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Hi,
I've recently had two PC hesitations but have been unable to find out why?
They happened about 20 jumps apart and after the second hesitation, my PC had about 90 jumps on it.
It's a morpheus 42inch non-vented, patch handled PC.

Any thoughts on why this happened??

http://youtu.be/7Shh7itdf5c

Cheers

How did you pack your PC the same for both of those jumps ? Please describe in detail.

It was hard to explain how I did it, so I just videoed packing it. I have been packing this way for all of my jumps.

http://youtu.be/vaXpQDzzjkI

cheers

from the rear facing view at the end it looks like the ZP is still tightly wrapped around the mesh at bridal stretch. it appears to have to unwrap first before the air gets it.

couldn't tell from your packing video but do you spin the the PC while putting in into the BOC? not sure if it would even matter but i would think that if you did it could make the ZP wrap even tighter around the mesh and take longer to unwrap. I always make it a point to un twist my PC in the BOC if i twisted it to get it in.

I would replace the PC after 2 hesitations if it were me personally especially if there is no apparent reason.

This video (shot by a cameraperson who needs to get shot themselves for showing mostly your elbows) shows a vented green Apex PC, while your video indicates an unvented Morpheus PC.

See if you can find someone with a 42" that works well and compare the centerline lengths and the material stiffness. That's a long shot, but that's all I got :(

Shit! Scary stuff. I agree, after having two of those only 20 jumps apart for no obvious reason, replace that fucker. $50-$100 is well worth it. Never know the next one may just hesi a bit too long and lights out!!!

Theres a vid out there of a jumper in Moab who has a solid 3 sec hesi and nearly goes in. Someone may know where to dig it up.

this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7klHaSfQ5Ds

scary stuff there! holy shiiiite

Did you leave it stowed in the BOC for a few days or more prior to jumping it?
If so did you repack it prior to jumping?

Laters

Julian

YIKES!

I'll try to get the PC sent to m. If there's a physical problem with it, I can probably figure it out.

The pack job on the pilot chute looks fine.

I have the PC now, and have put several jumps on it to see if I can get it to hesitate again (no luck). I've inspected it without finding anything, and have also compared it to another Morpheus PC I have here without turning anything up.

I'll pull it off my rig this afternoon and ship it off to hookitt to see if he can find anything.

It's hard to tell for certain but it looks like the mesh didn't unfold. I'm running the raw footage through VLC and playing it at .03 speed on a monitor much better than my TV.

It appears that the skirt caught air forcing it to open on the side before unfolding.

With a short delay, why not use a larger PC?

A 42 is just fine for that delay, especially for a *smaller* canopy. If you use a 46 or 48, someone will inevitably tell you not go stowed with it

Why go stowed?

Because he did go stowed.

Besides that, why not?

From 400 (approximate) feet and 486 according to the objects in the video, it certainly doesn't seem unreasonable.

I'm just saying, we all know that going hand held is much less likely to produce a hesi. BAM! problem solved!

I really hate going hand held when doing gainers but if it will eliminate PC hesis, I'm all for it.

i saw that double tweener this year at BD, siiick!

Makes for a good video though

So do PC hesitations. Don't discourage the guy!

 On both jumps, the PC had been packed earlier that day. I ended up getting a new PC the day after that last jump and it has been working well since. thanks for the feedback guys

hi!

ive seen this before (http://www.watchthybridle.com/...2011/09/streamer.jpg), and for me this seems like this is the same effect as a "streamer" malfunction on round canopies, where the (little) air that enters the bottom, leaves through the apex vent again.

this is not my theory, but for me it makes sense:
when packing the pc, when you do the mushroom dont go all the way up with your hand on the mesh, leave a bit of mesh to the sides of the mushroom. (see pictures) of course, the whole thing is distorted when its thrown and bridle pulls on it, but maybe this makes it less likely that a hesitation would happen.

Good thinking! Totally makes sense.

Here's a little off-topic that some may find useful: similarly to what 84n4n4 described, there could be hesitations in skydiving (mostly affecting wingsuit flyers) caused by pro pack cacoon failing to unwrap for a few seconds. If you do a tight wrap of the tail around lines when you make a cacoon before you put the canopy on the ground, and the canopy fabric is not slippery anymore, it may choke the air entry completely and the cacoon may stay closed for 1-3 seconds, trailing behind you, and oftentimes causing linetwists and even hard openings, as the slider has a chance to move down the lines under the cacoon. It took me a long time to figure this out, as I had everything configured right for wingsuit (long bridle, large PC, cut corners, collapsed wings), but still had these unexplainable, long hesitations. It was very puzzling.

The solution is to wrap the tail below the slider grommets so the cacoon has a big mouth. Ever since I started doing this, CC (Canopy Cacoon) hesitations never happened again.

You know, another thing could be if your BOC is nice and tight it could be compressing the pc into a tight little ball. You could pull but don't release it, shake it around some, then let it go.

I had a series of skydiving malfunctions caused by exactly this. I have video of the wrapped canopy rotating for about 4 seconds before the tail is eventually lifted off by the airflow. It only ever happened on subterminal hop and hops. As wingsuit deployments are often lower airspeed I would suggest the same thing happens also.

The cause of this PC hesitation I would suggest is a compressed PC in a low airspeed deployment.
Possible solutions would be
Go hand held.
Pack pilot chute just before exit and with the mouth open as in the picture posted above.

That is pretty much exactly what I showed weaselman.

Don't pull the mesh up past the skirt, and also clear the mesh all the way around so the skirt is exposed and not folded in on itself.

Thing is, it's still fairly tough to keep it compressed like that after a good toss. The mesh didn't unfold at all until the canopy material caught air. That's the odd part. It leads me to believe the bridle was trapped up top some how. Maybe this evening I'll get a video of mostly my elbows on how I pack a pilot chute to compare.

Hey weaselman, can you take a close up shot of the end of your bridle? I forget what the Morpheus bridle end looks like.

does anyone know who the jumper is in that moab pc hesitation video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7klHaSfQ5Ds

does anyone know the name of the dude who yells "HOLY FUCK!" after opening?

Just got back to my computer, here are some photos of the bridle end. Cheers

Duncan good to see you made it back. See you next time you are here thanks for the thread and info!

It appears something is cinched somewhere near where the Mesh meets the F111.

Puts new perspective on the "If you can throw it, you can stow it!" mentality...

Anyone else seeing a 2 second hesitation instead of a 4? However you count it, i might be scraping out my underpants afterwards.

The common factor from PC hesitations I know of was packing the PC and leaving it in the tight little spandex pouch well before the jump (on the order of days). Leave a PC in the pouch for a week or so, and it comes out like a brick, tightly compressed.

From the look of the PC you pulled out before repacking it, the thing looks like it's been sitting there for a few days. The fabric is creased and doesn't open up easily.

I'll leave a rig packed for months, but I always pack the PC either on exit or right before I leave the house for the jump.

I give my PC's the same treatment.
Just curious, how do you store yours?

Between 3 rigs I am up 7 PC's and
keep them folded flat and stored
in those clear vinyl pouches that
curtains and sheets come in.

I normally pack my PC just before the jump, and I find that the material Morpheus makes their ZP pilot chutes from really holds creases and tends to stay as a lump if it is packed for more than a few hours, especially if it is cold. My ZP pilot chutes from Asylum are made from different material (thinner and more slippery) and do not seem to have this problem.

After a couple relatively minor hesitations, I no longer use my Morpheus pilot chutes in the winter.

That would be ME!!! I literally took a step sideways to avoid incidental contact. The jumper was an Aussie friend of mine on his 50th jump. Left PC packed over night.

The 4 seconds is a count down from when the jumper left the exit point until he had an open canopy. Four seconds in a vaccuum an object would fall 256 ft. That cliff is 300 ft. Pretty FN close call!

If it had been flat ground instead of falling off to the river and a shrub interrupting his forward flight he still would have been broken!

Glad you didnt pound in on that jump my auzzie brother. Did you ever end up making a wig/handbag/manpurse out of that pc???

Yea, I've seen your video...

I have the pilot chute.

42 inch
8 reinforcement tapes
Heavy ZP material
Thick cap

The PC is rather heavy but it seems to inflate just fine.

The actual construction quality is good. It's symmetrical, neatly and correctly sewn together.

What I see in the video is that the mesh didn't unfold lengthwise until the side of the ZP caught some air and forced it apart.

I am trying to duplicate what I think happened but it's a little tough to do it on the ground without forcing it. Your PC folding method you showed in the video should be fine. It's probably slightly better than what you did earlier on when the hesitations occured.

I personally do not like that pilot chute. I think it's over reinforced, has too large of an opening where the bridle attaches. Personally, I really dislike the heavy materials and the thick cap.

It seems that it would be more prone to trap fabric between the reinforcement tapes and also into the bridle attachment area.

I'm leaving town early tomorrow morning so I probably won't have time to take pictures. When I have a bit more time, I'll again try to duplicate what I think happened and document it.