Spin video

[cpoxon 0]

A friend of mine had an interesting exit from a skyvan during the Christmas Boogie at Eloy. She gets bumped on exit and gets in a bit of spin. She is a proficient and experienced wingsuit flier, however looking down at her handles when cutting away her wings doesn't help her get out of the spin and neither does not tucking up the legs. Some may remember the post (with video) I made about getting in a spin from the Hercules where you can see the effectiveness of balling up to get out of spin. Being in a spin is scary. It happens very quickly and that is not the time to wonder about getting out of it, so be prepared! Thanks to Diane for letting me post this video for the education of others and thanks to the cameraman, EvilIvan

Anyway, the video is available on SkydivingMovies.com

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

[LouDiamond 1]

WOW, that was a pretty hellacious spin but as you mentioned, it could of been stopped right away had she balled up and closed everything down. Glad she was able to handle the situation and everything turned out alright. She gets cool points for hanging onto her handles

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[The111 0]

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Being in a spin is scary. It happens very quickly and that is not the time to wonder about getting out of it, so be prepared!

Both of those spins looked pretty scary. It's weird, I've been bumped twice on exit in my S3 and put into a spin, and they were not NEARLY as intense as those looked, although they lasted for several revolutions and 10+ seconds I'm guessing. I was a tiny bit scared but mostly pissed and tried to stay relaxed, and somehow just rolled right out of it without balling up. Not sure if I did something right to prevent it from getting bad or just got lucky. I'm pretty sure I arched really hard and put my feet on my ass. I don't think your leg wing has very much power when you do that...

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[Deuce 1]

I had a hellacious spin like that out of the Cessna the first time I jumped my S3. I don't think it lasted that long though.

Looks like she pulled her wings in, kept her tail out, and de-arched. Like any good test-pilot, she figured it out and succeeded, though.

I jumped with her the day or two before, and in level flight she beat the crap out of my ability. Just goes to show however current we are we must always be current on our emergency procedures.

Thanks for the video, it's very educational.

[medusa 0]

wow

thats a hard spin!!

I got a question, a friend of mine was jumping a sky board and he wenth into a spin and because of the G-forces he blacked out. luckily we woke up at 4.000 ft with no table on hes feet.

my question is: could you black out becouse of G-forces due to a severe spin in a wing suit???

Medusa

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Patent pending ATFK15456

[LouDiamond 1]

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my question is: could you black out becouse of G-forces due to a severe spin in a wing suit???

The simple answer to that question is yes. Depending on the individual, a relatively small amount of G force might cause one to go unconscious. If you watch the video , you can see where she picks up speed in the flat spin. Had she not gotten out of it, it eventually would of caused her to black out as the momentum continued to build and the forces increased, making it impossible to pull her limbs back in. She remained back to earth for the most part and had she not broken the axis of the spin it could of gotten ugly quick. Sometimes these spins will mutate into a spin on all axis as one tries to get out of them. Balling up, Cannon balling, closing the wings down or doing a "style tuck", however you want to call it, is the quickest and easiest way to stop the flat spin and slow the spinning down. Anything else is just wasting valuable time and altitude.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[medusa 0]

[replySometimes these spins will mutate into a spin on all axis as one tries to get out of them. Balling up, Cannon balling, closing the wings down or doing a "style tuck", however you want to call it, is the quickest and easiest way to stop the flat spin and slow the spinning down. Anything else is just wasting valuable time and altitude.

[LouDiamond 1]

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cannon balling: I guess is to bring your arms to your chest and your knees to your stomach.???

style tuck: is to close the 3 wings and arch???

balling up???

Todos significa lo mismo. Tu defintion de cannon ball es correcto pero style tuck es equivicado. Un style tuck parece mas como un cannon ball. Balling up es lo mismo de cannon ball.

ahora entiendes mendez?

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[PhreeZone 15]

Ok.. that was a scary video. I'm impressed that the camera man was able to stay with it.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[LouDiamond 1]

While the spin might be very fast, the actual vertical decent rate is pretty low in comparrison to it. In fact, some lift is generated by the spin itself. If you slo-mo through it you will see she never closed any of her wings down so she was pretty much back flying with a wicked spin. Which would account for his being able to stay as close as he did through most of it. Again it was a good save but had she closed all her wings down it would of stopped immediately and she wouldn't of had to cut her wings away. Very good teaching point and I'm glad she was able to get out of it.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[Deuce 1]

Riddle me this:

In the spin, I'm thinking the forces of the spin keep the wings close to the body, but the weight of the legs keep the tail inflated.

Without a very conscious effort to bring the legs together, the spin would increase? Spinning on your back might bring the arms naturally back, closing the wings, but the cetripedal (not centrifugal?) force would force the feet apart powering up the wing. A quick collapse of the wing and tail with an arch should bring the jumper belly to earth quickly, but folks who haven't been there don't understand how just a little tail exposed can cause great instability.

[LouDiamond 1]

Up until the person goes unconscious, the limbs will usually stay wherever they are at up until the forces become so great they can't resist them . Jump on a merry go round and have someone spin you on it and the ability to move ones arms or re-orient ones body gets pretty hard if not impossible, some carnival rides have the same effect.


If you don't close you wings down before you get to the point where you can't or black out, your going to be in a hurt locker. And yes, the tail wing can take you for a ride or continue to make things worse. As you know the tail wing catches a lot of air even with legs bent 90 degrees.

Once you ball up and stop flat spinning, you will probably be tumbling on another axis as you re-orient yourself stomach to earth. Once you see ground, open your arm wings and attempt to gain stability. This is where your body position will closely resemble a Style tuck as your knees will still be on your stomach and your knees/legs touching, effectively closing the leg wing down.Spreading the arm wings open usually stops tumbling and you begin flying again. Once you are stable, strighten your legs back out and open the leg wing. Once you're flying, re orient yourself to the DZ and fly the appropriate pattern as best as possible.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[evilivan 0]

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(Phree) I'm impressed that the camera man was able to stay with it

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(Lou) Which would account for his being able to stay as close as he did through most of it.

Resurrecting this thread as I only found out this weekend that Craig had put the video on the interweb....

I would love to take the praise Phree, but Lou is right - the only reason I didn't stay with her the whole time was because I thought: "Oh, she's out of this dive then, I'll go play with Dougal"... and then I saw that she seemed to really be in trouble and went back. The harder part was flying with her when her wings were cut away and she was arching...

Scary stuff, especially as this wasn't her first spin and she never had trouble sorting it before. The next morning you could see that several of the capillaries in her eyelids had burst. Play safe out there....

"If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation."
David Brent

[leoholanda 0]

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however looking down at her handles when cutting away her wings doesn't help her get out of the spin

I have a question. In my third jump with S.3 i had a flat spin which I could get of easily balling up myself. But I could notice that the biggest effect that causes the spin comes from the legs, not from the arms wings. So, its really a good choice to cut away the wings when spinning? I don't think so... Maybe that's why S.3 has the LQRS.

Leo Holanda

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

NEGATIVE! I would never, ever cut away the leg wing of a wingsuit in freefall! You see, you only release one leg when you do that and that will do nothing to deflate the wing. If anything it will cause you to spin more.

[leoholanda 0]

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NEGATIVE! I would never, ever cut away the leg wing of a wingsuit in freefall! You see, you only release one leg when you do that and that will do nothing to deflate the wing. If anything it will cause you to spin more.

Thanks for the explanation. But what do you think about cutting the arms wings when spinning?

Leo Holanda