Great study and summary, good to see the range of recommendations, some of which can be followed by individual pilots immediately. An improvement would be to see the specific causes of the 2.7% failures and what actions could directly mitigate them.
Congratulations Matt and Andre! This video is absolutely brilliant and clearly represents an important piece of research. I love all your recommendations with which I wholeheartedly agree. Every pilot should watch this video!
More than the right lines Matt! My evidence is years of watching reserve throws, but yours is empirical. For that reason it's a real and very important addition to the paraglding body of knowledge. Harness manufacturers, pilots and instructors should all take note
Superb bit of research. I learned to skydive and started on 'dope on a rope' (static line), I'm very familiar with front mounted reserves .....even though I've never thrown a front mount in anger. I have got a few reserve rides on conventional 'cutaway' sports containers tho'.
Most important is the intention to throw it, most used there reserves maybe one or two times at an siv under controled conditions. I fly since 2017, 3years acro and got used to tricky situations and use of the rescue system in different situations (Sat,Spiral, Twisted etc.) and i can only advice to train it as often as you can (hanging in an simulator at home before you have to repack it, while flying take your hand to the handle(s) when you have time) Most important if you think you might need it, throw it, a lot of situations get worse the longer you wait. Have fun and don't be afrait to use your rescue its part of the game and your best friend ;-)
Wow, great information! I love how scientific it was 😍 I'll certainly practice finding my reserve handle during my next flight :-) Question: has anyone ever felt sick during the spinning on the G-Force trainer? I think I would 😅
What I see is that paraglider reserves suffer from fundamental design flaws of the container & release system. The reserve pilot chute on my skydiving rig is spring loaded. Pulling the reserve handle pulls out a pin on the reserve's closing loop & then the spring in the pilot chute launches the pilot chute away from the skydiver or in your case the pilot. Not having to throw the reserve is one less thing for the pilot to worry about. The spring loaded reserve pilot chute pulls the reserve bag out of the container once it hits the air stream & this is another thing the pilot doesn't have to grapple with in a High G & high stress situation. If you went with this type of deployment system I'm sure that deployment times would be much faster & more consistent.
Hi Fred. There is a lot we can learn from skydiving, but we need to remember that they are fundamentally different sports. Skydiving deployments take place at terminal velocity, in a much more constrained harness, and (hopefully) far from the terrain. Deployment of one kind or another is the goal of every skydive, and there are a limited number of generally unfixable mals. However, in paragliding deployments are rare, so the risks from an accidental deployment of a springloaded system are proportionately higher. Also, Though this shouldn't matter where safety is concerned, though in practice it does - skydiving rigs are around 7000 dollars new, and quite heavy. However, a paraglider harness with reserve is more like 1500 dollars, and much lighter weight. This is why the cutaway system available to paraglider pilots, the Supair AcroBASE, hasn't really caught on outside of acro, because of its relative cost, complexity and weight.
I'm not saying a springloaded system is a bad solution, and I am very in favour of anything that leads to standardization, reduced complexity and greater reliability. However, the existing skydiving systems would need to be modified quite fundamentally to become popular in the sport.
@@mattwilkes1716 Yes, I agree that the sports are different but only a percentage of reserve deployments are done at terminal velocity, let's say when a skydiver for whatever reason hasn't deployed and the AAD fires the reserve. I could be wrong but believe that most reserve deployments occur because of canopy failures due to line twists, line-overs, sliders that get stuck, etc, and the reserve deployments are done below terminal velocity because of the drag caused by the canopy fabric. Something I don't see in PPG gear is the ability for a cut-away but that also adds a risk element as nobody would like their wing to be released accidentally. The difference in gear weight is also because a skydiver is carrying 2 canopies with the associated weight of the fabric, lines, webbing, harness attachments, etc. I believe that the weight of a spring-loaded pilot chute would be minimal & worth it if it allows for more consistent & trouble-free deployments. Naturally, the design would need to be modified for the PPG environment so that the possibility of an accidental deployment would be minimized. I no longer skydive but am planning to get into Powered Paragliding & have always been curious about how PPG reserves work. If I had a choice I would buy a reserve with a spring-loaded pilot chute than one I would have to throw, & be able to throw far enough so it doesn't get hung up on the frame or motor parts. With a non-powered wing that isn't as much of a concern but for standardization purposes it might be good to design a reserve system that can be used for both powered and non-powered paragliding. If there isn't such a system available by the time I'm able to enter the sport I might consider designing my own. But I do appreciate the amount of thought & testing you guys are doing & look forward to learning more as your research develops. What I am most interested in right now is in regards to the frequency of a paragliding reserve getting entangled with the wing. In skydiving we cut away the main canopy to prevent a double-malfunction and in paragliding that option isn't available, so I'm curious if there have been a number reserve entanglements with the malfunctioning wings. Does anyone keep statistics on that sort of thing?
@@kst357 Hi Fred - yep - agreed that most skydiving reserve deployments are not at terminal velocity. That's a very fair point. As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a cutaway option available in paragliding already, it is just not widely used outside acro: www.supair.com/en/produit/acro-base-system/. I am not sure whether it is compatible with a motor (I imagine not). There is also this system which is under development: www.paragliding.tech/preuve-fr.html. Reserve entanglements are definitely a possibility, especially in SAT, though they often sort themselves out or can be sorted with a tug on the bridle. It's always a dilemma what to teach pilots - complex methods of throwing to avoid entanglement? Or to just throw it then sort it out afterwards? I am more in favour of the latter - always better to have as much fabric out there as possible.
Fantastic video André! The sport needs more of these studies. The work done here is very important, thank you for helping spread the word. Congratulations to the team!
Very informative. I note the reserve is mounted on the right & most people are right handed. For paramotors the majority of pilots hold the throttle in the right hand and so mount the reserve on the left. Given this is not their predominant hand does it have any effect on the success of deploying the reserve ?
Hi @flyingfergus - we didn't see any association between handedness and deployment time. That said, deployment time is not the same as ease, and that is harder to judge. In other words, there may be some subtle effects of handedness, particularly if the pilot was tangled or disorientated, but they didn't surface in this study.
Really enjoyed these videos and findings. It’s pieces of work like this that keep the sport evolving and becoming safer through pilot knowledge and equipment manufacturing. Top work all involved👌
Not sure if standardising handle position is a good idea: wouldn't it constrain harness design too much? I think it's better to practice grabbing the handle in flight so the muscle memory develops.
@@JuHo-XC555 Thanks Martin and Jurgen. We tried to keep it short, to make sure everyone got to the end (and thinking that people could watch it a few times if they wanted). If you have any specific questions, or anything that wasn't clear, please let me know and I'll will try to clarify it for you.
Regarding to your suggestion of making a check after launch. Absolutely! A friend of mine Reinhardt Vollmert a veteran pilot and holder of some world records teaches the what he calls “Übung Null“ -„lesson zero” for years. In which in flight, after been called by radio, you have to find your reserve handle. This can happen any time in the training. He does not call “grab your rescue handle” because it could get misunderstood as the order to throw it. Perfect Training 🤠 Thanks for your work 🍀 great stuff 🤠
Hello @MattWilkes and @AndreBandarra. I wanted to add something to your experience. We can also improve the gesture by the MENTAL APPROACH . VISUALISATION (imagine finding the rescue handle, go out the rescue and release it). It's very effective, it creates an automatism as by repeating the gesture concretely. It doesn't require material and complete the training. . Cheers.
A very informative and interesting video, well done Andre. I imagine many of these lessons translate into hang-gliding too. As a hang-glider pilot I practice finding my reserve most flights and frequently get it wrong on the first try. Funny.. but the hip is where I tend to reach for too. Do you know if any of these type of experiments are planned for hang-gliders?
This is a very nice and well-supported publication. Congratulations to the author and his team. I agree with the conclusions.However, in terms of harness design and for optimal ergonomics, the pod should be located near the pelvis. However, how many spines have come to rest on pods placed in this way? This is why I still say that we must think about a real modernisation of our harnesses by installing a parachute ejector. It's worth the effort. A review of the various paragliding federation websites shows an estimate of 10 deaths per year in the context of a rescue parachute not being pulled, pulled too late or failing. What would we say today if car manufacturers had "shunned" the airbag.
Great job summarising this one. As a new pilot who has no idea with equipment, I'm looking for direct recommendations of what gear to buy based off this study. Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks Leah. As the author of the work, I try to stay neutral with recommendations, but hopefully it shows you what to look forward in a reserve system: where the handle is, does it look like you could find and grip it easily etc.
@@mattwilkes1716 The search begins! Thanks again for doing this kind of work and I love the way that you're sharing it on this channel. It's an amazing resource.
You should try and add VR goggles too and give a falling or ground rushing feel... or even just all sky and no sense of direction - it would add stress too for sure...
Excellent video guys! So clear and informative, I believe this video will be used as a reference for PG pilots for years and years to come. I would like to see this adopted by all/BHPA schools as a part of the CP training syllabus in future, as the content and clear explanation is mega important. Well done and thank-you to everyone involved.
Hi Andre & Matt. Thanks for the great video. I love it! I believe there is a lack in your training proposals, and that is mentalization. I describe one way of working this here: rocherbleu.com/parapente/stress-et-parapente/#secours. Sorry, it's in French, but here's a Deepl translation. I'm not sure it's accurate, though… "Among the mentalization exercises, there is a specific one for the reserve. It answers the question: "In case of an irreversible incident, will I have the reflex to throw the reserve? While in flight, I mentalize: if something happens to me now, do I have time to deal with it or do I have to throw the reserve immediately? I answer the question and I add a post-takeoff check. The exercise has to be repeated until the analysis->strategy->technique of the reserve operation gets into my reflex zone." It takes me 5-15 flights at the beginning of each flying season to feel at ease with the reserve decision.
Thanks Gilles, and I agree. We tried to keep our recommendations to only those that our experiment could prove, but I think visualisation and mental preparation for the circumstances where you might need to throw is an excellent idea.
And here comes a question: why did you only perform tests on the inside and not on the outside? While practicing the rescue on SIV, I put myself into strong auto-rotation with the rescue on the outside, and found it VERY difficult to reach for the handle, as my arm was strongly pushed away from it.
Hi Gilles. I totally agree, and we wanted to try that way too. But we could only mount the harness one way round (handle inwards) on the centrifuge arm. It couldn't swing out when the harness was the other way. It was definitely one of the limitations of the experiment.
@@mattwilkes1716 or the same pilot with the same harness could be attached in the opposite side? The rescue handle will be to the ext side. I write a wrong thing?
@@JeromeCanaud974 Hi Jerome, I thought exactly same as you until we tried to do it. We thought that just turning the pilot around would be enough, I need to show you a picture to explain properly, but the problem is the part of the centrifuge arm that moves upwards and outwards when it spins. That can only go in one direction. When we turned the pilot around underneath it, it locked. I didn't believe it until I tried it...
Brilliant work and I appreciate the effort that's been put in. I'll be putting what I have control of into action as soon as I can. I already do the post launch handle check but must confess to not knowing the preference of how my reserve would come out despite dummy pulls in the past.
Andre, question for you. & keep in mind, I don't fly paragliders (but I will some day), ...but every single time I've seen a deployment I get this awful feeling that there is a fairly good chance the reserve will tangle with the main. I think...dang, that thing (reserve) needs to be shot out faster and more precisely. Do you think if you had something like a tube with a charge in it to where the parachute is ejected quickly (hell, even a 12 gauge shotgun) to shoot the reserve out & away quickly would help? I believe it would inflate much quicker too...I dunno, just a thought. What say you?
I think there are many solutions that can be implementes but at the end of the day as with any design consideration it's usually a balance between the benefits and the drawbacks. I'm sure that just like every other vehicle in the world, paragliding systems can and are improved with each iteration. But which specific design should be the next step and why, then I think that question is beyond my knowledge at the moment :)
@@AndreBandarra1 You haven't tried out my tell-tail bit. I keep putting them on my brother's Ercoupe and he keeps taking them off. I'll get him to go up one day with them on and have him video it as well...you'll see... Every time I ever did that on a sailboat, they were 100% 'sold' as in, it's the ONLY way to ever put them on. Maybe tomorrow, I'll go out with him and have him video it (I have to make some kind of ~holder/mount for the camera in the seat so he has to not screw with a camera while flying...) & NOTHING is beyond your knowledge (me thinks!)
Good stuff. You guys might actually save a few lives putting this info out. If I might suggest, a further test in more real world conditions might be accomplished by SIV instructors noting response times, problems, minor and severe issues with deployment, management of the dual wings out, problems with entanglements etc in a log book. I would think this, along with the video they shoot (or have shot) might make for useful further analysis and recommendations. It would negate some of the caveats spoken and obvious restrictions imposed by zip/centrifuge over actual real world.
Hi John. It's a really interesting dilemma, between doing stuff in simulated conditions, where you can get a large sample size, and control for confounding factors, and the honest messiness of real life. In the zipline study, we reviewed all the videos with the instructors at Flyeo, and used their experience and archival footage in coming to our conclusions. COVID stopped us doing the same with the second study. I think both approaches are complimentary, each informing the other. So, what happens in SIV influences how you design the experiments, and the experiments feed into SIV. I would love to do what you suggest - a prospective study with a large enough group of SIV instructors and pilots to be representative. I think it would be really valuable.
@@mattwilkes1716 "COVID stopped us doing the same with the second study." Hear ya, COVID SUCKS! :-/ "I think both approaches are complimentary, each informing the other." 100% in agreement. Yes, no doubt messier, real world always is. I didn't realize how much real world data you had accumulated and considered to drive test design...smart. Now for the $64K question. Did any of the manufacturers give any feedback or show any interest in modifying their product designs to better fit what your data showed would be preferable, if in fact you have presented it to any of them yet? The direction and location of pulls presently used seem to be about the LEAST useful they could have picked.That upward front pull is ridiculous, especially if you were fighting significant spin g. I can see where several of your participants may have NEVER been able to deploy under those conditions. The obvious instruction/user fix is to teach a hard and FAST snatch, starting right at the bag, not gently pulling the handle to its max free extent and THEN pulling, as I saw many who had extraction trouble doing. One other unrelated gripe I have about the PPG/PPM safety is motor dependability. Not usually such a big issue if you are sailing open and clear, but I see people skimming trees on YT all the time where they would very likely not be able to get clear on a quick hard motor failure, and I expect you could possibly end up with some pretty gruesome injuries occasionally from such a 'landing' attempt. It seems to me for the cost of these units motor life and dependability should be a LOT better than it currently is. I realize they are basically kart engines, but losing an engine on a kart is practically a no op compared to in flight, especially at the worst possible times, and it wouldn't cost all that much to incorporate changes to make them more dependable. Again, great work. The sort of thing that will keep oversight/regulation at bay for as long as possible WHILE continuing to make the sport and manufacturers/ instructors/pilots safer. Don't feel compelled to answer any of this unless you feel the need to, just some personal observations.
From a PPG pilot: thanks very much for all the effort to pit this study and subsequent video together for the flying community. Very interesting information. Like it was mentioned in the recommendations, I often "pretend" to grab by reserve handle while in flight....hoping that I will never have to really go through the experience in reality.
Thank you all very much for having seen the need for this research and having identified the central issues in the context of human reaction in that emergency situation! A methodically outstanding, path-breaking work and concrete help for us all. I consent that it will be THE reference for long time.
Thank you very much, fantastic research. What a great contribution to flight safety. "The best safety device in any aircraft is a well-trained crew" (FlightSafety International) Happy landings.
I'm hoping to learn this summer, so thank you for the awareness of needing to know how to throw the reserve. Touching it in flight so we know where it is at all times. Become as familiar with it as with the break handles. I will ask the school i pick for training if they teach throwing the reserve.
Bravo to all involved - this is an absolutely brilliant piece of research and analysis - essential watching for all PG / HG pilots. Well done, and Thank You!
What a great video from this amazing team of people. I think the community cannot thank you enough, but sharing is caring, so I am going to share with everybody now. I hope you don´t mind. MILLION THANKS TO YOU ALL
Thanks for your brilliant work! From my experience a major key element you have to learn is that you have to THROW the reserve rather than PULL it. Having the right term in mind makes a huge difference regarding your mindset.
Very good insights, thank you! I've often wished that paragliding harness designers would adopt a spring-loaded reserve system as with skydiving gear; where handles (cutaway and reserve) are universally mounted in the same place.
Hi Louis, thanks for you reply. I agree that standardisation of handle placement is essential. I am less certain as to whether a skydiving system would transition neatly to paragliding. In skydiving, there are a fixed number of quite recognisable mals, deployments occur at terminal velocity high above the terrain (hopefully), in a much more constrained harness, and deployment is part of every jump rather than a rare event. Remember also that most paraglider's priorities are cost, weight and aerodynamics, so there would need to be a lot of public buy in to become widespread. (few non-acro pilots have bought the SupAir Acro BASE for example). I do agree though that there is a lot we can learn from skydiving systems, and we'd be foolish not to. Thanks again
The zipline study was already a fantastic piece of empirical research but this combination tops it all, Andre and Matt ! Thanks so much for this splendid work !
I am very pleased to know that there is an active research for the evolution of passive safety in the sport. Excellent and useful work, both as a contribution to standerdization and pilot good practices. Thank you
Merci pour cette étude et surtout les premieres conclusions et les pistes d'évolution. -je suis particuliérement content que la différence entre la spirale et la SAT soit faite. L'autorotation (voile fermée, cravatée) est identique à la SAT . Et c'est souvent dans cette configuration que le secours doit être tiré. - merci de proposer un fonctionnement uniformisé pour le lancer du secours, avec la possibilité aux marques de garder leurs spécificités. - oui l'entrainement en tyrolienne, SIV, poignée secours sont indispensables ;le pilote doit s'approprier son secours, il fait parti de son matériel.Ce n'est pas un diable ;-) ... good job. congrats jerome canaud
Merci Jérôme, très gentil. Je conviens que l'autorotation est la plus grande menace, en particulier pour les nouveaux pilotes. Il est si facile de sous-estimer les forces qu'il peut générer. C'est pourquoi nous avons inclus le SAT dans la comparaison. Je suis tellement heureux qu'un instructeur de votre énorme expérience pense que nous sommes arrivés aux bonnes conclusions!
Another excellent video Andre. Thanks to you and all involved. In the video, the G force on the pilot's arm may be a contributory factor in the hand initially going to the hip area. One important detail that I feel should have been included is the instruction to LET GO of the handle when you throw. A friend of mine died a few years ago when he was seen to make a number of attempts to deploy without letting go of the handle; then when he did let go eventually he was too low for the reserve 'chute to open fully and he died. See www.aaiu.ie/sites/default/files/report-attachments/REPORT%202004_009.pdf.
Thanks Bertie. I am so sorry to hear about your friend. I agree that letting go is hugely important. Interestingly everyone under G force let go automatically, presumably because of the forces involved. On the zipline, more people held on. I agree also re: the forces directing the hand, particularly as we saw differences in first touch in SAT and spiral. In the scientific paper, which is currently under peer review, we dig more into the effect of G on proprioception. Girgenrath et al. have noted increased isometric force with increasing acceleration (i.e. a tendency to ‘overshoot’ or ‘overcontrol’) which may be implicated.
@@mattwilkes1716 Thanks Matt. I guess it’s a complicated matter. In 1987 the hang glider that I was flying collapsed at 300ft above take-off - careless pre-flight check on my part resulting in nose wires becoming detached. Things seemed to shift into slow motion and I immediately threw my chest-mounted conical (non PDA) reserve parachute and landed gently on top of the wing not far from take-off with a wrecked glider and a bruised arm. Subsequently in 2014 I was paragliding in fairly crowded thermic conditions in Spain when my paraglider completely and suddenly collapsed in a thrashing heap in front of me. I was some 850ft above the hill at that point and, as I could feel some pressure in the control lines, I attempted to get the wing flying again after a partially inflated spin and deliberate stall. With normal stall recovery I continued my flight uneventfully. A pilot who saw this reckoned I lost around 250 - 300ft before recovery to normal flight. Thinking about these two incidents, the contrast seems clear. When the hang glider collapsed, I had no choice - it was instantly obvious there was no possibility of recovery to normal flight and the only action I could take was to throw the reserve ‘chute immediately. As I did so I was aware of the gale rushing past me and the ground rushing up towards me. In the paraglider incident, I knew in the back of my mind that I had considerable height and I had no sensation of falling, but I was so focused on getting the wing flying again that I completely forgot to check my height whilst working to regain control of the wing. I only realised this afterwards. That was scary, despite the fact that I have been a paragliding instructor since 1996 and advice to students (and others) is to always check their height above ground in the event of a major collapse and be ready to deploy their reserve ‘chute without hesitation. I suppose the danger is that, because given sufficient height, a collapsed paraglider can often be recovered to normal flight, people will, like I did, become fixated on re-inflation and may leave reserve parachute deployment too late. I would be interested in any comments on this or suggestions as to how to direct primary focus to checking height.
@@bertiekennedy6906 You are absolutely right. There is always a balance between trying to fix the wing (avoiding an uncontrolled descent under reserve, and continuing the flight) and saving yourself. I suspect that's why many do hesitate. That's also the rationale for this experiment, as once a pilot makes the decision to deploy, the reserve system must work perfectly, as there may be little altitude left. It's also why skydiving isn't a very useful analogy, as in skydiving deployment is the goal of every jump and most malfunctions can't be fixed. So, the key step in any emergency will always be making the decision to deploy. One of the questions that I'd like to look at next is how to improve altitude awareness in pilots. In skydiving, it's a case of checking the altitude after every manoeuvre during freefall, but again, that's not that helpful in our context. One idea is to define zones (red zone = pull instantly, orange zone = minimal time to fix, green zone = ample time to fix) and teach pilots to be contantly assessing what zone they were in. I don't think it's ever been properly trialed though.
I would be very interested to see if there is any difference between harnesses of different brands? Or between newer and older (10+ year) harnesses? It would be good to know if it worth buying new equipment or there is no major development from the reserve throwing point of view. Very good study and informative video! :)
Thanks Marcell. I tried to keep the work "brand neutral" and focus on the different designs. Certainly we know that gear has got lighter and more aerodynamic over the years, and that has certainly come with some compromises. The question is whether those changes have been mitigated by better design.
@@mattwilkes1716 Thank you for the reply, sure that makes sense. After watching this video, I will practice reaching out to my reserve handle in all flights, with different harness settings too.
