Brummel Hooks - Officially no good and here's the solution

Thanks to the good people in our club providing the BHPA with evidence to show the dangers of using Brummel hooks on paragliders, the European Paragliding Safety Committee have instructed the various manufacturers to find a better solution.

At this early stage it looks like there are two possible solutions.

1. For those who want a super quick connection, a quick release swiwel used as a key ring component is being trialed (very similar to the mechanism used already on hang glider pip pins).

2. For those not afraid of tying knots, a lark's foot is a good solution already used widely on power kites.

The quick release swiwel is cheaply available here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003LIKINC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm told they need a slight modification to smooth the sharp edge where the string goes through (where the split ring is fitted when it's a key ring.) The end of a drill followed by a fine file or some abrasive paper will do that in seconds.

Drawings of knots suitable to tie them on are here.

http://intothewind.com/knots.html

A clinch knot (otherwise known as a fisherman's blood knot) is ideal.

The drawings also show a lark's head / foot knot, as per option 2. Note that on "cool" applications like paragliders and surf kites, the simple lark's foot can be improved (pimped up) by the additon of a kevlar reinforcement sleeve and a little webbing tab on the loop to help with it's release.

If you decide to try one of these before general release (which does mean modifying your glider, but it's got to be better than a brummel hook) then please let me know how it goes and I can feed useful information back to the safety committee and the PG manufacturers. It would be especially useful to have the regular XC folks who use speed bar in anger trialling the quick release swivels. If you do, I suggest leaving the string extra long with a loop on the end ready for an in-flight lark's foot in case the swivel lets go.