ZigZagMarquis

I voted "OTHER"... I wear Nike'ys... err AIR Nike'ys... while skydiving

The anoying thing about this topic is the Pilots and DZOs own the ultimate hammer that could stop such misbehavior as opening the door before it should be. Problem is, most of the time it isn't exercised in lieu of "playing the odds" that nothing will go wrong in favor of protecting the "bottom line"... $

OMG... do I EVER disagree with that. Never shall I buy into your socialistic view that its better to allow others to dictate allowable "speech" to be "warm and safe" as some of y'all are willing to... but... this is just a posting board... so the dirty little secret that free speech isn't really so here (I haven't found a posting board yet where it is), that there is a hidden agenda here (I haven't found a posting board yet that doesn't have one), a line that shall not be crossed (ditto, last) and y'all can remain warm and safe is secure, rest asured you may... cause its just a posting board...

Nether good nor bad. Just a statement of fact.

Nether good nor bad. Just a statement of fact.

You say that like its a bad thing...

No personal offense meant SKR... but sounds like you're advocating the points of "socialism". Oh well...

When asked by "hook cripples" how to learn to Pro-pack over the shoulder... I take their canopy off of the hook, put it over their shoulder, tell them to never put it back on a hook... "Pack it"... and walk away...

One of the big "take-aways" l learned from earning my ticket was, "You don't have to pack something someone hands to you"... an option I've never exercised, but something I always feel good having in my hip-pocket if someone, as you say, tried to put me in a position to "to take chances with my rigging license".

dude, chill... err... I mean, Mike, doesn't it amaze you that there is a certain faction within this sport that is willing to pay thousands of dollars to learn to skydive... thousands more to purchase gear... and then when it comes to the maintenance of the no shit system / part of their gear that's really there to save their sorry ass when the shit hits the fan... the reserve and AAD (if they decide to have one)... their's a ceratain number of folks out there that want to go on the "cheap"... makes me laugh when I hear things like... "wa wa reserve repacks are too expensive"... "wa wa reserve repacks are too often, should be longer then 120 days" (hey, zippy, what do you think riggers are going to do if it goes to 180 or 365 days?)... "wa wa Cypres batteries are too expensive"... "wa wa Cypres drops dead after 12 years"...

Take a beverage with you...

Shhhhhh!!! They're SECRET!!! Keep yapin' about them and the guys in the black helicopters will be showin' up!!!

Okay all... Based on a PM that I rather wouldn't have received, and I'll leave it at that, I'll disengage from this tread... but at least wouldn't y'all at least agree that while not necessary for a good opening that tight (as long as not too tight) stows aren't a bad thing either and they may prevent other issues like say a loose line that was free stowed say half hitching around a flap on opening? OUT

Tim, I have over 1000 jumps on a bag with only 2 stows and a side pocket for the rest of the lines. And probably 800+ jumps with a conventional bag, all lines stowed, all with the same canopy. There seems to be no noticeable difference in the openings. Understand & agree with that... but I'd still like to see HnS take a traditional D-bag, pack it up with the line stows really loose and go jump it and then see what he has to say after a neck breaker of an opening or two...

Same canopy, with rubber band stows and without. SAME opening. That demonstrated that tight stows are not required for a good opening. Derek Okay... pack up your main with a bunch of loose stows on a normal D-Bag... let me know how that turns out...

Because its 2 different methods of baging a parachute which give equally acceptable results... a good opening... but the operative word is DIFFERENT.

hmmm... I wouldn't expect everyone to get it right off... but I'd think that taking someone experienced in skydiving, but not a rigger, could take the definition of the two words and apply it to what they know about gear and get it right... i.e. 1) A main D-bag with rubber bands/gromets on the locking stows & rubber bands on the secondary stows is a staging device... 2) A slider is a metering device. QED I guess it can get kinda fuzzy sometimes though... one could argue that the pocket on a free bag is a metering device while, overall, a free bag is a more of a staging device... Okay, now I'm confused... DOH!!!

What I've heard called / "learned" as a hesitation band... On a "traditional" sport reserve freebag (read... NOT the new Racer freebag), the continuous loop or bungie that most non-rigger jumpers would recognize or call a "stow" upon closer inspection... one will find passes through a channel on the freebag and is not actually attached to the freebag. Each "end" is used to stow a bite of the lines on the reserve after going through a gromet on the "flap" on the other side of the bag. My words... the "theory" being, if the first stow comes undone, but the second doesn't, it will simply strip the hesitation band through the afore mentioned channel and the reserve will still get out of the bag. If the first stow doesn't undo it self... maybe.. there will be enough force on the hesitation band to strip it off of the other stow and through the channel and maybe the reserve will still get out of the bag. Anyway, maybe one of you digital camera / computer / rigger wiz-kids out there can take a pic of what I'm talking about on a free bag and post it and help me out a bit...

If you pay a packer, you take your chances.

Personally... I'd go with the KISS principle on this one and tell them (your #1) they need a new Cypres. If they want to buy one, I'd galdly install it and pack the rig up at no additional charge. If they want me to remove the old unit that will drop dead before the end of the repack cycle, and I&R their reseve sans old Cypres I would. My fear with your #2, besides it getting me in hot water with the FAA (and well, being wrong/not legal, IMO), would be the potential for the notes... "Batteries will expire on the end of september - Cypres unit will expire on the end of october"... not being aheared to and the rig being jumped past the point where the Cypres is no longer "legal" yet the end of the repack cycle is not yet up. Basically, it boils down to the +/- 3 months "wiggle room" is the "wiggle room" no more, thats all.

Yeah... good luck with that... pretty soon we're all going to have to check all of our luggage, no carry-ons, or mail our stuff seperately via surface freight to our destination ahead of time... and when arriving at the airport, strip down naked before going though security and then be issued one of those paper hospital gowns and slippers to wear while on the airplane... Anyway... what is it... the old Altimaster III's (wrist mounts)... or what ever it is Alti calls them now... go to like 18K... I think ??? ... before they stop and the big Altimaster II's (chest mounts) went to 20 something before they stop?? I can't remember. Haven't had one in a test chamber in awhile. Where's Smitty from Alti when you need him...

I'm not sure if I follow th logic behind that advice since largr canopies weight more than smaller canopies, but why would a larger canopy need tighterr stows given the same size PC, than a smaller canopy? Et all, I've heard this too and tend to agree with it, but here's my 2 cents / analysis on what's going on "behind" this "rule of thumb". I think the point is... no matter what the size / weight of the canopy is... if you try to lift the bagged canopy off the ground, and the stow is so loose that you cannot do it, then the stow is "too loose" for sure, however, if you can lift the bagged canopy off the ground, it doesn't mean the stow isn't "too tight" in some folks opinons... in other words, I think the method behind the madness of this advise is a rough way of determining if the stow is too loose, not necessisairly too tight or just right. HnS also brought up the point of "if stows need to be that tight, why do tail pockets and free bags work?" Well... in the spirt of thinking things trough and not just blindly following advise... here's my 2 cents for y'all to cut up on... ... anyway... in a way, comparing a bag with line stows (like a traditional main D-bag) to a free-bag with a hesitation band and pocket, while they accomplise the same thing, and orderly canopy deployment, you're kinda comparing apples and oranges. The D-bag, with stowes, somewhat more "stages" the deployment as the lines unstow, one stow at a time, until the canopy comes out of the bag after reaching line-strech. The freebag somewhat more "meters" the deployment as it allows the bulk of the lines to flow out of the pocket until the last portion, held by the hesitaion bad / closing the freebag are undone allowing the bagged canopy out at line strech. Both methods are an end to the same means, but saying that line stows on a traditional D-bag don't need to be sufficiently tight (where ever you care to draw that line) because free-bags / tail pockets don't is kind-of like saying a person doesn't need a rain-coat if stuck out in the rain because a duck doesn't... ---- HnS... you've said that a couple of times throughout this thread... In the spirt of... ... seems that statement applies to Tandems? Also, seems your opposition to double stows steems in large part to your one experience. I'm not discounting that, but it is only one data point. Anyway, again, in the spirt of... "Think through all advice, don't just follow it because of the source. Ask why"... why is that? Please add somemore context to ..."Double-stowing in the sport world with 54' drogues will most likely yield a bag-lock." ... or point us towards the RWS doc where that's contained so all of what that goes with can be seen. Thanks.

Velocity Sports / Infinity makes them for their Main D-Bags. Who say's containers / skydiving / skydiving equipment is idiot proof??

My favorite canopy colors are... IN STOCK.

*confused look* I thought your MLW length was determined by the measurement from that "soft spot" (or "hole") at the bottm of your neck to one of your hip bones?? Or is it just different manufacturers do it differently??