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All,

I used to jump an old, worn out 7 cell in the sky diving scene and have cut away from four tension knots and landed two others. They have always occurred on the brake line cascades. I have never experienced a tension knot on a Base canopy so I don’t know if they typically occur on the brake lines but if they do then “cut away toggles” come to mind.

Quote from Morpheus regarding HPBG (cut away) toggles – “We don't really advocate the use of HPBG’s in most situations. There are certain applications in which an experienced jumper may utilize this option. (Pulling high and far away from an object)”

Mark and I have never jumped a Big Wall but surmise that pulling high and far away from an object might be typical of Big Wall jumping.

Q - If you yourself have jumped or do jump big walls do you have “cut away” toggles installed?

Regards

John & Mark

I don't have cut away toggles installed. My opinion is that BASE gear should be as simple as possible.
I jump with a hook knife. And I think that if I have a tension knot or line over on a big wall, pulling high and far away from the wall I should be able to cut the toggle away with the hook knife in not much more time then I would spend to cut away the cutaway toggles.
It can be done on not even so high walls not to far away from the wall...
http://www.skydivingmovies.com/...ion=file&id=1154
But it would suck to loose a toggle on a jump where you are close to the wall.

My 2 cents

That's six mals on the same canopy...
Good going!

pocBase,
Good observation - I actually had three of those mals in four consecutive jumps in one day at Malindi on the Kenya coast. It was an old Le Batts 7 cell and the lines were really chewed up. It was my first ever canopy and I only had a hundred or so jumps at that time and I thought that's how skydiving was meant to be.

Please now tell me if you use Cut Away toggles

Regards

John

I have line release toggles ("cut away toggles") on 2 of my rigs. I've never had to fire them in anger, but I have tested them a few times.

I like the cloth stub style (Morpheus HPGB, latest version of Apex WLO) much better than the previous (pin style stub) versions.

I have seen a couple of premature (unintentional) toggle releases, as well as one case in which the toggle failed to release when activated (that wasn't on the Morpheus or Apex versions). I've also had some difficulties with the pin channel closing up, making it difficult to reset the toggle without an awl or similar piercing tool (that was on the Apex version).

I haven't found the line release toggle particularly harder or easier to use than the hook knife, but I suspect that in a fast spin, they would be (I haven't been in a fast spin to experiment).

On balance? Hard to say, but I'm not in a particular hurry to equip the rest of my gear with them. I think they're a great idea, but I also think that they continue to evolve in better (and more user friendly) directions, which is good. I'll probably wait for another generation or two before I buy some more.

One piece of advice: If you do install line release toggles, be sure you are well practiced at riser landings. If they fire accidentally (either by malfunction or user error), you will need to be able to land.

No I don't. I do too few slider up jumps (although that's not really a justification is it?).
Hook knife on both rigs. I forgot it once and got all paranoid and walked down...

> Please now tell me if you use Cut Away toggles
——————————————————————————————
I have been using Morpheus HPGB for at least 2 years now.
My opinion is the following.
Morpheus HPGB, if setup/installed/rigged properly, are impossible to have a failure or an unintentional release of the control line.
I have never used them in the sense that I have never had a lineover and released of control lines using the release system of Morpheus HPBG.
Once installed and rigged (PROPERLY), they are "no worries" type, you can behave as if they were "normal" big grab toggles.
The pain in the ass of Morpheus HPGB, though, is the rigging up itself: to release the control line (pulling the aluminum ring at the bottom and retracting the pin) is very easy, the very difficult part is to place the control line loop inside the toggle and getting at the same time the pin INSIDE the control line loop.
My first installation of Morpheus HPGB took me at least 1 h of swearing and of use of pliers, iron rod (the metallic part of packing power tool), my fingers and a goos dose of patience.
Then I thought: "If I don't find a better/simpler/faster solution to rig them up, I am going to sell on eBay the Morpheus HPGB straight away!"
I did the following. I took a dyneema 2.5 mm line, I removed the dyneema to have it thinner (I was left with the sheath only), then I sewed a loop of such a modified dyneema line, passing such a loop through the loop (or better call it "ring"?) of the pin. The dyneema loop is of "suitable length".
When I have to release the control line I do as follow. I get the dyneema loop out of its place (inside the toggle somewhere where there the gap for pin to move), I pull the aluminum ring down retracting the pin, the controll line is released.
I do whatever I have to do (assembling the slider, for example).
Once finished, I stick the control line loop through the toggle grommet getting out on the side hole of toggle, pulling the dyneema loop I get the tip of the pin out on the same side of toggle, I get the pin through the control line loop and by hand i re-place such a lump of stuff inside the toggle (not so easy/not so fast...).
At this stage, I pass my finger through the dyneema loop and pull it up, while trying to guide the pin straight up into its "natural" place.
Still quite a hard work, but somehow doable, somehow repeatable. Then, when everything is at its "natural" place, I manage to stick the dyneema line (through the side hole) inside the toggle, which is a joyful pain in the ass indeed, but in the end I come up with a "clean" toggle with nothing out but the control line and the aluminum ring at the bottom.
Once the Morpheus HPGB set up PROPERLY, it's a use-and-forget toggles (just take care that the bottom aluminum ring does not come way too down, way too out of the toggle, so having a possibility of snagging somewhere).
By the way, forgive me if I say it here, but neither yourself nor anybody mentioned it, so I do it now.
Let's suppose you have the Morpheus HPGB (or another control-line-release-toggle) installed on your rig.
In case of a lineover on a slider up jump, you can release the (offending) control line by using the release system of your toggles, giving for granted that in the meanwhile you have stopped the spinning, checked that you are still high and not-too-close to your object.
In case of a lineover on a slider off jump, the fastest and only way to go is to discard your toggles (or only the offending control line toggle and keeping the other) as fast as you can, throwing them outside/offside and up: in a slider off jump, we give for granted that the object is low and we give for granted that you are WAY close to the object, so there is no time to fuck up with ANY release system, just discard those fucking toggles as fast as lightning
Just my 0.02€

Thanks for the responses

John & Mark