knifes and reserve lines - have you ever?

[dbac 0]

Has anyone reading this ever, themselves, not some mates brother's cousins ex-teammates AFF instructor at another DZ several years ago, actually cut a line on their reserve with their knife?

It's compulsory over here in the UK to carry one but I struggle to imagine myself ever using one. How common are reserve line overs anyway?

So... has anyone ever cut a reserve line?

[mark 107]

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So... has anyone ever cut a reserve line?

The question that should come before this: has anyone with a line-over malfunction on his or her main been able to identify exactly which line it was, and having identified it believed they could have cut it without damaging adjacent lines?

Mark

[lummy 4]

some interesting reading canbe found here

I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. eat sushi, get smoochieTTK#1

[sundevil777 102]

There is a video in skydivingmovies.com of a guy finding and cutting a line over on a base jump.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[Kris 0]

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There is a video in skydivingmovies.com of a guy finding and cutting a line over on a base jump.

That was TomAiello that pulled that one off.

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[jurgencamps 0]

There are more reasons to carry a knife with you on a skydive jump, than cutting lines on your reserve.

[sid 1]

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There are more reasons to carry a knife with you on a skydive jump, than cutting lines on your reserve.

I've used the bottle opener on a knife to open a beer under canopy (Dave Rhodes taught me that!!!!!!) - I thought I was pretty special until I looked over and saw him cutting the end off his cigar (still under canopy) with his! Damn that big jew!!!!!!!! Upstaged again! *

*this was many years ago, I would never do anything like that now - honest

Pete Draper,

Just because my life plan is written on the back of a Hooter's Napkin, it's still a life plan.... right?

[airtwardo 7]

Yes...

At Elsinore several years ago, and yes in fact
there IS video!
We were doing ten ways and for some reason
the camera man stayed on me through the
opening sequence. The main had a line over
the wouldn't clear...
and since I was already low I chopped.
The reserve came out with a WORSE line over...
(what are the odds!?)
and the camera man can be heard to say...
"I bet that guy wishes he had his main back!"

I tried to clear it once and then started cutting,
on the first attempt...I cut the WORNG LINE!
Doh!
then I got it and the canopy opened all the way.

The rigger that packed the reserve actually video
tapped all their pack jobs...we reviewed the tape
with a couple other riggers and it was obvious to them,
(not me)
that the line over was PACKED in.

In fact the rigger that packed the function didn't
have a manual for that type of canopy and just
went with what 'seemed' right.

The person that packed it...paid for the mnfg.
to replace the cut lines...and stopped taping
repacks!


The BASE vid you mentioned...I think it was Tom A.
and talk about a cool head and fast reactions!
It looked like the knife work prevented a wall strike.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[dbac 0]

I don't suppose the video of your 'cutaway' is online is it?

[dbac 0]

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There are more reasons to carry a knife with you on a skydive jump, than cutting lines on your reserve.

Help me out here, I'm feeling a little embarrassed about asking this question but what other reasons are there?

[rigging65 0]

Not me personally, but I was there and saw the whole thing happen from the loft, inspected the gear afterwards and spoke with the pilot about his actions:

Friend of mine (also a guy I worked with in the Pro Shop) had a premature reserve deployment during head-down at about 9K (his D-handle snagged a camera lens on another jumper with him...resulted in a loooooong debate over soft handles, but that's another thread). Anyway, he initially blacked out on opening, but came to with a reserve that was surging and stalling with several broken lines.

He opted to try and manually cut the reserve away with a hook knife...something he stated later he had thought about, but never trained for. Funny thing, when you start cutting lines, it doesn't happen all that fast...and the canopy's condition gets worse and worse as you do it. He even made an attempt (unsuccessfully) to cut the a whole riser away to speed up the process...let's just say the ground got bigger and bigger in a hurry.

There were people on the ground watching this develop that finally turned around because they didn't want to watch their friend die. By some amount of luck, he managed to survive the impact with only a broken back (very low sacrum, if I remember correctly). Took him about a year to recover...still has pain...no longer skydives.

Some of the questions that came up later: Why didn't he ever try to deploy his still-packed main? Why did he continue to cut the lines when it worsened the canopy's condition? BTW, he was using a plastic hook knife that broke at least once while he was trying to save his own ass...bad Juju.

His answers (as I remember them...I don't want to put words in his mouth):
He didn't want to end up with his main and reserve entangled, so he figured he needed to get rid of the reserve to give his main a fighting chance...then got tunnel visioned in trying to get rid of the reserve.

In my opinion, and only my opinion, he would have suffered much less damage and pain if he'd ridden in the original reserve. Also in my opinion, and only my opinion, he might have considered hand deploying his main as a last ditch effort (not just pitching it out there as there probably wasn't enough drag to make it work, but actually feeding the fabric into the wind by hand...another skill not much practiced or talked about any more)...he could have waited to do this until maybe around somewhere around 1000 ft. or so to reduce the change of entanglement (remember, he wasn't in freefall, so he had some time to deal with this stuff).

Not trying to hijack the thread, I'll get back to the idea of the hook knife:
If you're going to carry one, carry at least two or three (so you can get to one of them if you really need it) and practice using it ALOT. It's not but a few hours work to finger trap a bunch of lines onto a few rapide links, hook those fake "lines" onto risers, then tie yourself up in a hanging harness. Practice finding your knives and then actually cut your lines with them. Try it... then try it with someone swinging you around and throwing you to-and-fro like it would really be.

It's a skill like any other one. If you don't practice it, you can't expect it to work. Oh, and be sure to invest in metal knives with easy to grip handles, then mount them in easy to get places...and don't use them for ANYTHING else (cutting closing loops, rubber bans, whatever). And changes the blades after you practice!! Only a sharp knife will work as advertised!

If you're not willing to do all that, then I would suggest you not even carry a knife. You'll probably get yourself in more trouble having one and not having any training then you will not having one. Just my $.02.

"...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward.
For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

[airtwardo 7]

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I don't suppose the video of your 'cutaway' is online is it?

No...In fact it's on a high 8 camera cartridge that the
camera man gave me...I'll see if I can dig it up and digitize...

You can't really see the knife work to well,
as by that time I was a lot lower that the
vid guy, but you can see the canopy 'instantly'
pop back into shape and start flying

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~