ZigZagMarquis

I dunno... all of that said... but how many 100s of thousands or MILLIONS of skydives have been made with Type 7 webbing for leg straps / main lift webs and traditional or 2-piece friction adapters with no issues what so ever? I'm all over "build a better mouse trap" and all, but at the same time, you have to balance that with "the enemy of "good enough" is "better""".

Roger that!

Oh, I wouldn't do it either, just saying I've heard of folks doing that.

Jerry, Gus, Ah! I stand corrected... but is it "special JumpShack Type 13 especially made for JumpShack" and their hardware??

That is whats nice about jumpshack. The racers webbing was made specifically for the hardware. Really? Jumpshack specifically contracts special webbing to be made by ?? supplier to go with the hardware used... or is it the other way around... they specifically contract with ?? supplier to forge specific hardware to be used with the webbing they use? I find it hard to believe JumpShack uses "different" Type 7 on their rigs / leg straps then everyone else. Also, I've seen Jav's with the "Type 8-sewn-to-the-Type 7" leg straps and I've seen Jav's without that... i.e. just Type 7 leg straps. My Jav has just type 7 leg straps. Don't know if the Type 8 addition was an option I missed when I ordered it (circa 2003) or if it was something they used to do "back when" and don't anymore.

Antoinette Marie?? Was that your FIRST post on DZ.com? CASE OF BEER! ... and we won't even have to write a note for you (anymore) to take to the liquor store saying its okay for the guy to sell you beer.

What do I think of the situation / what if I had been part of the conversation you mention... 1) Couldn't give two rips about the guy you were talking to feeling "embarassed" because this other person decided to un-ass himself from his airplane and use his parachute. No matter how he got to that point and/or whether or not he should've been able to get out of it without using his parachute. A buddy of mine who used to fly A-6s said it best when folks brought up the topic of "when to" or "whould you" step out of the jet if "this, that or the other thing" happens?... 2) When it comes down to it... Would you rather be standing in front of your Commanding Officer explaining to him or her why their multi-million dollar aircraft is a smokin' hole after you banged out of it... or have them standing in front of your spouse, kids, parents telling them (in PC terms of course) why you're a crispy critter because you're a dumb ass and rode it in?

Yes, No, Maybe. I think you missed my points... 1) I've never known anyone to go to the trouble of washing a rig in distilled water. Just tap water, a mild detergent, rinsed very well and drip dried very well and seemingly nothing really "bad" happens. 2) If you get to a point where you think you need to "wash" your reserve... personally, if it were mine, I'd probably cuss a lot, get a new one and in the future make better decissions about where / when I jump (i.e. avoid the potential of dush'in my reserve in something "bad") since if you're to the point of using your reserve its your "last chance" and I'd rather trust it to an "un washed" reserve, but that's just me... others opinions will differ. 3) Washing a container shouldn't be that big a deal if done acceptably and dried out well before re-packing.

True... I've got 3 in 3000+ jumps (touch wood) & even "saved" myself on 2 of those, but I do know folks (that are shitty packers) that have twice that in 500ish jumps. I wonder if anyone has checked to see if this guy was behind in his house or aircraft payments?

Weirdness. I'd have never thought that style friction adapter would have a problem running out like the older type sometimes does, but funnier things have happened. If what you suspect is ture, in lieu of moving the stitch closer, just use some super tack to "tighten" things up and repeat your experiment to see if that takes are of it? After that, you could move the stiching (or just add a new stich line) or just go with the super tack. ummm... edit to add... disclaimer... talk to Sunpath or a Master Rigger first... I've seen folks with the old style friction adapters that were always running out on them put their rig on, tighten their leg straps, mark it, take the rig back off and then just tack the leg straps (webbing) with a turn or two of super tack "below" the friction adapter... basically making thier leg straps always tight... made the rig "fun" to get on and off, but got em through a weekend of formation loads.

Wow! You mean these... STAINLESS STEEL FLIP-FLOP LEG STRAP ADJUSTER... http://www.paragear.com/templates/parachutes.asp?group=244&parent=34&level=2 ... Para Gear Item: HSP888? As opposed to the more "traditional" type... QUICK FIT ADAPTER - PS70114-1... Para Gear Item: H333 (or the Stainless version, Item: H333SS)? Over the course of several hundred jumps, the ones on my Jav have gotten a little more cooperative, but no where near what I'd call "loose" or to where they'd "run out" like the more traditional type can. I've never had a problem with them loosening. In fact, when my Jav was new, cinching them down was as hard as getting the things to release after the jump so you could take your rig off. It doesn't sound like it, but is this a new rig? I'd doubt that this type of friction adapter could be installed wrong, but I have see the traditional type installed "upside down" and give folks problems until someone recognized the issue. Another thing I though of, without seeing the rig, the smaller of the two pieces needs to "float" a bit so it can pull down on the webbing when tightend, but maybe I'm wrong? What I'm saying is though, it may not be a matter of... "...moving the stitch on the leg strap closer to the two pieces so that they do not separate so easily...", maybe its the opposite? Have you compared the "problem rig" to one that doesn't have the problem? Have you called Sunpath... I realize their customer service isn't the greatest (my experiences), but I'd still call them if I encountered this.

... what I responded to Rob with not withstanding... and given that chlorinated tap water is no where near the concentration of bleach straight out of the bottle... I can't think of anyone using 100% distilled water to wash a container / harness? Usually tap water and a mild detergent (Woolite seems to be what everyone says), rinse very very well and hang to drip dry and make very sure the container is totally dry before packing. So... having said that... besides going to the grocery store and buying out all the gallon jugs of distilled water they may have, where would one get enough distilled water to really wash a rig really well?? Heck, I've heard folks say if you want to wash your container / harness, disassemble it and take it down to the local car wash and use the high pressure wand gun thingy there. Okay, I'm not sure if I'd do that, but I have heard of it being done. I've also heard speak of washing a container / harness by putting it in a laundry bag and washing it in a big front loading washing machine. Again, I'm not sure I'd do that, but I've heard of that too.

Rob, I've heard that getting Chlorine Bleach on a rig is "way bad". The reason I say this is a few years back, a jumper showed up at the DZ with his rig that he had dropped in his wash room when returning home one day before packing it up and putting it away proper. Unfortunately, before doing so, either his wife or kids knocked an open container of bleach over and it spilled all over his rig. When he showed up at the DZ with it, it had the typical white spots all over it, container / harness, of something that has had bleach spilt on it. The rigger he showed it to grounded the container / harness. Having said that though... I'm going to segway to owe of Chuck's posts, because I want to hear his 2 cents too...

Well, I'd doubt you'd get answers to all those questions... but why don't you try contacting BJ Worth or Jim Wallace? Those would be my 2 best wild-assed guesses of folks to go talk to about this. I believe Hank Asciutto made the parachute with the Union Jack on it that Bond deployed after skiing off a cliff in the opening sequence of The Spy That Loved Me (I think was the movie). If you can get ahold of him, maybe he'd know some things too?

Hey! How about that time everyone was sitting around after jumping, drinkin' lots of beers, tellin' stories and getting really drunk!!?? ... oh wait, that was this past Saturday night... never mind...

Bob Celaya taught me years ago, "Never try to stand-up a bag-lock."

Like NickDG, I too thought you were talking about some slippery jump pilot when I read the title of your thread... Anyway, there are techniques to packing brand-new ZP. Find someone that can do it and have them show you their tricks... some tricks work better than others, but such things are much much easier shown then explained. One thing that will always work is to jump your brand new ZP canopy A LOT... thus... you'll be forced to pack it A LOT... avoid the grass, land out in the dirt and dust and in 30 or so pack-jobs it will be much much easier to pack.