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Kimbo

Who chopped my main?

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I was organizing a 12-way last week a Lost Prairie and during the climb out or very early in the jump, someone chopped my main. At break off I tracked and pulled, felt the main come off my back and then...nothing. I fired my reserve and was in the saddle at 1,000 feet. I always wondered what that would feel like to have the main just go away. Guard your handles like your life depends on it.

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I was organizing a 12-way last week a Lost Prairie and during the climb out or very early in the jump, someone chopped my main. At break off I tracked and pulled, felt the main come off my back and then...nothing. I fired my reserve and was in the saddle at 1,000 feet. I always wondered what that would feel like to have the main just go away. Guard your handles like your life depends on it.



No RSL or AAD?

Sparky
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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I was organizing a 12-way last week a Lost Prairie and during the climb out or very early in the jump, someone chopped my main. At break off I tracked and pulled, felt the main come off my back and then...nothing. I fired my reserve and was in the saddle at 1,000 feet. I always wondered what that would feel like to have the main just go away. Guard your handles like your life depends on it.




Interesting to think had your rig had a skyhook you would have looked up and seen your reserve flying instead of your main.

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Interesting. I think most of us have seen floating handles at some point, but assuming you checked yours before climbing out it seems like it should be difficult for this to happen with nobody being aware of it at all.

Was there no video?

Were your cutaway pad and cables completely missing, or had they just moved enough to clear the loops?

What sort of condition was your velcro in?

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I was organizing a 12-way last week a Lost Prairie and during the climb out or very early in the jump, someone chopped my main. At break off I tracked and pulled, felt the main come off my back and then...nothing. I fired my reserve and was in the saddle at 1,000 feet. I always wondered what that would feel like to have the main just go away. Guard your handles like your life depends on it.



It sounds to me it took 5 seconds between main pull and reserve pull.
This was better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yVUJU113gg&list=FLLQeC_THRiJLQuED20RvSUA&index=74&feature=plpp_video
What goes around, comes later.

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Interesting to think had your rig had a skyhook you would have looked up and seen your reserve flying instead of your main.



Or indeed any RSL.
"The ground does not care who you are. It will always be tougher than the human behind the controls."

~ CanuckInUSA

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There was video but you couldn't see anything. The handle and cables were gone completely. I checked my handles just before climb out.



What sort of handle on the cutaway? Pud?.

Well you must know who was immediately beside you on climbout. Was anyone supposed to take a harness grip? The culprit shouldn't be too hard to track down, unless you wiped it off on the door frame.

To grab and extract the cutaway handle without you feeling anything at all seems unusual.
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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but assuming you checked yours before climbing out it seems like it should be difficult for this to happen with nobody being aware of it at all.



It is pretty easy to check your handles before climb out and have something happen on climb out or on exit.

It has happened to me where my cutaway handle was tucked under the MLW on exit. I didn't know till I had a Mal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liq4HYJZaho&list=UU-zHE7n4iIQfFFPlwFODLEw&index=2&feature=plcp
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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The cutaway handle was a pillow. I'm fairly sure I know who did it because he was beside me in the door and was part of the base we launched. He had a leg strap grip on me and move up to a wrist grip. I think he pulled it when he made the move from leg strap to wrist.

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The cutaway handle was a pillow. I'm fairly sure I know who did it because he was beside me in the door and was part of the base we launched. He had a leg strap grip on me and move up to a wrist grip. I think he pulled it when he made the move from leg strap to wrist.



So, what was his story?.
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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Would a pilot chute pulling away a Dbagged main still have enough force to pull the reserve pin via an RSL?



Yes...but shouldn't you know that?



Didn't on mine
"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

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The cutaway handle was a pillow. I'm fairly sure I know who did it because he was beside me in the door and was part of the base we launched. He had a leg strap grip on me and move up to a wrist grip. I think he pulled it when he made the move from leg strap to wrist.



How'd he snag it going from a legstrap grip to a wrist?? :S
"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
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I don't think he snagged it. I think he was doing monkey hand of hand a grabbed it to work his way up to the wrist grip.



From what you say, I guess he denied doing it, which I guess he would if he then threw it away.

I had a guy pull one of my gloves off at 10 grand one time, on a RW dive. He had it in his hand for a bit, I looked at him, and then the idiot let it go. Never to be seen again.

I was a bit annoyed about that.
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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I had a guy pull one of my gloves off at 10 grand one time, on a RW dive. He had it in his hand for a bit, I looked at him, and then the idiot let it go. Never to be seen again.

I was a bit annoyed about that.



Given a choice between a glove and a cutaway cable, I know which I'd rather lose mid-jump. ;)

I'd even argue that the guy was right to release your glove. Unless someone is very experienced/ switched on, he or she is probably better off without the distraction. Early in my career I jumped with a disposable camera to take some pictures in freefall. I remember how uneasy I felt having something in my hand during the skydive - it just felt 'wrong', and I was very conscious of having to transfer it to my other hand prior to pull time.

The big question is - did he offer to buy you a new pair of gloves? :)

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I had a guy pull one of my gloves off at 10 grand one time, on a RW dive. He had it in his hand for a bit, I looked at him, and then the idiot let it go. Never to be seen again.

I was a bit annoyed about that.



Given a choice between a glove and a cutaway cable, I know which I'd rather lose mid-jump. ;)

I'd even argue that the guy was right to release your glove. Unless someone is very experienced/ switched on, he or she is probably better off without the distraction. Early in my career I jumped with a disposable camera to take some pictures in freefall. I remember how uneasy I felt having something in my hand during the skydive - it just felt 'wrong', and I was very conscious of having to transfer it to my other hand prior to pull time.

The big question is - did he offer to buy you a new pair of gloves? :)


7000 Jumps, a thin leather flying glove, rare as rockinghorse shit, It would have been easy for him to either put it in his mouth, or hand it back to me, as we were transiting a formation on a fun dive, and I was on my way back to him. Grrrrrr.

He just didn't think!!!.

I've got a suitcase full of cutaway handles.....

And no, he didn't offer to get me a new pair.
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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