can't you trip like I do-
Clubber

[Aviatrr 0]

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Yeah, it was a little wierd at Perris Saturday. 2 injuries (I feel horrible for poor Nelson) AND an accidental cypres fire at 4000'. Not to mention at least a few reserve rides.

An ACCIDENTAL CYPRES fire at 4k? What happened - did somebody turn on their CYPRES on the ride to altitude? Was it a mis-fire? Anybody know what happened with that?
Mike

[zclubber1 0]

I'm not exactly sure on the details, or who it happened to. I do know that the cypres was on before boarding the plane and that he (i think it was a he) had jumped the rig several times that day before the misfire. I can't remember if any .commer's were on the load with him.

[Michele 1]

Hi, all.
Albi and/or DZbone and/or Shark will have more details - it happened to Nick, Albi's friend, who jumped on my graduation load.
From what I understand (although I was not with them), Nick's cypres fired at 4'000. The cypres was on before boarding the plane, was and had been working fine. Thank God they intended to pull at 3, or else it would have been a tragedy. I think Shark noticed something odd just prior, but I could be wrong (I was drinking more than I am used to that night while the conversation was going on). Thank God Nick was o.k.
It was a wild, wooley weekend at Perris. Sunday saw at least two reserve rides, an intentional cutaway, and a monster dust devil which, in the words of Lisa at the school, "the biggest damn dust devil I'd ever seen, and it was hungry for canopies".
As of Saturday, they are not sure what happened to the cypres. There was talk about sending it to the factory, but I don't know anything else.
Albi? DZ? Shark? Can you give better/further details?
ciel bleu-
Michele

[Aviatrr 0]

Hmmm.. Are you guys sure it was a CYPRES, and not another type of AAD? Such as, possibly, an FXC? CYPRES mis-fires are rare, but I have personally witnessed one from about 2 feet away..
Mike

[DZBone 0]

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Are you guys sure it was a CYPRES

Yup. This was something I had never heard of before. [plug for sympathy gear] I was going to get me one of these, but now I'm so traumatized, I don't think I will [/plug].
Seriously, tho. We were just breaking off from a four-way. We had done a free exit out the back of the skyvan, and Nick was second out. He hesititated [generosity]a bit[/generosity], so he, Albitross and I had a lot of work to do to catch up to Shark. Nick and Albi went head-down a couple of times, but made it down. I was just getting [generosity]close[/generosity] at 4k, so I lurked to see where the open quadrant was going to be. I saw Nick turn and start to track, when it fired. At first I thought he had just pulled in the center, but then I saw the freebag go. On the ground, it was obvious what had happened, just not why. The reserve closing loop had been cut by the Cypres, and his handles and main p/c were stowed normally. Everyone found this very odd. He's going to send it back to the manufacturer with a heater.
Strange.

[westcoastchica 0]

okay, i would totally love to hear the details on the misfire. how bizarre! madness! let's hear it mark, carl, anyone. what the heck happened?
oops, carl beat my post. good Lord, what a freaky thing to happen! carl, if you hear what the final word is from the manufacturer, i would be really interested in hearing about it. it would definitely make a good post. dish it, if you ever hear about the response, k?
p.s. wish we could have had a better chance to talk, carl. i'll catch ya next time!
Edited by westcoastchica on 7/30/01 01:56 PM.

[Shark 0]

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Hmmm.. Are you guys sure it was a CYPRES, and not another type of AAD? Such as, possibly, an FXC? CYPRES mis-fires are rare, but I have personally witnessed one from about 2 feet away..

Definitely a Cypres misfire. My ProTrack was set for 4.5. It beeped and I waved everyone off and as I turned 180 it *looked* like Nick's PC started to deploy. First thought to me was *why* he deployed and/or did his pc come out of the pouch. When I landed I saw a sky blue canopy of a reserve. He was by Albi and knowing that he landed safely I went to check on Michele. Later I found out about the misfire and did a visual inspection and saw that the pc was still neatly folded in the pouch and the cypres cable cut through the reserve closing loop. Both handles still in there places. Yes, I'm sure and it was between 4.5 and 4. An even scarier thought is that he was low on the formation a couple of times.

[Albatross 0]

Jusk like Shark and Carl said it was a true misfire at 4000'. Carl had the visual on the Alti III and Shark had the Pro -Track which showed him under canopy by 2000' and Nick was 1000' above him. My dytter had not gone off at 2000 when I first saw him under canopy. I will keep everyone updated as the information comes in.
Chris
Ready, Set, GOOOOOOO
Albatross

[Aviatrr 0]

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Jusk like Shark and Carl said it was a true misfire at 4000'. Carl had the visual on the Alti III and Shark had the Pro -Track which showed him under canopy by 2000' and Nick was 1000' above him. My dytter had not gone off at 2000 when I first saw him under canopy. I will keep everyone updated as the information comes in.

I don't doubt that it was a mis-fire that occured at around 4k - if it happened at the altitude it was supposed to, and you guys were just starting to track, you probably would've gone in or had a CYPRES fire yourself.. The only thing I was wondering about was whether it was truly a CYPRES or possibly an FXC.. The term CYPRES seems to be used often to describe any type of AAD.. FXC's are known for firing high..
Based on the explanations, I don't doubt now that the CYPRES fired and cut the closing loop.. That's a sure-fire way to tell the AAD deployed the reserve rather than some other action(such as a dislodged pin).. Definitely keep us updated..
BTW, was this Nick's own rig or a rental? I'm assuming it's his, but not 100% sure..
Mike

[Shark 0]

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I don't doubt that it was a mis-fire that occured at around 4k - if it happened at the altitude it was supposed to, and you guys were just starting to track, you probably would've gone in or had a CYPRES fire yourself.. The only thing I was wondering about was whether it was truly a CYPRES or possibly an FXC.. The term CYPRES seems to be used often to describe any type of AAD.. FXC's are known for firing high..
Based on the explanations, I don't doubt now that the CYPRES fired and cut the closing loop.. That's a sure-fire way to tell the AAD deployed the reserve rather than some other action(such as a dislodged pin).. Definitely keep us updated..

Whatever, it never happend, and it was a cheap imitation of a Cypres. We lied and I didn't track away. We were just trolling to see how many smart people in the *know* would respond to this.

[Aviatrr 0]

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Whatever, it never happend, and it was a cheap imitation of a Cypres. We lied and I didn't track away. We were just trolling to see how many smart people in the *know* would respond to this.

I'm not sure what got your panties in a wad, but maybe you mis-understood what I wrote.. I never called you a liar.. Re-read my post..
Mike

[Shark 0]

Didn't mean to offend you either, but you just seemed so sure about what happend.