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Aviatrr

Attention Crossfire Owners

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There was supposed to be an update to the Sept 14 Safety Bulletin issued on or before today, but so far has not appeared on their website. Well, I may have a part in that, but this post is more a warning to people jumping Crossfires.
I have a Crossfire 139, loaded at slightly over 1.5. My canopy was manufactured in Aug of this year, serial number begins with 969. My serial number was not listed in the 'good' or 'bad' section of the bulletin, so I contacted Icarus a few days after the bulletin was issued to see which category mine fell into. I was told that it was NOT affected, and I should disregard the bulletin.
Today I was jumping at Skydive Deland, and I was NOT using front risers below 500ft. The winds were about 10-15mph at the time. The winds were out of the east, so we were landing away from the buildings. The nearest things that could've caused rotors were the trees on the other side of the airport. At approximately 20ft, on a straight in, full flight appoach, the left side of my canopy(not from the nose, from the side) rolled under. The left end cell touched the bottom skin of the second or third cell in from the right side. Of course, the canopy began a hard dive to the left when this occured. The canopy then re-inflated when I was a few feet off the ground, and reportedly then went into a V shape. I hit the ground very hard, and according to one witness I did a "picture perfect high speed PLF". Sure seemed to me like I was just tumbling uncontrollably, though. I didn't think I was going to walk away. I ended up walking away with nothing but a sore neck and seriously dirty jumpsuit, rig, and helmet. My camera was running at the time, but, unfortunately, there were no cameras other than mine running. I did not actually see what the canopy did, but the above is what I was told by 8-10 people that witnessed it - a few as close as 30ft in front of me. These were all very experienced jumpers, instructors, and riggers. Everyone agreed that I was in full flight at the time(I started to wonder afterwards), with the only prior input being a slight left toggle(maybe 3-5") correction due to the fact that I shifted in the harness, which induced a slight right turn. The canopy collapsed about the time I let the left toggle back up to full flight. I do not remember attempting to flare to slow the descent, but on my video it appears that I did.
The winds may have played a part in the collapse, but I definitely do not feel that was the primary factor. I was about 20 degrees off the wind line(wind was coming from 20degrees left of the nose) due to people on the ground in the landing area. For those of you that are familiar with Deland, the arrow that is east of the peas was moving around a bit, but the flags on the edge of the deck and across the taxiway were all in agreement, and did not show the wind shift that the arrow seemed to be showing.
After the incident, I contacted Simon at Icarus. It was at that point that I was told that my canopy IS affected by the safety bulletin that was to be issued today. Like I said before, I was told it was NOT affected by the original bulletin, but it was discovered since then that it IS a "bad" canopy. I wish I had found this out prior to today - I would've been on my Sabre instead. The new bulletin, which according to Simon will add at least 20 more canopies to the 'bad' list, and remove a few from the same list, has not yet been issued on the Icarus website. Simon wants my canopy immediately so that they can test it. I am going to be in that area tomorrow, so I am going to drop it off while I'm down there. I will also speak with them further about this issue. At this point, I am not very happy with the fact that my canopy was known as a 'bad' canopy, but no effort was made to notify me or publish the serial number stating such.
The only thing I can think right now is that the wind shift(if, indeed, there was one) caused a change in AOA on the canopy, causing the left side to quit flying. Everybody that witnessed it said that it looked bad enough that they figured I wouldn't be getting up. I was damn lucky.
Mike

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I have a Crossfire 139, loaded at slightly over 1.5. My canopy was manufactured in Aug of this year, serial number begins with 969. My serial number was not listed in the 'good' or 'bad' section of the bulletin, so I contacted Icarus a few days after the bulletin was issued to see which category mine fell into. I was told that it was NOT affected, and I should disregard the bulletin.



Is yours the CF-1 or CF-2 canopy?

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Is yours the CF-1 or CF-2 canopy?

in 2001 I think there were only CF1's, but I might be wrong....



You are right in 2001 they were all CF1s, I had an affected one so I know all about the fun of this recall.

So if anyone is wondering this is VERY OLD NEWS...all CF1s on the list should have already been modded, and CF2s were not affected and were built after all of this happened. Let me add there may have been some demo CF2s around at that time, but they were not being sold to the general public.
Fly it like you stole it!

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