Round Parachute Emergency Procedures (Students)

[megamalfunction 1]

I'm working on a project for business school (hypothetical product development) and was wondering if anyone here on the forums remembers the emergency procedures they were taught regarding round parachutes. In particular, were students taught to cut away from line twists? Were line twists considered a malfunction when rounds were the norm? Or are line twists a problem only on ram airs?

[fastphil 0]

I was taught to kick my legs to help spin and untwist the lines. I've seen many students start this procedure at exit, presumably a pre-emptive motive...

[SCS292 1]

fastphil

I've seen many students start this procedure at exit, presumably a pre-emptive motive...

LOL

[wmw999 2,121]

There were two schools of thought. Some had you cutting away from malfunctions, and others didn't.
If you cut away, your reserve had a pilot chute, and you probably had an RSL. If you didn't (cheapos only, and of course front-mounted), then you'd open your reserve, grab the bulk of it, and throw it into the direction of the spin. With a total or fast malfunction, you just pull and punch the side of the reserve.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[377 20]

In 1968 I was taught to try to kick them out on rounds. BUT, if the canopy was not controllable by hard deck altitude for any reason I was instructed to cut away.

377

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[D22369 0]

fastphil

I was taught to kick my legs to help spin and untwist the lines. I've seen many students start this procedure at exit, presumably a pre-emptive motive...

so that's what they were doing!!!
I shoulda realized and given them brownie points rather than nicking them on their exit!

Roy

They say I suffer from insanity.... But I actually enjoy it.

[jackwallace 3]

Another thing I was taught, was to spit. If the spit went down you could land it. If the spit went up, get your reserve out.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

[riggerrob 558]

I never taught students to cut away from line-twists on rounds or squares.
Half the time, rounds usually solved their own line twists as the student looked up.

Line twists are still common on student square canopies, but again half the Mantas solve their own line twists by the time the student looks up. The second factor is that Mantas are so big (288 square feet), so stable and so lightly loaded (.7 pounds per square foot) that they don't do anything exciting with simple line-twists.

Simple line-twists are only a problem on the heavily-loaded squares worn by B-Certificate holders and higher. I have only cutaway two squares because of diving line-twists. The first was a Diablo 135 and the second was a 109 square foot Demon(?). I loaded the Demon at more than 2 pounds per square foot.

[oldwomanc6 38]

I guess a lot of this depended on whether you could actually cut away. So did a lot depend on whether you had a pilot chuted reserve.

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[riggerrob 558]

oldwomanc6

I guess a lot of this depended on whether you could actually cut away. So did a lot depend on whether you had a pilot chuted reserve.

........................................................................................

Most of the two-shot Capewells had rusted shut by the time I started jumping.
Hah!
Hah!

[Andy9o8 0]

As a S/L student doing my early freefall jumps on round-canopy mil-surp rigs, I had lots of line twists from dumping while unstable. My way of recognizing a line twist, we called them Mae West's back then, was if my chin's pinned to my chest-mount reserve & I can't look up, it's a line twist.

Anyhow, we were taught a line twist is not a malfunction. Just hang there & in time you'll untwist. Feet & knees together.

[keithbar 1]

*** My way of recognizing a line twist, we called them Mae West's back then, I have only heard that term for a line (over) never heard anyone call line twists a mae west

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 .

[oldwomanc6 38]

keithbar

*** My way of recognizing a line twist, we called them Mae West's back then,

I have only heard that term for a line (over) never heard anyone call line twists a mae west

A line over or a partial inversion is a Mae West. It's called that because of the bra/boobie shape that it has.

I had one on my 11th jump.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4608542;search_string=mae%20west;#4608542

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[Andy9o8 0]

oldwomanc6

****** My way of recognizing a line twist, we called them Mae West's back then,

I have only heard that term for a line (over) never heard anyone call line twists a mae west

A line over or a partial inversion is a Mae West. It's called that because of the bra/boobie shape that it has.

I had one on my 11th jump.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4608542;search_string=mae%20west;#4608542

Oh, wait! Oops! Yes, a Mae West was a line-over.
I was thinking of "barber pole". Line twists were called a barber pole back then.

See, the older the rest of you get, the worse my memory gets.

No point trying to modernize the name to reflect pop culture. I suppose calling a line-over "silicone implants" sounds rather clumsy.

Anyhow, I can still hear Kinger teaching us: "Don't cut away a barber pole".