Basejumper.com - archive

Object: Building
Location: UNITED STATES, PENNSYLVANIA, Philadelphia
COD: Impact
Description:
****** is jumping a skydiving rig (Wonderhog) with a belly band and an empty reserve container. His curved pin is primed half way and he's using a 52-inch BASE pilot chute. After landing, a previous jumper said he watched Robert go somewhat head down and throw his pilot chute early. Robert then towed his inflated pilot chute to impact. The speculation is he tightened his belly band down (after a final gear check by the jumper who went first) and this put too much tension on the main closing pin. Combined with an early pilot chute throw and the associated lack of snatch force this may have caused the pilot chute in tow. The irony here, according to the first jumper, is they had both recently discussed purchasing Velcro closed BASE containers but the cost was an issue.

what i heard was that the bridle got stuck (& towed) in a crack in the main flap stiffener (the main flap on a wonder hog was sewn on the side - un-like modern gear where it is attached on the top or bottom)

i did send this info to nickdg (back when he was still 'in charge') as well as the current bfl admin

i didn't push it, as one does not see many wonderhogs @ many exit points . ..

really? too tight on the belly-band?
with a 'half primed' pin & a 52in pc?
what do you think is more likely?

or, what do you think/know happened?
as we all know anything can happen
i understand that there are more scenarios than the 2 presented

52 inch parainnovators provide more drag than any pilot chute i have ever encountered. sounds like else was going on. jumpers also did something slightly different with their pc - they cocked them.

Rick Harrison has towed a large pilot chute to his near death on a building because cost was an issue. He can chime in.

The "speculation" (and it was labeled as such) was the opinion of the locals I talked with at the time.

And it was well known, in those days, that an overtightened belly band did cause totals by putting extra pressure on fat closing loops. It happened to others on skydives and to me, in a slightly different way, in that I couldn't get the PC out of a belly band pouch on a skydive with an early Wonderhog with a belly band that I overly cinched down.

Over the years I got a lot of, "here's what I heard, so change it" letters. But I kind of went with the football analogy. There had to be irrefutable evidence to overturn the call.

And I've heard this one, about the flap, before. But nothing from anyone around at the time. I know it seems odd the pulling power of a Hank 52" would ever tow without being snagged somehow, but in overtightened pin rigs of old it has happened. Back then we didn't use thin slippery closing loops. Most of us used gutted parachute line from old rounds and it was very roughly textured and grippy . . .

NickD

i heard it (cracked main flap/bridle snag) as fact, from a rigger who helps with a 'famous' east coast rigging course that started in 1972 (see parachutist march 2009). he also knew both jumpers. so i thought/assumed (yes i know, i'm an ass) that it was you (bfl) who was speculating . . .

i started skydiving in 1988 on a student vector with a belly band & have about 25 jumps on a belly band rig & had never heard (or experienced) that over tightening it could cause a total (a twisted one, yes) next time i jump a belly band, i'll make sure not too over tighten it


do you know as fact this is how it was rigged? (with gutted round line)

what was the altitude of said jump. With enough airspeed a 52 would apply hundreds of pounds of force, would it not? The pin would have to be so tight that you would have to stand on the rig and yank on it to get it out.

it was lower than this
the b from which they jumped was across the street

i am not trying to start a 'yes it was' 'no it wasn't' argument, simply a discussion . . .