2 reserves did not open - cut away system?

Does anybody fly with quick release carabiners?

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ZMercan's picture

First of all, It`s sooo.... nice to see the term that the gliders "SAT" with big cravates and not "Spiral"

I was getting some info about this issue from a guy who was planning to design a new reserve before, they were thinking about longer bridle lenghts or cut away system, the guy behind was Enleau O`connor I think.

The tube idea souns really nice too !!

lupus78's picture

I had similar situation, which i described in this article: http://www.justacro.com/news/070715/i-needed-it

In short: i had a cravate from a helcio and was descending slow, when i deployed, the reserve was flying next to me for some time, but finally i made a collapse on my mostly open wing, which droped me enough to open the reserve.

Anyway. Our rescue systems are SHIT! For sure! I recently stared to skydive, and had to realizer that a cut away system would be the nicest option. One like the Profly Groovie CutAway! I was thinking to make an extension for my Ava Acro 2 harness, but probably would be better to buy one. Basically the system is easy. You need a skydiving reserve parachute and a quick release system. As you cut away the glider, it pulls out and opens the a 7 cell reserve canopy! It opens in 20-40 meters!! And it's flyable!

Only thing when it not works if you fall into the lines or the canopy! I'm also a little bit worried about what happens if you spiral down in a SAT like situation and relesae then... You can easy get a line twist with the open reserve canopy... but it still less problem than smashing into the ground!

Any ideas? Anyone flying with a ProFly CutAway?

Lupus

Ethan's picture

Recently I had an experience where a MacTwist went wrong and I got really twisted up. The brakes were locked with one down and one up so I couldn't get out of spin. My decent rate was slow, but I decided to throw my reserve as I couldn't get the twists out and the wing was locked in spin. But because my decent rate was so low my reserve (round) did not open. It came out of the bag but fell below me. When I pulled the lines it started to inflate inside out and then got tangled with the twisting wing. I threw my second reserve (round), but my decent rate was still low (in spin), and it did not open either. I then got blown into turbulence behind hill and wing came out of spin into a SAT-like spiral. I spiralled into the tree tops with no reserve inflated. Fortunately the reserve and wing caught on a tree branch and suspended me 20m up a tree. I am a little nervous that no reserve openned and want to change some of my equipment to make sure I do not end up in a similar situation again.

I was thinking that perhaps a quick release carabiner set-up might be better for situations like this. Does anybody fly with quick release carabiners or an alternative cut-away system? Any advice?

Pal & Gabor, I see you guys are flying with the Supair harness. What carabiner system are you using?

Has anybody had similar experiences with reserves not openning due to low decent rates?

Thoughts much appreciated.

Cheers

Ethan