This skydiver pitched her pilot chute while riding a wingsuit rodeo, but the pilot chute got caught in the wingsuit’s burble and wrapped itself around the jumper’s neck. She unwrapped it but, again, it caught around her neck a second time! She was able to clear the bridle from her neck and the main deployed — albeit with a snappy opening and a few line twists.
The burble created by the wake of wingsuit is far wider and longer than many people think. This is why wingsuiters use longer bridles and are taught to have a confident and strong pitch when deploying their canopy. In this incident, the rodeo rider did not have a longer bridle and her pilot chute got caught in the wingsuit's large burble.
This jumper noted that before going up, she had discussed the dive flow and said she would get off the wingsuiter before deploying her main. She was – correctly – concerned about the burble. However, the wingsuiter told her not to worry about it and that she would be fine. Her instincts and logic were right. Had she stuck with her gut feeling and dismounted the wingsuiter before throwing her pilot chute, this incident would not have occurred.
Wingsuit rodeos seem to have become increasingly common over recent years. As that has occurred, there appears to be a trend towards letting jumpers of relatively low experience participate in them. Fortunately, that was not the case in this video. This was an experienced and skilled skydiver who knew the dynamics of the jump, and – given the potential for what could have been a fatal injury – did an amazing job dealing with the situation. A newer jumper would potentially have not been able to remain as calm and this situation could have ended very differently.
This skydiver pitched her pilot chute while riding a wingsuit rodeo, but the pilot chute got caught in the wingsuit’s burble and wrapped itself around the jumper’s neck. She unwrapped it but, again, it caught around her neck a second time! She was able to clear the bridle from her neck and the main deployed — albeit with a snappy opening and a few line twists.
The burble created by the wake of wingsuit is far wider and longer than many people think. This is why wingsuiters use longer bridles and are taught to have a confident and strong pitch when deploying their canopy. In this incident, the rodeo rider did not have a longer bridle and her pilot chute got caught in the wingsuit's large burble.
This jumper noted that before going up, she had discussed the dive flow and said she would get off the wingsuiter before deploying her main. She was – correctly – concerned about the burble. However, the wingsuiter told her not to worry about it and that she would be fine. Her instincts and logic were right. Had she stuck with her gut feeling and dismounted the wingsuiter before throwing her pilot chute, this incident would not have occurred.
Wingsuit rodeos seem to have become increasingly common over recent years. As that has occurred, there appears to be a trend towards letting jumpers of relatively low experience participate in them. Fortunately, that was not the case in this video. This was an experienced and skilled skydiver who knew the dynamics of the jump, and – given the potential for what could have been a fatal injury – did an amazing job dealing with the situation. A newer jumper would potentially have not been able to remain as calm and this situation could have ended very differently.
