Stick to your Hard Deck

A skydiver, jumping a rig, that was new to her, for the first time, deployed at 3,000 ft and couldn’t release one of the brake toggles. She tried until 2,000 ft when she cutaway and deployed her reserve.

The toggle released easily when the canopy was recovered but, of course, was not under tension at that time.

It is not clear what caused the toggle to hang up, the “cat’s eye” may have been below the bar tack on the toggle and, with the canopy fully inflated, the jumper couldn’t pull it through.

This skydiver did exactly the right thing, any canopy that you cannot fully control by 2,000 ft has malfunctioned, chop it! Here are a couple of things that could have been tried though (altitude permitting).

1. Re-stow the other toggle to get the canopy flying straight, then using 2 hands pull down the steering line above the ring to relieve the tension and try and release the toggle.

2. Depending on the wing loading of the canopy and the extent to which it will turn if you let go of the “released” toggle, you could try using both hands to quickly unstow the other brake. However, one rule should never be violated, if you don’t have it under control by your hard deck, chop it!