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Which reserve is best for paramotoring


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Hi,

I am currently flying with a front mounted round APCO Mayday 18 which is for 110 kilos. The web page says it's for 120 kilos, but the briddle on my reserve says 110 kilos.

Anyway, I weight naked around 86 kilos, my HE R120 paramotor dry weight is 27 kilos, plus clothes, helmet and boots. I should be around 120 kilos. Add a full tank of 9 litres and I'm around 129 kilos. Way too heavy for my reserve. So I think, it'll still save my life, but I'll break a few bones. Do you agree?

Anyway, I want to get a proper reserve for my paramotor needs. I normally fly 200 or more metres from the ground. What do you suggest I should get? Is a round cannopy reserve more appropriate or should I get a guided rogallo type of reserve. And also for your suggestion, flying with normal carabiners is ok or it is best to use quick release type. Why?

Also for the choice you suggest, and considering I'm fully fueled at close to 130 kilos, what max range should the reserve be?

Any other comments?

Sorry for so many questions, but I want to make sure I don't make a mistake in the equipment that could potentially save my life.

Regards and Thanks. JC

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and your wing weighs another 7 kilos

Thanks. I missed to include the weight of the wing which is closer to 8 kilos plus the weight of the reserve and front container which should be close to 3 kilos.

A normal round one will do as you will be pulling your wing in and holding it so you will not be able to steer it any way.

Get the biggest you can carry/afford.

The DHV have issued a recommendation that pilots using DHV certified emergency parachutes should

ensure that their maximum take-off weight never exceeds 75% of the parachute's certified maximum

payload. (This means that if the emergency parachute has a certified maximum payload of say 114kg, it is

only recommended for use with a maximum of 85kg payload.)

This is as a result of a DHV study of injury rates arising during the use of emergency parachutes. They

examined all the reported incidents where emergency parachutes had been used by DHV pilots in 2003, and

after stripping out all of those where the pilot's fall had been arrested by trees, found that the eleven incidents

left showed a clear trend: pilot injury (generally serious) occurred in all those events where the load was

greater than 78% of the DHV certified parachute's maximum payload.

APCO Mayday Tandem Reserve > Technical Specifications

Area 47m2

Gores 18

Weight 3.250kg

Sink Rate 5.4m/s

Max Load <200kg

Certification AFNOR

Pete b

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Thanks for the advice. I would have thought using a tandem rated (200kg) reserve for mono flying is a bit much under weight and could cause oscillations while falling.

So maybe it may be better a round cannopy rated for 160kg instead. Am I right with this? Or still better going for the 200kg reserve.

On the other hand, any paramotorist has had any experience throwing a reserve with a paramotor on your back? I'd like to hear what reserve you had at the time, your full weight during that throw, and how it behaved during that throw.

No one has mentioned anything about a rogallo. I would think it would be a better choice for paramotoring. Am I right?

Cheers. JC

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Thanks for the advice. I would have thought using a tandem rated (200kg) reserve for mono flying is a bit much under weight and could cause oscillations while falling.

So maybe it may be better a round cannopy rated for 160kg instead. Am I right with this? Or still better going for the 200kg reserve.

On the other hand, any paramotorist has had any experience throwing a reserve with a paramotor on your back? I'd like to hear what reserve you had at the time, your full weight during that throw, and how it behaved during that throw.

No one has mentioned anything about a rogallo. I would think it would be a better choice for paramotoring. Am I right?

Cheers. JC

SNIP

that their maximum take-off weight never exceeds 75% of the parachute's certified maximum

payload. (This means that if the emergency parachute has a certified maximum payload of say 114kg, it is

only recommended for use with a maximum of 85kg payload.)

200 kg should be Ok for you

Pete b

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ok Pete. I'm happy with that answer as for round canopy. It is now clear that my current round canopy with max range of 110 kg will leave me on the ground in bad shape. Hopefully alive since that's all I have for now. But that'll change soon.

So now it would be good to know about the rogallo. I want to be throurough in this discussion.

Any recomendations for or against using these type of reserves?

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ok Pete. I'm happy with that answer as for round canopy. It is now clear that my current round canopy with max range of 110 kg will leave me on the ground in bad shape. Hopefully alive since that's all I have for now. But that'll change soon.

So now it would be good to know about the rogallo. I want to be throurough in this discussion.

Any recomendations for or against using these type of reserves?

I would suggest that you just get a round one to get down saffly.

But at the end of the day it is up to you.

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When you throw a reserve, do you cut away the wing first?

No matter what happens to the wing it will always be above you, so what stops the reserve getting mixed up with the wing? For this very reason parachutists cut away their primary chute before launching the reserve....

I would be interested to know if anyone on here has actually used a reserve, and what the experience was like?

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There are certainly circumstances where the wing will NOT be above you, although I wouldn't like to be in any of them. Cutting away is a luxury we probably don't have time for. Once the reserve is deployed, there are two schools of thought about the main wing. The first says to pull it in to disable it and prevent it interfering, the second is that as long as it is trailing and not tangling you reserve, leave it there, as any drag it creates is a bonus.

I hope I never have to investigate what's best.

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Interesting points there Phil_P, although I can't figure out how the wing would be anywhere other than above you.

Surely the fact that a person with a paramotor is heavier than the wing would mean that even if the wing collapsed below you it would eventually comeback above you or ??

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If you throw your reserve then you should pull the wing in by the lines so as to disable it from flying.

If you look on you tube at some of the vids unless the wing is in a terrible mess it will start flying again and this will increase your descent rate.

Pull it in or cut away? I would pull in as if you cut away it could go in to the reserve.

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Interesting points there Phil_P, although I can't figure out how the wing would be anywhere other than above you.

Surely the fact that a person with a paramotor is heavier than the wing would mean that even if the wing collapsed below you it would eventually comeback above you or ??

How about a locked in spiral or SAT? You and the wing will be in the same horizontal plane. It will only go above you after you deploy your reserve.

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So in that situation, when the wing rights itself in terms of going back above you, don't you still risk a tangle with the reserve?

Like I said, two schools of thought and I don't know which is best. My personal feeling is probably to disable the main, but who knows what I'll do in those moments of crisis. If I've thrown a reserve at 500', there probably won't be much time to do anything.

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As you say, it probably depends on the situation. I guess the fact that there isn't a cutaway means that it has never been a problem. My interest in this came after speaking to an ex-RAF officer who was quite concerned that there was not a cutaway option.

An interesting discussion tho...

Does anyone have any stats on how many reserves have been deployed in emergency?

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Sorry JC, am new to the sport and not completely up with what's available hence my questions/interest. Thanks for posting the video, very interesting to see a deployment and its effect. I guess that this would still react the same if the wing was collapsed?

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