My first cutaway

[riggerrob 558]

Good points John.
The alternative is much worse.
Far too many skydivers have cutaway from spinning mals and hesitated before pulling their reserves. Too many impacted before their reserves inflated.
The excuse was that they wanted to get stable before pulling their reserve ripcord. The problem was compounded by the spinning mal spinning up their inner ears so badly that it took another 10 or 20 seconds to "un-spin" their inner ears. Most of the deceased were less than 20 seconds from impact when they cutaway. Adding a heavy dose of adrenaline only increases disorientation.

On another note, fearing line twists on your reserve points to two poor decisions. A: you don't understand that reserves are boring, constant chord 7-cells that are specifically tailored for boring openings. Reserve planforms look far more like BASE canopies than any modern main. Boring planforms (square) mean boring openings that reduce line-twists to mere "nuisances" on all but the tiniest of reserves.
B: fearing line twists on your reserve means that you bought too small a reserve.

[JohnMitchell 14]

riggerrob

Far too many skydivers have cutaway from spinning mals and hesitated before pulling their reserves. Too many impacted before their reserves inflated.
The excuse was that they wanted to get stable before pulling their reserve ripcord.

All these people I see in the sky and on youtube chopping with their legs flopping out in front of them, wondering why they're flipping all over the sky. . .. I'll repeat myself for the umpteenth time. When you're chopping, as you reach for your handles, put your feet back on your @$$ and ARCH. I've never had even a bit of instability on any cutaway using this method. Saves time, saves lives.

Quote

On another note, fearing line twists on your reserve points to two poor decisions. A: you don't understand that reserves are boring, constant chord 7-cells that are specifically tailored for boring openings. Reserve planforms look far more like BASE canopies than any modern main. Boring planforms (square) mean boring openings that reduce line-twists to mere "nuisances" on all but the tiniest of reserves.
B: fearing line twists on your reserve means that you bought too small a reserve.

Yes and yes. On the old 7 cell, F-111 mains, which were designed like reserves, I don't recall anyone ever spinning up with just line twists. Never a reason to chop. Thanks for the gear lesson, RR.

[riggerrob 558]

JohnMitchell

.....

All these people I see in the sky and on youtube chopping with their legs flopping out in front of them, wondering why they're flipping all over the sky. . .. I'll repeat myself for the umpteenth time. When you're chopping, as you reach for your handles, put your feet back on your @$$ and ARCH. I've never had even a bit of instability on any cutaway using this method. Saves time, saves lives."
...............................

Yes! I learned that lesson during my second cutaway. As I was tipping over backwards (slow back loop) I thought to myself "Maybe I should have arched my legs more."
Fortunately the reserve deployed while my spine was vertical.

.... but am I preaching to the choir?????

[JohnMitchell 14]

riggerrob

.... but am I preaching to the choir?????

I'm hoping the peeps in the back rows hear it someday.

[nikaru 1]

My instructor once told me "You have to recognise a bad canopy in a split of a second. Be mentally prepared to cut away every time you reach your pilot chute for deployment. The moment you wave for deployment, your canopy is number one priority and you have to focus, look, assess and execute your EP if necessary with cold blood."

[JohnMitchell 14]

nikaru

My instructor once told me "You have to recognise a bad canopy in a split of a second. Be mentally prepared to cut away every time you reach your pilot chute for deployment. The moment you wave for deployment, your canopy is number one priority and you have to focus, look, assess and execute your EP if necessary with cold blood."

I agree you have to be mentally prepared every time to chop and go to the reserve. I don't agree with the split second thing. It's often taken me a few seconds (that I knew I had) to troubleshoot some of my slower malfunctions. But, correct, don't waste a lot of time with a streamer or spinner.

Remember, please, too, that as you jump with larger groups of people, avoiding collisions during opening takes precedence over checking canopy immediately.

[format 0]

'Split of a second' decision

What goes around, comes later.

[nikaru 1]

JohnMitchell

***My instructor once told me "You have to recognise a bad canopy in a split of a second. Be mentally prepared to cut away every time you reach your pilot chute for deployment. The moment you wave for deployment, your canopy is number one priority and you have to focus, look, assess and execute your EP if necessary with cold blood."

I agree you have to be mentally prepared every time to chop and go to the reserve. I don't agree with the split second thing. It's often taken me a few seconds (that I knew I had) to troubleshoot some of my slower malfunctions. But, correct, don't waste a lot of time with a streamer or spinner.

Remember, please, too, that as you jump with larger groups of people, avoiding collisions during opening takes precedence over checking canopy immediately.

I dont see how you can avoid collisions when you have uncontrollable canopy above your head and you are losing altitude relatively fast or really fast. During malfunction you are dangerous, for you and for the rest of the people around you, because you normally would have very limited or zero control over where you go and how fast you would go there. The only way to reduce the risk for you and for the rest of the jumpers around you is to take control of your flight direction and fall rate as soon as possible. Ofc this is my humble opinion based on how Im instructed to react in these type of situations.

[JohnMitchell 14]

Quote

Remember, please, too, that as you jump with larger groups of people, avoiding collisions during opening takes precedence over checking canopy immediately.

Quote

I dont see how you can avoid collisions when you have uncontrollable canopy above your head and you are losing altitude relatively fast or really fast. During malfunction you are dangerous, for you and for the rest of the people around you, because you normally would have very limited or zero control over where you go and how fast you would go there. The only way to reduce the risk for you and for the rest of the jumpers around you is to take control of your flight direction and fall rate as soon as possible. Ofc this is my humble opinion based on how Im instructed to react in these type of situations.

Malfunctions are rare, and you know that you can usually "feel" when the canopy has opened correctly. I agree with your statement, that you want to take control of it quickly. However, when jumping with groups of people, I feel it's best to grab the rear risers and look for traffic that may be on a collision course with me first, then do a detailed check of the canopy. If you're deploying at a safe altitude, there should be time for all this.

Of course, if you're falling out of the sky under a spinner or hurtling towards Earth with a streamer, you'll quickly "feel" that and you'll soon leave all the traffic behind. Now is a good time to quickly check canopy, assess the situation, and cutaway if need be. No traffic checks are required, and, you're correct, there's nothing you could do about traffic anyway under an uncontrollable canopy.

Hopefully at that point other people in your group are on their rear risers, watching out for you.