Basejumper.com - archive

 

yes, multiple manufacturers, heres just one:
http://supair.com/...ellette/acro-59.html


primitive isnt necessarily bad. remember KISS?
anyways, the commonly used reserves there are rounds (unsteerable) or triangular wings (papillon style, steerable). and since there is no cutaway on a regular PG harness, you have to hand-toss those, since any pilotchute deployment using bags wouldnt work in that low airspeed. the whole point beeing with paragliding reserves, you want to get as much fabric out as quick as possible.

the base rigs as reserves that they introduced a few years ago is also no golden bullet, since before that a lot of acro paragliders flew with 2 reserves, and still do, so additional to the base canopy, they still wear another round.
why?
because a lot of acro paragliding mishaps end up with the pilot beeing entangled in the canopy or lines, with no chance of cutaway, therefore a deployment of the base canopy, while the round still gives you a fair chance...

edit: to make link clicky...

Nick Burden (of BlackSheep) made one and tested it that is basically a MARD for paragliders from what I could tell... he could tell you better, but there is a video of it here:

https://vimeo.com/33473803

it's called the "Opt-Out"

 

If your down low and have a partially collapsed paraglider its probably better to throw the roundy without cutting away and yes ppl definitely getting tangled in the glider making the base system useless as from my understanding its the cutaway paraglider that pulls it out of the freebag theres no pc or anything else....and i also have heard that most people that use the base cutaway systems still have the standard roundy....for some people its more of a gimmick and a fun thing to do...i got a base rig modified to fly paragliders for cutaways just for something to do...as in the base rig is my pg harness

Here is system from Atair :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqtC5w4vrZg

These are still not at the point where you'd want to trust your life to them as a first choice. The two main manufacturers of cutaway PG harnesses are still in the process of figuring out the same things that sky/base jumpers have learned over the years after people went in, like collins lanyards, proper 3 ring components instead of two rings and a regular PG carabiner (http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=72572), cord loop construction/malfunctions (http://justacro.com/forum/equipment/8841/ava-sport-base-2015-important-notice), and static line rigging.

If the pilot doesn't have a solid background in rigging and jumping sky and BASE, it's basically Russian roulette. Even aside from the accidental cutaways, several people have managed to rig the SL incorrectly that resulted in (or would have resulted in) uncontrolled, tumbling freefall.

Just buy a cutaway kit from Nick and use your BASE rig if you wanna do some cutaways.

All the above, and other reasons why rounds still predominate over other alternatives:

1. Quick deployment. I can get a full canopy out going down a zip wire inside a leisure centre
2. Don't need to worry about downplaning. Us PG pilots need to throw these things after a major collapse with little altitude. Very few pilots use steerable Rogallo (triangular) shaped reserves for that reason