Safe Folding of PC

[Frogger 0]

Hi,
I apologize for not getting this before. Someone here referred to a way to fold a pilot chute so that the bridle could easily extract it from the pouch. Can you please describe this for me or point me to someone who has this info? I assumed the method I was using was OK, since I had been told "all the packers do it this way." Obviously since I'm writing this, I was WRONG to assume! Fortunately I checked it on the ground today!
Thanks in advance and Blue Skies,
Frogger

[Kirils 1]

I have seen at least a dozen different ways to fold a PC. The best strategy to avoid a monkey fist or hard pull is to keep the bridle folds on top of the folded fabric so that the PC pulls easy and free separate from the bridal. If you have the bridle folds inside the PC fold, it causes excess wear and can bunch up on pull.
Mirage has instructions on PC packing at it's web site. You might want check it out. It's a good example how NOT to pack a PC.
Skydiving is not a static excercise with discrete predictability...

[johnny1488 1]

What your thinking of has been referred to a an anit-monkey fist. Its how I do it and you probably will need someone to show you. I lay the pc out flat mesh side up. I pull the bridal until the attachment point is even with the outside of the pc. Then I fold the pc in half, then bring the handle side over to where the bridal attachment point is. Then fold in half and fold up the excess bridal bla bla bla. I like it because if a horseshoe were to occur, you could pull on the bridal to get the pc out of the pouch and not have a monkeys fist because the attachment point is at the opening of the boc. Once you have that everything else is just fluff.
Johnny

[Kirils 1]

Well said!
Skydiving is not a static excercise with discrete predictability...

[weid14 0]

one of the more recent issues of Skydiving mag had a pictoral on the "anti-monkeyfist-bunch-up PC". It is pretty self explanatory

[MarkM 0]

Monkey fists aren't the only worry though. Saw a nasty near fatal wrap when an instructor's pilot chute dumped when he turned to track away from a student.
Wasn't pretty.

[riggerrob 643]

Grammar Nazi #1 here,
Let's keep our terminology straight.
Sailors have been using "monkey fists" for centuries.
Let's avoid confusion by avoiding using the term for a radically different type of malfunction.
A "monkey fist" is a fancy rope knot often used to replace an orange plastic tubing handle or hacky sack handle on a throw-out pilotchute.
We need a new term for "the really ugly bunched up pilotchute that develops when you pack sloppily and deploy out of sequence."

[johnny1488 1]

Quote

Monkey fists aren't the only worry though. Saw a nasty near fatal wrap when an instructor's pilot chute dumped when he turned to track away from a student.

Doesnt sound like a folding problem, more likely a bridal stowage or boc spandex problem. Doesnt matter how you fold the pc if you boc is flapping in the breeze you're dunski.
Johnny

[MarkM 0]

The rig the instructor was using was borrowed, and the previous owner didn't think to mention that the spandex on the BOC pouch was loose. The owner knew to fold to handle that, the instructor folded the PC as he normally did.
On the jump when the student waved off, the instructor quickly lifted his legs as if he was going to sit with the intent to twist his body around and rapidly change direction to track away.
The air caught the pouch, the PC came out, he deployed.
The student was focused on deploying his own canopy, didn't know the instructor was deploying, and the student's deploying main wrapped the instructor.
Student cut away and deployed reserve.
Instructor fought the lines and canopy of the student main and his own main until about 900 feet when he managed to get his reserve out which fortunately was a round.
Lessons learned while I watched this:
1> Nothing fancy on gear you don't know.
2> Make sure your damn PC is secure.
I don't know what's potentially more dangerous. A hard pull where you go to reserve, or having your main deploy when you're not ready for it.

[Jimbo 0]

Quote

The rig the instructor was using was borrowed, and the previous owner didn't think to mention that the spandex on the BOC pouch was loose. The owner knew to fold to handle that, the instructor folded the PC as he normally did.

[rant]
To hell with what the owner did or did not mention, it's the responsibility of the person jumping the rig to know the condition of the rig.
You said that the owner knew how to fold the pilot chute to avoid this problem. That the pilot chute was not folded in such a manner as to avoid this particular nasty suggests that the jumper packed it. Why didn't he notice that it was loose?
I hate it when people don't take responsibility for their actions. The jumper should have noticed. There's no room to blame the owner.
[/rant]
Help with cancer research here.

[MarkM 0]

Oh I wasn't saying the jumper wasn't at fault. IMHO the guy had zero business using a rig he'd never touched before on a student training jump.
I'm pretty sure that student never jumped again.

[Iflyme 0]

Quote

I don't know what's potentially more dangerous.A hard pull where you go to reserve, or having your main deploy when you're not ready for it.

I think a premature deployment *could* cause you more trouble than a hard pull. Pull once, pull twice, go for the handles... premature deployment, canopy goes into the video guy/gal above you... or someone else... yuck!

[packman 0]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rig the instructor was using was borrowed, and the previous owner didn't think to mention that the spandex on the BOC pouch was loose. The owner knew to fold to handle that, the instructor folded the PC as he normally did.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sounds to me like that the owner should have had that BOC pouch replaced along time ago , instead of folding his PC a certain way so it wont deploy prematurely ! this is a good example of WHY you should keep your equipment properly mantained. things could have turned out alot worse than they did.