Beginner skydiver here, wouldnt it be better to break off and immediatly go reserve in case something is wrong with reserve you want as much altitude as possible?
Yes a very logical and sensible approach to have height to deal with problems. We exited at 14k though so a couple of things for the decision: higher altitudes have harder openings, he would have almost certainly lost his reserve free bag and pilot chute, but also he pulled his reserve at about 4,000 feet. So if there was a problem with the reserve that couldn’t be resolved from that height then it probably wouldn’t be fixable from any height. Might as well then have a shorter terrifying ride to impact 😁
Personally on realizing the situation I would have left the group immediately deploying my reserve as high as possible giving maximum flight time to deal with any further problems. Cool guy though...
It probaly got looser over time and didnt notice it, or he bumped it somewhere. If the handle comes out while under parachute, the parachute will detach and if he has an RSL or skyhook it will pull out the reserve, not something you want during landing
It would be unnecessary as it would just send the main floating away. The main container may loosen a bit when the reserve is out but unlikely to fall out and if it did would just hang down in the d bag still most likely.
The right move in this situation is to deploy the reserve and pray you don't have a problem, because you can't cutaway. Nice response! Stayed cool and calm
This happened to me a couple years ago, but I didn't realize until I pitched. If you know you're going to your reserve, that's a great opportunity to take it to the basement!
*Camera Dude:* "oh. That's not good. BRO! Your cutaway just flew off!" *Phil:* "oh. Huh. Well ain't that the darndest thing. I guess I'm poppin' reserve today. Hey Bro, come here. It's alright, I'll see ya'll on the ground. Wish me luck!" *Main:* "Aawww, dang it Reserve, you get to have all the fun today. " *Reserve:* "poof!"
I probably would've threw out the main just to get rid of it and remove the possibility of it falling out after reserve deployment and causing a problem.
What would generally be the better approach here: 1. Deploy reserve directly like he did or 2. To pull main handle, let it detach and then deploy the reserve? With the way he did it, isn't there a tiny risk of the AAD firing or the main deploying by mistake?
Just deploy the reserve directly - it's what you have a handle for. AAD firing is not relevant in this case as it detects if you are in freefall at a low altitude. There is no reason to think the main would deploy by mistake as the pilot chute that initiates the deployment of the main is still packed inside the BOC pocket untouched.
Very low chance of the main coming out of the container. When the reserve comes out, it will make the main container looser so there is a slight chance it could come out but unlikely and isn't attached even if it did fall out.
