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Ive been thinking about this situation i thought i heard about, if your pilot chute has any sort of humidity in it when its packed and you jump it in really cold weather, is it possible for it to freeze when you pitch?

Its about 20 degrees here, anything i should watch out for it i go for a jump with this cold weather?


Just searched and found the answer....sorry

this thread might contain some useful information:
http://www.basejumper.com/...=hesitation;#2101368

hth!

edit to add:

I wouldn't jump any humid pc/canopy at any temperature

don't forget about bfl #6.

http://vimeo.com/5547803

Here is a video. At 8:43 there is a ground view of a PC hesitation and the following clip is the rear facing helmet view of the hesi.

Jumper did tests and found out that the cold temps (w/no moisture) binded up the fabric and made his PC ridgid. In one of his tests, he had a packed pc in his BOC, and he did a practice pitch. It came out as a brick and fell to the ground in a packjob shape. He then shook it over and over and it still stayed packed. eventually it cracked open.

I am not sure he posts here, but i'll email him to contribue something.

~J

^^^
that's pretty much the scariest thing Ive seen in a long time...

Re: 8:43+....holy shit!
(I actually shouted at the monitor for it to inflate! lol)

...there's also a fairly intense delay @ 10:00 from a tower

Seems to me like this prob could be avoided if you just make sure to repack your PC right before the jump.

Care to elaborate? the ability of pc fabric to freeze together without a significant amount of moisture seems impossible to me (or maybe thats just me HOPING its impossible... scary shit)

giant scoop from the luck bucket my friend

We did a couple hundred jumps in below freezing temperatures up in Baffin over three years and didn't have a single incident involving frozen pilot chutes.

The snow up there has very little moisture in it though and all of our jumps were near or at terminal.

I just made sure to shake out most of the snow before I packed the PC into the BOC. If I wasn't going to be making a jump immediately I wouldn't pack the PC. I would usually pack it just before staring the approach hike.

Edit to add: I was constantly battling frozen camelbak hoses though. I had to take a sip every couple minutes or the hose would freeze solid.

HAhah i agree with thrillseek, i was like HOLY SHIT BALLS please inflate....did u see him reach his hands up early expecting the risers to be there. Man thats nutz! CHEERS MATE!

re: http://vimeo.com/5547803

Actually 2 times! first time from A, then from E....

Ronald