2 out tandem @ drouge release

[lowpole 1]

Didn't know where to post this but, nobody injured and all gear recovered.

Those that skydive for a living, or just hang @ the dz all the time know that "student" or tandem suits are rode hard and put up on next load.

It all started after we washed our suits the night before; then, did a couple of jumps (tandem) in this suit on my students. Big guy day.

Well, no one noticed the hole in the tandems' suit just below his left shoulder on his back. While in freefall, the stray fibers pulled and wrapped around my reserve rip-cord which caused my reserve to deploy as well as my main at drouge release.
(see fotos attached - please excuse fuzziness from the extreme close-ups)

Exit, drouge-fall and the jump over-all was uneventful; but, as soon as i hit the drouge-release. the inch or 2 that the passenger dropped was enough to fire my reserve. my first thought was that either my lowers or leg straps went all the way out ( reserve tray was stuffed into the back of my neck ) but, i looked in front of me and saw my main ( A2 388 ) going vertically down in front of me. a nanosecond later i pulled cutaway and flew my strong master 425 down while stuffing handles into my student's suit.

Now, this is not anything i would have ever noticed or thought to check. so, when it happened i was completely surprised, and felt compelled to post it here. - or wherever it should be on forums ;)

edit to ad i was jumping a dual hawk Strong tandem, 388 A2 (main) with a( Master 425,reserve).
decent landing under reserve

Darwin's Watching!

[DesertDevil 0]

Quote

Didn't know where to post this but, nobody injured and all gear recovered.

Those that skydive for a living, or just hang @ the dz all the time know that "student" or tandem suits are rode hard and put up on next load.

It all started after we washed our suits the night before; then, did a couple of jumps (tandem) in this suit on my students. Big guy day.

Well, no one noticed the hole in the tandems' suit just below his left shoulder on his back. While in freefall, the stray fibers pulled and wrapped around my reserve rip-cord which caused my reserve to deploy as well as my main at drouge release.
(see fotos attached - please excuse fuzziness from the extreme close-ups)

Exit, drouge-fall and the jump over-all was uneventful; but, as soon as i hit the drouge-release. the inch or 2 that the passenger dropped was enough to fire my reserve. my first thought was that either my lowers or leg straps went all the way out ( reserve tray was stuffed into the back of my neck ) but, i looked in front of me and saw my main ( A2 388 ) going vertically down in front of me. a nanosecond later i pulled cutaway and flew my strong master 425 down while stuffing handles into my student's suit.

Now, this is not anything i would have ever noticed or thought to check. so, when it happened i was completely surprised, and felt compelled to post it here. - or wherever it should be on forums ;)

edit to ad i was jumping a dual hawk Strong tandem, 388 A2 (main) with a( Master 425,reserve).
decent landing under reserve

I've never heard of anything like this! Thanks for sharing. Glad everybody is ok

[lowpole 1]

to be honest , my student saw the main an told me after i transfered to the reserve " your the profressional and i'll let you work that out .

i'll try and get the vid up on youtube.

adding more pix also.

Darwin's Watching!

[dzjunky77 0]

anyu updates?

[piisfish 135]

very interesting malfunction. Thanks for sharing. Did the fibers just wrap around the cable/swayball ? or did it pull the handle ?

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[shropshire 0]

wow!!

That 'Opening' photo is really interesting

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[lowpole 1]

Strands were wrapped around the ripcord, handle was still in place on landing.

Darwin's Watching!

[lowpull 0]

Guess those handle touches we preach about in the course might actually be a good idea after all huh?

[jdfreefly 1]

I would find it highly unlikely that this would be caught during a handles check, even if the tm was in the habit of doing multiple checks during freefall.

I'm not saying people shouldn't do handles checks but this could be easily missed when doing one since the strands were wrapped around the end of the cable.

Also, if you did notice this in freefall, what would you do? The only thing I could think of would be to grab a hook knife and cut the strands away. I'd be worried that I would actually fire the reserve trying to just rip them off.

Methane Freefly - got stink?

[AFFI 0]

Quote

The only thing I could think of would be to check my altitude, then grab a hook knife and cut the strands away.

This is a great topic of discussion.

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[lowpull 0]

From the pics, I believe you would have been able to feel something amiss immediately.
I teach candidates to grab the handles exactly like you were going to use them, not quick "slaps" like I have seen countless times, if the Instructor bothers to do them at all.
And throw in a hand-cam(which I am totallt opposed to anyway) and handle touches are a thing of the past.
Back on topic though,,,I truly believe you would have felt the entanglement.

As far as the question asked about what to do if it happened to me, I would have spent about 5 seconds tops trying to see if it would come unwrapped, and fired the reserve at pull time.

[timmyfitz 0]

Quote

Quote

The only thing I could think of would be to check my altitude, then grab a hook knife and cut the strands away.

This is a great topic of discussion.

I have always done my handle checks right after I throw the drogue, shortly after exit. In this case, I am already aware of my altitude.

[jdfreefly 1]

I see your point, and it's a good one. If you're doing a proper check (more than just slapping the handles like a useless seal) and the entanglement had already occurred you probably would have noticed something was a miss, but given the angle it may be difficult to figure out what it was.

I always did (I am retired

Methane Freefly - got stink?