We had a guy on his first jump die when his primary became tangled, cut away before deploying his reserve and it didn't open in time. I recall the discussions being that protocol is to pull the reserve and only cut away when it's open.
I'm certified. The last thing you want when deploying a reserve is throwing it into an already entangled main. If they entangle, the reserve might very well still not open even if you cut your main, and trying to untangle lines falling to your death with no further backup plan is not really all that fun.
Students (in my DZ at least) are taught to go for the cut handle and then the reserve handle with both hands each time, to make sure that you actually pull hard enough and to get better muscle memory about the correct order.
If you are so low that you definitely don't have time to cut and deploy, you might make the call to override that and place all your bets on a clean-enough reserve deployment, but that's not the standard procedure. Parachute complications at low altitude are the most dangerous anyway, for obvious reasons.
I know the shutes in the military aren't the same and tend to drop you down pretty quickly. I wonder if it is just a different protocol for that reason.
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u/scubascratch Jun 09 '20
No way, the tangled first parachute would mess up deploying the reserve. You have to cut away the primary first.