Reserve Parachute Deployment - Line Twist

[Gavrilo Andrić 0]

Hi people, 

During this weekend I had a quite aggressive line twist, at least from my point of view ATM. This is X-fire 124ft (loaded around 1.57) made by Icarus World. I'm not 100% sure what went wrong and what caused this situation, so please shoot your opinions and advises :)

Thanks!

 

 

[Deyan 36]

To me it looks like self induced line twist. You should stop pulling on your risers at line stretch. You might get away with doing that on a Sabre 2/3, Safire like canopies, but on higher performance canopies, you will "get bitten". How many jumps you have in total, and how many on this canopy ?

[Gavrilo Andrić 0]

Thanks @Deyan, I have around 340 jumps in total and 75-80 jumps on this canopy. 

[20kN 93]

You need to work on your video editing skills. That showed us literately nothing. That is a 360 camera so you can show us the canopy in every frame. There are an infinite number of things that can cause linetwists and every one of them that can cause it on a main can cause it on a reserve too. Reserve linetwists are common. Cutaways often involve poor body position which substantially increases the chances of twists on your reserve.

Edited September 23, 2020 by 20kN

[Deimian 43]

5 hours ago, 20kN said:

You need to work on your video editing skills. That showed us literately nothing. That is a 360 camera so you can show us the canopy in every frame. There are an infinite number of things that can cause linetwists and every one of them that can cause it on a main can cause it on a reserve too. Reserve linetwists are common. Cutaways often involve poor body position which substantially increases the chances of twists on your reserve.

That is a 360 camera, and the video is also 360. You can turn the POV in every direction by dragging with your mouse. I suspect you just played it and looked at the video. I am not sure if you can turn it on a phone, but I would assume you can.

 

Regarding the twists, it looks to me like you pulled on your left risers and that induced the twists. I flew X-Fires 124, 113 and 102, and in 400 jumps with them I had twists twice (once with a 113, once with a 102). At least one of these twists was self induced (pulled half in a track and with a shoulder definitely lower than the other one). X-Fires open remarkably well. Honestly I doubt that at 340 jumps you are ready for that canopy. An X-Fire 124, at 1.57 is nothing to mess with. Most people recommend that at about 2x your experience. I think that that inexperience played a role in your twists. Be careful, I knew people with more experience, a less aggressive wing and less wingload, that crashed and died in otherwise perfect conditions.

[Gavrilo Andrić 0]

Here comes (probably) a better angle https://youtu.be/_6E6ytENoQ4 it looks like to me that I had a poor body position after tracking (braking only with one hand, and keeping the other one on the PC)

 

[Maddingo 21]

Nobody noticed his dbag turned almost 90 degrees on it's own before the canopy came out? I think it's just bad luck or you dipped one side of your body, causing the dbag to rotate.

 

Also nice save, but I'd try to kick out the line twist for a bit longer. It seems it was not a deep one.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Maddingo

[20kN 93]

Ok, now that I tried looking at it on a computer the issue is clear. I dont know what exactly started the linetwists. Probably dipped a shoulder low through the deployment. But the more important part is that X Fire started diving on you because you have uneven risers. Whenever you get linetwists the FIRST thing you do, especially on an elliptical canopy, is to get the risers even. Look at the slinks to see if they are even or not. If the slinks are are uneven the lines are uneven which will put the canopy into a spin. Even a reserve can dive on you if the risers are uneven enough. If you would have evened up the risers that canopy would have stopped spinning right away and you would have been fine.

Edited September 23, 2020 by 20kN

[JohnMitchell 16]

On 9/23/2020 at 2:14 AM, Gavrilo Andrić said:

 poor body position after tracking (braking only with one hand, and keeping the other one on the PC)

 

Your shoulders looked level. I don't brake at all after tracking, just wave and pull (did you not wave off?). 

 

[Gavrilo Andrić 0]

13 hours ago, JohnMitchell said:

Your shoulders looked level. I don't brake at all after tracking, just wave and pull (did you not wave off?). 

 

Later I've looked at other videos of deployments I had and figured it out I'm actually not waving at all. Somehow I've used to it and never actually thought I'm not doing it. Good news is that bug was quite easy to fix when you are aware of it.

Also, since then I'm analyzing every opening using 360 camera and I'm noticing two dominant patterns even when my body is in optimal position

1. Dbag sometimes starts spinning while lines are stretching (after one or two rubber bands, so in the early phase). I've changed the rubber bands, even changed the rubber band type and still sometimes dbag just starts spinning, maybe in 2 out of 10 jumps.
2. Lines stretches properly, everything comes out (and it looks ok) and suddenly whole cocoon make 180deg (so I'm assuming there is also some sort of packing error, maybe I'm inducing cocoon hesitation)

While packing I'm double stowing with 2-3cm lines left on the side, and during the last couple of pack jobs I'm following instructions similar to this one (video), except I don't have semi-stowless d bag. In short:

1. Take outer cells and turn them in toward the center
2. Open and expose the center cell

I would appreciate any advice you may have for me :) 

Edited November 9, 2020 by Gavrilo Andrić
packjob explained