ddlatex

On February 21, 2011 while wingsuiting at skydive san marcos my argus fired and did not cut through the closing loop compleatly. I didn't become aware of this until 5 hours later as my rig was being repacked. Thats after a rough landing and a drop of the unpacked rig from about shoulder height. It's a good thing I didn't need it or I would have been D.R.T.=Dead Right There. Or I could have been sucked out the plane wraped around the tail if it hadn't finally broke the remaining strands of the closing loop as the main bag was being inserted into the container. In other words it could have killed a planeload of people as well as myself. I deployed at roughly 2300 feet but my pilot chute got caught in my burble and at second 4 I reached for my reserve and cut away handles , at second number 5 I dropped a shoulder as I started to pull my reserve handle and felt my pilot chute start pulling my main bag out of the container stopping me from pulling my reserve ripcord. After 3 more seconds I felt the familiar jerk of a fully inflated canopy above my head. If it had completely severed the closing loop I would have now been the recipiant of a "2 out" at roughly 1000 feet AGL. Argus came to texas and downloaded info from the unit. I never recieved a copy of that data as Skydive san marcos told me they would take care of dealing with argus on my behalf as I would be accused of tampering with the unit if I were to take the unit with me. SSM would act as a fair and impartial observer "On my behalf" during the ensuing investigation of the argus firing but not servering the closing loop but they weren't present during the examination of the cutter area when argus and their rigger opened up the cutter and determined that a "steel shot pellet" had interfeared with the cutter and prevented it from severing the closing loop compleately. After checking with my rigger who had done my last three reserve repacks I learned his weight bags used during the reserve repack process contain lead shot pellets,,, not steel. So where did the steel shot pellet come from? I was told tha argus fired in the upper 75% of its tolerance range. It was set on novice. It fired and didn't completely sever the closing loop. It's a good thing that my life didn't depend on my argus operating correctly because if it had I would have died that day. At 11:30 that night I realized February 21 was my fathers birthday. He passed away December 2003 and because of all the excitement surrounding this incedent I had almost forgotten his birthday. Argus sent me a brand new unit to replace my old one. I had already put a cypress 2 in my mirage to replace the argus. My other rig, a brand new vector 3, I had ordered with a new vigil installed. I also own a vector 2 which used to have a cypress 2 in it but now is without an AAD, A racer w/no AAD and A javalin with no AAD. I don't know what to do with my argus but I don't feel like putting it in any of my rigs.

Great skydive, Perfect landing