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Top 5 RSL myths

By adminon - Read 75169 times

I keep seeing the same arguments made against RSL's, over and over. Many of them are just myths, word-of-mouth anecdotal stories passed down for so long that their original meaning has gotten lost. I figured I would list them here:

1. You should get stable before you open your reserve, and so you should disconnect your RSL.

First off, you should _not_ be stable face-to-earth when you open your reserve. The Racer manual spells this out explicitly - you should be head-high if possible to ensure a cleaner reserve deployment. Fortunately, you are head high the instant you cut away from your main, and that is the point at which an RSL will open your reserve.

Secondly, there are two universal truths in skydiving - you won't do it if you don't practice it, and you _will_ do what you trained to do. If you practice "cutting away and getting stable" you _will_ do that in the air, even if you someday cut away at 500 feet. If you do that, the only thing that will save your life will be your RSL.

Finally, before you decide that it's a good idea to cut away and then get stable, I'd recommend you do an intentional cutaway from a rapidly spinning canopy and see how long it takes. (Hint - it does not take just a second or two.)

2. You only need an RSL if you're going to forget to pull your reserve.

Rick Horn, one of the three people in the US who trains all AFF-JM's, once needed his RSL due to rig distortion. He could not find his reserve handle. If you are more current at cutaways than a man who teaches them every month, and have more jumps than him (6000?) that might be a valid point, but I think few people are.

3. If you cut away on the ground on a windy day and you have an RSL, your reserve will inflate.

Simply not true. Try it next time you need a repack - go outside in the wind and pull your reserve handle. The PC will come out, the freebag may fall on the ground - and that's it. Unless you have decided to jump in a hurricane, even 25kts of wind (way more than most people will jump in) won't inflate a reserve.

Of course, you can disconnect your RSL once under canopy to prevent the reserve from opening at all if you have to cut away on the ground. That's a convenience issue, not a safety one.

4. You can practice cutting away on the ground, so how hard can it be?

RSL's are not for normal cutaways. They are for madly spinning mals where you can barely see one of your handles. They are for mals while wearing a wingsuit, where you have fabric flying in your face and you can barely see. They are for cutaways at 600 feet when someone sets up a hook right into your canopy and destroys it. These are the situations where RSL's save lives.

If you will never be in such a situation, great. But I have discovered that those situations find you, rather than the other way around.

5. You have to "fall away" from your main to guarantee you won't entangle with it.

Simply untrue. I've watched an awful lot of rig testing, and the physics just doesn't let that happen. Even in a malfunctioning canopy, the forces work to separate the main and the jumper/reserve.

And if you postulate a bizarre scenario where the reserve PC can somehow entangle with the main? The reserve will simply open faster.

All that being said, there are still reasons not to use an RSL. We disconnected all our tandem RSL's a while back because there had been some problems with broken risers, and that's a risk when you use a one-sided RSL. If you're doing something bizarre (like jumping a 46 sq ft canopy and opening at 5000 feet) an RSL will probably not help you much, and if you're doing intentional cutaways or CRW, it makes sense to simplify your gear and be able to fall away from something before you open your reserve. But for a lot of people it makes sense.

Personally, I recommend everyone use one until they get to 200 jumps and/or have their first cutaway from a spinner. At that point they will have the experience to make a good judgement on their own.

-bill von

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ChrisD
You forgot to add our extensive collection of morbidity / mortality data that we do have.
Not a lot of RSL incidents caused by using a RSL as compared with NOT having one.
The power of MYTH.
I hope Zeus doesn't bite me :)

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Jacked
You should to do the same type of write up, but for camera flyers. I have found very little in the main stream of skydiving that addresses this discipline, with any data to support it one way or another...

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ThighMan
I like the article. NOTE: I've had two cut-a-ways (1800 or so jumps) and both were spinning malfunctions. I have gone away from a RSL when I went to the elliptical canopy.

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377
Great article Bill. If you can convince even one non RSL equipped jumper to add an RSL ya done good.
The myths against RSLs are so pervasive. You presented a logical refutation of the big ones.
I've had two cutaways in over 850 jumps. One on surplus gear in the early 70s and one in 2005 at WFFC with modern RSL equipped gear. My 2005 cutaway was done plenty high. I did my very best to beat the RSL using my reserve ripcord but didn't even come close. RSL was faster than I could ever be. RSLs are cheap and add a lot of safety margin for the buck IMO.
Nice job.
377

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wazdiver
Great article. I've had four cutaways in a tad over 600 jumps. 1st one 35 jumps in, spinning like crazy. The RSL popped the reserve way before I got to it. Spinning fast enough the reserve opened in line twists. 2nd. at 138 jumps. Line over the center, flying straight and level, not landable again, the rsl got to it before I did, still pulled the handle but it was already on the way out. Very smooth transition. 3rd, brake fire at 170 jumps or so on a very cold crappy day. Couldn't see the brake due to fogging on my face shield, turning rapidly but not spinning, cut it away. RSL beat me that0 time as well. 4th at 430 jumps under a 136 jedi. No rsl, no aad, canopy spun up due to brake fire, chopped it at 2100 feet and honestly don't even remember thinking about body position. I was looking at the handles and simply did it by muscle memory. That was a borrowed rig. Both of mine continue to have RSL's on them and I doubt there will come a time when they won't.

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ddboidin
@wazdiver 4 in 600? Bad luck or or bad packing skills? At least you can give your expert opinion on rsl

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Islander-O
Well, I have 17000+ jumps and I had to chop my mine canopy around 40 times. I have mixture of fast spin and, nearly, relaxed low speed mals. I have done 9000+ tandems and I do nOt disconnect the RSL when I jump tandem. I know that the fear of broken riser(s) is widely spread among Australian TM. I have experienced hard openings (believe me they were hard one). I saw video (analog camera) of one tandem hard opening: frame #1: deploy bag lift off; frame #2: the slider on risers. Even at that time neither risers or canopy were broken. I scared to think about a hard opening that causes a riser destruction! If a riser can be destructed by the opening shock, maybe better to look into the canopy design or the packing manual? I agree that CRW is total different issue. If it is not, I would prefer to have as many chances as I can on my side and RSL is one of them...

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nicsoew
I had cutaway where RSL caused nasty line twits on my reserve.
I was rotating with backs towards ground, cutaway and my reserve went out while I was with in that position.
Next reserve I was without RSL, had similar case, stabilized and opened clean with no rotation and belly down.
I would not try to stabilize if I was low.

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mzanghetti
I was a FF-EMT earlier in my life and people would always argue against seat belts because they heard a story about somebody who would have drowned/burned, etc., because the seat belt jammed/could have jammed, you get where they are going. If you are standing on a ranch and hear hoof beats, don't look for unicorns! There are almost always going to be exceptions to the rules, don't bet your life on them! That is what I have learned in life! I think I will use an RSL for increased safety.

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MANUEL ESP

I have seen my friend die with more than 4000 jumps, I make the decision of cutaway about 700 and 800 feet approx. When he fails his main canopy in a sudden way, it takes him a long time to solve the cutaway, if he decides to have RSL maybe now he would be with his legs broken but alive. They are options and different cases. A strong experience that I want to share so that it does not happen again in another place.

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