Had a total this weekend (very long)
Craig Poxon
afternoon. Cloud conditions were quite changeable this weekend and even
though they were good on take off the situation wasn't quite so good after
exit. Did a 2-way which wasn't very successful. Broke off at 4,500 and
deployed between 3,500 and 3,000. Had a bit of a lazy pull and after a short
wait determined that things were not proceeding normally. Had a brief look
behind me and have a vague memory of seeing some bridle. Muscle memory took
over and I pulled the cutaway swiftly followed by the reserve. I did this
without cutting away my wings. I remember reaching the full extention of the
wing whilst cutting away and thinking I'd be pulling it a lot further if my
wing wasn't attached! This was running through my mind as I pulled the
reserve but not for long as I felt the the tension release and the activity
of deployment behind me. I'm not sure what my attitiude was on deployment
but it was 'fairly stable' and the reserve opened cleanly. The main bridle
was now somehow wrapped around my reserve riser and I could feel that my
main was still closed and on my back. I briefly attempted to to unzip my
left arm but got frustrated and cutaway the wing. I now had 3 handles to
stuff down my suit! I turned and located the freebag. I considered following
it down but with an arm wing and a leg wing still to release, an unfamiliar
7-cell F111 155 square foot canopy left to land, and with Tom and Trevor
appearing to look interested in what was happening to the freebag, I decided
to concentrated on getting down. The freebag could be recovered later. The
landing was uneventful. In fact, I had a beautiful landing on my Techno
(even with the added weight of my main still on my back!).
Upon landing, DH came over and quickly determined that the small hackey
handle on my Rigging Innovations Voodoo pilot chute had passed through the
gap in the bridle or pilot chute (can't remember which) where they meet,
effectively choking it off. With the wingsuit on, the drag was not enough to
even pull the pin on the container. The consensus on the dropzone is that it
was probably due to the way I packed my pilot chute and maybe some movement
of it in the plane. I'm usually pretty aware of what's going on with my
pilot chute and am quite picky with the way I pack it, so I'm not so sure
although it may well have been a contributing factor along with the lazy
pull. I hope to put together some pictures of the way I pack my pilot-chute
later in the week, with examples of how know may have occured and how to
avoid it. The gap at the top of the bridle where it splits is quite large
and has been reduced by a rigger, although the risk off the hackey passing
through has not been totally eliminated.
Thanks to Tom and Trevor for retrieving my freebag.
Thanks to Rich Wheatly for repacking me that evening so I could get jumping
again next day (typically I'd left my second rig at home!). When do you go
past the stage of being apprehensive about jumping after a malfunction to
just wanting to get back into the air? Because I'm definitely there!
Things I wish I'd done differently:
Read the weather conditions better and not taken the wingsuit on that jump.
The real annoyance is that the lens on my camera was so condensated the
video shows practically nothing.
Even though I knew I was deploying somewhere between 3500 and 3000 I was
really quick to cutaway and deploy my reserve. My ProTrack says I was open
at 2400. My memory between main deployment and reserve deployment is pretty
vague and I wish I taken just a little bit longer to think about it and work
through it. Then again, people have been killed thinking rather than doing.
I lived so I did the right thing.
Was cutting away the right thing to do? I'm not 100% sure. For me it was
automatic muscle memory from training and practicing my drills. I wasn't
really sure what was going on behind me and something was out so it was a
fairly easy choice to cutaway. However, there are the stories such as John
Hitchen and Mike McGowan who have been saved because they didn't cutaway and
were saved by their mains after problems with their reserves. I would
probably cut away again.
I'm annoyed it happened at all! As silly as it sounds, I liked having a
fairly clean record (I cutaway on my 28th jump which was my 8th
consolidation because of a possible line-over but I've always thought I
could have been a trigger happy student and it wasn't my pack-job anyway).
But I guess I'm current again and it was certainly a wake-up call for my
wingsuit deployment drills.
Some stats: it was my 652nd jump (624 jumps since my last malfunction), my
44th wingsuit jump, the 3rd jump of the day, and my 17th jump so far this
year, although my 223rd in the past 365 days.
I've been experimenting this weekend with taking two ProTracks with me when
I jump. I've been noticing large spikes on the downloading graphs from my
head-mounted ProTrack and I can only assume they occur when I turn my head
and move the ProTrack in and out of the burble. I placed a second ProTrack
in the document pocket on the lower part of the backpad of my Voodoo so it
would be not subject to the changes in pressure that a turning head mounted
unit could experience.
These are the two overlaid plots from both the units.The black line is the
head-mounted ProTrack and the red line is the unit between my lower back and
my container. The dips and the spikes of the black line I would attribute to
the turning of my head, especially when looking behind me to try and see
what is going on.
http://www.speedskydiving.org/WebJumpTrack_ui.asp?id=652&id=5652&altitude=fe
et&speed=mph&airspeed=TAS&db=2ProTracks&SpeedComp=False
or
http://makeashorterlink.com/?A1AB30FA
And yes, before anyone asks, I was aware that Saturday was the 4th
anniversary of Patrick de Gayardon's death before I went in the air. Here's
to you Patrick.
Although, all in all, not as exciting as the fun had at Weston this weekend.
That could have been a lot worse. Glad everyone got out reasonably ok. Paul,
get well soon Buddy! Hope they've given you some good drugs!
Phew! Things that's it...for now!
--
Craig
D11665 FSB5
http://www.poxon.org/Craig/Skydive/
Craig Poxon
news:a9e8t4$9cr$0...@dosa.alt.net...
> I had a total malfunction during a wingsuit jump at Langar on Saturday
> afternoon.
Knew I'd forget stuff. It was a BirdMan Gti suit. I have a reserve pad and
not a hard handle and I believe I pulled them without looking (bad) without
incident. And I forgot to thank Phil Curtis for packing my reserve!
Buzz
"Craig Poxon" <cr...@poxon.org.NOSPAM> wrote in message
BEER
BEER
BEER
Seriously though you should get over the reserve ride pretty quickly, I was
nervous for the first one after my reserve ride but that was about it.
Buzz
Bryan Teeson
"Craig Poxon" <cr...@poxon.org.NOSPAM> wrote in message
news:a9e8t4$9cr$0...@dosa.alt.net...
Ron Luke
"Buzz" <alex....@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:a9f2mv$um7$02$1...@news.t-online.com...
It's not Craig's 1st reserve ride Buzz, he's keeping down the average for
people like me that are overdue (bet I use my freshly repacked reserve on
the next jump now).
Still, beer is always good. :o)
Ron
Keith Hoy
"Craig Poxon" <cr...@poxon.org.NOSPAM> wrote in message
news:a9e8t4$9cr$0...@dosa.alt.net...
(typo spotted)
"I'm not sure what my attitiude was on deployment
> but it was 'fairly stable'..."
I guess your attitude may have been something like."Shit I'm good" :-)
Keith.
bodypilot
Is 3k a 'normal' pull height for wingsuits? I would have thought that all
the extra levers would demand a bit more thinking time in the event of a
full scale pants down situation.....
RP
"Craig Poxon" <cr...@poxon.org.NOSPAM> wrote in message
news:a9e8t4$9cr$0...@dosa.alt.net...
Craig Poxon
<body...@breathe.com> wrote:
>Good to hear your ok...
>
>Is 3k a 'normal' pull height for wingsuits? I would have thought that all
>the extra levers would demand a bit more thinking time in the event of a
>full scale pants down situation.....
>
>RP
Good question. I'm happy to pull on a wingsuit dive between 3.5 and 3
with my experience and equipment (Crossfire 149) and maybe even a
fraction lower on my Sabre 190. Although it does depend on my currency
and comfort with the suit at the time. The fact that I had a total and
had the reserve out by 2400 feet demonstrates there was a reasonable
amount of time. I'm open to comment and re-evaluating this though.
Ford1fly
at the correct altitude as you were under your reserve at 2,400ft...
Maybe bring it down a 1000 ft so you dont wear your reserve out too quickly
flying it around for so long... just a thought.
Fordy :-)
Craig Poxon
news:20020416113541...@mb-fq.aol.com...
Not too worried. Due to my extreme skill at flying very slowly in the
BirdMan suit, I'm recording that as a sub-terminal deployment of the
reserve. The knots at the line attachments haven't even bedded in due to my
low loading and gentle opening forces.
:-)
Ford1fly
and bacon wafting up from the kitchen....:-)