Katana 97 - Tight Tail Roll Causes Twists

[Shivinski 0]

Hey, just wondering if anyone else has had problems with rolling the joins of the tail too tightly around the neck and base which then cause twists.

Essentially I've done about 130 jumps on my Katana 97, and on the whole the openings are awesome (way better than my old Crossfire 104). However this weekend was the second time I've gotten twists on the canopy (having gone 400 jumps without a twist on my XF).

Luckily, I happened to be wearing a camera that was looking backwards and what it captured was quite interesting. The twists didn't come out the bag, as you can see from the video the canopy comes out the bag with a slight 45-90 degree off-heading, but then it stays wrapped in it's tail for quite some time before it manages to get air and start inflating the nose, during this time, as there's no inflation going on the whole bundle spins itself around causing the line twists once the canopy actually starts to inflate.

Now because I was wearing a big and heavy 360 camera on this jump, one thing I do remember whilst packing to try and slow the opening was that I made sure to make everything very neat, and I also remember doing 4-5 very tight rolls on the neck and then the same 4-5 rolls further down the tail when I wrapped it around. (As opposed to me usually doing 2 tight rolls on a normal packjob).

Now I don't know if that is what caused it, but from the video it does look like it could be a probable cause for the canopy staying wrapped up for too long.

Has anyone got any similar experiences, and what do most people do with the tail joins once they wrap it around the canopy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wKWvHiHY5A

[Dutton 0]

I stopped wrapping the tail tightly a long time ago. I just bring the center cell seams together and lay the pack job down. I do this on all the different skydiving mains 9 cell, 7 cell and cross braced. They all open nice. Concentrate on keeping the slider all the way up and presented properly. That's the key.
I jumped a Katana loaded at 2.0 for a few seasons and it opened nicely.
John

[Chris-Ottawa 0]

Been jumping my KA97 for he last 450 jumps and I had the same problem. I learnt over time that the less you mess with it, the better it behaves. I've only ever had 2 linetwsts and recovered both. It's been at least 2 or 3 years since I had even linetwists, maybe a half twist out of the bag, but if it clears without my intervention, I don't consider it linetwists.

Anyway, I do still roll the tail, but I take 2-3 BIG, loose rolls and pack it up. You're on the right track....loosen those rolls!

"When once you have tasted flight..."

[skow 6]

If i understood correctly what you mean, try instead of rolling the tail, putting one side under the other and pulling "apart".

You can see it here: (4m - 4m40s)

https://youtu.be/TyEshNybpng?t=4m1s

[Shivinski 0]

Quote

If i understood correctly what you mean, try instead of rolling the tail, putting one side under the other and pulling "apart".

That's a super interesting technique! I've never seen that before, but it looks quite elegant. Have you used this technique of over/under yourself?

[danielcroft 2]

Be careful not to displace lines if you choose to use this method - the same is possible when people roll the tail too much depending on the wing, etc.

[skow 6]

Yes, I've been packing like this for about 2 years now and absolutely no problems.