Tandem Drogue Release Housing Precaution

[crazydiver 0]

To anyone who places their packing weight in the bottom of the main tray in their tandem rigs...do not do it. Recently during an inspection, an eclipse tandem rig that I saw had a crushed cable housing. The cable happened to be the drogue release located on the cutaway handle. We pulled on the cutaway cable as hard as we possibly could with feet on the rig and it would not cut away because of the pinched drogue release housing. This was a fatality waiting to happen. The cable was pinched directly under the main tray. Again I say, never put the weight into the main tray. Thank god for inspections and safe main deployments on that rig. Rather...put the weight on the main risers while packing, or on or through the legstraps. But once again...on the eclipse, there is hard housing on the right legstrap as well. Be careful folks. I hadn't even thought of this problem.

Cheers,
Travis

[skydiverton 0]

How much packing weight do you use????
I never use a packing weight to pack tandems, but I agree if you use a packing weight put it on the main-risers or fix the legstraps to something with a pull-up cord if possible

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Using your droque to gain stability is a bad habit,
Especially when you are jumping a sport rig

[crazydiver 0]

Well at the place I was jumping at the time they had thirty pounds dumbells. I place the dumbell around the risers. The risers go right through the middle of the weight. works well for me. A thirty pound weight would not crush the cable housing unless it was dropped or slammed down. The hard cable housings can withstand hundreds of pounds of force, a drop or slam is what would have caused it (which also is a bad idea for packing).

Cheers,
Travis

[AggieDave 6]

What is being used as a packing weight? A sand filled plastic container of some sort (juice bottle, milk jug, etc) or something hard like a dumbbell or barbell plate?


EDIT: You beat me to the post...

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[diablopilot 2]

Sheesh, the rig is all the weight that should be needed.....they are heavy enough! (I'm pretty sure they gain waeight durring the day.....extra air or something....)

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[crazydiver 0]

I dont know, I like lots of line tension and the tandem canopies weigh a lot.

Cheers,
Travis

[diablopilot 2]

Yeah but I like the punishment....I refuse to use packing weights cause I'm stubborn....

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[crazydiver 0]

Quote

Yeah but I like the punishment....I refuse to use packing weights cause I'm stubborn....

I rarely use weights on sport and student rigs. Its especially easy to do without weights on smaller canopies. But for some reason the tandems I have always had to. Anywho. I definetly feel ya on the stubborness...thats why I dont use wieghts for sport rigs and why I insist that a person should be able to land a canopy in partial breaks or on rear risers.

Cheers,
Travis

[riggerrob 643]

I suspect that the guilty bastard used a hard-edged weight - like a dumbell.
What kind of dumbell would throw a hard-edged weight around expensive electronic gadgets like AADs?

A much more glamorous solution is to tie an old Quick Ejector Snap to one end of your tandem packing space. Then clip the QE Snap onto the drogue riser while packing.

[Hooknswoop 19]

Look into the "Scott Grips" The hold VERY well on loop style carpet. More than enough to hold a tandem in place.

Derek

[billbooth 10]

This is just one of the reasons why it is a bad idea to link the drogue release with the cutaway handle. It always lowers the reliability of the cutaway system.
However, metal cutaway housings are not easily crushed. Most packing weights I have seen would not do it.

[diablopilot 2]

Quote

This is just one of the reasons why it is a bad idea to link the drogue release with the cutaway handle. It always lowers the reliability of the cutaway system.

Good point.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I have never used packing weights and I also do not have any need to secure the container behind me when I pack.

[crazydiver 0]

Anyway. Point being. Just be aware that it can happen. I just wanted to get the word out there because it sounds like most people wouldn't expect this to happen.

Cheers,
Travis

[skydiverek 63]

"Well over 90% of all reserve uses on a Vector Tandem follow a cutaway. On the Sigma it's closer to 99.9%. So you really want to be sure that your canopy release system is as reliable as possible, don't you. When you add a third (drogue release) cable to the cutaway handle, you, at best, increase the force necessary to cutaway. (Due to increased housing friction) And at worst, you lower the reliability of your cutaway system. (If that third cable jams for any reason, you can't cutaway at all.) Increased complexity almost always leads to more malfunctions, and these three cable systems prove that point quite well. That's why Relative Workshop won't put a three cable system on any of our tandem rigs."

Source: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=428014#428014