Getting back your main after a cutaway?

[hackish 8]

I had a steering line tangled. Checked the altimeter and had the option to cutaway if necessary. Decided I could fly it down on the rear risers. However the though did enter my mind that if I cut it away it would probably have landed in the woods and I'm guessing that I'd be paying for the reserve pack job. I too don't know what the common procedure is on a rented rig.

-Michael

[yarak 0]

certainly dont ever try to catch a cut away main. IT WILL KILL YOU.

I have yet to see a rig with telemetry. Like i said, most of the time you want need it. I jumped at the same DZ here in the south for 5 yrs. In all that time I have only seen one lost canopy. Granted there have been some we spent a long time looking for. The one that was lost was a tandem canopy chopped at about 4000ft on a long spot. I believe some whuffo probably picked that up and took it home.

I have my own personal telemetry. It isnt a system that has been marketed for skydiving. Right now I am not using it because I am jumping a cheap canopy and havent been in a hurry to put the modification on my new risers.

I'm surprised the idea didnt take off. I guess people just so rarely need it to find a canopy, and the cost of a receiver is pretty high.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll burn your fucking packing tent down.

[hackish 8]

I know there is a radio locater system available that's activated by the RSL. How about a loud battery powered siren that lasts an hour?

-Michael

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

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I know there is a radio locater system available that's activated by the RSL. How about a loud battery powered siren that lasts an hour?

-Michael

Don't know how much success the "Cutaway ELT" has had. Would seem to be little to none. Bet ya Steve Fossett wishes he had a functioning ELT.

"Loud Battery powered siren"... CONs: Weight & Complexity... yet another skydiving gizmo that needs care and feeding.

Your first line of defense locating your main / freebag after a cutwway is to follow your trash down... with two disclaimers... 1) If you student that finds yourself under a reserve, screw following the trash down. Go make a good landing on the LZ under your reserve & let the staff worry about where the trash lands... 2) If you're an experienced jumper following trash down, don't screw yourself into a bad landing to follow it.

Your second line of defense locating your main / freebag after a cutaway is for your buddies to help you out and follow the trash down OR at least keep good tabs on where it goes and note some geogrphical references WRT where it lands so y'all get go find it. Two more things... 1) What comes around goes around... so if you're fat dumb and happy under your main and you see someone else under their reserve, be on the lookout for their main & freebag and follow it if you can. The owner may not see it and you may need someone to return the favor for you some day... 2) Refer back to #2, above.

Your third line of defense when it comes to getting your main / freebag back after a cutaway is... and I gotta break with SAPS here (Skydivers Against Pink Shit)... is to have a canopy with a good portion of it being day-glow colors... i.e. Neon Yellow, Pink, Orange... sometimes even Red, Blue, Purple canopies seem to "blend" really well after getting to the ground.

[billeisele 122]

if your stuff goes down in a pine tree forest, i don't care what color it is, if you want it back you better note the exact spot

it will settle thru the trees and be impossible to see from the air unless you fly directly over it and look straight down

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[Baksteen 84]

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I know I have seen and heard of people performing cutaways either out of necessity or just to do it.

Folks cutting away their main for "fun" and then using their reserve. Sure, it happens, but you gotta ask yourself how smart that is... i.e. trade a "good" parachute for, yes, a carefully packed reserve, but as yet not a good, inflated, flying, parachute... but that's a whole other subject.


While I agree with you in general, there are some valid reasons to cut away a perfectly good main.
I'm too lazy to look them all up, but for instance I'm sure that you cannot become an instructor (in the Netherlands) unless you have had at least one cutaway - whether intentional or not.

"That formation-stuff in freefall is just fun and games but with an open parachute it's starting to sound like, you know, an extreme sport."
~mom

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

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I know I have seen and heard of people performing cutaways either out of necessity or just to do it.

Folks cutting away their main for "fun" and then using their reserve. Sure, it happens, but you gotta ask yourself how smart that is... i.e. trade a "good" parachute for, yes, a carefully packed reserve, but as yet not a good, inflated, flying, parachute... but that's a whole other subject.


While I agree with you in general, there are some valid reasons to cut away a perfectly good main.
I'm too lazy to look them all up, but for instance I'm sure that you cannot become an instructor (in the Netherlands) unless you have had at least one cutaway - whether intentional or not.

Well, yeah, but if you need a cutaway to become an instructor... used to need one to become a Strong Tandem Instructor (maybe still do)... but most all folks I know of that had to do one to get their Tandem rate went and did it on a terch-rig.

Okay, what other "...valid reasons to cut away a perfectly good main..." can you come up with? I'll be upfront about it. I'd like to hear what you have to say... I'm anticipating a good laugh or two, no offense.

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

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if your stuff goes down in a pine tree forest, i don't care what color it is, if you want it back you better note the exact spot

it will settle thru the trees and be impossible to see from the air unless you fly directly over it and look straight down

... well... yeah... I didn't say having a brightly colored main was "full - proof" when coming to help find it after a cutaway... just meant to imply that it might be more useful then way "desert camo" for us jumping in the Mojave Desert or "Euro camo" for y'all jumping in the pine barrons...

[tbrown 26]

At Perris, which is admittedly a big operation, we are BLESSED to have Tim Farnham's recovery crew. Tim observes all the loads and routinely deploys picjup trucks to collect the jumpers who land out, or at the farther reaches of the DZ. In the event of a cutaway, he is on the ball dispatching a truck to collect the jumper and make sure they're okay, while another truck pursues the canopy and freebag. It's not at all uncommon for a jumper returning from a cutaway to be summoned to manifest because their canopy is already there waiting for them. The box score for recovering canopies is nearly perfect, for freebags it's very high. Bottom line is that if you step out of an airplane over Perris, Tim, or one of his crew already has their eyes on you. And they will take care of you and your gear. We are SO fortunate.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[Couloirman 0]

Okay, what other "...valid reasons to cut away a perfectly good main..." can you come up with? I'll be upfront about it. I'd like to hear what you have to say... I'm anticipating a good laugh or two, no offense.

[relyon 0]

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At Perris, which is admittedly a big operation, we are BLESSED to have Tim Farnham's recovery crew. ... Bottom line is that if you step out of an airplane over Perris, Tim, or one of his crew already has their eyes on you. And they will take care of you and your gear. We are SO fortunate.

Very true, as it was in the days of Claude and Bad Spot Bill before them.

Once I traded my main for my reserve on a CRW jump about a mile west of Geotz Rd at around 3500'. The prevailing winds were moderate from the south and the cutaway drifted north toward town. A couple of my companions followed it to the intersection of 4th and D streets, landed there, stopped traffic, and got my canopy. I was happy to buy a couple rounds later.

Bob

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

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How about this: I am under a working main, and see a plane/helicopter/something with rotors that will tear me in half traveling towards me with imminent collision potential. If I had no RSL, or could disconnect it with my teeth really quickly, and are at a proper altitude to cut away, Id cut away, fall away from the plane and when clear of it deploy the reserve assuming enough altitude. Thats the only reason I can come up with. Thoughts?

Thoughts... I've gotten open and found myself beak to beak with a glider... more then once... I just buried the right toggle.

[RandomLemming 0]

Yeah, but has anyone EVER lost anything at your home dropzone ?

I've never seen so much empty space from above in my whole life...

[highspeeddirt 0]

whats wrong with enlisting the help of the kids at the drop zone?offer a reward for finding your stuff and returning it.when i was growing up at the local dz thats what we did. i used to retreive sleeves and pilot chutes, wind drift indicators (used to get 25 cents each)as well as cutaway mains, kicker plates and ripcords.i even found a watch once while i was out looking for somebody's ripcords(it was still running).

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

I recall hearing some pretty intersting stories from folks way down San-Dog way in California that used to jump at the DZ that was at Brown Field... right on the border between the U.S. and Mexico... about getting back your cutaway main and/or freebag that landed in Mexico... also... similar stories about jumpers getting back into the USA after a bad spot put them in Mexico. It may all have been BS, but fun to listen to.

[pirana 0]

Possibly the naive ideology of a novice, but it just seems right to me you help out when someone cuts away. Students excepted, if you are the closest to a cutaway, even if the owner is already following it, you follow it with them. Just in case they lose track of it, or maybe you get the bag and they get the canopy, or just to accompany someone who is landing off AND chasing gear.

Slightly off-topic; but I did this once and the person saw I was also following. So they turned and ran for the DZ! Bastard!

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[relyon 0]

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Slightly off-topic; but I did this once and the person saw I was also following. So they turned and ran for the DZ! Bastard!

This is how CRWdogs take care of their own: The person under the reserve's job is to get down safely, preferably back to the DZ if possible. Ideally, another person makes sure they're okay and accompanies them. At least one or more follow the gear and bring what they can home.

During the 2003 world record at Lake Wales, there was a 44-way (building toward the 70-way) that funneled. There were 6 cutaways, with lots of gear and people to chase. In the end, all six reserve rides landed at the dropzone and all gear was accounted for. I've been on 2-ways where the other guy had to cutaway and after checking on them, I followed their gear down and retreived it, and caught up with them later at the DZ.

Bob