Another article by Skydive Spaceland in the Spaceland Safety Series…
Look for Misrouted Chest Straps
Want to be a hero?
Keep an eye on your friends’ gear when they’re getting ready to skydive or sitting in the plane.
It can be easy to misroute a chest strap when you’re inexperienced, in a hurry, or just plain not paying attention, but this error can be caught with a careful inspection.
In other words: Don’t be, and don’t let your friends be, this guy…
Chest strap undone – AAD fire – video by AirAffairSkydiving
Correctly routed
Here is the correct chest strap routing, strap threaded in and our of the friction adapter (vertical bar) and excess stowed away tidily.
Misrouted Chest
Here are two examples of misrouted chest straps, which could result in falling out of the harness on deployment (talk about ruining your day!).
Check it!
If you’re not sure if your chest strap is routed correctly, try to pull it loose from the center. If it’s routed properly, the friction adapter will push the webbing against the square ring and it won’t loosen unless you lift the square ring. If it’s misrouted, it will loosen.
Safety Tip
Should vigilance fail and you end up in freefall with a misrouted chest strap (!!), hook your left hand around your right main lift web as you deploy to hold your harness on. Hopefully, this last tidbit is one you’ll never need!
Spaceland Safety
All articles in the Skydive Spaceland Safety Series here
Article originally on Skydive Spaceland Houston’s website here, reprinted with permission, thanks guys!
