Malfunctioned Drogue

[skydived19006 4]

JohnMitchell

Thanks to everyone for all the good info in this thread. I will continue to give my drogues maximum huck.

I agree. There were a few comments/thoughts that had not previously occurred to me brought up here. Call it "learning" if you will.

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[parafredo 0]

I had this one in 2008 and 1 out from my 6500+ tandems up to now,...

[douwanto 22]

Throw the drogue like it's on fire. Not only can it half hitch around itself on a lazy throw or right side down throw or back throw it can and will hitch around yourS or you students arms legs and feet. At the end of every day my shoulder is slightly soar from slinging my drogue as far and hard into the realitive wind as possible. Usually new bs have this problem. Complacency or injuries can bring it into play for more seasoned veterians. Just my 2 cents.

Uncle/GrandPapa Whit
Unico Rodriguez # 245
Muff Brother # 2421

[skydived19006 4]

douwanto

Throw the drogue like it's on fire. Not only can it half hitch around itself on a lazy throw or right side down throw or back throw it can and will hitch around yourS or you students arms legs and feet. At the end of every day my shoulder is slightly soar from slinging my drogue as far and hard into the realitive wind as possible. Usually new bs have this problem. Complacency or injuries can bring it into play for more seasoned veterians. Just my 2 cents.

I don't believe that the drogue is going anywhere other than with the wind stream as long as that's where you put it. "Throwing" it isn't going to put it any farther out. That said, I tend to agree with the agressieve placement at full arms reach, essentially the same thing. Less aggressive and it'll get pulled out of your hand, though I'd think that if the forces are enough to pull it out of your hand, that it's in good air anyway.

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[Ashtanga 0]

I use to be a packer and got yelled at and belittled by the TM because this happened on one of my pack jobs. I did not pack it any different than I did the 1000 packs before that and it had never happened before.

[skydived19006 4]

Ashtanga

I use to be a packer and got yelled at and belittled by the TM because this happened on one of my pack jobs. I did not pack it any different than I did the 1000 packs before that and it had never happened before.

That's the type of guy who can tend to be a danger to himself and those around him. Sounds like the thought that it may have been a problem with something that he had done was unfathomable to him. He's obviously perfect, can do no wrong, and never subject to constructive criticism, or improvement.

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[Divalent 131]

skydived19006

***Throw the drogue like it's on fire. ...

I don't believe that the drogue is going anywhere other than with the wind stream as long as that's where you put it. "Throwing" it isn't going to put it any farther out. That said, I tend to agree with the agressieve placement at full arms reach, essentially the same thing. Less aggressive and it'll get pulled out of your hand, though I'd think that if the forces are enough to pull it out of your hand, that it's in good air anyway.

It seems to me that this is similar to tossing your PC on a sport rig, and that what varies between a lazy toss and an agressive one not how far it goes out the side, but how long you are exposing the bridle between the PC and container to the relative wind. Compared to a rapid extension and release, a slow extension of your arm out to the side probably is going to allow more bridle to feed out into a longer "dancing" loop, and with a bit more time to snag or half hitch.

[hackish 8]

I've seen it once before. The cause was the packer not being careful about the folded in ends of the drogue. With the bridle folded up/down from the apex it was easy to catch the folded in end and choke it off exactly as seen in your photo.

We got rid of our Eclipse systems years ago and I forget the exact published drogue folding method but it's worth checking out.

Did your packer/rigger also check the length of the bridle kill line?

-Michael

[skydived19006 4]

hackish

I've seen it once before. The cause was the packer not being careful about the folded in ends of the drogue. With the bridle folded up/down from the apex it was easy to catch the folded in end and choke it off exactly as seen in your photo.

We got rid of our Eclipse systems years ago and I forget the exact published drogue folding method but it's worth checking out.

Did your packer/rigger also check the length of the bridle kill line?

-Michael

They're Eclipse rigs, but Vector II drogues. UPT changed their drogue design a few years ago such that they kill down a lot smaller. I talked with UPT about it, they instructed me to install a 6" kill line extension in.

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[stayhigh 2]

You can pack them and throw em however you like, but you'll still get them.

Even in BASE environment, where people are super meticulous about their PC folding method, they still get them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tTIjZbvxSJg#!

http://base-book.com/just-one-of-many-pc-ideas

Feels so shitty, when you can feel the D-bag slowly snaking off from your back. Good thing is that unlike BASE we have altitude to work with.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[deadcentre 0]

I have had this situation a number of times on tandem and sport rigs. My belief is that its the way we generally stow drogues and pilot chutes. I altered the way I stow both and have not had a recurrence in the last 6000 jumps. My theory is if the bridle exits from the bottom of the drogue/PC and is the first part stowed, this is where the problem arises!. As soon as you start to feed it into the pocket you can not see what is happening with the bridle and the periphery of the PC/Drogue and may half hitch at that point!. If you fold it so that all bridle exits out the top closest to the bridle protection cover the you know exactly what is happening with it! A malfunctioning drogue can result in bag lock and I have had them on both sport and tandem rigs. And a bag lock on a tandem is seriously the scariest potentially deadliest mal out out there!

[hookitt 1]

stayhigh

The only time when I had similar drogue mal was was when I used Bill Dause method, instead of following what it says on the manual. ....

What is that method?

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto