DanR

Hello all. First post. Ellaithy, I can relate very well to your situation but for different reasons. For me, no amount of muscle memory, that well known technique that riggerob describes, or even half cocking the pilot chute (which isn't a sustainable solution) solved the problem. My issue wasn’t with perception caused by brain overload and being stressed but by physically (almost) no feeling in my hands caused by nerve damage. When watching the video replays of my AFF jumps, the closest I ever got was pulling the PC out about half way but crucially, during the jump, I wasn't aware of even that “half success”. Have you had outside video on your jumps? Does the playback resonate to your thoughts and feelings during the jump? For me after a total of 7 failed attempts it was decided, for safety reasons, that was the end of the road...for the time being. What I just want to share here is that it wasn’t the absolute end of the road and there are (as in all things in life) other options. Everything always has its pros and cons and after a bit of head scratching, money saving and some R&D, I found a solution that worked for me. So a few years later I returned with my own rig that had no BOC handle but a front mounted , open shaped handle that operated a spring loaded PC opposite to where the standard cutaway is. In my case the cutaway handle, which resembles my main handle operates both the cutaway and reserve. I haven’t shared this story widely on the internet because I wanted a decent amount of jumps to see how things went in various situations before recommending it to other people. It’s still very much early days. Unfortunately I recently saved for and started a mortgage so skydiving has taken a backseat for financial reasons but with close to 100 jumps I can report no problems to date. Winning! For explanation it helps when there’s something visually to refer to and I will aim to get some high quality photos of the set up if anyone's interested? On this laptop I’ve got a video I made for my parents which I can share now. With the exception of the headsdown part, I’m in the white jumpsuit & white helmet with the blue black rig in question. The 4 way part at the end gives the best glimpse of the set up, skip to 2min 52sec. Ellaithy, you say you loved the free fall, I say you don’t have to give up. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Blue skies and best wishes. Edit: video link https://youtu.be/alYz0i1Hsbs Edit: I was under the main instruction of James Perez during AFF (both attempts) who worked at Perris and based on my experiences I personally highly recommend both him and the school. Edit: It’s been a while since I saw this video which reminded me of another point! I use fingerless gloves with tackified palms to maximise feeling/grip/dexterity.