Basejumper.com - archive

Hi,
Line twists scare the hell out of me....

Do you
a) Kick out of them before hitting an object?
b) Try to climb above the twists and steer the canopy away first?
c) Revert to the foetal position and start crying?

How about trying to steer using toggles? ….Crazy to try???

My understanding is that you will be able to pull the toggle (steering the canopy away from an object.) but upon release, the toggle / line will stick, and you will continue to turn. How about pulling the other toggle to stop the turn when flying towards clear air space, then kicking out of the twists? Has anyone tried this from a plane, do you think this is really bad idea?
I can imagine if you put too much input you are now at risk from a stall in line twists making the situation worse, but I could also see with a bit of practice that this could work and it would be a very quick way of turning the canopy…

What would you have done here?
http://www.nothingtoxic.com/media/1158059693/Base_Jumping_Gone_All_Wrong

Answers on a postcard...
George

That's a no-brainer to me...

b) Try to climb above the twists and steer the canopy away first

The object is the enemy. Get away from it.


Not sure, never really tried it. But I'm in the riser-camp when it comes to offheadings, so a line-twist pointing at the object gets my same reasoning; climbing and yanking will be quicker than trying to release a toggle and using that.


Hard to say. Probably curl up in foetus position and cry. But a skilled BASE jumper would probably climb above the line twist and steer away (the twist appears to be quite low in the video, but it's hard to tell).

On this note; don't underestimate the use of body-weight in your harnass to fight line-twist and offheadings. It's amazing how much control you have during an entire slider-up opening sequence. Proper shifting of your weight can slow down a developing twist a lot.

I have to get a copy of the music of that video for my own BASE videos. That's awesome...

i think you should deal with whatever priority #1 is at that particular moment. if you have a sweet delay/track and get well away from the object, then priority #1 would be to get out of the twist. If you are close to the object as in this video, then priority #1 would be to climb and grab, get it around. then i guess if all else fails i wouldn't go fetal, i would try kicking off of the object depending on what it is and keep fighting until the end. "just say no" to line twist.

The very first thing that you must deal with is the canopy heading. Before you worry about getting the twists out, climb the twists and get yourself turned away from the object. That will buy you time to deal with the twists.


After opening, my priority list is:

1) Where am I going?

Where is my parachute taking me? Am I going to hit something? My very first priority is to turn my parachute onto a safe heading. If there is some problem with the canopy (line over, line twist, whatever) I turn the canopy first, before moving on to deal with that. I don't even bother checking the canopy before I'm pointed in a safe direction. Who cares if it's there and square, if it's pointed squarely at a big bit of rock?


2) How am I getting there?

How is my canopy flying? Do I have collapsed end cells? A line over? Line twists? Now is the time when I get the thing in order and flying.


3) How will I land?

How am I going to land this parahute? Now I need to set up a soft landing. It's more important to have this landing go well than it is to put it in the intended landing area. Plenty of people have hooked themselves in trying to land in the right place. Lots of people have walked away from careful landings on bad terrain. I want to be the second, not the first.


4) Where will I land?

Can I make it to the intended landing area? If not, where will I land?


Obviously, the mechanics of the specific site are going to have some impact on this, but my basic thought process is the same on every jump.


Bottom line: Priority #1 is avoiding object strike. Fix your parachute after you know where it's going. The best looking and flying parachute in the world isn't going to be any help if it's flying you straight into the side of the object.

Shit. Nice catch.

Geez - that is one of the worst BASE openings I have ever seen! Does anybody know how she was packed...it looks like that was a slider-down opening? I can't see the slider descending on video. If it was slider-down, it explains why she had such a violent opening and off-heading. On the other hand, she may have packed slider-up and you just can't see it on the video.

Also...what direction was the wind blowing on that jump? She closed in on the tower very quickly.

I think it is not good idea to pull toggle in line twist cos both toggles are set close to stall and if you pull it further on one side it would stall in turn i think but it would be cool to try on skyjump.


How about off heading and line twist simulator? My idea was to take old canopy and hang it under plate or frame so it looks like pressurized when its hung up on one point in the middle. Then hang it up to tree, it would need to have someone to control both body heading and the canopy heading by ropes. Student would not know how operators set up off heading or line twist before jumping of platform in the tree. Then by feeling and knowledge operators would modify heading how student reacts. Quality of this simulator would be based on its operators.

Benjamín

Does any one know another link to this video? My local internet has blocked that site and, I want to see this video

its on youtube, search around and you'll find it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh2N-bg291A


There you go.. I even made the Clicky work!