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Edra

A air Gremlin ???

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This is going to seem ridiculous but in the following video at 3:20 we see someone setting up for a swoop and they get a air gremlin ??.
What is that. Why did that happen at 3:20 to that canopy?
Does any one else have experience of such things ?
I have tried search but to no avail.
It is quite scary to see the direction and speed that the canopy failure occurs... let alone the altitude.
Thanks in advance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0GcJxwM_pw#t=208
[yout­ube]c0GcJxwM_pw#t=208[/you­tube]
"You'll shoot your eye out kid"

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Oh, that's that Dubai swoop comp collapse from Dec 2011, on, what was it, a Petra.
Others will remember more but basically it was
a) turbulence,
combined with
b) a somewhat experimental ultra high performance canopy that neither you nor I nor 99.9% of skydivers would ever be allowed to jump.

Search for the "JPX Petra - stability issues?" thread.

Yes it was a good Skyhook advertisement in effect.

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Ok :D gotcha thank you lads, your insight on the Petra has helped greatly I would have been forever mystified as to what happened there. It was so sudden and the canopy went the opposite direction to what i thought was even physically possible.

"You'll shoot your eye out kid"

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Thank you lads, that one is another prime example..

We can see other canopys landing further up wind without encountering the air gremlin.
To deflate the canopy like that is really scary so close to the ground.

its like the canopy ingests a pocket of nothing for air, they appear around 500 ft and under...

Question for those in the know..

Would one of those Brian Germain designed one way inlet canopys make these kinds of encounters safer by not deflating upon encountering the Air Gremlin ?
"You'll shoot your eye out kid"

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Edra

Would one of those Brian Germain designed one way inlet canopys make these kinds of encounters safer by not deflating upon encountering the Air Gremlin ?

It'll help keep the canopy pressurized, but it won't stop the nose folding under at negative angles of attack. There really isn't much you can do about that, barring rigid lines or something.

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Wowza, that's a fun one. Just a few weeks ago at a local DZ I got smacked by a dust devil on landing, that was a new experience for me that I'm not keen to repeat. Relatively straight-in approach (front riser 90 to final, but at an altitude where I was back to normal glide speed for landing), and right before touching down I got picked up and thrown a few metres to the left.

Doesn't take a crazy canopy to get caught out, if the winds and turbulence get weird there's no shame in stepping down.
cavete terrae.

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