Wings wrapping around reserve - possible or not?

[mccordia 73]

We have a rigger, who has been telling horror story for quite a while now, about some guy in a classic having a delayed reserve opening, due to the unzipped wings of his wingsuit, being wrapped around the container.

Given te fact that is was a classic the guy was flying, it seems highly unlikely. And the force a bit of flappy nylon would seemingly never hold or delay a springloaded reserve pilotchute in the container, but you never know.

The rigger tested it (with a packing-mat, not with an actual wingsuit) and says its clear that its dangerous.

Has anyone ever heard about this 'danger' and/or experienced this exact phenomenon?

And (if possible) take some pictures (interested in different brand/size suits) while wearing your wingsuit, arms unzipped, and see if you can wrap your reserve container in the wings (the way it would normally blow back by relative wind)

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[phoenixlpr 0]

Quote

We have a rigger, who has been telling horror story for quite a while now, about some guy in a classic having a delayed reserve opening, due to the unzipped wings of his wingsuit, being wrapped around the container.

Was it a terminal opening or from cut away? My guess for slow opening is the low vertical speed.

[dragon2 0]

Personally I'd chalk this up to our national rigger troubles

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[piisfish 135]

maybe people should try unzipped, but also with cutaway wings

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

[robibird 2]

to me this problem should be addressed to the container only. If this was classic suit the wing area is really small and if you idealy cover the container top, than maybe this can lead to some delay, personally I do not believe this is possible.

Wings may create bigger turbolence behind the body but this shouldn't be a reason as well cause so many jumps were done in the way were the pilotchute were thrown in to the heaviest burble possible and worked well.

Lately we witnessing perfectly packed rigs were flaps refuse to open due the lack of tension against the pin... I would guess that this might be the case here as well...

Robert Pecnik
[email protected]
www.phoenix-fly.com

[saly 0]

I doubt there is any credibility to this story.

Any reserve pilot chute that pushes through the closing flaps should have enough inertia to clear any cutaway/unzipped arm wings. There are no snag points that could hang up the pilot chute (note to self to double check). A weak spring that barely pushes the pilot chute through the closing flaps will place the directly on you back in a burble that will delay deployment if you don't clear it by dipping a shoulder. I have grounded reserves where the pilot chute did not even crown out of the flaps!

For my own EP's cutting away or unzipping wings only happens once I have a flying canopy above me, albeit my reserve. EP's with closed/collapsed wings are far more favorable TO ME because they are under control and not flapping around . Cutting away or unzipping wings are in my sequence of procedures if I have an inflight failure of a zipper, blowout of a wing or as a final resort to a spin when all else has failed.

But food for thought, further deliberation and testing

---------------------------------------------
If you don't have wings you will never fly

[mccordia 73]

Quote

For my own EP's cutting away or unzipping wings only happens once I have a flying canopy above me

I hear many people say this, but when encountered with a spinning main which still has a chance of recovery, the first thing most people do is unzip and try and untwist the main.

If you realise its not going to work, the cutaway is the next step.
But in most wingsuit cutaway videos we see, people give the main a try first, and thus unzip wings.

So doing a cutaway with unzipped wings is something that could definately happen to many people depending on how good or bad a twist (or other, initialy low-speed malfunction) is.

In the incident mentioned (though Ive never seen any official reports on it), the larger burble wasnt mentioned as a cause.
The wings holding the reserve container shut where mentioned as a cause.

Aside from maybe burnmarks on the wing and or pilotchute/bridle (havent seen or hear anything about that) I couldnt really see how this cause could have been determined, and was therefor interested in other peoples views.

So the question is..

Could the wings of a wingsuit (zipper or unzipped) wrap a reserve container to the extent of not permitting/hindering a reserve-pilotchute to clear.

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[tr027 0]

I had a cutaway last month, Vampire with a Wings container, the wings were unzipped but not cutaway prior to the chop (without RSL), and everything worked perfectly (1 or 2 sec delay). With any decent spring tension I can't imagine how the wings would stop the reserve PC.

"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it. " -John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[moonglo 0]

I cut away from line twists with my classic's wings unzipped several years ago. One wing inflated, the other I managed to keep deflated as I went back into freefall, making me barrel roll, so I pulled my reserve quickly as I came around to back side up. There was a scary moment as I watched my reserve slide past my wing, but it opened just fine. The reserve or lines did leave a few minor burn marks on one wing.

I really doubt the wings wrapping the container could cause a reserve to hesitate.

[robibird 2]

Quote

Could the wings of a wingsuit (zipper or unzipped) wrap a reserve container to the extent of not permitting/hindering a reserve-pilotchute to clear.

NO

Robert Pecnik
[email protected]
www.phoenix-fly.com

[AveE 0]

hmmm. I had a cutaway last summer, Vampire with a Status container. my main was spinning, so I just unzipped my wings and tried to stop it. everything worked just fine

[airdog07 0]

what container was it, the some of the old talen container had weak pilot chute spring, some container depend on how the pilot chute is stuff between the spring can cause lock or delay release of reserve pilot chute, It might of look like the wing was causing the problem ?

"A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones ..."

[dploi 0]

Impossible. Sounds like an issue with the container or the spring wasn't properly loaded.