Collapsible slider tabs considered harmful?

[mxk 1]

A jumper at my DZ had a main malfunction yesterday that resulted in a reserve ride. He thought it was a line over, but a closer examination of the video (screenshots attached) shows that the right collapsible slider tab got tangled with the C-D lines, causing a spin to the right. He was able to counteract the spin briefly after unstowing the brakes, but the canopy wasn't stable, and he had to chop it. It was an Aerodyne Pilot, loaded at about 1.5, if I remember correctly.

Has anyone seen similar incidents? Packing error or do the slider tabs make such malfunctions more likely? My PD Spectre just has a 3" piece of bartacked line sticking out and I always make sure that the ends are tucked into the slider to minimize the chances of them getting caught on anything.

[tsbrookes 0]

I have seen this happen once.
Not entirely sure of the circumstances (e.g. bad pack job or poor opening) but it appeared to be a similar issue with the slider getting caught in the c/d lines but not inducing a spin.
Not entirely sure of canopy or wingloading but the pilot kept it and didn't get the greatest flare out of the canopy and broke a leg and suffered some other injuries as a result.

I wouldn't anticipate the collapsible slider being a huge issue normally given that these appear to be standard on a lot of chutes and there have probably been a lot of jumps with only a small number of issues related to the slider.

I have seen more issues with freefly tubes etc caught in sliders/lines and causing problems for the pilot.

I'm not a rigger and only have 2 years in the sport and roughly 130 jumps. I haven't heard of this beng a significant issue but others may be able to provide more info.

[likestojump 3]

It can happen, but I would attribute it to either sloppy packing or poor kill string design. Easiest solution is to beef up the very end of the line that remains inside the kill line channel when the slider is fully expanded. In-field solution would be to use a rubberband to keep the line from sneaking out, while still allowing it to pay out once the jumper intends to collapse the slider.

[sundevil777 93]

I think it is a good idea to un-collapse the slider to the extent that the red tabs are slightly retracted into the slider. This ought to make it less likely that they could get caught by a cascade.

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[RMURRAY 1]

I don't like the tabs on the ends of the kill lines. personally I would get a rigger to get rid of them. replace the whole line if needed. so they pull inside the slider sometimes, better than a preventable cutaway. could be the first link of a real serious chain of events.

[hackish 8]

I've never seen it before but I've spent a good deal of time looking at the sliders. Personally I believe it was caused by poor packing. If you don't fully open the slider and have poor line control then yes that is more likely to happen. I would expect fully opened the lines should not be sticking out if they have tabs on them.

-Michael

[fcajump 153]

I've seen the potential for it, but not actually heard of it happening before. No surprise though.

My older PD-Spectre's have this style, but I understand that PD has since removed the tab and simply make the new lines blunt-ended and long enough to not get lost in the channel.

JW

Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

[DoZ3r 0]

If you look at picture two it is quite easy to see that the slider is not completely reset..

Picture from the good old PD main manual..

If everything seems under control.. You're just not going fast enough..!

[hackish 8]

I think it's worthwhile to note that equipment designers attempt to see how someone may mis-rig or mis-pack something and thus make their design tolerant to these situations. I know some of my work has been heavily driven by how a rigger "might screw it up".

-Michael

[philipturneraa 1]

Thanks for that. Good spot. That left hand tab would still be tucked into the channel if the slider had been properly reset.

I usually jump rented Pilots with exactly this type of slider. It's very easy to reset the slider (carelessly) and leave the tapered part of the tab exposed. This incident is an excellent reminder to be careful every time.

[dragon2 0]

Yes, I had a (pretty nasty) reserve ride due to the same thing.

My old safire 1 had the lines + tabs (or maybe they were just really long fingertrapped lines, can't remember) sticking out even when the slider was packed properly.

After my reserve ride, I called the Icarus rep that had sold me the safire, that they had a design problem. Answer: Yes, we know, we fixed it a while ago.



Well, thanks for mentioning this earlier....

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[stayhigh 2]

I've seen three.

Resulted two cutaway, and one half way collapsed slider.

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