Bailey Release Failure

[stevek]

Thought I should post this. Highland Thursday. I have a standard Bailey (sp?) release with weaklink on my left and a weirdo contraption on my right. Hit a nice thermal so yanked the Bailey. Nothing. I was not in any danger (although I did not want to wait so long that I flew thru the thermal) so looked at it pretty closely. The weak link had somehow gotten behind the hinge part and the pin/hinge had folded back around the weak link so it was pretty well wedged in there. Used my other release to get off. As soon as I did, the Bailey released and my bridal fluttered off. Never had that happen before. I tried to duplicate it on the ground but could not. Very strange.