United Parachute Technologies Vector 3 - Introduction; Getting to Know the Booth 3-Ring

VECTOR3MANUAL
MAN‐004REV7.2727/20/2017


THE BOOTH 3-RING RELEASE SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION

The3‐RingreleasesystemwasinventedbyUnitedParachuteTechnologiesfounderBillBoothin1976.Itwasthefirst
practicalreleasesystemthatallowedskydiverstojettisontheirmaincanopiesbypullingasinglehandle.TheBooth3‐
Ringwasnotonlyeasiertooperatethanpreviouscanopyreleasesystems,
butitwasalsomorereliableandfarless
expensive.TheBooth3Ringreleasesystemisnowtheindustrystandard.

GETTING TO KNOW THE BOOTH 3-RING

KnowinghowtheBooth3‐Ringreleaseworkswill helpyoutoassembleandinspectitproperly.

Beginbypeelingthereleasehandle(morecommonlyreferredtoasacutawayorbreakawayhandle)fromthehook
andloopfastenerontheharness.Peelingupwardandthendown,ratherthanpulling
straightdown,makesiteasierto
separatethehandlefromthewebbing.Lookbehindtherisersneartheharnessandobservethemovementofthe
yellowcableasyoupullthecutawayhandle.Whenthecableclearsthewhiteloop,thereleaseisdisengaged.

Slowlypulloneoftherisers
offtheharness.Asyoupull,you’ll noticethatthewhiteloopgetspulledthroughthe
grommetbytheactionofthesmallestring.

Whileopeningshockmayexceed1,000lbs.theyellowcableneverseesaforceinexcessofabout10lbs.Thisisdueto
themechanicsof
theBooth3‐Ringreleasesystem.

Itisimportanttounderstandthepropertiesofthenyloncomponentsofthesystem,becauseofthetremendous
mechanicaladvantageofthesystem.

Whennylonstaysinthesamepositionforalongtime,itbeginstoconformtothatposition.Thisissometimes
referred
toasa“set”.Ifthe3‐Ringreleasesystemstaysassembledfortoolong,thenyloncanbecomesostiffthatthelowdrag
fromamalfunction(suchasastreamer)maynotreleasethesystem.

The3‐Ringreleasesystemmustbedisassembled,flexedandinspectedevery
6months.Proceduresforthisarelistedin
thecareandmaintenancechapterofthemanual.






WARNING
Asmallstickorobjectinthewhiteloopcouldpreventariserfromreleasing.Thatisthereasonwhyit’simportant
tokeepforeignmatter,suchasbitsofgrassandotherdebrisoutoftheBooth3‐Ringassembly.