Quick Thinking Red Devil!
 

Red Devils in Whitehaven Airshow mid-air parachute drama - BBC News

Reports of a partial opening being caught mid-air by a pal. Both went into the water, both ok.

CG

Always thought that anyone who chooses to jump out of a perfectably seviceable aircraft is totally bonkers!

Great result anyway - well done guys :ok:

pictures and film



http://www.itv.com/news/story/2015-0...fails-to-open/

Video: Red Devil saved by team-mate after parachute fails in mid-air drama - Telegraph




I wonder if he did the lottery last night?.. with the luck he had

Any idea why he did not deploy his reserve?

My second thought, Fox, after, "Phew, jammy git!"

Too low?

CG

Video at bottom

Red Devil caught mid-air by team-mate after his parachute failed to open - Home News - UK - The Independent

Be interesting to see if the chute failed from deployment or collapsed later. I'd guess the second otherwise I would have thought he'd cutaway the main and go for the reserve. All the action does seem to happen low down. (I remember those days!)

Professional as ever - congratulations, very, very well done

Rubbish reporting from someone who has no idea about the sport and never took the trouble to find out what actually happened. :ugh:

Any chance you might enlighten those of us who know nothing about the sport but are trying to find out?

The guys were taking part in CF (Canopy Formation) where they link canopies together. Sometimes when docking to fast or of centre they can collapse or entangle. Looks like this may have happened to low with not enough time to sort it out and the top guy, who does the steering opted for a water landing. This may be because he was unable to make the arena or looking for a softer landing.

Here's a short video of an initial Canopy Relative Work (CReW) jump. You can see the techniques quite clearly. Note that when fully linked, the bottom guy stops steering.



Changing position in Canopy or freefall Relative Work uses exactly the same techniques as formation work in aircraft. Before the jump, there needs to be some means of ensuring the average fall rate of the formation members is very similar. In freefall RW this is done by suit drag. As a big guy, I wear a baggy suit, whilst the women wear skintight lycra (and sometimes have lead weights). With CReW, similar wing loadings and aspect ratios are required for the canopies. After that, the only difference is how you generate the accelerations required in different directions to change position.

Thank you chaps. That makes sense. Was rather puzzled!

Good luck to them! However, BBC still reporting "when his chute failed to open during an airshow - but a team-mate caught him in mid-air". Non of the report seems to be official MOD.

OAP

Please Sir, can I join your club? :E

Nude Relative Work is done for fun sometimes...

however, as reported by a friend of mine who tried it, never be the 'diver' as a bloke.
Most formations are too big to get out of the aircraft cabin in one go, so some hang on the outside of the aircraft and go first in a high drag position- 'floaters', then after the main body, some go out a bit later and are 'divers' to catch up with the formation. The higher airspeed apparently causes flutter resonance in your wanger, and this hurts A LOT. :uhoh:

I wouldn't mind a tad of flutter resonance in the wanger ........... might wake it up!

Ever since the crystal balls were confiscated.

Do the guys brief a 'dumping ground' for heavy landings if it's available such as the harbour, or would this have been thought of on the hoof?

Poor reporting and Para Mafia spin. Of course his mate saved him but only after he'd tried to kill him first.

Alternate landing zones are part of the normal brief for civvy skydivers, it's normal to ask who is qualified for water landings (in the US, that's Intermediate and above). I would be gobsmacked if it wasn't standard for the Red Devils. The guy who did my rigging training did rigging for the Golden Knights (US Army jump team), and they certainly recce'd and briefed for every display site.