Care With Line Stows

This skydiver's canopy opened with one side visibly collapsed and in a condition that indicated more than just a line over. After a successful cutaway and reserve deployment, the main was retrieved and hung for inspection.

I have to be honest, I have never seen such a tangled mess of lines, (and I've seen a lot of tangled messes) and called on my friend "Emho" for help. His comment was "We're gonna need Mandrake the Magician to sort this out."

Well, he wasn't available so we did it, but on tracing the lines back it became apparent that during the deployment sequence the bag had flipped through the cascades of the c and d lines causing one whole side of the canopy to be tied closed.

On inspection of the deployment bag, I noticed that there was a combination of tube stoes and rubber bands in various stages of decay and degradation. The rubber bands were also of two different sizes. It appeared that several of the line stow bands had broken on one side of the bag as it lifted from the container, allowing the lines to dump on one side.

The bag seems to have flipped through the cascades while the other side released causing the malfunction.

This is quite plainly and simply a malfunction caused by poor rig maintenance and bad packing maintenance.

If you must choose tube stoes (and I don't recommend them) make sure that they are all in good condition. Never try to squeeze one more jump out of one or more of them.

If you use Rubber Bands, use good (mil. spec.) ones, use the right sized ones and change them as soon as they look like they are about to break.