So, um, Riggers.... What's in YOUR closet?!??!

[Unstable 9]

I can't believe it. This is Stoopid. I am not a packrat - I am the kind of guy that throws shit away and asks questions later.

However, Since I've been working as a Rigger the last 14 months, I've been amazed at the stuff that somehow or another has followed me home. I have an entire closet full of parachutes!
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- 6x 1992 Complete and Airworthy Strong Dual Hawk Student Containers with all the parts

- Sabre 230 - Needs about $700 in Repairs to make it Airworthy

- PD 230- after about 700 jumps F1-11 is shot. Car cover.

- 2x Pilot rigs, complete but since GQ Mandated a service life, they are perfectly airworthy but unusable. Shame...

- Box-a-Toggles.

- Free Bag to something, not quite sure what.

- T-10, with the lines, and on Risers. Ready to go.

- FC Prodigy with ZERO jumps that was abandoned at the dropzone about the time I came here in 2002. I'm still trying to contact the Owner. If not, then it'll be donated to a worthy cause.
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I was just impressed. Is it just me, or do Riggers just accumulate stuff like this? Do you have any full closets?

=========Shaun ==========

[jdthomas 0]

I had a closet cleaning event some time back and got ride off all that type of stuff.
I only have a bucket of fabric left I think, Won't get rid of that just incase a repair comes along.. or so thats what I keep telling myself, oh almost forgot.
Two pilot chutes, one rsl and an old main D bag.. maybe i will mail it to you so your clsoet can keep it!

www.greenboxphotography.com

[jimjumper 25]

2 Original (80's) racer containers with handles

1 Warp 3 container

1 28" Phantom recalled for acid mesh

1 ea. cruiselite xl, heavyweight xl cloud, nimbus xl, PD-260 all ragged out mains

Assorted ripcords and cutaway handles

6-7 jumpsuits that were given to me that don't fit

1 old singer sewing machine that wasn't suitable for rigging work

A full bag of rigging tools and weights for gear no longer jumped

6 sets spare risers

I fortunately have a large storage shed!

[pchapman 280]

The upside-down-Ratbert guy (Unstable) wrote:

Quote

Is it just me, or do Riggers just accumulate stuff like this?

I haven't done nearly as well in accumulating stuff in my basement. But there are chunks of cut up canopy, a cut up rig, pieces of cutaway cable, extra toggles, old d-bags and so on. They're a a good source for things to practice sew, or to integrate into little home rigging projects, or to rebuild to a modern standard.

Ideally a rigger should also have an non-jumpable old round canopy, for an almost endless source of 550 cord.
(For accessory cord, not actual closing loops, thank you.)

Much of my rigging has been for a DZ, so the real junk is all in the DZO's storage trailer, an accumulation of 35 years of owning a dropzone. He's been tolerant of me "borrowing" the occasional thing, if it is given a good home -- like the ex-Golden Knights Mk 1 ParaCommander.

What I am slightly embarrassed about is the number of canopies I own, even if there are people with plenty more. It was a surprise to tally up all the canopies. There are 11 jumpable main canopies (10 landable) plus four and a half rigs. (The cutaway harness counts as a half.) Cheap, weird, fun, or old? It's all represented...

[peregrinerose 0]

I've only been a rigger for 2 years, and don't do a lot of repacks... just for a handful of friends plus my husband and I. And even I'm getting quite of collection of miscellanious parts and rigs.

I have a royal blue and hot pink Falcon that isn't airworthy (minimum needs a new line set). A 1953 military T10 and main container. A 1943 military chest mount with completely unairworthy twill round canopy (in a very attractive hot pink hue). Some badly frayed risers that probably shouldn't be used so don't know why I keep them. A red/white yin/yang pop top for a Racer. I think that's about it for now, but not bad considering my very recent time as a rigger and very part time status of work.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[RiggerLee 63]

I worked at Quincy as a rigger for eight or nine years. At times there were up to five of us in one trailer working fairly well around the clock. The detritous that was left at the end of the boogie was always amazing. Wag and I would be there on sunday looking at this stuff... Gear bags, free bags, handles, etc. We were always like, "Where did this come from?" I never understood how we could have so many peaces left over. I mean where did that free bag come from? Shouldn't some body be missing that? Were we really that tired? We would just sweep the whole mess into a pile and cary it over to the lost and found. You would be amazed. You could have equiped a small dropzone with the shit left there every year.

Lee

Lee
lee@velocitysportswear.com
www.velocitysportswear.com

[tdog 0]

Quote

I mean where did that free bag come from?

I thought checklists and good rigging practice eliminated the age-old adage:

"If you take something apart and reassemble it enough times, you eventually will have two of them."

[pchapman 280]

Like RiggerLee with his boogie experience, stuff sometimes accumulates at the DZ too.

Maybe there's an older pilot chute and bridle that was replaced by some jumper. It really only needs a kill line replaced, but nobody wants to touch it, because somebody owns it - and nobody seems quite sure any more who it technically belongs too.

Or I've seen rigs sit for years. I packed a rig one spring, it sat unused all year. Next year, the owner calls up, I pack it again, it sits all year. Two years later, it was still sitting there. I called the owner (the phone number was still right!) and he didn't want to sell, claiming that although his job had kept him busy, he'll be back that year. He never showed up.

So at my DZ there are 2 1/2 rigs like that. At least one has a Cypres in it, with the clock ticking and its value decreasing. A couple of the rigs aren't all that fancy, but they would be great to put into service as downsizing gear. It's a real shame the gear is being wasted! Who knows, if DZ can get around to it, they might try again to contact owners.

One can't just appropriate others possessions because they aren't using them. There are laws. But I have heard of rigging shops including in their customer contracts, clauses allowing the shop to either sell or keep gear that gets left too long, given appropriate notice to the owners. Consignment stores do something similar.

[sunshine 2]

Quote

and don't do a lot of repacks... just for a handful of friends plus my husband and I. And even I'm getting quite of collection of miscellanious parts and rigs.

Sounds just like me. I don't rig for that many people at all, but somehow i have spare pieces, parts, and a few canopies.

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

[likestojump 3]

If you mean what's in what USED to be the spare bedroom - BOXES, a dozen or so spare dbags, PCs, cut-up lines, good 25+ canopies, probably 10 older containers including a few that are older than me and so much more stuff, that I am getting scared just thinking about it :)

[freeflychris 0]

A dead hooker.

[RM1 0]

Been rigging at a dropzone for 2 years now

1 complete wonderhog with belly mounted throw out and strato cloud main

1 random chest mounted round and that i dont think is a reserve but looks fun either way

1 military chest mount round used for training purposes

2 New military static line harnesses no containers

1 10' round cargo canopy that also looks fun

A huge pile of freebags from various types of rigs

Equally huge pile of main and reserve pilot chutes from rigs other than what the freebags came from

And a bunch of crap that i dont know what it was used for but again with some imagination, fun could be had.

[Beatnik 2]

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A dead hooker.

LMAO

[popsjumper 2]

Quote

A dead hooker.

New or used?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[Unstable 9]

Quote

A dead hooker.

Is the bound and gaged with 550-cord? If not, then you are in the wrong forum.

=========Shaun ==========