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Kris

How to break a Sabre in half...

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So, we just finished up with a great 4-way sit dive... Track clear, check, check, open.

Now, I'm open and I'm checking for traffic and doing my housekeeping (stowing slider, loosening chest-strap), I see Cody under his FX, I see Davinia under her Stiletto...where's Chris? Couldn't see him but my way was clear so I start getting into pattern to setup for my landing and carve. (Sweet landing BTW:)
As I'm gathering up my canopy, I see Marcus Thornton and another jumper looking skyward, away from Cody & Davinia....It was the other guy under his reserve. They said his canopy was folded like it had a line-over and spinning really bad before he chopped it.

Well, it wasn't a line-over, it was a massively hard opening. I've seen pics of ripped canopies but nothing like this.

One complete cell (yes kids, both chambers) blew out completely from top to bottom, front to back. The only thing holding the canopy together was the tape around the nose.

It was a 1991 Sabre 150 (possibly a 170) and I'm pretty sure it's totalled. He's contacting PD about it on Monday. This was his first cutaway and he handled it like a champ. Noticed the problem and immediately took care of business.

He stated that he packed it just like he has always packed it with quartered slider and tightly rolled tail. The brakes were stowed and the slider wasn't collapsed.
Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

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wow,

goes to show, it's hard to tell if a canapy is close to blowing up! The canapy looks like it was in pretty good conditions before it blew out, judging by the pictures.

When I was on student status, I used to love flying this PD-260 made of F1-11. The colors were bright so I figured it was newer. Some student had a "hard opening" and 2 middle cells were completly blown out! worse than your picture!

scott

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My first cutaway happened on my old Stiletto 135 which had approximately 1000 jumps(I had put 200 on it), and on opening 1 and a half cells on the left hand side blew out. Amazingly it wasnt diving or turning just floating there and realizing that i wasnt even going to attempt a controlability check i chopped it.
The edge ... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who know where it is are those that have gone over - Hunter S. Thompson

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Do you know approx. how many jumps the canopy has on it at the time?? I know several jumpers who in order to tame the openings of their sabres, got into the habbit of folding the outside 4 cells into their center cells during their pack job which can cause the center cell to blow out like that on a hard opening......could this have been a cause???

Blue ones,
sds
=========Shaun ==========


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the outside 4 cells into their center cells during their pack job



If I'm not mistaken, PD recommends to ROLL THE NOSE or FOLD IT leaving the center cell exposed when packing Sabres.
__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

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Kinda looks like what I did to my Spectre except it weas a bottom skin that ripped from the nose to tail on the second cell from the end.Still waitng to hear back from PD about it.Been 3months now.Last I heard they had the cell replaced and was test jumping it.


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wow,

goes to show, it's hard to tell if a canapy is close to blowing up! The canapy looks like it was in pretty good conditions before it blew out, judging by the pictures.

When I was on student status, I used to love flying this PD-260 made of F1-11. The colors were bright so I figured it was newer. Some student had a "hard opening" and 2 middle cells were completly blown out! worse than your picture!

scott



I had the same thing happen to my new Sabre (early nineties). It had less than 200 jumps on it. PD blamed it on packing but repaired it for free. The good part was that it happened on a beach jump in Sebastion and all the whuffos lined up to buy me drinks so that they could talk to me about it.



never pull low......unless you are

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Do you know approx. how many jumps the canopy has on it at the time?? I know several jumpers who in order to tame the openings of their sabres, got into the habbit of folding the outside 4 cells into their center cells during their pack job which can cause the center cell to blow out like that on a hard opening......could this have been a cause???

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I sure hope not, since that's how I pack and my Sabre has close to 500 jumps on it.
I've always roll the ends into the middle cell. Living in Colorado I want a nice opening.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

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Looks like his kids might've packed it, after they "forgot" for a couple hours AND rolled the lawnmower over it a couple time... "Oh God, dad's gonna KILL us! Better just pack it, he'll think it blew up and owe beer!".

But all in all, another live skydiver with a cutaway tail of derring-do. Well done!

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

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Generally speaking a canopy that old would have seriously decreased tear strength. Such a decrease is not at all obvious from looking at the canopy, which might even look to be in fairly good shape.

On a related note, I'm starting to become concerned over the incidence of "slammer" openings, regardless of whether or not they cause canopy damage. I think we need to start tracking them. It seems NO canopy is immune. Slammers can be career or even life threatening. I am not convinced that every slammer can be attributed to a packing error.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

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Just wanted to clear up some things. Number one I Cody was not on the jump it was Peter. Number two it was not a line over and the canopy had 350 jumps on it. Plus he pack the parachute in about 3min. Number three he might have still been in a track or didn't give a good time to slow down. He was all so just starting out learning to free fly and might have been going a little to fast when pulling. He had some makes on his chin from the opening but he was just fine.
cody
skydiver kid

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Yup. Pretty much everything I said except for mixing you & Peter up.;)

I didn't add the part about his possibly dumping in a track, or not being slowed down enough, because it was pure specualtion at that point.:|
Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

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