Gotta love that Pony
- Thread starter Dr Wu
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Sas
Contributor
garethscottnet
New
Some divers enjoy the added redundancy and imporved safety a pony provides. Instructors diving with a new trainee do not expect that a trainee will know how to share things properly. So they dive with a pony. If you don't want to carry a pony cylinder thats fine with me. Just don't touch mine. Your pony is a parachute and it could save your life.
I just can't understand why you posted such a narrow minded thread?
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Please tell me why sky divers need a reserve parachute?
It cannot be for proper parachute management issues.
If the main parachute were damaged they would have a buddy easily reachable and be prepared to share their parachute properly. So why do they carry a reserve parachute?
It cannot be because they fear equipment failure. If that was a problem during the sky dive there are several ways they could sort out the issue way before resorting to the reserve parachute. They don't know if the reserve will work or not. (and no, they have no idea if it will work when they need it)
It cannot be because they think their buddy will be unhelpful during the sky dive. If that were the case they should not have gone sky diving in the first place. (and you MUST know that to be true)
They know it is not a way to extend their time in the air.
So why do they carry a reserve parachute?
Would you carry a reserve parachute if you went sky diving?
Do you carry a pony when you go diving?
I just can't understand why you posted such a narrow minded thread?
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Please tell me why sky divers need a reserve parachute?
It cannot be for proper parachute management issues.
If the main parachute were damaged they would have a buddy easily reachable and be prepared to share their parachute properly. So why do they carry a reserve parachute?
It cannot be because they fear equipment failure. If that was a problem during the sky dive there are several ways they could sort out the issue way before resorting to the reserve parachute. They don't know if the reserve will work or not. (and no, they have no idea if it will work when they need it)
It cannot be because they think their buddy will be unhelpful during the sky dive. If that were the case they should not have gone sky diving in the first place. (and you MUST know that to be true)
They know it is not a way to extend their time in the air.
So why do they carry a reserve parachute?
Would you carry a reserve parachute if you went sky diving?
Do you carry a pony when you go diving?
I think we need to qualify that a pony is not a stage, a pony gets attached to your cylinder. A stage or deco bottle is clipped off to a chest and waist dring.
a22shady
Contributor
We sling Luxfer 40' as a pony bottle. We do it for the added safety if we were to run out of air by Malfunction of equipment or even diver Error. For example were down at 110-120' and we have already used the majority of our air and getting ready to head up and something happens where one of are in a situation with no Air immediatly the other person donates but now you only have a little gas left and need to hurry. Well if you have your Sling/Pony You can simply switch off to that and instead of being in a rushed situtaion to get to the surface you can now make a normal safe ascent with any stops along the way.
By your definition, if I use a set of doubles on a recreational dive, one of them is just a very big pony.
I sling a stage, a deco bottle, & on the very rare occasions I use a pony, I sling that too.
I use a stage to extend bottom time. I use a deco bottle to accelerate deco. I use a pony for those times when it all go's to pot on a recreational dive & I need a personal emergency gas supply. It's not how I mount it, it's about how I plan to use it, that changes the definition of the same slung bottle.
bamamedic
Contributor
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yeah...a pony should NOT be a substitute for planning your dives! I think the best use of a pony is to sort of mentally "forget" about it...at least, from a gas planning perspective. One should really plan to have enough gas in your main cylinder to take care of any emergency situations, and the pony is either a substitute buddy when solo diving, or an "if the **** hits the fan" emergency air source. It is there to provide a little extra redundancy, because I have not figured out how to grow gills yet...not to extend the dive, or give one cause to be pushier, go deeper, or stay longer, mentally figuring "well, I have always got the pony if anything happens". Seems like that would be an easy attitude to fall into, and IMO, one of the main dangers of carrying a pony.
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