Thank you for your post of your drogue in tow. You hung your neck out, I wish more folks had your spine because the tandem community needs this kind of information.
As you say, you already know where the problem lies.
Your posting, in the interest of safety and of pointing out potential problems to the mfg. and other Tandem Instructors, is to be commended. Hopefully everyone will see that the problem started with whomever assembled the drogue release.
Addressing these incidents in this public forum helps to keep us all informed and aware. History has a way of becoming foggy and we forget that many of todays incidents had
occurred before. One example occurred in 1993, when there was a tandem fatality involving a misassembled drogue 3-ring assembly. It was on a different system, but a 3-ring is a 3-ring. Basically a similar scenario, the Tandem Master didn’t see it, for one reason or another. On that one, the loop put extreme pressure on the drogue release cable and it was impossible to pull the ripcord. Unfortunately that Tandem Master wasn’t as fast with his emergency procedures as you were. So, congratulations on being focused and following your procedures. Another pat on your back.
As for the Incident Report, I can’t find it in-house. It can be faxed to: 407 850 6978, or fill in the Form from the website: www.strongparachutes.com. under Information Central/Forms/Dual Hawk Incident Form.
I have seen a thread on the subject of Incident Report Forms that suggests that the mfg. uses them to place blame on the Tandem Instructor. Not so! We created those forms so that we could learn of any problems with the gear or how the gear was being used. I can attest to Incident Report Forms having indeed resulted in life saving changes to both gear and procedures.
