Scary moment upon opening

[ntrprnr 0]

Happened yesterday...

Seemed stable. Waved off at 4,500, pulled around 4,000. WHAM. Really hard opening. As I was seeing stars, I looked up to check my canopy, realized I couldn't look up because I had line/riser twists. My head physically couldn't lean back, the risers prevented me from it. That was a little scary. First time having them like that.

Managed to pull the risers apart and shove my head through them so I could look up. As I did, I noticed the last of the twists correcting itself, I suppose my pulling the risers apart fixed it. Practice flared, all was fine, landed with no problems.

Things I noticed: I wasn't wearing a jumpsuit. Is it possible that my speed was much faster than what I was used to with a jumpsuit at pull time?

I was using pro-shop rented gear. A sabre 2 230 canopy.

Line twists: Really freaked me out when I realized I couldn't look up at the canopy, but it seemed to be flying well. I was at around 3,200 feet by the time I unstowed the brakes and started to head for home. I thought seriously about cutting away if I couldn't get the risers far enough up so I could look up by 2,800 feet - Was that sufficient time/a good amount to look?

Oh, and damn - is my neck/shoulders sore today.

Any thoughts?

Thanks...

ntrprnr

PS: I didn't pack it myself, but I totally don't blame my packer. He's packed for me before without any problems. Perhaps it was just a freak thing. I dunno.

_______________
"Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?"
"Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

[EvilLurker 2]

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I thought seriously about cutting away if I couldn't get the risers far enough up so I could look up by 2,800 feet - Was that sufficient time/a good amount to look?

I'd try a little longer than that, if I was making progress/it wasn't getting any worse. Did the rig have an RSL? I guess if you're not comfortable going below 2800 with a low-speed malfunction, it's up to you. I decided quite a while back I'll work on a low-speed problem down to 1600 feet, but no lower. You have to decide that one for yourself, but once you decide, stick to it.

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Is it possible that my speed was much faster than what I was used to with a jumpsuit at pull time?

It's possible, but I always fall faster in my jumpsuit. It's a real slick Tony suit, though. I don't see how that would have caused line twists. ???
Glad you're okay.

[dgskydive 0]

I had an opening so hard once, that I don't remeber the first 10 or 15 secinds under canopy. My buddy said he heard it in freefall it opened so hard.

Nothing broken on canopy and lande fine. Most likely I forgot to unstow my slider!!!! It was sotwed when I looked up after coming to. So i thing that is what happened.

Dom

[ntrprnr 0]

Was thinking the lack of jumpsuit caused me to fall faster, causing the hard opening. Don't know about line twists, either...

_______________
"Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?"
"Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

[quade 3]

The speed of freefall has little (if anything) to do with line twists.

Line twists are caused by two basic issues; packing and body position.

You don't have to pack twists in the lines in order for the pack job to cause line twists. All that is required is that the deployment bag leave the pack tray in an unstable manner. All that is required to do that is to have the last line stow be a little too close to the risers or have a piece of the bag caught up just a little bit on the container.

Which brings me to body position.

If your body is twisted a bit from the time you deloy your pilot chute to the time the deployment bag leaves the container, this can easily put a bit of a spin on the bag which also causes line twists.

Bottom line is, line twists happen. Depending on the canopy you choose to fly and how twisted the lines become, they can be an inconvience or something you need to cutaway from pretty quickly.

Make no mistake, people have died from line twists so it is something you need to be aware of during deployment so that you can act quickly if needed.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[margo81 0]

i had really bad line twists all the way to my neck on my last aff jump and yeah- it was scary!!! they started untwisting pretty quickly without kicking them out... if they did not i think i would have cut away... what i was thinking at that time was what if it get them as bad as this on my reserve...(unstable body position again) i will be lower than i am now with the same problem....
so God helped me i guess :)

[bch7773 0]

i learned static line, and had those kind of line twists on my first jump. I remember thinking,
"the parachute keeps your head pushed forward like this? the jumpmaster said I would be able to look around, that liar!"

then they untwisted themselves.

MB 3528, RB 1182

[Guest]

(<-- note my 32 jumps) Nowhere do you mention a hard deck or where yours is/was. IMHO you should decide for yourself what it is before the jump. (The SIM/USPA has guidance also.)

What my AFF/I said about the topic that stuck with me, was that if I don't have a landable main parachute by my hard deck, the decision has been made already. Mine is 2500. Since in that situation I'd be trying to get a good parachute anyway, if I thought it'd work itself out I'd keep with it until 2500. But I'm not gonna fight it a foot below 2500. For me its either flying okay or chopped 2500, which leaves me a little time to work with the reserve if necessary.

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[jose 0]

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A sabre 2 230 canopy

Hmmmm, this has a familiar ring to it. Like about the 5th Sabre2 slammer reported recently. Just be glad you didn't get injured like some others.

I've said it before......beware of the Sabre2 folks. It has skeletons remaining from the Sabre1 days.

Type in Sabre 2 hard openings in the search posts engine. You will find alot.

And learn to pack for yourself soon, as that will help you figure out what happened.

[kelpdiver 2]

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i learned static line, and had those kind of line twists on my first jump. I remember thinking,
"the parachute keeps your head pushed forward like this? the jumpmaster said I would be able to look around, that liar!"

then they untwisted themselves.

Heh - I had one of those. After I force out the twists, I found one brake fired and I was in a nice spiral.

Neck was sore for a few weeks after that.