Re: Speak to a Skydiver?
I get told off for smoking near rigs - apparently "cherry burns" in chutes are bad for your health
2 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jun 2012
I would suggest if you were to go this route that you find a helpful sky-diving expert as the mechanism you speak of is known as an RSL (Reserve Static Line) to said adrenaline junkies. To-wit, an RSL is a connection between the ripcord of the reserve chute and one of the straps of the main chute such that when you cutaway the main (uh oh!!) it self-deploys the reserve by triggering it as it is pulled away in the airflow (probably a lot more drag/'pull' than you'll get?).
Indeed, you may want to speak to them about the inner workings of an AAD (Automatic Activation Device) - the fail-fail-safe barometric (+ vertical velocity + clever computer gubbins) trigger that fires a squib to cut the retaining loop of the reserve chute in the event that you are falling too fast when too close to the ground (otherwise known as in "deep doodie").
While such a default setup is unsuitable for high altitiude detection/deployment, the basic bits - especially the AAD squib - is designed for utmost reliability, so you can be sure as possible that it will work when triggered. Hence a hybrid - an RSL setup triggering an AAD squib may be a good combo.