Reserve Pin Check

[skylord 1]

My skydiving weekend came to an early end today. About six weeks ago, I was on a load where someone's reserve pilot chute popped out, a vivid reminder of the importance of pin checks.

Today, I picked up my rented rig, jumped it three times, and when picking it up for my fourth jump, I went through my normal routine of checking the pins and making sure the pilort chute is cocked, since I use a packer. It was an Infinity container. I pulled the small flap, and noticed that just above it under the larger flap, there was something pushing the larger flap up a bit. So I undid the larger flap, like when you turn the AAD on. The reserve pin was sticking up at about a 25 degree angle or so to the back of the rig.

I knew for sure this wasn't right, and I felt gently around where the bottom of the pin should be since I didn't know how long it was. Pop! And screaming past my head goes the spring loaded PC. I'll save my comments about the subsequent handling of the situation for another forum.

This thing would have gone when I put my rig on, gotten on the airplane, or even worse, while I was float on the jump. Are these containers known for this, or was this just a shit happens thing?

Bob

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[jas8472 0]

I've got an Infinity and they are very good, but I don't let people unfamiliar with the kit go any where the reserve pin any more because when first had it someone checked me on the flight line and put the flap inside the tape that covers the bottom of the pin, luckly I one did one jump that day, the next day I went to turn the cypress on the flat was a little stiffer than usual but I decided not just to pull it open, good job too because the bottom of the pin was stuck inside the flap, one not very hard pull on the flap would have resulted in a pilot chute in the face.