rigging65

I've got to argue this one... I know of three people who very nearly hammered in because of dive loops in the past 2 years. In fact, the only reason one of them is still walking is because he landed smack in the middle of the pea pit. All three were on Javs, and all three were in the winter when the jumpers were wearing gloves thicker than normal. I think the main problem was that they were used to getting three or four fingers in the loops, when they could now only comfortably fit in two (because of the gloves). I retrofitted all their risers with slightly larger loops, and the problem was solved...but it does show that loops can be a potential problem, especially if you change some other aspect of your gear (like thicker gloves). I think the main problem with using blocks is that they require much more hand strength to use, because you can't "hang" your hand in them and put your body weight against it like you can with a loop. Plus, you're much more likely to slip off a block than out of a loop (one of their advantages...you can more easily slip free from blocks than loops ). I have blocks on my CReW stuff, and they're great for quick action, but they certainly do wear on you harder than loops do... Which is better? No idea.... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Use a good, finish clear coat. Be aware though, many of them give a "gloss" effect to your paint scheme. I did a really nice metallic fleck gloss/flat primer grey combination about a year ago and finished it with a clear coat. It looks great, but the "Primer" grey is no longer "Primer." It's kind of a bit glossy. I assume they make a "flat" clear coat...I just wasn't that savy to think to look for it! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

The cost for a factory retrofit varies, depending on Manufacturer. I've seen them anywhere from $60 to $140. Certified field retro-fit kits generally cost somewhere around $75 (parts and labor included). Keep in mind that you'll also need to send the rig to the loft to have the work done. You'll also need a reserve repack when the work is done, so you might wait until your next cycle is up. Also, if you're doing a field-installed kit, be sure whomever does the modification is licensed to do so. They must have specific approval from the FAA (with paperwork on file) to do this sort of a mod, or it's illegal. This isn't as simple as "My rigger will do it", it's a Modification and therefore other rules apply! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I agree that fig.1 is the more correct of the two, but also ask yourself this: Does it really matter? With the exception of the riser breaking (when was the last time you heard of a properly maintained Super Mini-Riser breaking?), by definition the cable must be removed from the amp fitting before the RSL takes effect. This, of course, means that cable housing will no longer be attached to the riser, and thus won't be an obstacle when the RSL reaches stretch. So, in theory, it doesn't matter which way you route the RSL, because the cable housing won't be there when it actuates. The reason why figure 1 is more correct, IMO, is that figure 2 could (very remote, but possible) cause a problem if a riser were to break (also very remote, but possible)... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

IMO, if you pack over your shoulder, yes, you end up reorganizing the top skin on the ground, however, the opposite is not true of the Pro-Stack. If you do it right, you organize all the layers at once (and only need to do it once) if you pack on the ground. You also get a "last look" at the packjob before you flake the tail down...so you can check the line placement and folds. As has been said, it doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you end up with a clean packjob...I've just found the Pro-Stack to be faster (and I hate doing things twice! ). "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Probably not. If the risers are laying flat against your shoulders as the bag falls away, they probably won't release right away...at least not until your deploying main generates some drag...then they'll probably release. And they might end up getting involved with your reserve as they leave...as has happened in at least 2 cases that I'm aware of. IMO, you're better to leave the main connected and make a decision as to when you want it to go away, rather than leaving it to chance. True, this is a practiced routine, but it might not be your only practiced routine. Many DZs teach their students how to differentiate between Total Mals and Partial Mals, rather than giving them a "one size fits (almost) all" procedure. If this is the case, than you would be performing a "practiced routine" by going directly to your reserve. You've got to be able to think and move in this sport, practice on the ground helps you think and move that much faster, but you still have to be able to think...or end up broken. That's why us nasty instructors make you do all those repetitions so you do it right when you need to. Talk to your instructor(s) if you have questions, they'll set you straight. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Hard, no. Expensive, yes. There are some really cool one-of designs out there that basically eliminate almost every snag point, but they have to be custom built to fit the cameras of the jumper, as well as custom fit for the guy's (or gal's) noggin. None of this is cheap.... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Ya know, just because the max limit might be 180 days, it doesn't mean that a DZ (or an individual jumper, for that matter) couldn't keep their gear on a 120 day cycle... It's just the maximum time between repacks, not the minimum, that is being regulated. If you think 180 days is a problem, keep your gear on the 120 day cycle. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

If you're worried about the metal on fabric (which I could understand as a concern), wrap the pipe with cloth so it keeps the Nylon out of contact with the metal. Or slip a PVC sleeve over the metal. Also, a pipe with a wider diameter is better than one with a smaller diameter...helps keep the shoulder areas from deforming. Of more concern, closets are generally a good place to store gear...as long as it doesn't house, say, a heater, water pipes, etc.. Just make sure it's climate controlled and you should be good! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I like that, and it's something I hadn't thought of. Of course, the obvious problem is how to make sure everyone (especially those who haven't been around for a while or are out-of-towners) knows what LZ they are at. I can see the calamity forming now. I'm not sure skydivers are smart enough to handle this! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Of course! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

No, I'm talking about the actual geometry involved in the production of the harness. You want, ideally, to find yourself sitting (not hanging) in your harness, with the MLWs straight from your hip to the top of your riser. Anyone that understands the idea of Force Vectors (little arrows drawn out to help visualize the directions force is being applied) should be able to understand this clearly. The straighter the path from your point of input (your hip) to the point of action (in this case the end of the riser) the more efficient your use of force. That is, if there are a bunch of bends and tweeks between your hip and the riser (ie- chest rings, improperly fit harness), your inputs (force) have to overcome those obstacles before it can be translated to the risers. The less obstacles, the less force needed, thus the less dramatic your inputs need to be to get the desire result. Of course, the trade off (besides the cool factor) is also comfort on the ground. If the harness geometry is correct, you can have both... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I couldn't agree more, but do you start changing around your exit order to accommodate this??? What about the freefall problems you run into then? And what about the guy under the Manta loaded at .75? How do the guys loaded at 2.2 stay above him?? I don't think you're idea of a second pass is going to fly with many DZs either. It costs money and time to keep airplanes up...not to mention lost loads. In an ideal world, yes, this would certainly help...but I don't think you're going to see that idea catch hold at most DZs. A second load? What about at DZs that only have enough folks around to fly one or two loads at a time...you shut down the whole DZ because you can't put the HPs on the same load as the conservatives?? Don't think that will fly... There's no easy answer. Personal responsibility and the notion that you don't have the "right" to swoop on every landing goes a long way to help, but it's not the end-all-be-all answer...I'm not sure what is. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I think this is where the idea of a high-performance landing area comes from...but again, who gets which area in our case? And how do you keep from pissing people off... ...incidentally, the two DZs around here that forcibly banned HP landings lost jumpers because of it...hell, we've lost jumpers because they landed first, set the wrong pattern, ground in the people behind them and got pissed and walked off when we confronted them about it (I was there, it was all done very professionally...adults just don't want to be told they're wrong). So what do you do? You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Bring it! And yes, neatness definitely counts. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

There's also the idea that you might cutaway from a non-entagled situation, have a riser snag your helmet while it's going by, thus turning it into an "entangled" situation. By not wearing an RSL you are basically making sure you have fallen totally free of the main before putting anything else out. CReW works the same way, you want to be sure you've fallen free from the mess before you put anything else out. Let's not forget one thing though: For the vast majority of jumps, a camera man's job is done by about 4K, so he has time to sort things out if they go wrong. CReW falls in a similar category. Since we're already under canopy from altitude, again, we've got time to work out issues that might arise. Around here, we stop all work at 2K to keep problems from developing low. This isn't true for most jumpers. If you're opening at 3K or so, a high(er) speed mal...including diving line twists...is going to eat up altitude quickly, resulting in you possibly getting low before you can get away from the problem. This is where the RSL is golden. Down in the basement, you want stuff out fast, but in the correct order. Nothing is faster (in the correct order) than an RSL. If you were sure you were going to be opening high ALL THE TIME, ON EVERY JUMP, then you might have enough time to deal with whatever arises. IMO, that's not reality for most jumpers...hence why I feel the RSL is a good idea. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

One relatively simple fix is to fold the "floppy" part of your toggle (the non-velcro part) in half along the long axis, then sew it in place. This little bit of rigidity helps give the toggle some constitution, so when you try to slip your hands in there is something to actually push against. Quick, easy, and it can be removed if you don't like it! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

And what about DZs that don't have the room for an alternate landing area? Or DZs that have more room, but using it requires a walk back in? FYI, We have a bunch of usable land, and a separate student landing area about a half mile away. BUT...the main landing area is right across the street from the DZ. The acceptable alternate (or second) experienced landing area is the next field down...which results in a walk of about 300 yards. The Primary landing area also has a concrete taxi way with a spread of gravel on it that works great for swoopers...as well as a wide open field to land in. There is a tall tree row on the North end of the field (with a very nasty obstacle on the other side of that), so there is certainly a level of expertise needed to land their safely (hence, the Student landing are and the bus to bring you back). So, if you're going to have two landing areas, here's the question: Who gets the close, right across the street, no-walk landing area??? Do you give it to the swoopers because it has a special taxi way and the other hazards that experienced jumpers can more easily handle, while sending the more conservative jumpers down the road to the bigger wide open field (with a walk)? OR Do you give it to the conservative pilots because swoopers don't "have" to swoop, so why should the conservative pilots have to walk because they don't want to hook? Because of a few near misses, we've been fighting over this for about 3 years now. And no one can seem to figure out a compromise. I bring this up because we have the room to make an alternate field, but we still haven't done it. So, what do we do? Not wanting to alienate customers is a bitch, isn't it? "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Hip rings have become a thing that everybody has, but, IMO, all they're really good for is comfort on the ground. That not withstanding, anytime you put rings into a harness, you're giving it somewhere else to slip when you try and give an input, thus making that input less effective. There is a pretty simple way to help reduce this problem. It's a small redesign in where the leg straps are tied in that helps you get a more "true" alignment in the MLW when under canopy. It helps you "sit" rather than "hang". This "truing" helps to keep your inputs traveling straight up the MLW to your risers, thus making it more effective. IMO, you're still never going to get better harness control than with a Standard, non-articulated harness...unless your rig has this more "true" MLW alignment. But if it's custom fit, a Standard harness really shouldn't be uncomfortable on the ground either. Of course, you won't look nearly as cool with a standard harness..... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I've got about 2000 reserve packjobs using a PRO-stack (on the ground) and only a few hundred in the standing position. One thing I notice about the guys that pack over the shoulder: They end up either doing the job twice (dressing it over the shoulder and then re-dressing it on the ground) or using a BUNCH of clamps (somewhere between 3 and 7...which is something I dislike, but is certainly acceptable). Not that this should ever be a race, but it's always seemed to me that every extra step you add to a packjob is another opportunity for something to slip out of place or come unfolded...and that certainly slows you down. I like the PRO-stack because I only have to do the job once...and it's faster Every rigger we train learns the PRO-stack, but very few stick with it after they get done with the course. They almost always ask if there is some reason why they aren't taught the over-the-shoulder method, and I always tell them "Packing over the shoulder is a nice way to pack a main, then you put it on the ground and clean it up and it becomes a reserve packjob...Why do you want to pack the same parachute twice?" I think most people are just more familiar packing over-the-shoulder, so that's what they stick with. Either way is just fine, as long as you clean up after yourself and maintain tension and symmetry throughout the packjob! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

It is a factor, absolutely. But so is knowing about the relationship of slider dimension (both cord and span) as compared to exposed bottom skin area, drag as established by the pilot chute, drag as established by the canopy, trim angle of the canopy, line length, descent speed, etc... Some are more important than others (depending on what stage of the opening you're talking about), but it takes all of them to make it work. It's all important to know!

Like I said, I'm sure it can happen, it just normally doesn't. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

That's true, as anyone with any CRW experience will tell you.... I don't think anyone was eluding to the fact that the pressure was super high inside the canopy, it's just higher than it's surroundings. True, the reduction in pressure above the topskin does a lot to help this along, but what needs to be understood that the pressure inside the canopy is significantly higher than the pressure outside the canopy. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Actually, the military and at least a couple of different canopy mfgs. have done rather extensive long-term-pack testing and have found it doesn't make a damn bit of difference in opening times. For some reason, PIA doesn't seem to want to believe the work that others have done. Hell, I was at a seminar where the hierarchy at PD offered their test data (of which they have a ton) to PIA after being told exactly the same thing being presented here..."We have no reliable data to support this one way or the other." IMO, several people on the PIA Rigging commission are pushing personal agendas and are trying to justifying their positions. Wake up people! The information is out there, you just have to ask!! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

I certainly won't claim to have seen it all, but I've seen my unfortunate share of canopy collisions. None of the ones I've ever seen have resulted in a cutaway...not saying they can't, but in these cases (and in most cases) they didn't. Usually, when a canopy collision occurs, it's close to the ground and results in a very rapid collapse with not much time to do anything but ride it in and PLF. Not saying that some skilled operators haven't gotten out of this scenario by canopy transfer or something similar, but most of the time I don't think the RSL is going to help in this situation...but it won't hurt, so leave it hooked up. It's one less thing you have to do after opening, which means it's one less thing taking your mind off flying and watching your surroundings. I've never really understood unhooking your RSL under canopy. Even in 40 mph winds (should you be so stupid as to get caught in this situation) cutting away a main on the ground will result in the res. p/c popping out...that's it. Sure, if you give it a bunch of time it might get to line stretch, but it would have to be howling to get it out of the bag. If you're in a position that you need to cutaway to keep from getting drug, IMO, you need to re-evaluate how you got there....and pay the penance for being a fool by paying to have your reserve reclosed. Just because you rode the plane to altitude doesn't mean you have to exit. The pilot can always call down and get a ground winds report. Remember, it's far better to be down here wishing you were up there, than to be up there wishing you were down here. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."