Cutaway

[skydude2000 3]

Hey all,

I'm planning on doing an intentional cut-away sometime in the not-too-distant future, and like everyone here, I've been trained a certain way. I'm just wondering if there should be a 1 or 2 second pause, between the time you pull red, and the time you pull silver. I wouldn't normally think so, unless there is a mess of crap over your head. How worried should you be about pulling one right after the other, and fouling both canopies?? I'd like to have as much information as I can before I do this. BTW, I am not planning for this until I have at least 100 jumps, but it has been cleared in advance, given proper training, by my DZO. Thanks, and Blue Skies,

Skydude

PULL!! or DIE!!

[bodypilot1 0]

Do NOT do an intentional cutaway on your gear unless your having a main canopy malfunction!

Use a rig that is designed for intentional cutaways. Meaning it has 3 canopies and another set of 3 rings allowing you cut away and open your main, while still having your reserve.

Please speak with a rigger about it in more detail.



Be safe.
Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[mjosparky 3]

Quote

Do NOT do an intentional cutaway on your gear unless your having a main canopy malfunction!

Use a rig that is designed for intentional cutaways. Meaning it has 3 canopies and another set of 3 rings allowing you cut away and open your main, while still having your reserve.

Please speak with a rigger about it in more detail.



Be safe.
Ed

Damn good idea. It seems obvious, but I have seen people cutaway their main when their reserve is due for repack.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[riggerrob 561]

Far more people have died by hesitating between handles than have died from pulling their ripcord 1/100 th of second after cutting away.
It is almost impossible to entangle the two canopies by pulling too soon after cutting away.
Even when an RSL pulls, there is a gap (several yards long) between the main risers and reserve pilot chute.
What is the worst that can happen? ... your reserve pilotchute entangles with your reserve bridle and pulls your reserve off your back a bit quicker.
Wait a minute! Relative Workshop charges big bucks for their Skyhook gadget that does exactly that!
Hee!
Hee!

Before you attempt an intentional cutaway, ask your local rigger to install a chest-mounted reserve and review intentional cutaways with an old-school instructor and assign friends to chase your main and freebag. Finally, tell your friends "no beer" until your main and freebag are back in the hangar.

[tetra316 0]

Or better yet find someone with a harness designed for intentional cutaways. A guy at our dz had the manufacturer build him a cutway harness, can't remember which one, that looks like your normal rig harness except has a flat pad on the back. You wear it under your normal rig and attach canopy to the cutaway harness via the same 3 rings and put the canopy in a paper bag, hold it on exit and release. Once you clear the tail of the plane of course. The cutaway harness has the same cutaway system then you just pull your main. He modified the cutaway pillow with a loop that sits behind your normal cutaway handle and hangs below making it very easy to find and pull. I've done it three times and love it I think everyone should do an intentional cutaway as soon as possible. For me it relieved some of the anxiety of never having had to cutaway yet. (knocks on wood)

[skydude2000 3]

I talked to both my DZO and my DZSA about it, and I used to jump under a round chest-mounted reserve, so they were agreeable to it, as long as I retrained on it before the jump. Thanks again for ur input.

Skydude.

PULL!! or DIE!!

[firstime 0]

I am a very inquisitive person. Why do you want to do this???

[bob.dino 0]

I met a visiting yank who was telling us how he did an intentional cutaway on his 1000th jump, without telling anyone beforehand, just for laughs. Edited to add: just after filming a tandem video, no less.

We shuddered to think what'd happen if he tried that here. He'd be lucky to get away with being banned from the DZ .

[billbooth 10]

Call Relative Workshop and see if one of our Skyhook cutaway rigs will be near your location soon. We are out on the road constantly. That way you can get some training, and jump a rig that is set up for cutaways.

[billvon 2,450]

> I'm just wondering if there should be a 1 or 2 second pause,
>between the time you pull red, and the time you pull silver.

Depends why you are doing it. If it's for shits and grins, take a delay and see how long it takes you to get stable. If you are practicing emergency procedures, follow your EP's as closely as possible.

>How worried should you be about pulling one right after the other, and
> fouling both canopies??

You should not be worried. They will not entangle under any reasonable solo cutaway scenario, provided you ensure the main is released before you open the reserve.

But let's say somehow you do manage to entangle the reserve PC (the first thing out) with the main risers. What happens? The reserve just opens faster. You've basically given yourself an impromptu Skyhook.

>I used to jump under a round chest-mounted reserve . . .

I assume this means you will be using a chest-mounted reserve with your normal skydiving rig. If so, make sure a rigger looks at the tertiary attachement points to ensure they are OK. Just putting a separable ring somewhere on the harness will _not_ always work. Another option is to use a TSOed harness with just the reserve; wear that under you regular rig. That lessens the risk of an odd loading caused by the separable rings damaging your harness.

[skydude2000 3]

I asked my DZO the same thing, when I posted here, and he said under the big student canopy I'll be jumping, no. Go for one and then the other. If I was chopping a faster, smaller canopy, he suggested a short lapse to allow me to get stable. But since I won't be, I don't have to worry about that. As for the reason I want to do this, I think it will greatly improve my confidence in my skills, and I will have a much better idea of how it will feel in a real emergency situation, and will help me stay calm and avoid brain-lock. Unfortunately, I don't believe I can jump a rig designed for intentional cut-aways, because I jump a custom rig, and customizing a cutaway rig for the sake of one jump would be a waste of money and time IMO, but thank you for the suggestion.

Skydude.

PULL!! or DIE!!

[Frenchy68 0]

Quote

If I was chopping a faster, smaller canopy, he suggested a short lapse to allow me to get stable.

Can someone clarify this bit? I don't really understand how or why the speed and size of a canopy would dictate the time needed between chop and silver.

"For once you have tasted Absinthe you will walk the earth with your eyes turned towards the gutter, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

[billvon 2,450]

>If I was chopping a faster, smaller canopy, he suggested a short lapse
> to allow me to get stable.

In my opinion this is a bad plan. Smaller canopies descend faster during mals; if you someday mess with a mal for what seems like just a few seconds, chop at 400 feet, then take a 3 second delay to get stable - that delay could kill you. It has killed people in the past, and is the primary reason that RSL's save so many lives.

You might think "but I won't ever mess with a canopy for that long." Yet a lot of people do. One reason is that on smaller canopies, line twist can cause an unrecoverable spin. It can be annoying to be struggling with a 'perfectly good' canopy that won't stop turning due to line twists; it can seem like it's just about to come out when you look at your altimeter and notice you've lost 1000 feet.

You might also think "but surely I will notice that I'm at 400 feet in that scenario, and will not take a delay." History has shown that you will do what you have trained to do. Which is a good reason to train for a response that will save you in most cases.

>As for the reason I want to do this, I think it will greatly improve my
> confidence in my skills, and I will have a much better idea of how it will
> feel in a real emergency situation, and will help me stay calm and avoid
> brain-lock.

Good reasons, all.

>Unfortunately, I don't believe I can jump a rig designed for intentional
> cut-aways, because I jump a custom rig, and customizing a cutaway
>rig for the sake of one jump would be a waste of money and time IMO,
> but thank you for the suggestion.

So what's your plan there? How are you going to make sure you have a landable canopy? Reserves can and have malfunctioned; a recent fatality occurred to a guy who cut away from his main for fun and had a reserve mal. It's a very good idea to have a tertiary reserve.

[NickDG 23]

>> a guy who cut away from his main for fun and had a reserve mal.<<

They're called Funaways . . .

NickD BASE 194

[skydude2000 3]

I definitely plan to have a tertiary belly-mounted reserve. That is what I used to jump, so a retrain on that equipment, with my custom gear, should be all I need to safely complete this jump. Along with posting any questions I have, on here, and working closely with my DZSA and the instructors at my DZ.

Thanks again for all of ur suggestions..

PULL!! or DIE!!