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VTmotoMike08

My tandem malfunction- drogue in tow due to mis-rigged 3-ring (Stong tandem)

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I fixed our Strong 3 ring system problems at the beginning of this summer....sold them all and went Sigma!!

Lance



Yep, that is the real answer to the problem.
wel done, Changing a whole fleet is not a cheap thing to do. Most are too tight to take the plunge.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

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wel done, Changing a whole fleet is not a cheap thing to do. Most are too tight to take the plunge.



Thanks Rhys, your right the switch was not cheap at all! But one season into the switch and I can honestly say I don't regret it one bit, well worth the extra money for the sigmas!

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First, thanks for posting this it takes a lot of courage. And congrats for surviving.

Just remember packing is dull, mind numbing, and sucks, mistakes happen. So try to go easy on them.

Just a few notes and observations:

1. No Handles check and none mentioned in the report, there might have been a primary secondary but no cutaway and reserve check, perhaps it was edited out though.
I think they are required and at the very least it's good practice, since they move and can be under students clothing so it's best to know ahead of time.

2. It looks like your knees are almost griping the student so when she truly knee flys on you your knees move down as well
With normal students that don't completely arch I dearch as well (still maintaining positive legs) but with the true knee flyers I arch and keep positive pressure on the legs. But this can be debated to death and everyone will find what works best for them.

3. As you watch her arm go to full extension your knees sitck with hers for a bit then release and it seems in your back legs that there is a panic going on after realizing it didn't work while searching for the instructor handle.
Remember to do a complete handles check on every jump

4. When its time to cutaway and go to the reserve there is definite signs of panic as the legs are kicking this way and that.
I fly almost all legs with the idea that in the event of a chop I will still have control when my arms come in. and I practice when there is no video only using my legs

Congrats and thanks again for posting so we may all learn.

-Dave

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Alright, now that the incident report has been submitted to Strong Enterprises and I know the student won't be suing me, I will post here about my first tandem malfunction- a drogue in tow due to a mis-rigged 3-ring drogue release on the strong tandem system. Below is a copy of the report I submitted to Strong:
______________________________________
Date: 8/14/10
Equipment: Strong Dual Hawk Tandem with SET 400 and Master 425 reserve
TI # of jumps: 606 total, 41 tandems
Injuries: None

After a normal exit, drogue throw and initial freefall, the student pulled the primary ripcord when prompted at 6,000 feet AGL. I observed a good pull to full arm extension but immediately noticed that the drogue was not released and we continued in free fall. I immediately pulled the instructor’s (secondary ripcord) and the drogue still did not release. I initiated emergency procedures and pulled the cutaway pud and reserve handle, and the reserve pilot chute launched clear of the drogue and the reserve inflated.

After a visual check of the reserve and handing both handles to the student, I felt the main bag fall out of the container, hit my foot, and then begin to inflate behind me. I immediately reached over each shoulder with the opposite hand and cleared each riser (which had been successfully cutaway) off of the large harness ring, and the main detached. I finished a control ability check on the reserve above 3500 feet. I had an uneventful landing with no injuries under the reserve.

I was able to inspect the high resolution still photos from the jump to determine the cause, which was a misassembled 3-ring drogue release that I failed to catch on my pre-jump inspection, which was performed. The small ring seems to have been routed through the middle ring and the big ring, and the three rings hung up on each other and did not release until after pressure was released by the opening reserve. The photos clearly show both ripcords were pulled. However, the conditions were just right for the rings to hang on each other and not release.

The solution to make sure this never happens again will be for me to perform a more thorough pre-jump inspection and to retrain the packer who misassembled the drogue release.
______________________________________

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPjctnA6Os0

Anyway, this malfunction has undoubtedly happened before, but the real point of this post is to share the amazing photos of an actual 3-ring hang up in mid-air. After the student ripcord pull, she really dropped her knees and this rotated us 180 degrees so the camera guy got a perfect shot of the rings hung up with both ripcords pulled. I doubt there has ever been a photo like this in such high resolution before. Contact me if you are a tandem I or IE and you want a full size photo for training purposes, these shrunk ones really do not do it justice. I also have several stills of the ripcords being pulled and a high res video. See attached.

A few other points:
-The student only knew we were under a reserve because she asked me if she could help steer and I had to tell her no, because there are no student toggles on the reserve. Later, she commented "it felt like it took a while for something to happen after I pulled the ripcord!"
-We tried to re-create the malfunction on the ground. We could rig the rings in the same way, but we could not get it to "catch" and it would always release with even a slight tug. As best as I can tell, it was just a freak occurrence.
-I'll be pretty happy if I never have to land a Master 425 canopy again... it just sucks to fly and land
-Gotta get back up, I did 7 more tandems that weekend.
-And finally, yes, FUCK ME! for not catching it on my pre-flight check. I put this on here so others could learn from it, and I really don't need 100 posts of people telling me how stupid I was.



I jump Strongs as well. I've worked many weekends when we're turning load after load. I look at the rig before I put it on but I have to be honest and say that even though i've looked, I've found myself wondering if I really "looked" and did not just go through the motions. Thanks for sharing. I know I will be more attentive when I do gear checks. Have fun, Be safe.

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