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I did not want to be limited to just one hand when I was trying to get out of the situation alive...

In Canada we are missing some people. https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/videos/father-young-pianist-killed-iran-plane-crash/?fbclid=IwAR2X3FFvEFMSp9RpEO3S9XmZk0Y356enZU9YWVQc1ME8R4ifLrN_hLyJ-04

You call an underaged victim of a character assassination by a giant corporation a “Little shit head” and you pointed out HER bias? That IS rich.

Canada has few rigid rules about gear life beyond those specified by manufacturers (e.g. all Cypres 1 AADs should have retired more than 15 years ago). Also review service bulletins. This is really two separate issues. Fortunately, most parachutes wear out before they fall out of fashion. The more complicated problem is when gear remains in service long after it has fallen out of fashion. For example, round reserves should only be worn by POPs who have already landed a few dozen round main canopies. I may have started jumping round canopies - during the 1970s - but my last round landing was in 1986. If you ask me to repack a round reserve today, we will share a laugh! If you ask me to repack a round reserve made during the 1980s, I will explain that I no longer have the tools to test for acid mesh …. and the nearest museum is in Langley. An even greater problem is when junior jumpers want to jump older gear without understanding the limitations. For example, I have advised several skydivers about the dangers of loading Micro Raven 120s more than 1 pound per square foot because no one was loading mains that heavy when Ravens were introduced (circa 1984). As for free-flying with pre-1995 gear, that is just plain dumb because there are far too many opportunities for stuff to blow loose when wind hits it from weird angles. In conclusion, the simple answer is don't jump gear more than 20 years old. The complicated answer is that some 30-year-old gear is still airworthy, but you need a history lesson from a grumpy, old, grey-bearded master rigger to understand the limitations on older gear.

I'm not familiar with what originally came with Northern Lites. I have an old 2 pin Northern Lite I use for accuracy and other jumps. Back in the early 2000's when assembling it, some parts were missing. So I put in a 357 Magnum reserve PC, as that was a commonly available generic reserve PC (before the single-loop-through-the-PC era), and have stayed with that. I tried packing it using a nice strong Vector PC but the spring was so strong it kind of distorted the whole pack job, given its old 2 pin design, so I didn't proceed with that. (Note though that I'm in Canada using our rules, so I'm flexible with mixing and matching, not worrying about TSO's or any company's approval.)

A "little" late, but I wanted to provide some insights for everyone, to learn / improve nonetheless. The mentioned hesitation did not leat to a fatality, I am still alive and came out of it with just some bruises... After opening I recognized a flip-through malfunction, which was caused by myself due to packing directly on a field after an outside landing the jump before. In hindsight, I could have most likely landed it without issues, but in that moment decided otherwise as the canopy above me was not "good". As practised, I grabbed both handles with one hand. I pulled my right hand until full arm extension and tried to pull my reserve handle after that but I was unable to pull the handle at all, it did not move even a little. I turned my head to the left and saw my main still attached by something and my reserve pilot chute being out. My first thought was, that it might be that I did not pull the cutaway cable all the way, so I cleared the cutaway cable from the housing completely. But I was still hanging from my main by something I could not identify in that moment. I instinctively grabbed that thing from what I was hanging, tried to pull up and just before I wanted to pull on my reserve bridle to get my reserve out, the hangup cleared. I saw and recognized that I was no longer attached to my main but due to my body orientation and possibly low speed, my reserve could not be extracted. I turned back to my belly and waited for the reserve to come out, which it thankfully did after a moment. Basically my reserve cable and pin was not able to pass the RSL ring to which the extension cord was attached. It looks like the edge of the pin got stuck at the back of the knot of the extension cord and due to the tension locked there. So I was still connected to my main by my reserve cable and RSL. I just grabbed whatever I was hanging from and thankfully the pin cleared the ring possibly due to me grabbing the pin or releasing some tension. Trying to find the root-cause for this incident myself, I also tried misrouting the reserve-cable through the knot, but this does not happen easily. You have to put way more effort in misrouting it, than in doing it the right way. In the end, Sunrise Manufacturing issued this service bulletin for it.

All good points dear fcajump, May I add that clean cables are more important than lubricated cables when jumping in the desert? Too much lu do any traps grit on the cable, increasing pull force. That grey-black is oxidation see stainless steel from inside ths spiral-wound housing.