Riggers and reserve packers are taught to inspect equipment thoroughly. If they do their job properly they will advise you on any maintenance that is required during your six-monthly inspection and repack. Accept their advise and don't try and save on maintenance, because it will always cost you more in the long run. Your main parachute is not usually part of the six monthly inspection , so be sure to ask for a main inspection at the same time.
Reserve packers are not qualified to do maintenance work that requires the use of a sewing machine. When they recommend maintenance it will then have to be taken to a rigger to complete the work.
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Home - Assembly - Safety System - Equipment
Main Packing - Reserve Packing - Rigging - Training - Tandem
A highly experienced jumper had a hard opening on an F111 canopy, resulting in one snapped line. Having decided the canopy was flyable, the jumper elected to land it. At about 600 feet a second line snapped. The resulting hard landing caused injuries to his foot and ankle resulting in a trip to the local hospital. A similar report had another very experienced jumper electing to fly a canopy with two 'A' lines snapped. At flare height, the canopy collapsed and this jumper ended up with three chipped vertebrae and a fractured pelvis.
The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that these were (with hindsight) the wrong decisions. There is always the temptation to stay with all those remaining lines and ignore the fact that one or two have snapped. I have many more reports of broken lines and damaged canopies this season, the difference is that all the others were 'merely' malfunctions whilst these two, sadly, became injury reports. Most line breaks are caused by hard, off heading openings or poor maintenance. The lines can get damaged if the slider grommets are dented or have sharp burrs, caused by a hard impact with the connector links on previous jumps.
Most modern high performance canopies with line damage will let you know in no uncertain terms that they are not even flyable, let alone landable. Older F111 canopies can be a little more misleading. They may appear to be quite controllable with a few lines damaged. The decision about what to do is a judgment call. All BPA courses have guidelines on helping you make this decision, give this situation some thought and if you're not sure on how to decide, ask your Chief Instructor. Most line breaks can be prevented with a little planning. Question your openings, if you consistently get hard, off heading openings then you need some packing tuition. Inspect your lines and slider grommets on a regular basis, the main area of ram air broken lines is at the connector links, normally the outside lines and also at the cascaded points. Talk to your rigger on how you can reduce line wear on your particular system. Inspect your lines and get any damage checked by a rigger.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
I have had a few reports from riggers who are concerned about the quality of the inspections which are being done by reserve packers prior to a reserve repack. The main complaints seem to be about worn velcro not being replaced or reserve packers using worn closure loops.
The majority of these complaints are against very experienced reserve packers and riggers who should know better. On one occasion the pile velcro looked like it had been shaved which would hide the obvious fluffy damage. but the effectiveness of the velcro was none existent. One complaint about the condition of the reserve closure loop was that it must have been used over and over again by many reserve packers as it was so badly damaged.
Get to know the quality of work of your reserve packer or rigger by doing your own inspection after a reserve repack, or any maintenance work. Your reserve closure loop should look as good as new, if it doesn't then it's probably not been changed during the reserve repack, which begs the question "what else has the reserve packer not done" Your velcro should be effective and you should know how to test it to make sure it works as it's designed to work. If you're not sure ask a rigger to show you how to test your velcro. If the quality of the inspection is not as expected then it's probably true that the reserve packer has failed to do some vital jobs such as check to confirm that your equipment is free from any safety notices. Finally don't take any chances with maintenance it's one of the biggest reasons for reserve rides and it always costs you more in the end.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
During a flight line check which was being done by an advanced rigger, he noticed that the nylon loop on one of the risers was so badly frayed that it was only holding the riser to the container by a couple of thread.
This is one of the items that a flight line checker should inspect, yet the jumper was a very active skydiver and no one had picked up this damage during the other flight line checks. It was only the actions of an advanced rigger who spotted the damage that saved this skydiver from having one riser release during deployment. It was, however, even more of a surprise when the advanced rigger checked the documents. It turned out that this rig had had a full inspection and a reserve repack only a couple of weeks earlier. This type of fault should have been picked up and repaired during the reserve repack. The owner should also have spotted this during his daily kit inspections prior to any jump programme.
The owner, the flight line checkers and the reserve packer all failed to spot this problem when they should have been looking out for it. They all failed in their duty until an advanced rigger turned up to do the flight line check and the problem was spotted before it became a real incident. make sure you do a thorough check of your own equipment at the start of every jumping day. When doing a flight line check, take the job seriously and look for problems that could be there, especially the common problems that a flight line checker should have been taught to look out for. Finally make sure you trust your rigger or reserve packer to do a proper inspection and repack, do your research carefully.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
Since my last reports, 15 reserve rides have been reported due to one of the main steering toggles releasing during opening or the jumper not being able to release the toggle after opening. In most cases the canopy started to spiral complicating the issue.
Conclusions
These problems are generally caused by poor maintenance of velcro or what ever retaining means are used, toggles that are not compatible with the risers, incorrectly positioning the toggles during packing, or steering toggles badly manufactured.
Recommendations
This is one of the easiest malfunctions to prevent, check the items mentioned above and if you're not sure what's' right for your system talk to a rigger. Learn how these problems can occur by getting someone to show you so you don't make the same mistakes. Also check that any lose control line can not catch during deployment. Be especially vigilant if all your components did not come from the manufacturer of your rig.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
Since my last reports, 31 reserve rides have been reported,due to the following: line over, knotted cascades preventing the slider from descending, broken A lines, broken control lines.
Conclusions
The majority of the broken lines are down to the lack of vigilance on behalf of the jumper and because the main parachute is not part of the six monthly inspection. These problems usually show a fair amount of wear on the lines before they eventually break. It's rare that a good line breaks. Other line problems are usually due to poor packing, especially, the line stowage.
Recommendations
These are two of the biggest reasons for malfunctions, poor maintenance and poor packing, if you're a good packer and you maintain your equipment properly, then the chance of you having one of these malfunctions is almost nil. Inspect your lines on a regular basis and if in doubt consult your rigger. Knowing how to pack to avoid line problems will stop you having one. Do you know how to stop a line over from happening, do you know how to stop a knotted line from happening? If not ask someone to show you then you can make sure it doesn't happen to you. Also make sure your elastic bands, tube stoes etc are doing their job properly.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
I've had a few reports of pilot chute in tow malfunctions since my last reports. Two jumpers claimed that the bridle line must have got caught on the container flaps. One stated that the bridle line must have wrapped around the pilot chute. One report blamed a short bridle line.
Conclusions
After some research it turned out that two of these had worn pilot chutes. I am a little dubious about the cause of these malfunctions but if these jumpers are right then it's down to packing. The bridle line will not wrap around the pilot chute if the bridle and the pilot chute are packed properly. Also, if the bridle is packed and routed properly it won't catch on the container flaps. The worn pilot chutes were probably the main problem in these cases. A pilot chute has to lift the bag out of the container and if it hasn't got enough drag effect it won't do it's job. The bridle line should be able to put a snatch onto the deployment bag to ensure that a tight pack job is released from the container.
Recommendations
To prevent a pilot chute in tow make sure your pilot chute is in good condition, that it's the correct size and design for the system. Make sure the bridle line is the correct length and properly secured. Finally, make sure you know how to pack a pilot chute and bridle to prevent this type of malfunction. Bear in mind, what's right for one container may not be right for another so if your equipment does not have all original components then make sure you get it checked by a rigger who is familiar with your complete system.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
During the last two months I have received reports on the following types of malfunctions: Three skydivers had bag locks, eight skydivers had line over's, four skydivers had pilot chutes in tow, two skydivers could not release one of their toggles and two skydivers had line knots. Once again all reports stated that the jumpers carried out good reserve drills and landed safely but very little information was included that could have helped with why these incidents occurred. I get a strong impression that because we know the type of malfunction, we just accept it's going to happen so very little is done to investigate them properly.
Conclusions
Some of these may be put down to poor maintenance but the majority are, without doubt, due to bad packing. Every single one of these malfunctions are preventable, yet they all keep occurring again and again.
Recommendations
I have written a lot of reports that have covered everyone of these incidents and how to prevent them. Knowledge and attention to detail is the basic answer but because it's very easy to become complacent with the common malfunction types I think a more radical role should be implemented. I would like to see instructors and riggers getting together to fully investigate each malfunction in detail soon after it has occurred. Have the equipment checked out to see what could have caused it and have the packer checked out to see what caused it and make it as high profile as possible so everyone knows that it is a problem and not just an acceptable part of skydiving. If this was done in a very professional manner I believe more skydivers will become more attentative to the cause and effect and take action to avoid becoming one of the many incidents.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
Since my last reports I have had a total of 22 tandem incident reports;10 were classed as typical malfunctions, line knots, line over,bag lock etc and all instructors were reported to carry out good reserve drills. Three of these students reported having dislocated shoulders which happened during freefall or during canopy deployment and all had previous experience of this. One student blacked out for the duration of the jump but was ok after landing. In addition to the canopy malfunctions; one instructor had a total and carried out his reserve drills without further incident but no explanation was presented for the reason behind the total. One instructor couldn't release his control toggles after deployment so landed using his rear risers without further incident. Five students received landing injuries.
Conclusions
When I sit down to write these reports I hope to have enough information from the reports to make conclusions, however, this in one of those periods where those making the reports have not bothered to explain what caused the problems and therefore it's difficult to make good conclusions about these specific incidents. I can generalise based on my experience and in some cases I've been lucky enough to have the time to investigate some of the incidents further to gain the full story.
To generalise I would break these reports into two categories; equipment problems and injury problems. The equipment problems all show either a failure in either packing or maintenance or a combination of the two. Every incident reported here has been reported hundreds of times before and the cause of these incidents are extremely well known and all are preventable.One concern I've had for a long time is the packing skills of those packing tandem equipment. The majority of tandem equipment is packed by, so called, professional packers. These packers are generally the most inexperienced jumpers on a drop zone who have learnt to pack to fund their skydiving. They have never jumped a tandem rig in their lives and the training they have received is generally not of a high standard. I've had a total of five tandem malfunctions in over a thousand tandem jumps and all five were packed by packers, I've never had a malfunction from my own pack jobs. This is not me blowing my own trumpet, it's because I know what causes a canopy to malfunction and therefore I know how to prevent them. The majority of, so called, professional packers do not know what causes a tandem to malfunction because they have never been taught this. All they've been taught is how to fold it and close the container so they can get paid and do this as quickly as possible.
The shoulder injuries are not too common but the landing injuries are very common and once again we've had many of these reported in detail which show that they are preventable. The most common is caused by students landing first before the instructor can put his feet down but some are caused by bad canopy skills or equipment that should have been retired a long time ago.
Recommendations
First and foremost, please make more effort when filling in incident reports. Secondly, more effort should be put into training tandem packers and monitoring their results. Look at your own tandem operation and see what you can do to reduce the amount of tandem malfunctions, prevention has to be cheaper than than dealing with the incident, finding equipment and repacking reserves etc. Make sure your tandem equipment is being properly maintained, there are a lot of tell tale signs that you should look out for and if you are not aware of them talk to your rigger and learn what to look out for. Landing injuries can be reduced by putting more effort in training instructors and students how to make sure that the instructor lands first, if need be look at how you can set up your student harness to assist with them getting their legs up. Don't jump canopies that are so old they barely flare and if it's a light wind day be more prepared and consider the risks before you agree to jump. Avoid the high risk combinations; low wind, an old canopy and a very heavy student
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
During a normal canopy deployment, the jumper reached up for his control toggles and noticed that one of his connector links had come undone. It had also been bent causing a big gap on the side of the connector link. The suspension lines were held in place by the connector link barrel only.
Conclusions
The mini link in question was an approved type and certainly prevented this from becoming worse. However, this is the second report on this subject this summer and it's an age old problem that keeps coming back. It's also worth noticing that if the connector link had been fitted with the barrel at the riser end then the lines may have released over the threads of the connector link.
Recommendations
Check your connector links on a regular basis, check the barrel is done up properly and has no hairline cracks in it and check that the connector link is an approved maillon rapide type. If you're unsure of it's security it can be undone and then tightened by hand plus 1/4 of a turn extra. Do not over tighten as it can crack the barrel. The use of a connector link cover can prevent the barrel from loosening during use. Some riggers use lock tight and others use nail varnish to mark a line across the barrel and the link so they can see if it moves. Some methods of solving this problem can produce other problems so it's important to make sure that all your parts, no matter how small, are all compatible. The connector link, the cover, the grommet size and what you do with your slider can all have an affect and some covers have trapped the control lines during flight. If you have any concerns make sure you check with your rigger.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
An instructor deployed and set himself up for docking with his canopy formation student. They got side by side and when the instructor gave the signal to dock, one of his risers released and he had to cutaway and deploy his reserve parachute. His student who was now by himself at 8,000 ft missed the drop zone by approx a couple of miles and was found an hour later walking back.
Conclusions
After inspecting the equipment it was obvious that the loop holding the small ring of his riser system together was badly frayed and broke, which caused the malfunction. The grommet of the riser had sharp burrs on it which caused the damage over a long period of time. The student who missed the drop zone had never deployed so high before and never gave any thought to landing on the drop zone until approx 3,000ft, by which time it was impossible because he was so far away.
Recommendations
This incident was caused because the instructor had obviously failed to do his daily kit inspection on many occasions, the flight line checkers failed to inspect the risers on many occasions and the reserve packer failed to do a full inspection as part of the six monthly repack. The drop zone in question also has a further inspection before the equipment is tagged and allowed into use, this inspector also failed to spot the damage. Anyone of dozens of skydivers could have prevented this incident from happening, if they had done their job properly. Complacency is without doubt the cause as this incident has occurred many times in the past and it's so easy to avoid.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
A jumper exited the aircraft at 12,000 feet and his main bag fell out of the container. he deployed his pilot chute and his main opened safely at 10,000 feet.
Conclusions
The main closure loop was so badly frayed that it fell apart on exit. A closure loop may be the smallest component on your rig but it has a vital role to play. Closure loops must not be too long or to short, or too thick or too stiff yet all of these are found on a regular basis. The overall conclusion has to be that the closure loop and the job it has to do is just not taken seriously. Closure loops have caused pilot chute in tows, two canopy deployments, premature deployments in the aircraft, during exit and in freefall; all could have fatal consequences.
Recommendations
Don't jump without a closure loop that is in good condition,the correct length and made from the right material.
This report was written by Allan Hewitt
