RIGGERS 30th Jul 15

10. A.O.B.

Paul Applegate reported on a Tandem incident involving a Next Tandem system, where the instructor had difficulty locating the primary deployment toggle due to his student’s awkward position.

The instructor located the secondary handle and tried to pull it, which was very hard to pull. He pulled harder, succeeding, however this took out the cutaway pad, and as the main bag extracted from the container, the reserve deployed via the RSL.

It was later discovered that the secondary handle had Velcro on both sides of the securing tab, causing the hard pull which pulled both the secondary and cutaway pad.

Further investigation resulted in the discovery that some Next secondary release handles have Velcro on both sides of the tab and some (more modern ones) have Velcro on one side.

It had been decided by the Subcommittee that Velcro should only be fitted to one side of the tab – the harness side.