outrager
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May 26, 2019, 11:52 PM
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Catastrophic UL WS in-flight failure
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We recently had a sudden & catastrophic ultralight wingsuit fabric failure about 8 seconds after exit. The jumper was setting up for a committed proximity line. Luckily the suit split up in clean air before the start of the line, putting the jumper into an unstable head-down position followed by an uneventful deployment.
The suit was made from Gelvenor ZP fabric (its heaviest paragliding grade) by a small company in Russia, and had a few dozen BASE flights on it. Apparently there were only 2 made of that fabric, and the other suit has been recalled.
May 27, 2019, 5:09 PM
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Re: [outrager] Catastrophic UL WS in-flight failure
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Wow! Glad he is ok.
Interesting the way it ripped, was it cut along the bias so it teared on the grain? As in defective fabric? Or was it stitched in a zig zag pattern there and ripped on the stitching? Any previous damage to the suit? Is this a fabric used by other manufacturers on their suits?
Aug 5, 2019, 11:43 PM
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Re: [outrager] Catastrophic UL WS in-flight failure
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DFR wrote:
Wow! Glad he is ok.
Interesting the way it ripped, was it cut along the bias so it teared on the grain? As in defective fabric? Or was it stitched in a zig zag pattern there and ripped on the stitching? Any previous damage to the suit? Is this a fabric used by other manufacturers on their suits?
Any update on this?
outrager
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Aug 6, 2019, 12:50 PM
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Re: [DFR] Catastrophic UL WS in-flight failure
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DFR wrote:
Any update on this?
Yes. They (the jumper, base/rigger friends and the manufacturer) have looked at it in detail. The conclusion was that the tear has started from a weak & worn out spot where the chest strap buckle has been rubbing on the fabric (chest strap inside the suit, base style), and progressed from there on in zigzag rip-stop pattern. This worn out spot was visible on some previous photos of the suit. There was no needle damage on the fabric or any other manufacturing defects.
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