So...you carry a hook knife...

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Like skymonkeyone said, the BPA require licensed jumpers to wear one, so it becomes a habit. Agree with you about the difficulty in identifying the correct line during a violent lineover situation, but its better to have at least a chance......
Have heard of people getting their booties hung on cessna steps, a hook knife would be useful here, I would not play canopy dogfighting without one either....
I have used one once, but it ws preplanned. I was taking snaps of a deliberate s/l hangup from the students point of view. I attached a static line to a climbing harness, dropped out the Islander then surfed along behind the plane. Once the 'instructor' was done making all the signals, mimicking cutting the S/L etc, I cut the S/L and went into 'normal' freefall.
Setup was a standard climbing sit harness with a snaplink at the rig chest strap to keep me head high. Worked a treat and was surprisingly stable.
Anyone care to guess how many hook knives I was wearing for that little stunt?
Cya
D
GR# 37
Remember how lucky you are to see and touch the sky; the blind may only dream.

[Trent 0]

Right, she never said it wasn't a good idea to have one, only that counting on the fact that you can cut out a reserve line-over is a bad idea.

[Hooknswoop 19]

"Right, she never said it wasn't a good idea to have one, only that counting on the fact that you can cut out a reserve line-over is a bad idea."
I agree it wouldn't be easy, depending on the size/wingloading of the reserve, but I don't think someone shaking you while in a hanging harness is a good simulation of a reserve line-over. If cutting a line over on a reserve ment the difference between living and dieing, I bet I could do it. Hhhmmm, sounds like I need to pack a line over on my intentional cutaway rig........Right after i jump that Clipper with no top skin, now that I put an 8 inch hole in the slider :-)
Hook

[nacmacfeegle 0]

"If cutting a line over on a reserve ment the difference between living and dieing, I bet I could do it."
My money would be on you correctly identifying the offending line, not because your smart, but because you are more likely to be rational, calm, clear headed, etc due to your greater experience in cutaways and such like.
Besides, a good rigger shouldn't be packing a lineover in your reserve. I make it a point of checking my res pack job at repack time, when I do a cutaway and pop on the ground. If I don't like what I see, the res packer won't get an awful lot of business from me......Ya payas ya money, ya takes ya chance......
Cya
D
GR# 37
Remember how lucky you are to see and touch the sky; the blind may only dream.

[alan 1]

Deploy at 2500'.
600' opening puts you at 1900'.
USPA recommends making decision to cutaway by 1800'
Reality is it will likely take 200' to 300' to assess the situation
and make a decision.
USPA recommends cutaway by 1600'.
Reality is it will likely be at 1200' to 1400' before the cutaway
is accomplished.
Reserve opening will likely be about 200', maybe less, most
likely more.
That leaves one at about 1000' identifying a line-over
on the reserve.
Assess it and decide while spinning in a descent of 45+' per
second.
That gets one at 800'.
Attempt to clear it by "popping" the brake line. We're now at
700'. Well, maybe we skip this and go straight for the knife.
Locate the knife, retrieve it (hopefully without dropping it)
while pulling 2 G's, more or less. Find the correct line and
cut it and only it as the rate of descent increases along
with the violence of the turn and the G forces. Remember,
if one cuts the wrong line or lines in the excitement, it may
very well make the situation worse. Rate of descent is
now likely to be 80' per second.
Can one retrieve the knife, find the correct line and cut only
it in less than 10 seconds? Unless one has had prior
experience with a spinning malfunction, I would bet not.
OK, let's say one can. The correct line has been cut. If one
is are lucky and/or good, they might just have enough time
and altitude to do a rear riser flare into who knows what.
My point?
1. Open higher, especially with one of the newer canopies that takes longer to open.
2. A larger, lightly loaded reserve can actually be landed with a line-over. Use the other brake to control the spin and descent to whatever extent is possible. PLF.
3. A hook knife has many practical uses for skydivers and should be carried. In many, if not most situations, cutting lines on one's reserve during a line-over is not one of them.
4. During most FJC'c (I hope), we teach a student that a line over on the main is a low speed malfunction and can sometimes be cleared by a hard yank on the toggles, accompanied by an immediate release in the tension, thus "popping" the offending line off and clearing the malfunction. It worked for me on my old Sabre 170 once. I would suggest that making an attempt to clear the line-over would be a more sensible use of time and altitude than groping for a hook knife, but situations vary.
alan

[nacmacfeegle 0]

I agree with your numbers Alan, I usually dump way above 3000. My point is, it is extremely unlikely that you will have a lineover on your reserve, especially if your reserve packer is worth his salt...And I know mine are.....I would be trying just about everything under the sun to clear that lineover, including heaving on the brake lines, risers etc (as you pointed out), the option of cutting a line is just that, an option, and in situations like this (res malfunction), I like the idea of options. I would not stop exercising options till the blood filled my goggles......
The chances of me surviving a violently spinning lineover on my 176 reserve are slim to say the least, my res is loaded at around 1.4-1.5 -ish.
Don't anyone start a flame war over reserve sizes, Thats not the point here. I know I can land both my PD176 or my Raven wherever I want, cos I have had to in the past.
Having just re-read your post, I'm assuming that it was not pointed at me in particular, but to the board in general.....
Cya
D
GR# 37
Remember how lucky you are to see and touch the sky; the blind may only dream.