I'm a newbie to sport diving and during my AFF1 jump I had a pilot chute in tow malfunction. I was aware of the chute not deploying on time because I have several military static line jumps. The AFF instructors stayed with me and so I waiting while they wrestled the container open. It only took about 5-6 seconds after I initiated deployment before I had a canopy. I felt confident about my next actions if it didn't deploy but I was wondering if this is fairly common to have this malfunction and would it be logical to make a quick attempt at reaching back to try and free the bridal if it happened again?