Have you used cutaway cables?

[riggerrob 643]

How many birdmen have needed to use their suit cutaway cables?
Was it because of a freefall problem?
What type of main malfunction?
How difficult were they to locate?
How difficult were they to pull?
Which model of suit?

Please limit responses to malfunctions that you personally experienced or witnessed first-hand.

[TALONSKY 0]

You forgot to put in your poll have anything about not having to use them. I have not needed to use them for an emergancy but twice I pulled my leg cut away only because I was too tired to unzip
Kirk

[TomAiello 26]

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How many birdmen have needed to use their suit cutaway cables?

I use them on virtually every BASE flight. I also use them frequently on skydives, just because they're easier than the zipper (plus, I busted the zipper head on the leg a while back and was too lazy to get it fixed for a bit).

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Was it because of a freefall problem?

Nope.

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What type of main malfunction?

No malfunction. They're just quicker than getting at the zippers, for me, and I like to have the canopy time to set up the landing, rather than grope for the zippers.

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How difficult were they to locate?

Very easy. I do a lot of practice handle touches.

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How difficult were they to pull?

Again, easy.

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Which model of suit?

I've used them on Classic II (retrofitted with leg cutaways on both sides, which I liked), and Skyflyer. Probably a total of about 100-150 uses.

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Please limit responses to malfunctions that you personally experienced or witnessed first-hand.

Hmmm. Well, I guess maybe this wasn't the kind of info you were looking for. Sorry.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[piisfish 140]

cutaway my wings, not in freefall, on opening cause I was twisted to the neck and preferred to have my arms quickly available.
Very easy to locate the handle and very easy to pull.
Model is a S-Fly from flyyourbody

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[VectorBoy 0]

Severe line twists on my classic early on caused me to go for them. I had them pulled and my hands into position faster than a quik-draw competitor, and then the canopy just flew out of them without input.

Used them on my S3 for the same reason but grabbed one arm wing and the leg wing cuttaway on the otherside as it is located too close. I thought about switching the leg to a pillow handle for tactile reasons after that as I never look at them but instead keep my eyes on the canopy.

I used the leg cuttaway by itself once after a being too preoccupied with watching my gear on a reserve ride to remember to unzip my legs until too late in the pattern and I didn't want to induce harness steer down low. The LQRS had redeemed itself in my eyes at this point.

Even used the single chest located arm cuttaway for my Matter suit after opening too low and not wanting to deal with that suits stiff zippers. The zippers take a while to brake in and soften up and they do as evidenced on the Matter suits that have some jumps on them.

I only mess with handles for line twists or other silly reasons were I have time and altitude. I go straight to the rigs emergency handles for all emergency situations.

New commers to wingsuits who fly docile mains and deploy above 4 grand find that the wing cuttaways play a more important role as you have more options and altitude, with anything other than a total mal, to deal with it.
Once you start deploying too much below 3 grand on small canopies that can dive and are reluctant to untwist, you have much fewer options and a whole lot less time. Silver may be your only hope.

[mayday1 0]

On my 5th (approx) wingsuit jump I was jumping a borrowed GTi that was much to big (tall) for me. I had difficulty in undoing the lef straps so I ad to use the cutaway. My canopy is a crossfire 119 in light winds so I needed the free leg to run off the landing.

It was easy to use too.

[diablopilot 2]

375+ Wingsuit jumps Most on Mains loaded from 1.8 to 2.4, deployment altitudes ranging from 5k to 2000 AGL.


Never used em'

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[ManBird 0]

Leg cutaway on my S3 about half a dozen times on either reserve rides or low deployments. My GTi doesn't have the LQRS, but I've essentially done the same thing (unzipped only one leg) for the same reason on one jump.

I've only pulled the arm cutaway on the Crossbow. The zipper is very far back on the arm and there was a lot of slack, making it difficult unzip all the way.

"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

Click

[petetheladd 0]

80+ wingsuit jumps and never used the cables.

However, I have both arm zippers undone before my main is fully inflated as I have needed them to get out of line twists so I kinda make my wing releases obsolete.

i.e. just this weekend 4000ft deploy into 2.5 twists, canopy diving but zippers already undone so corrected problem uneventfully

P t L

No, Not without incident

[Tonto 1]

One wing.

Classic 1.

Stuck zipper.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I pulled every single handle on my suit and rig on one skydive a few years ago. The handles on the suit came out fine, but my canopy was too spun up for it to have done any good.

Chuck

[billvon 2,991]

1 arm due to stuck zipper
1 leg due to messing about with canopy too long

Easy to pull in both cases. Arm was a Classic, leg was an S3.

[Jasmin 0]

MY fingers were too cold to get at the zippers, so I used my leg cutaway.

Saw the footage of an aussie hitting a wall 4x after his cutaway cables caught and wouldn't release. He was fine, but the suit's a write-off.

(Between him and "tailplane" [see broken toy thread], that's 2 suits I've seen written off!!)

xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

[skyflyer438 0]

I use my leg every jump , have a hard time getting to my zippers and it only takes seconds to re thread

[verticalflyer 11]

Once in 400 flights, used the lot on the first jump of the herc boogie 2002, its on the end of the 2002 movie as the credits role up. Did not help too much since the twists had gone into the risers and the sun was becoming a white line rather than a round shape!

Dont just talk about it, Do it!

[unclecharlie109 0]

Never had to use them from the plane.

The legwing cutaway I use on nearly every BASE flight.

I have had to use the arm cutaways once when my zip jammed.

At the same event a late great OZ jumper resolved this problem by passing down a toggle to his restricted hand to enable a flare

Worth remembering *if* your cutaway should jam.

J

[nicknitro71 0]

I don't think cutting away the arms is any faster than zipping when you get good at it.

On the other hand I cut the leg away few times. In the winter and when I need extra protection on an already week ankle I wear heavy boots that make sliding the booties off a pain in the butt. So I just cut away.

Memento Audere Semper

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