EP's

[tbrown 26]

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I don't have an RSL... so I don't have to pretend!

At your experience level you really ought to reconsider and get one. Last year at the WFFC there were two (not one, but two) fatalities involving jumpers who cutaway below a grand without RSLs. Neither one pulled their reserve in time before impact.

You should consider that an AAD won't activate after a low speed cutaway until you have fallen far enough to re-accelerate to 79 mph. An AAD can fire too low under those conditions to do you any good.

You should consider that most people take several seconds to get stable again after chopping a good spinner, but that at the moment of cutaway release you are more stable than you will be for the next several seconds. If you're low enough, the difference could be between canopy inflation or impact.

Bill Booth recently said that over 90% of the orders he ships nowadays have Skyhooks. Even a regular RSL, which isn't as snazzy as a Skyhook, is a lot quicker than the average unstable disoriented (and maybe just a bit scared) human.

In the old days before RSLs I had to cutaway from a streamer mal. Then I had to play the tumbling head over heels "where's the damn ripcord" game. It wasn't fun, you wouldn't like it. Having a RSL doesn't relieve you of your duty to find and pull your reserve handle, but finding and pulling it under an open reserve canopy sounds like a lot more fun.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[AFFI 0]

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Last year at the WFFC there were two (not one, but two) fatalities involving jumpers who cutaway below a grand without RSLs. Neither one pulled their reserve in time before impact.

Footnote, one skydiver had mucho experience and the other was a newbie - goes to show that anyone can loose alt awareness irregardless of experience. Unless you have a specific reason as illustrated in the SIM to not use an RSL type device, ummmm, it is reccomended...

Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

[riggerrob 643]

Very Low Experience jumpers would fall under a section called "students".

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

USPA, CSPA, BPA, APF, FFP, etc. all say that RSLs are mandatory for students (i.e. anyone short of an A License).

Would you like to hear my scary story about a first jump student who did a sissified, girly, limp-wristed, half-hearted pull on an SOS and then wondered why his reserve took so long to open?

[tbrown 26]

Would you like to hear my scary story about a first jump student who did a sissified, girly, limp-wristed, half-hearted pull on an SOS and then wondered why his reserve took so long to open?

[JohnMitchell 16]

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In the old days before RSLs I had to cutaway from a streamer mal. Then I had to play the tumbling head over heels "where's the damn ripcord" game.

I've had about a 9-10 cutaways, some with and some without RSLs, some with modern 3 ring releases, some with old single shots. 3-4 have been on tandems. Some have been spinners, some streamers, some lowspeed. But one piece of advice I was given when I bought my first modern piggyback rig (Made from dinosaur pelts, I know) was "put your feet on your butt when you cutaway." This insures a good arch and a nice head high attitude for reserve deployment. Maybe it's too simple to catch on, but it's sure kept my ass stable through a number of chops. When I see people having unstable reserve deployments, they usually aren't arching half as much as they think.