1. Header
  2. Header-80

Welcome: If this is your first visit, start by reading the followingÂ…
Contribute
Feel free to leave comments at the bottom of a page, or become an Editors and change the actual contents.


ENTER the NEW BASE Wiki

Recent changes
If this is a return visit, click here to see what Editors have recently changed.

About the New BASE Wiki.

Line Twists

Line Twists: Line twists occur most often with skydiving rigs and can render canopies un-steerable and un-landable. Many Bridge Day injuries have occurred to jumpers who were unable to clear line twists and landed in the rocks or trees.

Cause

Bad body position on opening, often head down. You can also get into line twists from being head high as well. I have seen that if you are head high, and have a good 90deg or more off heading, your axis is prone to faster rotation in the direction of the off heading, and you can continue to rotate into line twists due to that momentum.

Prevention

Practice BASE exits into a swimming pool until comfortable. Jumpers can also insure that their eyes remain fixed on the horizon while exiting.

Cause

The most common cause is packing a skydiving canopy in a bag, which can tumble when pulled out of the container at low airspeeds.

Prevention #1

Freepack the skydiving canopy in the container if a tail pocket has been sewn into the tail of the canopy.

Prevention #2

Use a BASE specific container in order to reduce the chances of line twists. Regardless, line twists can be cleared by kicking your legs and pulling the risers apart.

[youtube]piKLeRkQQv8[/youtube]
Maintain a flat or slightly head high position during deployment to reduce the chance of your canopy or canopy bag snagging on the container and spinning during deployment. Regardless, line twists can be cleared by kicking your legs and pulling the risers apart. Don't give up! If unable to clear the line twists, jumpers can "climb" up the lines and pull on the rear line groups to attempt to steer the canopy from danger. High-performance canopies and canopies with higher aspect ratios (9-cells) are much more likely to have line twists than 7-cell or BASE specific canopies.


This video shows the beginning attempts to steer a parachute in line twists

Dealing with Line Twists

The most important rule in any incident:
Get away from the Object!!!!!
You do not want to hit the object, and turning your canopy to avoid object strike MUST come BEFORE getting out of line twists.




BLiNC Magazine strongly encourages readers to comment on its content. Read the Disclaimer and the policy on Site Naming. Posting a comment releases it in the Public Domain. These comments will be moderated. If you see inappropriate content, please notify the administrator
All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author. All images and words are protected by U.S. and International Copyright laws. Copyright 1994-2011

This page has been seen 8,463 times.

Current Discussion: Main discussion

  1. No comments have been posted for this discussion.

Users Browsing This Page (0 members, 1 guests)