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Westerly

Why do people use smaller reserves than mains?

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It seems the one parachute you would want to be absolutely positive you can easily land is your reserve. So why are people buying small-ass reserves? Last I checked the only purpose of a reserve is to get you to the ground in one piece so there doesent seem to be much purpose in buying reserves small enough to swoop with. Not to mention an unconscious landing after an AAD fire on a reserve that small probably wont dont do much for you. Even an unconscious landing on a 210 could easily result in serious injury.

Is there any risk in using a reserve that is larger than the main? Say a 150 main and a 190 reserve?

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There's one reason, and it's a damn important one:
coolness.
A bigger reserve and bigger container just don't look that good.
Everything else is minor details...

Now for reserves that are vastly bigger than the main:
this can be a problem if you have a two-out, since the size different means that the bigger canopy will be dominant and lead to a more "action-oriented" two-out scenario than flying two equally-sized canopies.

Personally, while this might be true, I consider this a lower risk than being unconscious/incapacitated under an AAD-deployed reserve (one-out) that is just as small as the pocket rocket many of us fly as a main.

Disclosure:
I got a 119 Crossfire main and a 135 Speed reserve, so that's still roughly similar. The 135 would still hurt when landed unconscious though.

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Westerly

Last I checked the only purpose of a reserve is to get you to the ground in one piece so there doesent seem to be much purpose in buying reserves small enough to swoop with.



In that case, there's no point in having a big bulky one. :)
The trend simply has been for rigs to have a slightly smaller reserve than the main, if one had a non-tiny main to begin with. (Of course low bulk reserves and crossbraced mains change the volume vs. size calculations somewhat).

People are somewhat stuck with what the manufacturers build, in the medium sizes often with a slightly smaller reserve. (Although a few companies will produce just about any size combination.) But jumpers also tend not to want a huge bulky container, for something they don't use very often. In the old days with rounds, you didn't expect your reserve ride to be wonderfully pleasant on landing anyway.

Even if your reserve is a size smaller than what you normally jump, it isn't as if you have to land it all the time, so a little extra challenge on a rare occasion isn't seen as a huge deal. (e.g., I knew a newbie who was used to maybe a 170, borrowed a rig with a 150, had a mal, and got to try out a 126 that jump... the landing wasn't pretty. But with just a little more downsizing experience it wouldn't have been nearly as much of a challenge.)

The unconscious AAD fire thing (or just being injured when you use your reserve) interestingly hasn't changed things a lot despite the widespread adoption of AADs in the last 20 years. It is still seen as a remote circumstance. Sort of like whether you actually outfit your car with a good survival kit in case you get stuck in the desert or deep snow or whatever. Nice idea but who actually goes through the trouble. I'm not saying small reserves are good, but that's the way it is.

There will always be some issues with mains & reserves not flying that well together. What's the best reserve if flying a Leia 79? Nothing will fly quite like it. People don't actually go and measure their main and reserve line lengths and risers, to see whether a two-out, with either main in front or reserve in front, might cause more interference with one canopy right behind the other's tail.

I happen to have a 'bigger' reserve (143) because that's what the rig was made for, not because of sticking to some particular rigid rig buying philosophy. I jump a crossbraced main (88), although the rig was sized for a 150. (But a removable pillow system was added, if anyone wonders about that.)

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JerryBaumchen


If you land your square reserve unconscious, do you expect it 'to be wonderfully pleasant on landing?'



They are two very separate questions,
1. what can you land safely when you are conscious and have use of your arms, and
2. what will land you safely when you are not.

For 1, experienced skydivers are comfortable landing something 1 size smaller, and you really wont see people jumping reserves two sizes smaller than the main.

For 2, there are so many unknowns it is hard to make a decision. How big is big enough? What change in WL gives me the largest step in survivablity? How does the fact that I am already seriously injured affect my landing survival chances? For me, I don't expect to survive an incapacitated landing (at 1.5 reserve WL). I do think it is still useful to have an AAD, as there are a range of impacts that could stun or daze you but still give you enough time (30-40sec) to get your shit together and flare.
It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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>I do think it is still useful to have an AAD, as there are a range of impacts that could stun or
>daze you but still give you enough time (30-40sec) to get your shit together and flare.

Or even not flare. A serious impact could easily dislocate a shoulder or break an arm, making both pulling and flaring a lot more difficult. In those cases, a larger reserve would make a somewhat aimed no-flare landing a lot less painful.

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I have two rigs one has a 190 sabre main and a 218 reserve. But I also have a 169 main that I use in it also. My second rig has a 230 main and a 249 reserve . But I’m a larger than average skydiver ;)

i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .


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