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FreeDiver

Lowest safe chop altitude?

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Back when I was just off student status, I got a tension knot that I tried to fix. I wasn't a real trusting soul back then so I really didn't want to cutaway on the off chance that my reserve would mal. OTOH, a couple of months earlier I had landed a canopy with only a few left side lines intact and the left steering line attached at only one point above the cascade. The landing was less than stellar, but luckily my face broke my fall.

Anyway, I fight this thing as long as I can. I totally forget about the 1800 harddeck in the BSR's and just remember something about not chopping below 1000. So about 1050 agl it becomes apperant that it's not coming loose, so I chop. I'm sure that it was only a few seconds before I had a fully inflated reserve, but it seemed like forever between pulling that red pillow and having that beautiful orange reserve over my head.

I had a friend get invoved in a nasty canopy wrap that he couldn't get clear of until about 500 feet. He was under a reserve by about 150 ft.

-Blind
"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

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