🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C1H367.HA3@srgenprp.sr.hp.com>
  glenb@sr.hp.com (Glen Baker) writes:
> I was watchin' Skyblazin' last night and got mighty confused at one point.
> One of the men's freestyle competitors opened his main with a big puff
> of smoke. The odd thing is that both his hands seem to be above his head
> at the time...he doesn't seem to reach/pull anything. 
>
> My stupid cheapo VCR won't let me view it in slow motion so I'm left
> wondering how the heck he did this...anybody know?

He had a Cyprus loop cutter (I think -- may have been another brand) in his
main container which had been modified for remote operation via radio
trigger.  His cameraman had the trigger unit.  The smoke was just a cup or
so of flour that had been packed in along with the main.  The
amusing/horrifying thing about this is that the footage that you saw on
ESPN is the only jump where all of the technology worked properly.  There
were three attempts prior to that where something went badly wrong.  Once
the foot connection unit didn't disengage properly, (they had a three ring
cutaway backup), and *twice* he had a container lock with the remote unit.
It turns out that they had been tucking the closing flap under the box
holding the electronics, and it was a lot more secure than they had
thought.  There is some footage of him in freefall waiting for the main to
go, (after the button had been pushed!), and realising that it had failed.
He squirms around in the harness for a bit, and manages to twist the
container enough so that the flap lets go.  Scarey stuff, especially from
the point of view of the cameraman who has to get the message across that
the main has failed!  Exotic tech is fun, but be careful y'all!

Blue skies,

-- 
| Daniel Briggs  (dbriggs@nrao.edu)                      |  USPA B-14993
| New Mexico Tech / National Radio Astronomy Observatory |      DoD #387
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