Your Wingsuit and Your CYPRES

With every year that passes, skydiving grows more complex. At Airtec we work carefully to help make jumping as safe as possible by seeking to ensure your CYPRES unit provides the correct solutions and most supportive risk parameters for the areas of the sport you engage with. Turning on your unit at the start of the day, and then relying on it to be there in an emergency – without any further input – is what you are taught to do while learning to skydive, and remains the correct procedure for a high percentage of all jumps.

The CYPRES is a device that offers peerless reliability, but using one always contains an element of shared responsibility between the manufacturer and the end user. This goes for all the gear you use. It is easy when you know how, but if you pack your parachute wrong it may malfunction. It is easy when you know how, but if you close your container wrong it may malfunction. There are many examples, all of which are managed by understanding what to do and doing it accurately.

Modes

Keeping things simple is an important part of overall usability and reliability of the CYPRES, but along the way certain additional functions and parameters have become necessary – and with each change or layer of complexity comes an adjustment of the arrangement between the factory and the skydiver. The C-Mode (Changeable) unit has within it the Student, Tandem, Expert and Speed modes. Here is a quick summary:

EXPERT MODE: The ‘standard’ CYPRES unit has an activation altitude of 750ft at 78mph.

But You Must Remember: To turn it on. In over 35 years it has saved the lives of 5400+ people.

STUDENT MODE: The student mode has an additional lower vertical speed parameter (29mph) between 750ft-1000ft to help new skydivers with partial malfunctions.

But You Must Remember: No spirals below 1000ft or you can activate it (even with a big student parachute). 

TANDEM MODE: The tandem parameter simply has a higher activation altitude (1900ft) to provide an additional margin for jumping while connected to someone, plus likely being last out and furthest away a lot of the time.

But You Must Remember: It activates considerably higher than a normal CYPRES.

SPEED MODE: This increases the activation speed from 78mph up to 102mph to protect high performance landings from unnecessary activations.

But You Must Remember: You have to be able to deal with high speed/partial malfunctions (e.g. bag lock/tangle) as these may cause you to be falling too slow for your unit to activate.

…

Use of these variations is a normal, everyday part of skydiving and demonstrates how the progression structures of our sport support the different levels of user responsibility – via oversight, experience or both.

 

User Inputs

In modern skydiving, the other changes you can make to your CYPRES are also now quite common, and the same rules apply – if you understand what you are doing they are easy to get right (for additional details see the CYPRES website or ask your instructors/coaches/local nerds).

ACTIVATION ALTITUDE Raising your activation altitude can increase safety in certain situations (for example: when there is elevated terrain nearby that you might end up over the top of).

But You Must Remember: Doing so adds a little bit of height to the very bottom end of your skydive and you need to adjust accordingly (your decision altitude/hard deck should go up the same amount).

INNHOPP/OFFSET: A single jump alteration for landing away from the dropzone. Innhopps are common now.

But You Must Remember: To do it with the correct information or your CYPRES can activate either too high or too low.

 

The Wingsuit CYPRES

Back in 2016 we released a new unit for wingsuit jumps. Advances in skill level, design theory and fabric technology meant that people were becoming ever better pilots, and the data began pointing toward the idea that with the drag from all that additional fabric, an unconscious pilot might fall too slowly for their CYPRES to activate.

The WINGSUIT CYPRES: Provides an additional low speed parameter (45mph) for wingsuit descents.

But You Must Remeber: To use it correctly.

The low speed parameter of the wingsuit unit has saved lives, and does so with the same reliability CYPRES has delivered for decades. At the same time, having it out in the world generated enough data to confirm that you only need one of these if you fly the biggest categories of wingsuit.

IMPORTANT: For the majority of wingsuit jumps the Expert Mode/Unit is absolutely fit for purpose. In the event of being unconscious and/or spinning you will still fall fast enough for it to save you.

After a pause (COVID supply chain issues) we continue to make and sell the Wingsuit CYPRES for those that need it. It is more expensive and has some additional complexity, which is why we recommend only getting one when your performance requires it, and also insist that when that time comes you share with us your understanding of its use (it has a connected audible device and a timed post-deployment process – which is straightforward, but also crucial to apply correctly).

At Airtec our work is to provide the safest solutions, for the most people, with the fewest possible conditional risks. When you are new to skydiving, all the safety parameters are kept as wide as possible for the purpose of progressing and having fun. Over time, the level of risk you engage with can grow in line with your ability to understand and manage it correctly. We do this because it is rewarding and fun, but at all levels the shared responsibility remains – between you, your gear, those you jump with, and where you do so.

Having many skydives, lots of years in the sport and a sophisticated understanding of how everything works is great, but many incidents and accidents (often among even the fanciest of folk) can be avoided by the simplest habits. Wherever you are in your skydiving career, always know your business. Properly engage with the type of jumps you are doing, have the correct information and check the details. This goes for your CYPRES, any and every other part of your equipment, and all of your skydiving plan.