What is the life span of a reserve canopy?

[ngawang01 0]

I'm buying an used rig. How old of a reserve canopy should I stay away from? Is 16 years too old? How often they need to be replaced? Is there a FAA regulation on this?

"Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I". pf

[skybytch 273]

There are no "official" rules on reserve service life. It's up to individual riggers to decide if individual canopies are airworthy or not. Some riggers refuse to pack reserves that are more than 20 years old, others will pack anything they feel is still airworthy. Some jumpers feel that three or four rides means it's time to retire it; others don't worry about that.

PD is the only manufacturer I know of that has any sort of recommended lifespan. I believe it's 40 repacks or a certain number of deployments (I forget how many; I'm sure someone can pipe in with that info) and they want the canopy to come back to them for inspection.

Personally I'd suggest staying away from rounds and five cells. If you're buying something that is 16 years old, do NOT load it beyond about 1.1; it wasn't designed to handle higher loadings.

[mr2mk1g 10]

Probably more important than it's age is what make of reserve is it?

[ngawang01 0]

Is a Fury 220. I'm 195 out the door.

"Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I". pf

[riggerrob 643]

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Is a Fury 220. I'm 195 out the door.

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Fury is a reasonably-sized reserve for your weight. The next question is: how many times has it been repacked?
... and how many times has it been deployed?

The FAA does not set any legal standards for reserve life, preferring to leave that to manufacturers.
Performance Designs says that after 20 deployments or 40 repacks, it must return to the factory for an inspection.
GQ Security says not to repack their products more than 13 years old.
Strong Enterprises says that tandem reserves must be inspected by the factory when they are 8, 13 and 18 years old.
NOt sure if was a factory standard, but when Strong tandem reserves had 20 deployments - in the California desert - we retired them (from reserve duties).
Other designs simply fade out of fashion. For example, 5-cell Swifts were the best reserve - in their day - but hardly any new riggers know how to set the brakes on Swifts.
Oh, and I wish that all those round reserves from the acid mesh era (1980s) would quietly disappear.

The simplest answer for a junior rigger is not to repack anything more than 20 years old. Hint, Ravens debuted about 20 years ago, but now are starting to fall out of fashion because they were never designed to be loaded more than one pound per square foot.

[CReWLL 0]

If you're buying something that is 16 years old, do NOT load it beyond about 1.1; it wasn't designed to handle higher loadings.
Interesting thoughts.... are they based on anything other than casual thoughts about reserves? I see you are a rigger. Have you considered that you are giving advise to a novice? There are reserves that are being manufactured today that have been on the market longer than that.

[mark 107]

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If you're buying something that is 16 years old, do NOT load it beyond about 1.1; it wasn't designed to handle higher loadings.

I just repacked a PD 143 made in 1989. It's easy to forget how long that design has been in production.

Conversely, Flight Concepts reserves continue to be offered today.

Instead of looking at just the date of manufacture, check the date of design. Glidepath/Flight Concepts reserves were state-of-the-art once, but the basic design is from 1980 or so; ditto the Pegasus-derived Raven mains/reserves. PD reserves are a generation later.

Mark