Hard Openings

I had a demo canopy to try out last weekend, a 270 square foot student main. I packed it just the way I always do - a regular old PRO pack with the nose neatly organized and exposed to the airflow. 

I jumped it from 6k and took a 5 second delay before pitching my PC. The sub terminal opening was slow and soft, just like I expected it to be. An observer in the plane said it took "forever" for the chute to fully deploy. Sweet! I love soft, snivelly subterminal openings.

I had a long canopy flight and a soft landing. I like flying big parachutes and this was a particularly nice one, especially the way you could just hang in the brakes. I felt that I probably could've soared it if the therms were a little more developed.

Back in the hangar I repacked the 270. Same packjob as before.

Next day, first load. I'm trying another demo, a PD  Storm 135, and I suggest to Lee that he try out the 270 on a hop and pop with me. Lee strapped on the 270 and we boarded the plane.

At 5k, he opened the door, checked the spot, and dove out. Lee took 10 or 12 seconds of freefall, long enough to reach terminal velocity, and then deployed. WHAM! Instant parachute. There was absolutely no snivelling, the parachute came out of the container, and boom, it was open. The harness dug into his ribs and bruised his thighs from the opening shock and he saw stars for a few seconds. Fortunately he wasn't so injured that he couldn't unstow the brakes and fly back to a good landing at the DZ. Lee spent the rest of the day lying in his trailer nursing his aches and pains.

I felt guilty as hell since it was my packjob that slammed him so hard. Ultimately we all know that when you strap on any parachute, no matter who packed it, you personally assume responsibility for the consequences. I still felt like shit. I was also mystified. It was the same packjob I've jumped 100s of times, what went wrong this time? Had I let the slider slip down the lines? Had I not stowed the lines tightly enough? Was it just a random hard opening? I guess we'll never know.

This pointless story has a mysterious ending. The next day I did a terminal deployment on the 270, and while the opening was brisk, it didn't slam me.