Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!adobe!jackson
From: jackson@adobe.COM (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Subject: Re: malfunctions
Message-ID: <8412@adobe.UUCP>
Date: 20 Nov 90 20:23:28 GMT
References: <3812@mindlink.UUCP> <2524@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU> <209@ptcburp.ptcbu.oz.au>
Reply-To: jackson@adobe.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View
Lines: 22

In article <209@ptcburp.ptcbu.oz.au> michi@ptcburp.ptcbu.oz.au (Michael Henning) writes:
}I have to agree with Bob. I believe that it is safest (on average) to
}*always* cut away on a mal.

NEVER say ALWAYS in skydiving, particularly wrt malfunctions.
My only close call on a mal was when my pilot chute bridle
wrapped around my wrist.  I grabbed the bridle instantly and
was absolutely sure that the pin was still in place, so my
options were to try to untangle the bridle, or to keep my
hold on it and pull my reserve (not my Stephen's cutaway!).

Since I had a little altitude, I decided on the former and
got the pilot loose within about a second, but had I been
close I would definitely have hit the reserve *without*
cutting away.  The last thing I would have needed at that
point was a cutaway main trying to drag me, my wrist, and
I around the sky.
-- 
Curtis Jackson @ Adobe Systems in Mountain View, CA  (415-962-4905)
Internet: jackson@adobe.com	uucp: ...!{apple|decwrl|sun}!adobe!jackson
	"Truth is stranger than fiction; and if it isn't, well, it oughta be."
		-- Mike Cross, from _The_National_Enquirer_Song_