SAFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 23 March | April 2020 ments, as your GPS Altitude (or QNH Altitude) might read 3350m, but you only have 200m AGL between you and the terrain. Knowing your exact AGL gives you a clear assessment of the situation and reduces reaction time in your thought processes and subse- quent action plan. Stage 2: Deployment sequence You made the decision to throw the reserve and are reaching for your handle. You must pull the handle and reserve in the same direction as it was put into the harness. If you pull the handle at 180 degrees across your lap then it can get trapped, and handles have been ripped off due to the force applied by a panicking pilot. Jocky Sanderson teaches the ‘Look, Locate, Grasp, Pull, and Throw’ technique. He says, “You pull the handle out the way you put the bag in, that’s the critical piece. It comes out the way it slides in, and then you give it a healthy throw behind you… and away from you.” Once you have pulled the reserve from the harness, it is important that you pause and take in your position and the direction of travel of your wing. You only have one opportunity to throw your reserve, so ensure you are throwing it away from you, into clean air. There have been many cases of pilots being twisted and throwing the reserve in front of their direction of travel, causing the reserve to deploy into their own lines and not opening cor- rectly. Throwing away from you will depend on the configuration of your wing at the time of deploy- ment. If you are in a nose-down cravatted spiral, away from you will be towards your feet. If the glider is in ‘helicopter’ style descent with a slower descent rate, away from you might be behind you… Take the time to give a good hard throw, resulting in the bridle reaching full extension so the reserve can open away from the paraglider. Stage 3: De-powering the main Whoompf! You feel the reserve open behind you and your canopy starts to dive forward and react to the reserve opening. Now you need to de-power the paraglider, or the reserve will start downplaning/rotating against the flying wing. We previously taught pulling the As to de-power the wing, but no longer do, as it is much harder/more physical to do, due to the As being set further back from the leading edge (shark nose). We now recommend pilots use the ‘Comb the Ds’ method of de-powering the paraglider. This is done by placing your fingers between the lines on the rear riser (C or D riser, depending on glider) and giving a good hard pull in a downward motion. This will then pull the trailing edge down, resulting in an extreme angle of attack at the leading edge, and causing the glider to depressurise and collapse. The advantages of the ‘Combing the Ds’ method is the initial pull is easier than the As, and once the glider is depressurised, it cannot try and reopen, The pilot can see the glider is rotating to the right, so throws the reserve hard behind and slightly to the left. This results in the bridle being fully extended before the canopy has the chance to open