SUBJECT: Perrine and Premature Warlock opening

[guest]

Hi everybody,

First of all I would like to say what a wonderful weekend the Vertigo staff had at the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls two weeks ago. We went with two students, Derrick from Florida and Sebastian from Brazil. We met a crowd from Colorado and Northern California there jumping away.

Our students got to make six jumps each and learn a bunch. Derrick even had a tailgate hang-up and handled it nicely. Clint did his first double-gainer and Jimmy his first gainer from a low object. Another very nice thing was that I wasn't the only girl on the load (thanks to Jill and Emily). I also found out it's illegal to jump from the catwalk.

Great weekend! It was nice seeing everybody!

Okay, now to BUSINESS:


ATTENTION WING SUIT BASE JUMPERS!

I just talked to Yuri today and he said he had a premature opening with his Warlock while flying his wingsuit from a large cliff out west. He also said he’d had a similar experience in South Africa – but thought the pilot chute had left the pouch early. Now he believes that, in both cases, the container opened before the pilot chute was out of the pouch.

This is the first time I’ve heard about something like this happening with a Warlock.

Yuri thinks a stiffener on the pin cover flap will solve this problem, so if you’re flying a wingsuit on BASE jumps you’re probably experienced enough to decide whether you want the pin cover flap changed or not.

Yuri is a very experienced BASE wingsuit flyer and his experience should be taken very seriously. If you have a Warlock and would like it changed, please send it back to Vertigo and we'll put a stiffener on the pin cover flap at no charge.

CAUTION: If you make low (slow) jumps with the Warlock, you don't want a stiffener because it can hang up and you might not be able to afford that (I've seen it happen).

I would also like to hear some input from experienced wingsuit BASE jumpers on this subject so please e-mail me at adrenaline@vertigobase.com. Please don’t respond to me via this forum because I don't follow the BASE Board.

Thanks,

Marta Empinotti
Vertigo Base Outfitters

[guest]

To anyone visiting Perrine, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't jump from the catwalk. This action alone may get it closed down.

If you haven't been there before, give Bert (the boat guy) a call (208)734-4228.

MG

[guest]

Yo BABE wuz up? Hey, on the Warlock rig with the flap stiffner in place can you eliminate the problem of low altitude container hang ups by leaving the pin cover flap undone? Hence allowing us cheap dudes to go low and go high.

[Yuri]

Yo !

Leaving all the fun stuff out ;-) here are the details of my premature container openings.

Equipment used in both cases: a standard BirdMan wingsuit and a standard Warlock (2-pin BASE rig).

First accident: an uneventfull flight for a while following an S-pattern to kill off some altitude, then diving through a steep gorge to kill some more. At the end of a dive (within 10sec of intended opening point) i felt my canopy lifting off my back followed immediately by a quick and clean opening. The original conclusion, given a clean opening and a wide-angle video from the top, was that my pilot chute has escaped during a high-speed dive. I do not believe this is the case any more.

Second accident: about 10 sec into the flight i felt a very light tap on my back. Believing that my pin-cover flap came open i looked over the shoulder but did not see anything trailing or otherwise scary. I could not see the flap itself. Due to various reasons an early opening was highly undesirable so i went on with the flight. I have not done any high-speed maneuvers, only flat turns in a max glide body position. About a minute into the flight, i have turned back towards the landing area and found i was still coming in too high overshooting LZ. I decided to dive down and kill some altitude, but a second or so into the dive (about 10sec before intended point) my canopy lifted up and opened cleanly. I have not picked up extra speed yet, only changed my body position. PC was in a tight pouch, only its plastic handle has been exposed, so PC is out of equasion.

Conclusion: in both cases, my pin-cover flap opened up exposing the bridle and pins to the fast airflow parallel to my back. Eventually the bridle slack between 2 pins has caught enough air to pull these pins and open a container. It is quite lucky that my pilot chute has been pulled out of its pouch by deploying canopy.

This scenario is unlikely to happen unless you are flying a wingsuit or doing some head-down maneuvers. Nevertheless, i would recommend to add a plastic stiffner to the pin-cover flap and make sure you have a "freefly-ready" rig any time you reach terminal. Secure cover flap is a MUST for any wingsuit flying.

My Warlock is coming back in a few days with a new flap. So far this has been the only problem i have encountered with it. Soft flap was designed to prevent a hard pull/bridle hangup at low airspeeds and it has worked exceptionally well at that. However, we push the limits in all directions and our gear will have to follow.

bsbd!

Yuri.