Hard Opening.... 5 Broken Lines... Cutaway !

[Zane 0]

Today on my first jump of the day, i exit the plane in a two way train then broke off and into a sit for a little while, then tracked away.... slowed down waited a few seconds on belly then pulled and BOOM it was such a hard opening i was yanked and jerked so hard i was winded, dazed and confuzed...and my back was in such excrutiating pain that i thought i broke something for sure.

Instantly i was in quite a line twist..... kicked out of it then looked at my toggles to reach for them and saw few broken lines ... (one of them was the brand new steering line).... look up and i see one half of the canopy flapping... Instantly i cutaway and pull my reserve ... i was grasping for air all the way down to safty.

What the hell could be the reason for such a hard opening and 5 broken lines? The packer that packed this rig had packed it 5 times two days ago and this was the sixth pack job but i couldnt make it to the last load of that day... so i jumped it today

I bought this rig used 10 jumps ago and iv been having issues with hard opening almost every jump. Canopy is a triathalon 190 and i weigh 175lbs .. so wing loading is fine.

Bottom line im so thankfull im sitting here at home typing this !!! Im hoping the pain will get a little better by tomorrow.... otherwise X-Rays :(

[PROGRESSIVE 0]

Your new line, was it properly installed, such as through the slider?

[Zane 0]

Yes it was properly installed. The guy i bought it from had it done few jumps before i bought it.

[skyhpp 0]

I had a similar experience many years ago after opening in a track - 3 broken lines resulted. In a moment of madness, I decided to land the main! Thanks to the best PLF I ever did I "walked" away - I was very lucky!

If the main has been opening normally on other jumps, I would guess that the cause of the hard opening is either due to body position (i.e. opening in a track) or a change in packing technique (unlikely if the same packer was involved throughout). Some canopies are prone to hard openings, so body position and packing technique have a huge influence.

Talk to the packer, and maybe consider asking someone to jump with you and watch your body position during deployment.

Cheers

[vesatoro 0]

Opening in efficient track is by no means problem. Opening a canopy in a dive is. With wingsuits, and in efficient tracking people normally open with lots of forward speed and slower vertical speed and get nice openings, while people who think they're tracking and in fact are diving tend to get hard openings.

just my opinion.

"Fear is the path to the Dark side"
(Master Yoda)

[tlshealy 0]

Try rolling the nose up real tight, thats what made my Tri start opening soft and consistant.
Tad

[darkwing 4]

It is unlikely that you will ever pinpoint a cause for this. There are several potential causes for slammer openings, some causes leave evidence and some don't. Sometimes they just happen, with no "cause" in the sense that there was something wrong in the packing or body position, etc. That is the nature of the beast.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[ScubaSteve 0]

Same thing happened to my over the summer. Hope you recover faster than me. I am still sitting here in pain. I would get checked out anyay.

[Reginald 0]

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What the hell could be the reason for such a hard opening and 5 broken lines?

I bought this rig used 10 jumps ago and iv been having issues with hard opening almost every jump.

First, I hope you recover soon. Hard openings scare the hell out of me.

Based on your comments above you have had varying degrees of hard openings on all 10 of your openings on this new canopy. Have you packed it yourself at all? Have you talked to your packer about the hard openings? Do you understand how he is packing and have you asked him to change how he is packing?

It could be body position but given your comments about all the opening being harder than you would like I suspect it is either a packing issues or possible an issue with the canopy itself. Are the lines properly trimmed, is the slider properly sized for the canopy? I would not jump it again until you’ve got competent advice on all of the above and more.

Get well.

"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

[billvon 2,434]

There are many reasons you might have had a hard opening.

1. The slider was not all the way at the stops. This will almost always cause a hard opening and can happen if you 'lose control" of the pack job and just stuff the last 6 inches into the bag haphazardly.

2. Line dump. Note that this is _very_rare_ and only happens when _all_ the lines fall out of their stows (including the locking stows) when the PC jerks the bag out of the container. For this to happen you have to have very bad (stretched) rubber bands and an oversized pilot chute. Make sure you are using good rubber bands, correctly sized stows and the recommended size pilot chute and this should never be a problem.

3. Line length problems. If some lines were replaced and some were not, you may have a line length problem since old lines shrink. Some lines (like brake lines) are especially susceptible - if they're too short they will cause hard openings.

4. Body positioning. If you are head-low when you deploy you will rotate more on opening, and that will make a hard opening feel even harder. If you have a shoulder low you can load one side of the canopy more than the other and get a hard opening.

5. Random slammers. Any parachute, even one that is correctly designed, manufactured, packed and deployed, can open hard. Canopy opening is a chaotic event, and random chance is a factor.

[ryoder 1,400]

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5. Random slammers. Any parachute, even one that is correctly designed, manufactured, packed and deployed, can open hard. Canopy opening is a chaotic event, and random chance is a factor.

Ahhhh...it's great to see a greenie agreeing with what I have been saying for years, based on personal experience and observing others. This is the reason I have sworn off on Spectra/Vectran/HMA and now have Dacron on all of my mains. Shit happens, and when it does, I'll take Dacron to minimize the effects.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[raymod2 1]

You imagined the whole thing because everybody knows that only Sabres open hard.

[Zane 0]

Thanx for your replies fellaz.
I went and got some xrays today and thank god nothing broke... just some torn ligs and pulled muscles that should heal with time. Right now im loaded with vicodin

As for the canopy... I remember the guy i bought it from said that he had the lines trimmed to make the canopy dive in more.

Does that have anything to do with the hard openings?

[mjosparky 3]

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Thanx for your replies fellaz.
I went and got some xrays today and thank god nothing broke... just some torn ligs and pulled muscles that should heal with time. Right now im loaded with vicodin

As for the canopy... I remember the guy i bought it from said that he had the lines trimmed to make the canopy dive in more.

Does that have anything to do with the hard openings?

Yes it does and now you know why he sold it.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[377 21]

I had a slammer with broken lines on my Tri 190 at WFFC. The slam was so hard that I broke a lot of blood vessels in my face, but nothing serious, just pain. I did a thorough canopy check and even with two lines broken it flew, turned and flared fine so I landed it. I think one of Packing Cathy's slaves forgot to stow the slider right, but thats just a guess, they might be blameless. As far as the broken lines go, my Tri 190 was an early model with TINY lines. I liked the lines because of low drag and faster canopy speed. Cliff at Aerodyne suggested I get it relined as those early lines were not found to hold up well. The canopy had less than 100 jumps, the lines looked PERFECT and I said I'd wait a while. MISTAKE. After two more incidents of broken lines (none requiring a cutaway) I relented and had it relined. No more broken lines. I also had the "Beef" mod done at Aerodyne and now the Tri flares much better, more linear response to brake line extension.

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[Amazon 7]

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As for the canopy... I remember the guy i bought it from said that he had the lines trimmed to make the canopy dive in more.

Does that have anything to do with the hard openings?

While you are healing send it to Aerodyne and get a new line set...It will ocme back with the new lines with the new mod to the steering lines.
I broke my Triathalon by not slowing down enough out of a speed dive last march.. it took a couple weeks and I have had no complaints on it since.

When you Pack it.. roll the nose outer 3 cells to the center on each side then roll the hell out of the tail.. I have openings so low on mine now.. hte damn slider never comes down all the way.. it sits about 3 ft above my head till I clear the brakes and pump it once.... I LOVE that snivel.