justgo

I am the jumper that Brett is speaking of and yes it has happened to me. (Not the same jumper that Peter mentioned...that is a coincidence.) It's amazing what next-day recall does...I spoke too soon when trying to recall and analyze exactly what I did. Upon reflection the day after, I realized that I let up the toggle once I already felt the canopy start to spin faster than I was. It was a weird weightless feeling in the harness and I let up the toggle to try to stop what was happening. I did let it up faster than I should have due to greatly increased toggle pressure during the turn but the twists were already starting in the direction of my initial turn before I did this. Ended up with about 3 twists right down through the risers. Luckily I was still at 2,500 feet and they were easy to get out of. I had a very experienced jumper tell me to "just bury a toggle already" after witnessing my conservative canopy flying up until that point and I decided I was ready to get more aggressive.... It was stupid of me to apply such sudden toggle input. The funny thing is, I almost did the same thing on the next jump. Then realized in time exactly what was happening and applied a bit of pressure on the opposite toggle which prevented the line twists. I was jumping my own 190 Sabre2 with about a 0.98 wingloading. At the time had just over 30 jumps. I realize now that your parachute will do exactly what you tell it to but your body might not have time to catch up... in a sense, wouldn't this be even more true on a larger lightly-loaded canopy due to the longer lines and the greater lag time between toggle input and your body's response? Or as muz put it, lower tension on the outside? Or am I way off here?