Basejumper.com - archive

"The Sorcerer"
The High Altitude BASE Rig
Article written by BASE # 46
Posted by BASE # 75

No longer do you have to trust your life by trusting one parachute. BASE malfunctions occur frequently, even with today's technology, some malfunctions can be cleared without going to a second parachute, other's can't.

BASE Jumpers have been hurt or killed by unclearable malfunctions, such as pilot chutes not opening, blown up parachutes, slider hang-ups, broken connector links and who knows what else. Some BASE jumpers choose to use a tertiary round parachute, but this offers little protection since it oscillates and is unsteerable. You couldn't help but land in rocks, scaffolding, water or power lines which are located directly below most launch points.

he Sorcerer is a piggyback double square system much like a state of the art skydiving rig. The Big difference lies in the way the reserve is deployed. If you have a partial malfunction, the reserve parachute is static lined from the cutaway main parachute. The reserve freebag is attached to the main risers. All you have to do is cutaway and you have immediate deployment of your reserve, regardless of your airspeed.

For something like a horseshoe, collapased pilot chute or total malfunction, you simply deploy the reserve, which is a pullout system much like the Racer. The handle is located on top of your left shoulder and all in one action, it dissconects the static line, pulls the reserve pin and pulls out pilot chute off to the side and the chances of it clearing the mess are far greater than a conventional ripcord spring loaded pilot chute. Also Guaranteing launching the pilot both preinflated and clear of your burble, which is much faster in extracting the reserve freebag than a spring loaded pilot chute.

The reserve container is packed much like a main container and your reserve can be repacked in the field with no more rigging tools than two pull up cords. To completely dial in your reserve, it is necessary to manipulate your reefing system on your reserve to suite your alitiude and speeds of the particular object. For instance, slider down, mesh slider up or high speed slider up.

We have done extensive testing with excellent results.On a cutaway with a slider down reserve, we have been opening anywhere from .96 of a second to 1.16 of a second. With the forward speed of the main makes this approxumately 40 feet, 3 ring of main to 3 ring of reserve. Using a slider that will withstand a terminal opening. From a standing start, we have been opening between 70 and 80 feet.

For the total Malfunction end of the spectrum, we are using a 42'" pull out pilot chute, which is completly adequate on the lower speed totals. You will be falling for at least 3 to 4 seconds before you can react to a total malfunction, after which you will be traveling in the 50 to 70 miles per hour range and since the container is already open, the pilot chute just has to pull the bag through line stretch. But at terminal velocity, it doesn't create too much snatch force to cause bag strip or line dump and since it is a freebag reserve system, there is no loading happening on your reserve pilot chute attachment point on the top of your canopy.

All of these test were made during 1990 using a Firefly for a reserve. Keep in mind the smaller the reserve the faster the openings and the larger the reserve, the slower the openings. On a spinning malfunction, it's recommened to stop the spin facing away from the object with a rear riser before cutting away. The main is deployed with a throw out pilot chute in a spandex pouch located at the bottom of the container. This enables you to take off the rig, give it a complete equipment check and put it back on with no chance of misrouting anything. The spandex pouch will accept small, medium or large pilot chutes. You can jump with it stowed or you can pull it out and hand hold it depending on your decision at hte exit point.

Extensive research, design, development and testing have gone into the Sorcerer. If safety, health and BASE Jumping are high on your list of priorities, it may be time for you to reevaluate your outdated equipment.

Available through Vertigo BASE Outfitters
Marta and Jimmy
Moab Utah, USA

Post Number 2 from gharendza...

Um...Thanks???

You get an A+ for the brilliant use of copy and paste. Well done!

I don't consider my rig (PerigeePro/ACE) to be outdated, nor do I feel the need to carry a reserve on a BASE jump. I honestly do not believe having a reserve on a BASE jump is going to increase my odds of survival. If anything, it may increase the frequencey of fast slam packing going on in the BASE world. Ever hear someone say, "It's cool, I got a reserve..." ?

Now that's funny....and I feel the same as you Hookitt.

may i suggest you find your self a new hobby then or start learning to pack a parachute..

Indeed, it may.

13 years is a very long time in the development of modern BASE gear.

Most of the jumps I've seen with Sorcerors were for intentional cutaways. So, they work great if you're under a properly functioning parachute.

Does anyone know of an occasion where a Sorceror was used in an actual emergency - successfully?

As NickD pointed out in a thread some time ago, fatality #29 is related to the use of this system.

-riggersam-,
The guy who went in had a malfunction on his reserve.However the system worked fine.There is another "real" sorcerer cut away where a guy cut away from line twists and landed without further incident.The system is great and is available for those who choose to use it....... VRANK

Do you know if any additional research and development has been done on the Sorcerer since 1990?

I've always thought of it as an old school design that hasn't been updated in quite a while.

-Tom-
I do not know as I do not own one.In 94 I made several jumps on it and did a cutaway.Nice product.Presumably it has since been updated.
VRANK

Very well written article, thank you for posting this Mr. BASE 75, I like old nostalgic stuff,
Blue skies.
Jackie

The Sorcerer has been around for 15 years. It was born from a slider hang up. The system is extremely simple for what it does. There have been minor modifications throughout it's lifespan,but the functionality is the same. We sell very few these days due to a feeling of well being with single parachute systems in the BASE community. People are jumping modern gear with BASE specific parachutes. The malfunctions that a Sorcerer is designed for are catastrophic failure of the main parachute(broken lines,blown cells), slider hang ups or a total malfunction such as the main pilot chute entangling with the jumper. In the secondary situation, the reserve can be deployed independently of the main.
The entire jumping community is very very comfortable with single parachute systems, including myself. The question really remains with the jumper. Do I want an extra parachute if my main catastrohically fails? There are 2 reported Sorcerer saves. There are more than a few instances where we feel that a Sorcerer could have saved the jumper's lives.
The Sorcerer is designed for slider up jumps where the jumper decides to pull a bit higher to give them time to cut away. The reserve can be packed slider up or down depending on altitude and jumper preference. If you're pulling at tree tops anyway, then the Sorcerer wouldn't offer you much protection.
To say that the Sorcerer is old school or to ridicule people who jump one as being "too safety conscious" is disturbing to us. As a matter of fact, the Relative Workshop just introduced(15 years later) the exact same system on their skydiving rig.
I think that it's awesome that we can have as much confidence in our single parachute systems as we do, but be careful just how confident you are.
Even the most perfect machines malfunction, it is Murhpy's law.
Jimmy and Marta
Vertigo

Nicely spoken Jimmy...

Bryan

You go big boy...

The Sorcerer may be outdated , the mindset may have changed but there's no getting away from the fact that this was a milestone in BASE and a revolutionary design.

You want to go ahead and criticize Da Vinci for drawing pictures of machines which can't compete with a Dagger? It doesn't make much sense.

The big disadvantage to a Sorcerer is that when you get busted you lose 2 canopies. That is not an issue which was being addressed when this equipment was conceived.

The rig does what it does. The design focus is narrow but given the required parameters I would challenge anyone to either come up with a design which does it better or care enough to take the job on in the first place.

"Horses for courses" is the mantra of the designer. Try going on vacation with the wife & kids in a Ferrari F40.

Badass BASE jumpers you may be but you can count on the fingers of a one armed, club footed, scottish dwarf the number of badass BASE jumpers who can design and build parachutes and rigs let alone with the quality of Vertigo's gear. How bad do you have to be to strap on a piece of gear, a design of which nobody ever jumped before knowing that you blazed the trail and there are no guarantees that you didn't just created a new failure mode? Very bad indeed, Sir.
I asked Marta about that once and she replied, nonchalantly, that she knew it would work and it was no big deal.
It may have been no big deal to her but that's because she has huevos grandes.

You have a constitutional right to air you opinion as do I. My response...be still Softcock.

Love n hugs,

Faceslappa.

PS Do I get some free gear now?

Ooops.

I would like to retract my previous post based on the fact that it disagrees with the views of Tree and he's a huge fucker.

Sorry Tree,

Best regards,

Love ya,

Sorry,

Skin,

PS please don't hurt me.

 

Hey Tree,

I'll be at Bridge Day if you say I have to be.

Sorry,

{grovelling, snivelling, fawning, apologies etc.}

I don't have a slot for BD. $60 is too much to give my SS# away to the man. I may turn up just for the hell of it to say hi to everyone.

As ususal when I wrote that post I was horribly drunk

May see you there yet, bro'.

Take it easy (on me).

Skin.

i dont want to know ,i dont want to know....

It is not exactly the same...

Its not the exact same system, anyways, Bill Booth has been working on the Skyhook off and on for nearly 18 years...

Without getting into the "who invented it first" discussion, I'll just report what I learned this past weekend when RW came by with a Skyhook demo rig to the AOT boogie.

From what the RW guy told me, the primary difference between the Skyhook setup & the Sorcerer setup is that the Skyhook detaches from the reserve freebag bridle (to handle main total malfunctions).

I asked the guy what kind of distances they were seeing before people had a reserve over their head and he said generally around 75 feet (the longest they saw was 100 feet). So it sounds very similar performance-wise.

I'd love to do an intentional cutaway with one from... oh... 250' or so.

I'd say that he was yanking your chain (or overselling the product). The only way to get an open canopy under 100 feet is to deploy it slider down (or off). Packing a skydiving reserve slider down is a death sentence in the event of a high speed malfunction.

I jumped the RWS cutaway rig at the boogie with a Skyhook, the reserve was packed by one of the DZ's local riggers (Pablito), so the reserve was packed per the normal reserve packing procedures. From my own experience with the cutaway, I went from main to nothing to open reserve in roughly 100ft. I say roughly since that is an estimation from my analog alti and the two people following behind me under canopy.

There is still a pretty significant difference between "I used it and the other guys who saw it and I thought it was roughly 100 feet" and "I'm the factory rep and we tested it to definitely open in less than 100 feet ever time."

Put it this way. No matter what RWS says, I'm not going to use the skyhook system at any altitude that I wouldn't direct bag a similarly packed (i.e. slider up) BASE canopy from.

Did he explain how that's different from the Sorcerer? I'm pretty sure the Sorcerer reserve can also be deployed independently, in the event of a total main malfunction.

Jimmy wrote:

I should have been more clear on this point. Bill and RWS did not copy the Sorcerer, far from it. Their system is brilliant. The thing that is exactly the same is that the reserve is static lined by the jettisoned main. With RWS's Skyhook, in the event of a total, the reserve is deployed normally with a spring loaded pilot chute. With the Sorcerer, in the event of a total, there is a handle on the left shoulder that is connected to the base of the reserve pilot chute. When you pull this handle the reserve is disconnected from the main riser and you deploy the reserve in a pull-out fashion. The reserve is packed in a free bag.
Jimmy P.

Paranoia will destroy ya.
Your SS# only goes to the Sheriff, not the NPS.

Same guy diff'rent hat.

Also, I don't have a pot to piss in never mind $60 to jump a "free" bridge.

I can do a promotional appearance for $100. How about that?

Alternatively you could get Felix Catlitter for 50 cents.

Your choice

Even if I did have a Skyhook (I have a Wings rig), I still wouldn't lower my decision altitude. The selling point that Bill Booth was stating with the very quick deployment had to do more with canopy collisions in the 400-500ft range. Still freaky, though.

Jan and Lukas would be wishing that they were juming a "Sorcercer".
God Bless them !
Gerald Harendza El-Capitan #494

I thought the Sorcerer was more of a novelty than a lifesaver. Am I mistaken?

I don't think so. I agree that it's more novelty than lifesaver.

do you think its status as such would change if it was used more?

I don't really think it has a place in modern BASE except for use in fun-away jumps.

The norm in BASE has pretty much always been to use all allowable freefall time and initiate deployment at the lowest "safe" altitude. (I'm not sure if "altitude" is the right word for this...)

If you're delaying until there's only time to attempt one deployment, with a small margin for variation, then you certainly will not have time to try again once you realize things aren't working.

I suppose if you're primarily a bigwall jumper and you take extremely conservative delays then a Sorcerer may have a place in your arsenal. As long as you can maintain a balance between gaining sufficient horizontal separation from the object and pulling high enough to give a reserve a chance, then use it.

This just isn't a common practice in BASE these days and it probably won't ever be.


edit: "extremely conservative"... does that even make sense...?

damnit all my jumps are funjumps..whats wrong whith that

I think DexterBASE was referring to a cutaway made purely for fun (hence fun-away).

i know just making fun a him

[rush limbaugh voice] Can I say something like that? [/rush limbaugh voice]

Sorcerer is just about twice as heavy to climb up a tower with. something to consider.

Thomas

Never thourght of it that way.. you must be a lazy boy aswell

now now faber! remember that YOU TOO ARE A LAZYBOY!!



Take it easy brother..........

not as much as you.. how long time should my next visit be... 1 week again? can you get off work? trying to plan Feb. or so... if its ok


ps. i only have one glass of my favorite pickles back,i might need a loong wweekend to get some more in..

Yeah mate! If you can do February do it - I will take the time off work whilst you are here! do the same as last time but prehaps visit the guys in Lowlands across the water this time..............

I have some more holiday to take before the end of the year so just say the word if you want a long weekend here............... would be cool to flick lowshit with you again.........

Peace Always my friend.........


M

ps) you still hucking off something tonight?

 

Care to expand on that?

Hi, The "Sorcerer" a second chance Dual Parachute BASE Rig that has proven to saves lives!
Thank You, Gerald Harendza

Hey Tom,

The statement from RWS is correct. Try to get your hands on the promo video of the system and you'll be surprised what you'll see.

When I was doing my rigging course at RWS the Skyhook was in its final stage of development. The guy doing the test jumps was actually my trainer. Smart enough he had me pack some of the reserves used in those test jumps. I've seen some of the jumps carried out and since I was within RWS at the time I know the stated numbers are correct.

I currently have a Skyhook in my Vector!

cheers,

J.

If we could get some of their knowledge over here, it would revolutionize BASE. We ought to be able to get open canopies in 100 feet. That's pretty revolutionary. Imagine freefalling from 100 fott objects.

What special things were you doing to the canopy to get it open so fast? Can you share any of them?

Can't we do that already? How much altitude does it take for a static lined canopy to open? That's essentially what the skyhook does, right?

It sounds like we're talking about "open canopy" vs "flying canopy". The skyhook may well open a canopy in 100 ft but I imagine its descent rate at that point is no safer than the descent rate of a static lined canopy 100 ft below the exit point. Or am I well off the mark?

Gus

Well, using the skyhook really is not freefalling, as the cut-away canopy is acting like an anchor in the air, producing much more pull to the reserve bridle to pull the freebag out. It creates much more pull force than the reserve pilot chute in subterminal speeds. So compared to base it's somewhere between static lining or PCA and freefalling.

Vesa

Gus,

I think you're 'on' the mark there. The altitude you loose after the cutaway occurs when the reserve comes out of its freebag. Normally you will start dropping straight after a cutaway and loose much more. Therefore it does look like a static line, or maybe even a direct bag opening.

In case of the skyhook you're basically attached to your 'mega' pilot chute, which is your main untill the whole lot is released (read: reserve out of freebag)

see picture

The altitude lost is just the opening altitude of the reserve and no freefall!

The reserve itself is packed in a normal way for skydiving.

J.

PS: More info here http://www.relativeworkshop.com/pdt_skyhook.html (and you'll see the Sourcerer is even mentioned there!!)

i would tend to say the same as you Gus

taken from http://www.relativeworkshop.com/pdt_skyhook.html
which 321cya gave me on msn(cheers)

I wonder how they do that by a slider up(sports reserve= sailslider...)...

edit spell of name,sorry mate

The system just uses the Main as a Pilot chute and drags the Freebag out of the container and off of the reserve. Then it's just a plain ole deployment.

To give you an example of how quick a small reserve opens, I did a cutaway in front of my old team mate Evan. From an open canopy, I took a 1 second delay and had an open canopy in an additional 2 seconds. T

It was a stock Eclipse with a Micro Raven 135. The spring loaded Pilot chute is rather heavy.

With a terminal deployment it would still be around the same amount of time, but the distance would be greater.

When you use the skyhook, it's practically a static line jump. Reserves with Microline and low airspeed will inflate very rapidly. Keep in mind that reserves are generally less than 200 square feet with a large portion of them being 170ish and less.

Jumpshack used to claim 64 feet using an RSL activated reserve deployment. I'd say it was closer to 100 but still that's with out a skyhook.

No airspeed to hold the slider up. Also, microline is used on almost all reserves so it's a nice and slippery surface for the big brass number 8 Grommets to slide on.

i cant belive if a sail slider canopy can open faster than a modern BASE canopy
guess im going out to buy one now

i think theres messed up whith canopy out/flying..

hmm we learn each day huh..

how fast does a BASE canopy open at a regular SL?

I witnessed John (Jumpshack) and Bill (RWS) having a chat while watching a Skyhook testjump...


...more than interesting!

J.

 

how fast does the 2 canopy in the soorcer open?

Hmmm. So work with me on though process. I ought to be able to get a very fast opening if I used a very small canopy (like a skydiving reserve size). Will that thing be landable in those altitudes? In other words, could I potentially freefall 150' (with no object strike potential, so no off-heading worries) into a good landing area, on a regular basis? What do you think?

Do you think the microlines contribute to a faster opening without a slider?

Regular basis? Heck I don't know. I'd have to try a Micro raven small off the perrine to figure it out.

The problem I would see is a Large Pilot chute and a tiny canopy.

I'd say it could be opened consistantly but how it would fly I wouldn't want to guess. In the skydiving world it obviously doesn't matter much since the PC is gone, and there's nothing to hit and altitude is available.

So I bet it would open, but landable? I don't know. I happen to have a MR 120 to try out though.

bad idea they land hard anyway i tryed it 2 times in a pink one(whith Neon yellow packing strips actualy),i wont recomend landing them other than just to save your life,probaly whith some bruises..

hehe... Thanks Faber. I have a few landings on that canopy and various other small reserves already. Besides the Patato bridge has a large slow moving river to land in and I've yet to do that. Next year when the river isn't icey I'll bring it along.I wondered what to do with that parachute since it wasn't being used as a reserve any more.

I am not sure here Faber, but from what I have heard, a slider fights the wind. The relative wind is what the slider is fighting against to slide down the lines. It is why a mesh slider travels down faster than a sail slider.
But, let's say, at a given relative wind speed of 0mph and 0kph, how much airspeed does a slider have to fight?

Yep...you guessed it..NONE. The canopy also has zero air to open with, therefore won't....but we are talking small fractions of mph or kph.......
Granted I would not be the first to take a sail slider up off a 350 foot building, but from the past, it has been done, and done successfully.
NOTE: Please don't try this at home, or any other building around your way.

This really isn't Thomas misconception I am trying to spread. I have actually heard from someone else the theory brought forth that a slider up go and throw is not much different than a slider down go and throw.

The only phenomenon about this I have experienced is slider up off the potato. Too short a delay <2sec, is still a WHACK. 2.5 to 3 becomes a "fluffy fluffy fluffy" opening. With no air to fight, the slider WILL come down quickly, and hence perform a slider down opening.....WHACK.

What about slider rebound? Wasn't that a theory at one point?

And how about direct slider control? Let's chat about this. Direct slider control is what? Putting yet ANOTHER rubber band into the system? One for the line stow byte, and another to secure the slider above the rubber band already in place?
I understand the concept of direct slider control, yet I fail to see the value.
How can one rubber band be different than two? Once force yanks one off, the second follows off quickly after.

Or so common misconceptions go....


Thomas

I can't imagine having any on-heading certainty with a zero delay slider up opening. It might open as fast, but...

I agree with the point that Thomas and others have made: a slider-up canopy with zero airspeed has the potential to open up very quickly since there is no air pressure to hold the slider up.

I've actually been testing this idea for sometime.

This morning on an Ace 280, composite ZP, and large-hole mesh slider, I did a go and pitch (stowed). I was open just as high as a 1 1/2 second delay slider down.

A few days ago, I did a slider-up PCA (same equipment/rigging) and was open approx 10-15ft lower than a slider down PCA.

Same set-up but with a 2 1/2 second delay -- a measurably slower opening.

Undoubtedly, a slider slows down the opening by reefing the lines. But at very low airspeeds, it doesn't slow down the openings that much! (assuming that you are using an airfoil that opens rapidly and pressurizes well)

Bryan

Hi, Actually I do not where Mark Hewitt BASE# 46 is right now.
Mark invented the "Sorcerer" Rig that has proven to save lives on high altitude BASE Jumps. Mark is a wonderful Very Smart Person, who has contributed with many BASE inventions during the Very Early years of BASE. I think Mark has 5 BASE inventions ! Mark helped myself and Many Many others during the Early years of BASE.
On another note: "Slim" a friend of almost every one, Probabally wishes he was Jumping a "Sorcerer"!
Thank You,
Gerald Harendza
Night BASE 24

 
Hi Gerald,

Long time no see . . .

I don't think I've ever heard of an "actual save" on a Sorcerer. If there has been one (or more) please let me know. (I'd want to get that right in the book).

I have, of course, seen many funaways on the system, and I've came to the conclusion that basically, that's the niche that rig fit into.

Mark, however, does have countless saves to his credit since he showed us the line mod back in the day. I was jumping a bagged sail slider deployed, steering lines through everything Cruiselite from a local tower when I met Mark for the first time in 1985. He walked up to me, looked at my set-up and said, "You're an asshole."

It was the beginning of a wonderful relationship . . .

NickD
BASE 194

I'm not sure I agree with this. Check out this video of a PCA (thanks DexterBase) I did with a MESH slider on a vented Fox 225.
Clicky