Throw-out versus ripcord

[fensittr 0]

Hi, I'm shopping around various dropzones, to find the one I'm most comfortable with to do the AFF course. I've been reading a lot about the three different deployment methods (pull-out, throw-out, ripcord), and I wanted to know what is the best deployment method for a student? I know the answer will either be throw-out or ripcord (since I checked the USPA rules on this), but I would like to hear some opinions first-hand.

Thanks!

[IanHarrop 42]

If you go with the throw out for student jumps you do not have to transition to it later, that is you don't have to learn rip-cord and then switch later.

Just one jumper's thoughts.

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[Mike111 0]

I can;'t offer any advice, but have used the throw out system for all my jumps.

It certainly seems fine and easy to use.

Maybe doing a search could help you to as this has been debated before.

[fensittr 0]

This actually brings up another question: What are the advantages of the throw-out over the ripcord, that makes it very popular with jumpers? I've read that ripcord deployment is more likely to work in an unstable deployment, and since pulling the ripcord opens the container, you can't get a pilot-chute-in-tow.

[IanHarrop 42]

Quote

This actually brings up another question: What are the advantages of the throw-out over the ripcord, that makes it very popular with jumpers? I've read that ripcord deployment is more likely to work in an unstable deployment, and since pulling the ripcord opens the container, you can't get a pilot-chute-in-tow.

With Rip cords you can have pilot chute in tow if the pack opening bands (do they still use them?) catch on the pilot chute. You can also have pilot chute hesitations if the pilot chute gets stuck in your burble, and rip cord housing were know to get stones in them and jam up the ripcord.

A hand deployed pilot chute is better for most people.

Edit to add: forgot about bent pins - another potential problem with rip cords.

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[phoenixlpr 0]

How about filling up your details?

[wmw999 2,451]

Well, you could change the pins and cones for loops and pins, but for me at least the main reason to go to throw out (besides the whole cool factor thing) was the fact that it was much easier to close my container without the spring-loaded pilot chute.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[billvon 2,995]

Ripcords:

-Can be pulled in any orientation
-If you hang on, or you drop it, the parachute still opens
-better for unstable deployments
-excellent "pin protection"

Throwouts:

-Most people use them
-less likely to get a pilot chute hesitation
-you can use a collapsible PC (important for smaller canopies)

I learned on leg mount throwouts. When I taught AFF at Brown we started with hip mounted ripcords, then went to BOC ripcords, then BOC throwouts. They all work. About the only one that had serious recurrent problems were the leg mount throwouts.

[migliore 0]

Bill Booth, the inventor of both the pull-out and throw out recommends the throw-out. He talks about both on a recent Skydive Radio show (#16), which you can get here.

Shane

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

What are the advantages of the throw-out over the ripcord...

Previous discussion: The Case for the Ripcord

[lilchief 1]

Isn't buying your own student gear kind of waste of money? Why not rent a student rig and buy your own rig after?

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return." - Da Vinci
www.lilchief.no

[fensittr 0]

My plan is to just rent a student rig. I just know that depending on the dropzone, some AFF courses use ripcord deployment, and others use BOC throw-out. From what people are writing, it seems like both are about equally safe. So it probably makes more sense to go with a dropzone that teaches using throw-out, right? This way there's no need to switch later.

Anyway, thanks for the advice.

[sundevil777 102]

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So it probably makes more sense to go with a dropzone that teaches using throw-out, right?

Don't let that be your most important criteria for choice of DZ. It is not that hard to switch.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[mjosparky 4]

This site will answer most of your questions.

Deployment Initiators

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[billvon 2,995]

>So it probably makes more sense to go with a dropzone that teaches using throw-out, right?

That's a really minor issue overall. Check the place out, talk to the instructors, and get a feel for the place if you want to jump there. That will be far more important than what sort of deployment system they use.

[daniel_owen_uk 0]

My thoughts exactly, deployment method really shouldn't be an issue when choosing which dropzone you want to learn at.

They will teach you how to use any deployment method.

Make your decision based on distance from home, instructors, size of dropzone, equipment used (new/old for example), and the actual student program they have in place.

__________________

BOOM Headshot

[NickDG 23]

I agree with that except for one thing. When I started playing the bass guitar I asked how to buy a good one. The current advice was to sit in the music store and play them, see how they sound and feel in your hands.

The problem was I didn’t know how to play one or even know what a good bass should sound or feel like . . .

I think it's the same with skydiving students.

James,

Much of the advice you'll get from experienced jumpers (non-Instructors) is well intentioned but sometimes doesn't make much sense to students. Rest assured that we all went through the same thing you are. We all walked on to some drop zone and just trusted them. That's sort of the first step to skydiving and the second is slowly the Instructors will start to trust you.

You sound very heads up, but don't sweat the details too much and just go for it . . .

NickD BASE 194

[fensittr 0]

Will do. Thanks for all the advice

• Quote

[IanHarrop 42]

Quote

I agree with that except for one thing. When I started playing the bass guitar I asked how to buy a good one. The current advice was to sit in the music store and play them, see how they sound and feel in your hands.

The problem was I didn’t know how to play one or even know what a good bass should sound or feel like . . .

I think it's the same with skydiving students.

James,

Much of the advice you'll get from experienced jumpers (non-Instructors) is well intentioned but sometimes doesn't make much sense to students. Rest assured that we all went through the same thing you are. We all walked on to some drop zone and just trusted them. That's sort of the first step to skydiving and the second is slowly the Instructors will start to trust you.

You sound very heads up, but don't sweat the details too much and just go for it . . .

NickD BASE 194

The best advice I've seen so far - can't agree more.

"Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me" Dorothy

[riggerrob 643]

With Rip cords you can have pilot chute in tow if the pack opening bands (do they still use them?) catch on the pilot chute.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Pack Opening Bands were a band-aid solution to wimpy pilot chute springs in the days before MA-1 pilot chutes with decent spiral-wound springs.
Similary, the old GQ Security PEPs (pilot emergency parachutes) had an extra spring solely to extract closing loops.
I even saw a Russian Air Force surplus PEP that depended upon POBs to expose the soft (un-sprung) pilot chute to the wind.
Scary!
POBS disappeared from civilian PEPs 20-plus years ago and are now only found on antiquated military PEPs.
Thank GOD!

[riggerrob 643]

I have worked with all the different systems as a jump master and rigger.
Heck!
I even jumped a 4-pin main ripcord when I was s student ... back in the 1970s.
BOC throw-out is by far the best system.
Hint: 95% of jump masters wear BOC.

The other big advantage of BOC is that it eliminates transition training when you buy your first rig.
Modern skydivers tend to forget that 30% of fatalities during the early 1980s occurred during transition from military surplus ripcords to throw-outs.

[Andy_Copland 0]

Well that settles that argument

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[Salsa_John 0]

I agree. Check out Bill Booth's interview on http://skydiveradio.com/show_files/sr16_11_22_05.mp3"

he explains why he uses the BOC pilot chute

"You did what?!?!"

MUFF #3722, TDSM #72, Orfun #26, Nachos Rodriguez

[Andy9o8 2]

I learned on the old military surplus stuff, too. Ripcord handle on the right main lifting web (pretty much where the cutaway handle is on today's rigs.) The sport rigs I jumped had the ripcords there, too. (I never used the early hand-deployed rigs.) Then I took a long layoff from the sport (life intervened...), and didn't make the transition to BOC until I got back in a few years ago. Boy, old muscle memory sure dies hard. For the first several jumps of recurrency, it was all I could do to keep myself from grabbing the cutaway handle at pull time.
(Yeah, that's right, just like Lutz...except I didn't do it, I just thought about doing it...)

[Orange1 0]

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Modern skydivers tend to forget that 30% of fatalities during the early 1980s occurred during transition from military surplus ripcords to throw-outs.

But more recently? I learnt on ripcords but as has been said above the transition is easy. And correct me if i'm wrong, being just a newbie, but isn't it far easier to horseshoe on a throw-out than a ripcord?

Skydiving: wasting fossil fuels just for fun.