tonyhays 86 #51 March 4, 2011 QuoteIts my opinion that once the damage has occured, little further damage to the canopy is likely to happen The "glass is half full" approach. You willing to bet your life and your passengers life on that? I prefer the "glass is half empty".....The damage sure as hell won't get any better, time for plan B.“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #52 March 5, 2011 QuoteQuoteIts my opinion that once the damage has occurred, little further damage to the canopy is likely to happen The "glass is half full" approach. You willing to bet your life and your passengers life on that? I prefer the "glass is half empty".....The damage sure as hell won't get any better, time for plan B. Absolutely... Going through the thread again, the only wiggle room " I " see for landing something with that much damage, is the possibility that the TI may not always realize the extent of the failure. I understand 'in part' some of the arguments put forth by TI's with more experience than me, regarding sticking with it if it's flying well...but I still say, that's not a gamble I would take with a customer. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
obelixtim 100 #53 March 6, 2011 QuoteThe "glass is half full" approach. You willing to bet your life and your passengers life on that? I prefer the "glass is half empty".....The damage sure as hell won't get any better, time for plan B. I don´t think you saw me advocate any such thing as landing a damaged canopy, in fact I qualified my specific point about futher damage as being not likely to occur. A canopy will not crumble or disintegrate lke a wet biscuit....My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ocd11 0 #54 March 17, 2011 Hi Guys - I was the D-licensed passenger on this tandem jump. First - I want to say that it didn't take long afterwards for us both to realize that we did not make a smart choice. The thought occurred to me less than an hour later - hey what if the already damaged canopy decides to fail catastrophically and we were at 400 feet? We'd be dead. I personally learned several really important things from this jump. One of the most important, in my mind: If you see damage, assume you are not seeing all of it! We only thought we had two torn cells while we were still in the air. Once we were on the ground, we saw that in fact, 4 cells were blown out and there was a 2ftx2ft hole in the center of the tail. How we missed the hole, I do not know! I did in fact have chicken handles on this jump. We did discuss the opening, the suspected end cell closure, the realization of two cells being blown out, and yet the canopy was fully controllable. It flared properly, it was steerable. We did decide, together, to land it. If I were ever in a similar situation ever again, I'd chop that canopy as soon as I realize it's damaged, regardless of whether it's controllable. Because I don't want the incident report about me to say "attempted to land a damaged canopy that catastrophically failed at 400 feet". Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sinjin 0 #55 March 21, 2011 I would also like to add to this post that what you think is a good flare and landable at altitude is hard to judge. I have landed two main maifunctions. Both i thought it wasnt too bad till i was 100' off the ground and the ground starting coming up really fast !! I understand chopping a decent canopy for an unkown is a tough choice. Just give extra thought that judging your fall rate and flare is really tough at 3k.dont let life pass you by Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jumpdude17 0 #56 March 22, 2011 what was your wing loading? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FB1609 0 #57 March 23, 2011 Regardless of whether it seemed to e flying ok, I'd have chopped. Chances are better IMO. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
