Video info request

[Groundbound 0]

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/hangglidefall.html

Can anyone walk me through what happened here?
Starting with exactly what sport is this? Kind of like ridge soaring with parachutes?

[Superman32 0]

That's a paragliding video, not skydiving.
While they are both canopies they have different purpose, shape and flight characteristics and malfunctions.

Inveniam Viam aut Faciam
I'm back biatches!

[linestretch 0]

pretty sweet shit, he landed under his reserve.

my pics & stuff!

[Orange1 0]

The object of paragliding is flying - an elliptical canopy attached to a harness. Launch off a mountain/cliffside etc by inflating the canopy into the wind and then running off the side, so you don't get the adrenaline rush of a free fall - more like just running till you're running in the iar (not UNexciting though!). A number of disciplines incl cross-country flying, the record has been set in South Africa for a few hundres kilometres - can't remember exactly. More potential dangers than skydiving especialy from "rotor" (unstable wind patterns around mountains, etc) - I know too many people who have found themselves slammed into a mountainside. If you look at a paragliding harness you'll see it's very different from a skydiving one - designed to protect back and butt from impact, which alone tells you something. I used to think skydivers were the safe guys and paragliders the reckless ones, until I started hanging out here

Don't flame me for that last sentence please! I know there's a huge emphasis on safety, but there are clearly also the guys who disregard it

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.

[dorbie 0]

As has been said it isn't a skydiving incident but I'll try to shed some light on this anyway, the first part isn't really the interesting part of the post. It looks like he had some kind of canopy malfunction, I'd guess he hit the edge of a thermal, it induced a partial collapse and line twists and although he partially recovered he may have had some damage or line snags which left him in a spiraling dive he couldn't recover from. Paragliders have a higher aspect ratio and more risers than parachutes have and it's easier to get the nose folding under, and it looks like all sorts of things were happening to his canopy including the nose folding and big ears with the wing tips possibly tangling with lines. Ultimately he couldn't recover from this.

As he lost altitude he decided he wasn't going to recover in time and threw out his reserve. You can see him looking and reaching for his reserve half way through the video, down by his right butt cheek. He pulls the handle and has the reserve attached to the handle on a bridle for a moment before he throws it.

This highlights a few major differences between skydiving gear and paragliding gear. Unlike skydiving rigs a paraglider has no cutaway system, so they throw out their reserve whithout cutting away the paraglider canopy. The paraglider reserve is a simple round with a low descent rate and no directional control, AFAIK it's just on a line rather than multiple risers. When you deploy a paraglider's reserve you grab a handle near your butt and physically throw the reserve out into clear air, pulling the pin and tossing out the bag in a single motion, so in theory you have a choice of where it is to be deployed. Once the round reserve is out the theory is that it should slow their descent and allow them to reel in their paragliding canopy.

What looks like a dangerous downplane to a skydiver on the video is just the pilot keeping his paraglider out of the way of his round reserve overhead.

When he's stuck in the tree he doesn't make any attempt to secure himself to the tree, and winds up falling to the ground.

[livenletfly 0]

great explaination thanks. i dont see how he could have secured himself to the tree though. just curious.
j

>

[fcajump 164]

As one who has landed a (skydiving) reserve, what catches my attention is how nice it is to already know that someone has seen the reserve out and to be able to talk with the searchers before you are even down.

Thinking I have other reasons to use them, any paraglider folks that know what type radios they use, please catch me w/ PM.

Glad to hear that he (seems to be) OK after his final landing.

JW

Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...