🚀 go-pugleaf

I've been watching a bit of TV the last few days:

There was an episode of "The Brain" on PBS last night
(great series).  One sequence used a 1st jump as
an example of a stressful situation.  The exit &
deployment were fine, but the poor devil got brainlocked
into his count and pulled his reserve anyway.  The reserve
proceeded to wrap itself around his lines and stayed
that way until a few hundred feet when it caught some
air.  There he was with two uncontrollable canopies.
The sequence ended with him landing on the roof of a
building and an edited-in "OOOF!".  I can't imagine
the same outcome if he had cutaway.

Cutting away the main with two canopies out is a
safe procedure.  The main goes off to the rear and 
the student swings forwards under the reserve.  There's
no chance of the main snagging the reserve.

I enjoyed "Amazing Stories" the other night where the
gunner in the ball turret got stuck and the undercarriage
wouldn't come down.  Very suspensful.  It's a pity he
didn't know that the hole that got torn in his parachute
would have reduced his descent rate (assuming it was near
the periphery) and given hime some directional control
to boot!

I think the idea of rocket reserves is a joke.  Reserves
open plenty fast enough already.  I can just imagine this:
cramped up in a 185 with your buddy's rocket reserve &
AOD just a few inches from your face when the pilot decides
to spiral down...   or being in the middle of a quadraplane
with a rocket reserve aimed at your butt, then the cowboy
stack pilot decides to spiral...

		Blue skies!
-- 
				
Made in New Zealand -->		Brent Callaghan
				AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ
				{ihnp4|mtuxo|pegasus}!poseidon!brent
				(201) 576-3475