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Hey boys and girls!

Recently just got my first hesi ( I have close to 150 jumps now) off a 280 ft freestanding, hand held.

Curious to know how many of you have had one and what you think caused it?

What type of PC did you have on? How many jumps does the said PC have? What delay was you giving? Which direction was the wind and how strong? Do you have video? We need more info if you want answers.

I've had a couple in my time; one in particular was under delaying with a 42" PC. Lots of people pick the PC size depending on the height of the object when actually you need to be picking the PC size for the delay you are going to give.

Until we have more details we can't really suggest possible things it could have been.

Jamie Flynn

A little bit mote info...

46 pc. A friends because I retired mine a few weeks ago because it was showingsome serious signs of wear.

The jump was a go and throw.

Pc has over a hundred jumps

Wind was roughly 10 mph, tailwind

I've had dozens of them. You should treat hesitation as a normal and expected part of the jump, just like a 180. After a while, it doesn't even bug you anymore

I've had a few...

48" crammed into a sweaty hand for too long

48" too short of a delay with a strong tail wind

42" stowed too neatly, 2 sec. turned into 3+

Can you explain what stowed too neatly means?

I was filming for instructional purposes... so from
a likely combination of OCD + Origami I ended up
with a PC (42" ZP AV 80 jumps) that was simply
too tightly prepped for the quick 2 second delay
I intended taking from about 420 feet off of a
day-blaze guyed A called Blanche, named for the
slutty country character from the "Golden Girls".

I had one that scared me proper, but REDAKTOR said it best.

Mine was a combo of many things ( as always) 300ft bridge, go and throw, didnt prime my pins appropriately and towed it for almost 2 seconds.

It was really odd feeling being in freefall, after pitching a pc, knowing deployment should be happening already but isnt..

Makes sense that they be treated like 180s. I had never had any and then got two in a row, very random.

I will start priming my pins more carefully tough which brings me to a new question. Who out there pops the pin cover when they go hand held?

I would say half of my friends do and the other half Dont. I personally think I will start doing it. That being said, my rig is very worn in and the cover is very soft' hence facilitating its opening.

I personally don't think that pins in modern rigs add anything to hesitation. Hesitation occurs when your PC has very little(think grams) to no pull force. And then you have a sudden dynamic force booming on the bridle. That force is enough to pull that pin in any configuration, and open any flap covers no matter how tight they are stacked.
So prime factor in hesitation is PC inflation, thus think:
1. Pitch technique.
2. How you pack it.
3. Weather and winds.

You can oil those pins greater that a Des Moines sluts' ass, shove them only 2 mm into cypress loops, and still whoosh for 3 seconds, enjoying life

I pop my pin cover slider down and during aerials and close it for slider up.

As with everything in base, I believe a number of factors will contribute to an event being longer or shorter. I do whatever I can to mitigate the risk and reduce the severity when an event does occur. What good does it do you closed on a go and throw? other than looking sleeker.

From a bridge or nice plato exit - nothing. But when you climb a crane boom, or building catwalks, the cover helps to avoid stuff

Jumped a crane last week, obviously I kept it closed while climbing, but opened it before I jumped.

Maybe we should build rigs without them altogether

Don't laugh. I've been thinking about that.

Lee

So you're saying you were instructing people on how to do it wrong?

No one has ever seen the footage so really
just more of a failed exercise than anything.

When your pins start playing a factor, it goes from a hesi to a PC in tow. Pins don't have anything to do with a hesi. The PC has everything to do with a hesi. I personally believe it's a wrong combination of air speed, PC size, and how tightly and how long it has been in the BOC.

And if you are a trained basejumper, and have a modern canopy and rig, and have it properly set up, and get a PC in tow, then I say good riddance

who is the hardest these days....

Yeah, fuckin' Russians for sure

ok so I ve been thinking about it and was wondering if the way you hold the pc has anything to do with it.

I have always had the pc in a bunch (mesh s folded, bridle s folded and then top skin wrapped around). the whole thing looks like a ball.

This is just way I was taught and I have always done it that way.

I have seen several people with the pc top skin just loose and draping over the hand.

For conversation sake, I wonder if that makes the pc inflate faster .

what are the advantages and disadvantages of both hand held methods?

tom taught us to s-fold the entire thing during his FJC, but i always now s fold the bridle and mesh and leave the ZP hanging over the back of my hand (like one of those italian pizza chefs hats) . i just feel like exposing the mesh directly to the air helps inflation, but i suppose that may just be superstition. what the hell do i know anyways?

Wind, or running exit= grenade style

Poised and no wind= mushroom

Just me though. I like to leave the fabric out on hand held, but it can cause dangers in a cross wind or get jacked up while running. $0.02

And you can't throw it as far/hard.

I've seen a jumper exit with mesh and bridle S-folded but ZP out that inverted the PC. It stayed inverted until the jumper fell to bridle stretch. Everything happened as it was supposed to after bridle stretch but it still freaked me out. This was on a go and throw jump. I always S-fold the entire thing for go and throws.

i might be setting myself up for some flak here, but my instinctive reaction is that 10mph tailwind is too much on a go n´throw.
anyway, for all my low jumps i keep the top skin out. only seen a pc hesi once, - tailwind 6mph, lazy throw, pc followed jumper until bridle stretch

So my personal theory is:

If you wad the whole thing up (and by that I mean carefully s-fold ALL material and bridle into your hand), you have something more solid to throw faster/further. That means your pc is getting to bridle stretch faster, and therefore being pulled open by the wind faster and also not hanging in limbo to get a bridle knot around the pc.

However, I will say that for windless, go and throw, super low jumps I rather favor leaving the zp out, but I try to pre-inflate it some when I do that and toss it straight up. I think this is a different pitch technique than a standard go and throw. I wouldn't leave the zp out on a normal g+t.

I have a friend who, when using the zp-out method, tossed the pc firmly, and the wadded bridle flew out of his hand faster than the pc which obviously had a decent amount of drag, causing it to loop and wrap around his hand. Scary jump. So... just something to consider.

The zp-out method for normal g+t can be done safely (and has been plenty of times by many people), but I just don't like it for the listed reasons.