Second Reserve Ride

I had a cut away and reserve ride last weekend. It was my 2nd cut away and my 9th "save" as an FAA Senior Parachute Rigger. First time I've "saved" me, I guess I need to buy myself a bottle of whiskey.

The cause was a tension knot in the stowed excess brake line. My main is a New Zealand Aerosports Crossfire 2 129 loaded at around 1.6. The knot might have been fixable if I'd had more time and altitude, but I didn't, so I cut away and the Skyhook in my UPT Micron deployed the reserve before I even had time to pull the reserve rip cord handle. Perfect, on heading deployment.

Here's the details: I deployed the main at around 2600 feet. My Pro Track shows that I had an open canopy at 2100. The opening was soft and on heading and my Crossfire 2 deployed perfectly as usual. I tugged on the right rear riser to get my parachute flying towards the LZ and I went into my post-opening procedures. First, I collapsed the slider and brought it down to the base of the risers. Next I loosened up my 30 inch chest strap all the way. Now that I had the Crossfire set up to fly, I attempted to unstow the brakes. The right brake released normally, but the left one wouldn't release. I looked up and saw that the stowed excess brake line had jammed up and was stuck in it's keeper. I tugged on it hard, but it just tightened the knot. My altitude was down to around 1500 feet. I could fly straight with some right brake, but the left one was stuck in it's deployment setting. I didn't want to land it like that, so I decided to release the Crossfire and land my Optimum 143 reserve instead. As soon as I let go of the brakes to initiate my emergency procedures, the Crossfire started spinning due to the jammed left brake. Because the chest strap was so wide, it took an extra second to locate the main parachute release handle. As soon as I pulled the release the Skyhook deployed the reserve perfectly on heading despite the fact that I was turning. I still had 1200 feet of altitude. 

The cut away main stayed attached to the reserve free bag and bridle and landed softly on the airport. I had a perfect landing on my reserve at the so-called "square" landing area next to our clubhouse.

Based on this experience I'm re-thinking my post opening procedures. From now on I'm going to collapse and stow the slider, unstow the brakes and do a controllability check before opening my chest strap. 

What are your post opening procedures?