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nigel99

Cutting the loop or pulling the pin?

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JohnSherman

Quote

Bent pins have been reported just due to the tension on the loop,



This is a made up "What if". In the last 40 years nearly 100% of all rigs jumped had cloth loop and standard ripcord pins. To my knowledge there have been no fatalities attributed to the bent pins. Sure some have been found and I am sure some have been pulled bent. But no one has ever gone in from one. Cutters on the other hand, which represent only a small percentage of the overall population, have cause several fatilities and caused one company to close.
If this isn't a "No Brainer" I don't know what is.



Don't know if the owner would have gone in, but the first (only) really bent pin I've come across was on a Racer 2k3. Pull force (wearing the rig, with analog scale/peak force indicator, pulling in-line with the housing) was over 50-lbs. At that point, I think I'd rather a cutter...

But still interested to see where this goes.

JW
Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

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fcajump

***

Quote

Bent pins have been reported just due to the tension on the loop,



This is a made up "What if". In the last 40 years nearly 100% of all rigs jumped had cloth loop and standard ripcord pins. To my knowledge there have been no fatalities attributed to the bent pins. Sure some have been found and I am sure some have been pulled bent. But no one has ever gone in from one. Cutters on the other hand, which represent only a small percentage of the overall population, have cause several fatilities and caused one company to close.
If this isn't a "No Brainer" I don't know what is.



Don't know if the owner would have gone in, but the first (only) really bent pin I've come across was on a Racer 2k3. Pull force (wearing the rig, with analog scale/peak force indicator, pulling in-line with the housing) was over 50-lbs. At that point, I think I'd rather a cutter...

But still interested to see where this goes.

JW

The danger of a bent pin is definitely not a made-up what if. If there hasn't been a fatality due to it, we've been lucky and that likely won't last.

My friend would definitely have been a fatality if he had to use his reserve before i noticed the pin was bent. The pull force was far too much. This brings up what I consider to be an important issue - that it should not be possible to bend the pin from the tension of the closing loop, or from leaning back on something, or hitting the door on the way out...
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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woppyvac

This thread is jumping tracks... John did you get that Javelin/Puller video up on youtube? I'd like to see it when available.



(still working my way through the backlog, but...)

I don't see any jumping of tracks here.
While I am VERY interested in the videos (actually have seen a couple from PLI's site), the rest of this discussion is 100% pertinent to whether or not this is a good idea and/or whether or not you/me/we will ever actually use them in the field rather than limited to the Parachute Lab and videos...

[/rant]

We now return you to the multi-threaded discussion, already in progress...

JW
Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

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gowlerk

***Has a CYPRES cutter ever failed to sever a loop?



As far as I know, no, and they rightfully advertise this as a fact. This has never happened when the loop was routed through the cutter. There was one incident where a Vigil cutter was assembled in the cutter factory with no knife installed. This resulted in a failure to cut a loop, and a recall and SB of certain lots of cutters. That problem has been solved. There have been Argus cutters that failed to completely sever loops. The reasons for this are in dispute, but the problem eventually resulted in the Argus being discontinued.

Most readers of this forum already are aware of all this. I only mention these facts to clear up any misunderstandings resulting from this thread.

Thanks! I can actually verify proper routing visually, via a pin check on my Racer.

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