The jump on video took place on 29th of February 2016. All present were experienced skydivers happy with the dive plan and briefing, as were the dropzone staff. As it turned out there was a gap in our knowledge that allowed this incident to occur, thankfully with minimal consequences as all parties landed safely on the DZ, and the reserve PC/Freebag was found after a short search.
The video has been shared for others to learn from, as if our group had seen a similar video there would be considerably less chance of this incident occurring. You don’t know what you don’t know!
You don't know what you don't know!
Wingsuit Hybrid Fail: Premature Reserve Deployment
The reserve was deployed after the hybrid became unstable following the sudden release of the hanger’s right hand, resulting in an unwanted diving turn to the left and the hanger swinging forwards and backwards on the wingsuiter’s chest strap. This swinging motion distorted the harness main lift webs considerably where the chest strap attaches, forcing the reserve ripcord housing into a tight bend at this point. This extra bend in the system was just enough to take up the slack in the reserve ripcord, and eventually resulted in the reserve pin being pulled with the reserve handle still fixed in place.
Contributing factors may have been the chest rings fitted to the harness, allowing a large amount of distortion with relative ease. Also the reserve handle is a soft pad type, which typically encase only a short amount of reserve ripcord slack, compared to a metal D handle which usually has a larger amount of ripcord slack passed through when seated in the harness.
Hybrids are great fun when flown successfully, but make sure that all involved know the risks. It is worth noting this could have easily occurred on an FS hybrid as well. No matter what kind of hybrid you are planning the hanger must be aware of how much strain they are applying to the system at all times. If in doubt, drop off!
Have fun and stay safe 😉
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- Protected: CYPRES – Mythbusting! - 27th March 2024
- Wind Games 2024 - 1st March 2024
- Wind Games 2024 News - 30th January 2024
- European Skydiving Symposium News - 26th January 2024
- Catching up with… Ryo Shimizuguchi - 6th December 2023
- Catching up with… Olivier Longchamp - 31st October 2023
- Tobu or not Tobu - 11th September 2023
- Outrageous stunts: The Pentagram - 24th August 2023