Front	Rear

Technical Details

I bought this device from TowMeUp.com in 2006.

The device is CNC-milled from 10 mm. 6061-T6 aluminum plate and then anodized. A 23.3 mm. by 8.6 mm. slot at the base serves as a sling attachment point, while an inverted L-shaped (i.e., capital gamma-shaped) at the top admits the descent line. This slot is 37.5 mm. tall and 26.5 mm. wide with 8.6 mm. wide legs. There are three notches cut into the right side of the device; these are intended to be wrenches for other paragliding equipment.

The TowMeUp comes with an attached 19 mm. by 2 mm. sling, sewn into an inverted "Y" with a 23 mm. loop at the end of each of two 250 mm. legs.

The front of the device has a diagram showing how to rig it.

Comments

The LetMeDown was designed as a device to let paragliders get out of trees if they accidentally (presumably) landed in one and became hung up. I presume that it could serve the same purpose for anyone who landed in a tree by other means. I hope that I will not need this in my airplane.

The LetMeDown should be pre-rigged on 6 mm. cord. The rigging consists of a Munter Hitch followed by three or four wraps as illustrated on the front of the device.

There is a nice description and users manual available at http://www.towmeup.com/. I borrowed the following warning from their site:

TowMeUp.com ONLY recommends the use of this device with 6mm perlon, or climbers static cord. There have been a few recommendations by others who suggest that this device will work with 4mm to 6mm perlon. While this is in fact a correct statement (certain military applications use this device with 3mm Technora descent line), it is an extremely unsafe practice. Before you even consider using anything less than 6mm perlon, consider this important fact:

When you knot a cord or line, you will lose 40 - 50% of the rated strength of the line. If you were to use say a 5mm climbers static cord, that means that you will have a breaking strength of as little as 600 pounds. Bounce off a tree limb, or make a quick stop on the descent, and it’s quite possible you’ll be falling to the ground! At TowMeUp.com we have a special 6mm climbers static cord custom made for us with a breaking strength in excess of 2400 pounds. This provides a safe working load when used carefully to perform a self extraction from a tree.

I agree:

Warning: Do not use anything smaller than 6 mm. climber’s static cord with this device.

Now 6 mm. cord isn't adequate for the main descent line for caving, rock climbing or mountaineering, so I don't advocate using the LetMeDown for any of those activities (neither does the manufacturer). The device was intended for a particular niche that I don't fit into. It looks like it will serve that niche (probably better than the Air Force Lowering Device), but I leave judgment to those experts and their web sites.