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Practising with a reserve 'chute


slim

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Hi all,

How many of you have ever got your reserve 'chute out in anger? Not many I hope.

How many of you have ever practised throwing it? Not many I'll bet. Do you even know what colour the canopy is?

On Sunday I went to the Big Fat Repack organised by the Thames Valley Hang-gliding Club and BHPA at Rivermead in Reading. They set up a huge zip-wire that you throw yourself down and deploy your reserve. Then they teach you how to re-pack it. It was a really interesting day and I learned a lot - not least that velcro that hasn't been moved for 6 years is incredibly hard to shift. I strongly recommend loosening the velcro fastenings as part of your pre-flight checks to make sure you can throw it with one hand if the need arises.

One thing that did surprise me was the number of 'chutes that were deployed that didn't open because they were too tightly packed and had been sat on for years! Not much use when plummeting from the sky!

I'll definitely be going again next year and I'll be plugging it on this site when they announce the dates. A good day not wasted. Shame there were only a couple of paramotor pilots there ;-)

Here's a short video of my effort:

[youtubevideo]

[/youtubevideo]

Happy (safe) flying,

S.

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