dumbaz

throw the clamps away. and if you think twice about the previous line, throw yer rig away. ------- visit http://www.dumbaz.com

i don't plan on selling either of my rigs set up in this way. or it is a cheap thing to buy a cutaway pad and metal reserve handle... to clarify what i said in my original post: the other jumper did not actually "grab" the cutaway loop. he was presenting a grip which i flew a bit past, and his outstreched hand "hooked" through my cutaway loop, leaving him with the cutaway handle in his hand. not his fault. if the blame goes anywhere, it would go to me. as far as your friend, i understand that scenario. it doesn't scare me as much as having my reserve out at 160mph. brian ------- visit http://www.dumbaz.com

I agree with you. Just to defend the "grab happy" jumper, though. He was flying in the base presenting a grip. I flew across his presented grip which basically hooked right onto the cutaway loop. As much my fault as his (if it's anyone's fault!) He would not have "grabbed" a cutaway/reserve pad. ------- visit http://www.dumbaz.com

I freefly. I also jump a (relatively) highly loaded (extreme vx). I jump with a reserve pad and a cutaway loop. My logic is as such: During a jump, I do not want anyone interfering with my reserve handle. A deployment could be deadly to my/others. So I use the reserve pad, which is less likely to get caught or grabbed during a jump. Having a highly loaded canopy, I am concerned about the possibility of a hard cut-away under a violently spinning malfunction. Thus the cutaway loop. If anyone grabs this during a jump, there is no immediate risk to me or the people I am jumping with. If I don't realize that my cut-away is gone, I just dump my main, it flys off my back, then I dump my reserve. If I realize it has been grabbed, I go directly to my reserve. This weekend someone grabbed my cutaway handle (mistakenly and unknown to me). During the rest of the jump, he made one hell of an effort to tell me about it, showing it to me with a concerned look on his face. I thought he was screwing around with a pull-up or piece of bungee cord... On break-off I tracked and deployed. I felt the main lift off my back and continue going... Realising at that moment what had been waved in front of my face, I went straight for my reserve. (I ended up having the reserve a bit high for my liking -- I would have liked to take it down a bit, yehaa... ;-P) I'm glad that I didn't have a reserve loop for him (or anyone) to mistakenly grab... Comments? Brian ----- visit http://www.dumbaz.com/ ------- visit http://www.dumbaz.com