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WI-Fly

Anybody here jumped with the VX-39

By WI-Fly, in General Skydiving Discussions

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DougH    270

DougH
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G forces put the lights out?




Yes. It killed Chris Martin from TN.



That sucks. What about a fail safe for a jump like that? You drop it and it cuts away?
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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gearless_chris    1

gearless_chris
I like the idea of using a tandem cypress cutter for a Racer to cut the 3 rings on the small canopy, then your real cypress can save your body. Maybe you could get the tandem cypress custom made with an even higher firing altitude like 4,000'.
"If it wasn't easy stupid people couldn't do it", Duane.

My momma said I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a$$hole.

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DSE    3

DSE
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I like the idea of using a tandem cypress cutter for a Racer to cut the 3 rings on the small canopy, then your real cypress can save your body. Maybe you could get the tandem cypress custom made with an even higher firing altitude like 4,000'.



Better yet, have a secondary harness that allows three canopies, with the handkerchief hand-deployed by someone in the aircraft, cut it away around 5k, and fly your usual main for landing.

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gearless_chris    1

gearless_chris
That's what Chris Martin was doing. He had a brakefire that spun him unconcious, no cutaway of the handkerchief(25 sq.ft. Xaos). I would want a back up plan for cases like that.
"If it wasn't easy stupid people couldn't do it", Duane.

My momma said I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a$$hole.

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skydiverek    58

skydiverek
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That's what Chris Martin was doing. He had a brakefire that spun him unconcious, no cutaway of the handkerchief(25 sq.ft. Xaos). I would want a back up plan for cases like that.



First of all, it was a 21 square foot canopy, second of all, he had an option of cutting it away. He missed the handle on the first attempt, and by the second attempt he was unconsciosus.

"As Perry has indicated, this jump was intended to be a "fun jump," the same as a "tube dive" or a "rubber boat" jump. It was intended neither as R&D, nor was it a stunt. The intent of the jump was to continue and refine the skill of docking a ram-air canopy in flight with a Birdman jumper in freefall. The same jump had been performed successfully the previous day on Friday, October 29. (see attached photo) The canopy is a Xaos-21 cross-braced tri-cell, coincidentally 21 square feet in area, and known familiarly as the "21-21". The wing loading was approximately 9:1.

I have had an opportunity to study the incident in detail. Here are some facts: The deployment was direct bag from the tailgate of the Skyvan. Chris Martin left the aircraft facing rear with his hands on the risers at the toggles. Initial inflation was clean and instant as anticipated, while Chris was still feet-to-earth off the tailgate. The canopy inflated downrange as expected, nose-to-earth just like on previous jumps, but the risers clearly pulled from Chris' hands as he transitioned during line stretch. All of this is within the first 2 seconds off the tailgate. The right brake became dislodged on deployment, possibly as his hands were pulled from the risers. The canopy immediately went into a stable and continuous constant rapid-rate turn to the left. It was an unimaginably rapid rate of turn. There were no line twists. The center of rotation was in the mid-riser vicinity. The propeller-like spin had stabilized within 2.5 seconds (six revs) with Chris face-to-earth and arms by his side. The flight mode as I have described was very stable for the almost 2 minute duration to landing.

The length of the entire assembly including jumper, from the top of the canopy to the soles of his shoes, was less than 12 feet. The rate of rotation was approximately 804 degrees per second. Exit altitude was 12,900 agl. Time from exit to landing was 01:58. Constant descent rate was approximately 110 feet per second. Observed data was confirmed by Neptune. After discussing the incident with Cliff Schmucker at SSK, had Expert Cypres been on board, the rate of descent was outside the normal operating parameters. Cypres would not have had reason to activate on this skydive, and would likely have been moot at best.

This is an initial report, and is solely intended to clarify some of the facts and dispel some of the rumors that have been speculated regarding this jump. This is not intended to be a complete report or analysis of the jump, but merely a statement of some of the data observed.

Best to all,
George Galloway
Precision Aerodynamics"

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CanuckInUSA    0

CanuckInUSA
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what is the smallest parachute you have jumped with



When first got into this sport (jumping 220s and 230s) I never thought I'd be flying anything smaller than a 150 or 170. But my JVX 87 is the smallest I've ever jumped and in all honesty I don't need to go any smaller. A 39 or 21 is out of my league (it's out of the league of 99.99% of us).


Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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