http://www.rmhpa.org/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=2972
Under Seat Reserve Containers and Stirrup Warning
To all paraglider pilots that are currently flying with a under the seat reserve and a stirrup:
This warning is only for under seat reserves. Not Side mounts and Front Mounts with stirrups.
We have found during the parachute clinic a deadly problem with having a stirrup and under seat reserve.
If your feet are not in the stirrup and it swings back it can hinder the pulling of the reserve or completely entangle in the reserve handle and keep you from deploying it. If the entanglement happens you will go in tugging on your reserve handle trying to throw it.
When <a pilot> was in on Wednesday the 17th getting a repack we found that on one of his harness his Stirrup could swing back and block the opening of the reserve container and or cause the handle to get on the wrong side of the stirrup. This became a concern forthose who were watching the deployment process.
On Thursday the 25th <a pilot> came in with a new harness and his old one that he had been flying for years. We were going to transfer his parachute to the new harness when we finished. So we did a deployment practice with his old one to start with. This is a harness that he had done 5 or 6 deployment practice with at clinics before.
When we hung <the pilot> up I questioned him about his stirrup and if he ever found it had drifted back under him. He said yes he had found that. We then left the stirrup hang naturally with his feet out of the stirrup. When he pulled the reserve the pins came clean allowing the container to open fully, however as the parachute came out of the container it became entangled in the stirrup. As he continued to pull on the handle it locked the parachute up against the harness. This made for a total failure of <the pilot> being able to throw the parachute. He would have gone in with his hand on the handle and not being able to throw his chute away.
Upon looking at his new harness (which has a stirrup) it is designed so that as you pull the parachute handle the stirrup is released to swing away and not impede the deployment of the parachute from the container. I have seen this set up on some of the new harness that have been coming through.
This made me do some checking this morning with some phone calls and what I found was interesting.
First of all this is not something new. Many manufactures have recognized that there is a problem and have started putting cutaway stirrup systems on their new harness. If they come set up with a stirrup.
There is evidence of pilots going in <crashing> with their reserve parachute entangled in the stirrup.
Many harness are sold without stirrups from the factory and the stirrup is an add-on or option. Most say you don’t need one.
If you have a under the seat reserve and no cutaway on the stirrup you run a good chance of an entanglement if the stirrup is hanging loose and does not cut away.
Many pilots have no idea that there is even a problem with the stirrup and reserve system.
A lot of manufactures and dealers now push a cutaway stirrup as a selling point of the new harness.
In conclusion If you have a stirrup on an older harness (or newer), with an under the seat reserve. You need to check that it in no way will interfere with the deployment of the reserve and can get in the way of the reserve container. If it does you run a good chance of your reserve not being able to be deployed and this has already proven to be deadly. If this is the case you may want to remove the stirrup or figure a way to make it cutaway when the parachute handle is pulled. Some if not a lot of the older harness may not be able to be modified and tested to work with a cutaway.
Again this warning does not pertain to Side mounts or front mount reserves with a stirrup. So far we have seen no evidence these setup’s have any problems with a stirrup.