Quote:
Originally Posted by miclo18d
The altitude was not normally the factor, it was the reaction time to open the reserve and it still deploy. In Grenada they didn't jump with reserves because the studies had already told them there was not time to deploy them (based on the anecdotes of people I served with that jumped in Grenada and the studies, I imagine, were from the 350ft jumps). In Panama we jumped with them, I always thought it was more of a psychological reason as a reserve deployed would probably not open in time. After a few deaths in the 90s during 800 ft training jumps, they increased training altitude to 1000ft with Cdrs able to waiver that to 800ft. The extra 200 feet gave like 5 extra seconds for the jumper to decide to pull the reserve. Which statistically reduces the chance to burn in significantly.
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I don't know about the Rangers, but the Brigade Air Officer for the Div jump left it up to the JM Teams. I was JM on my bird, and me and the other JM both decided we would go with Reserves, but no safety wire through the connector, and the waist band rolled and taped out of the way. We figured it was a "familiar" thing and one less "worry" by jumpers with a lot already on their mind.