In March, Nick Caci invited everyone to his spacious hangar to practice throwing a reserve parachute. Parachute needs to be repacked regularly as time to full inflation increases the longer chute stays folded. And every seconds counts if your are falling out of the sky. Time to deploy reserve parachute also depends how fast you can throw it. So it was a perfect time to practice tossing a reserve.
Nick had an old glider hanging from the ceiling where a test subject would get hooked-in, and a few friendly pilots would start shaking and spinning the glider, simulating a catastrophic aircraft failure. That's when you'd pull the reserve's handle, and throw it as far as you could. Simple and doesn't take long, but essential to practice it once in a while. For some pilots, it revealed a failure of equipment, too. For example, Carlos couldn't pull his reserve out at all. Velcro was completely stuck shut. It's a good thing we had that practice - better to find out that something is off while you are safely on the ground.
Here is a video with various pilots practicing the toss.
Everyone had a great time. Big thanks to Nick for hosting this and Marilyn for repacking our reserves. I am so ready to fly!
- Marilyn shows how it's done
To start flying season early this year, I am going to drive to Florida at the end of March for Wills Wing demo days. I'll do some aerotowing, and finally, try that Sport 2. This should be fun... if weather doesn't prove me wrong...
More photos from this event -> Chute Toss Party