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kallend

Reserve closing loop breaks, firing pilot chute

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I was sitting in the loading area at Summerfest about to board a plane, when suddenly my reserve pilot chute fired. Upon investigation the closing loop had broken adjacent to the splice where the cord joins back to itself to create the loop. It showed evidence of fraying, but this would have been inside the grommet and not visible in a normal visual pin inspection. Reserve had been packed March 1.

Fortunate that it happened on the ground and not while climbing out on jump run!
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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kallend


I was sitting in the loading area at Summerfest about to board a plane, when suddenly my reserve pilot chute fired. Upon investigation the closing loop had broken adjacent to the splice where the cord joins back to itself to create the loop. It showed evidence of fraying, but this would have been inside the grommet and not visible in a normal visual pin inspection. Reserve had been packed March 1.

Fortunate that it happened on the ground and not while climbing out on jump run!



Sharp edge on the grommet?
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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obelixtim

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I was sitting in the loading area at Summerfest about to board a plane, when suddenly my reserve pilot chute fired. Upon investigation the closing loop had broken adjacent to the splice where the cord joins back to itself to create the loop. It showed evidence of fraying, but this would have been inside the grommet and not visible in a normal visual pin inspection. Reserve had been packed March 1.

Fortunate that it happened on the ground and not while climbing out on jump run!



Sharp edge on the grommet?

Possibly. Had the grommet replaced anyway. (I'm not a rigger).
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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Interesting, as I have almost never heard of a reserve closing loop breaking in the era of Cypres style closing loops. It must have happened out there, after all, one does occasionally see a pretty fuzzy loop.

How many pack jobs or jumps was the loop in the rig for?
(In some places loops get replaced all the time without notation, in other places riggers tend to note on the card if a loop was replaced.)

It is a reminder that closing loops do wear not just on top, but on the sides of the eye (from dragging between grommets on a very tight pack job), or inside the eye (possibly from rough temp pins roughly inserted again especially in a tight pack job). And in your case maybe a rough grommet.

Of course with good technique one can minimize such wear, but the tendency is for loops to take more of a beating in this era of tight rigs.

(Heck over the years I've had a couple times where I put in a brand new loop, then scraped up the loop so much in trying to close the container with maybe a slightly too optimistically short a loop setting, that I've replaced the loop again, before finishing the pack job more carefully.)

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Sounds a little too low down to be a temp pin issue. Knifeing between two grommets of grommet and cutter. Do you have an AAD? If so what type? And where is it located, by that I mean which flap is it on? If you tell us the container that might answer that question.

I hate to say this but it's the price of the very thin loops that we are using these days. It's a result of the transition to sub flap cutters on AAD's. This is why my closing loop is made from 750 lb spectra. Que the hecklers. In the past I've also known riggers to make there loops from 500 lb spectra. Note these are non AAD equipped rigs. Stiffness is far less of an issue with out an AAD. Having said that I may some day die from a bent pin. An impact that would break a cypers loop. might on my rig just bend the fuck out of my pin and lock it closed. It's a chance I've chosen to take as a trade off for the security of a real loop.

Lee
Lee
[email protected]
www.velocitysportswear.com

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You say at a regular rogging loft but not 'your' regular riggi g loft. I'd guess that 70% (wag) of the active riggers have been trained in 10 day course. They may be a rigger burlt really have a license to learn.

I had an issue with loops being damaged during packing and having to open rig back up and replace. Took be awhile to find the problem. The edge of one of my closing aids had gotten rough/sharp without my noticing. As long as loop didn't touch that side all was good. If it did loop was damaged. While many rigger change loop every time, and I tend to, others don't.

Knoe the skill level of your rigger and consciously decide who to use. Don't leave to the shop to assign it to a newby unkess that's okay with you.
I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

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RiggerLee

Sounds a little too low down to be a temp pin issue.



Might still be a temp pin issue if the loop is cranked up too far before the temp pin is withdrawn and moved up. To fix this problem, some riggers make the loop big enough that it can be pulled all the way through the next grommet before the temp pin in removed.

-Mark

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councilman24

You say at a regular rogging loft but not 'your' regular riggi g loft. I'd guess that 70% (wag) of the active riggers have been trained in 10 day course. They may be a rigger burlt really have a license to learn.



The loft I usually use was closed so I took it to another one.

In answer to another question, the rig is a Javelin and the AAD is a CYPRES 2.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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