rigging65

Saving a hundred bucks or so shouldn't be the reason you chose to buy from a particular shop. You want someone with a background and performance record that isn't going to leave you high and dry if everything doesn't go as planned (which is certainly can!). Call around to some shops and talk with some people, get a feel for them and go with someone that makes you comfortable, not just whomever is cheapest. You get what you pay for, and you're paying partly for after-the-sale customer support here... Also, you've picked one of the most expensive rigs on the market...don't expect to get it super cheap...or super fast. Sunpath lead times are notoriously long. If you want to spend a bit less and get your rig a bit faster, look at other manufacturers. Velocity Sports Equipment comes immediately to mind. They build the Infinity. Congrats on stepping into your first rig! "...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..."

Kind of scary when this is the best you can say about the hottest new piece of safety equipment, no? Seriously though, any piece of equipment, no matter how great, only works when it's installed and maintained correctly...but you do have to shudder when you think about a rigger that misrigs any safety device, even if it did "no damage" as a result. "...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 most people will agree that whatever reserve you get over your head wins the "awesome" award for the day "...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..."

Just a note. Using a tape with a mastic on it is bad juju. Consider using something like VetWrap or simply hand tacking the sides of the riser closed. Mastic gets goopy in the heat and can actually add to your problem as dirt and the such will stick to the excess mastic and then start to abrade your riser and/or slinks...not to mention it's messy as hell. Sticky stuff and Nylon don't go well together...at least not where skydiving equipment is concerned "...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..."

Just goes to prove that proper installation and maintenance goes a long way to making even best ideas work. Also proves that KISS is alive and well. One wouldn't think that a single hand tacking was too complicated to comply with, but it seems like it was. Of course, it could just be your luck, Tim... "...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..."

As long as you get your arm to extension before the PUD leaves your hand, you should be all good. Whip it out there! "...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..."

You're really not going to be happy with that canopy if you're forced to use it. Buy a square reserve, your body will thank you for it later... "...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..."

In the experienced-jumper world ripcord use is not very common, but it does exist. But there are still lots of student training environments that use them. The theory is that they are a remote activation device, so if the student freezes up and holds onto the handle they still get a canopy over their head. And it costs money to retrofit gear. When we got rid of ripcords years ago, there was a very heated discussion among the AFF/Is about how many students were going to freeze up and how the Instructor was going to get the p/c out of their hand, etc. As it turned out, with proper ground training, it just isn't a big deal. Plus, if you've never jumped a ripcord, you have no predisposition to hold onto the handle...you've just always been taught (since day one if you're using Sigmas to do tandems with) to throw away the handle. Works just fine for us! "...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..."

We used to do that (and there are foreign countries that do this) and it made sense to all of us...but we had too many people whining about having multiple cards, losing cards, whatever... it ended up just being too much of a headache to keep doing. "...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..."

Things could have been a lot worse. Be thankful you were smart enough to wear a helmet... And people wonder why foreigners thinks Americans are whiney babies who won't take responsibility for themselves... "...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..."

Here's another one for ya. We were doing 120 ways in Perris a few years ago and the pull-out was in the second row, right outside the base. The guy on his left was supposed to hold his grip until he was actually extracted. The pull-out had a hard pull and the guy on his left let go of him when he reached back, not when he was extracted. The result was the pull-out guy 10 feet below the formation, yanking on his hackey. He finally gets the p/c out and the canopy is leaving the bag on level with the rest of the formation. It stays there for a second or two before it catches enough air to pull the pull-out guy up through the formation. Luckily, he didn't slide around when he was low, and he got yanked right up through the hole he left in the formation when he went low. Honest to God, I was sitting there, in freefall, watching a canopy develop like 20 feet in front of me.... So, not only was there huge potential for someone getting hurt as this guy goes rocketing back up through the formation, but we were all at least a 1000 feet low breaking off. There was, to say the least, some canopies opening too close for comfort with each other...which resulted in a very crowded pattern as there wasn't enough separation between waves at deployment ...all because one guy didn't do his job and maintain a grip until the pull-out got pulled-out! "...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..."

Sweet video Pete. Well done! DVD is so cool.... "...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's always a real bummer when things don't work out the way they should on stuff like this. Best of luck with these guy...I hope you can get it worked out! "...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's not really that big of a deal. The openings are (generally) just a whole lot slower...one of those things where you're sitting there, looking up, saying "open, open, open".... "...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..."

Like I said, I doubt you could put the word PROFESSIONAL in front of the shop if they're treating you like this. Just because they've been around for 30 years DOES NOT MAKE THEM PROFESSIONAL! If people don't continue to frequent dealers that treat them poorly (not necessarily this shop in particular), they would go out of business and the industry would be better for consumers and dealers! You want to get their attention? Let them know that you'll be posting their name everywhere you can find to post it and letting everyone know how bad the service was! "...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's truly unfortunate that stuff like this happens. Not knowing anything about the dealer you bought it through, I won't run the guy down, but this is just another reason to make sure you're buying your stuff through a shop with a history of customer service. I've yelled and screamed on this before, but saving a hundred bucks or so just isn't worth this kind of trouble!! Deal with a professional shop, yes you will pay a bit more to support their overhead, but they'll take care of you! Like I said, you might have been dealing with a shop, but I'm betting they wouldn't fall under the title of PROFESSIONAL if they won't help you out in this situation. THE CUSTOMER IS YOUR BEST FRIEND, TREAT HIM THAT WAY!!!...or he'll go elsewhere...which is what I'm guessing you'll do in the future! "...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..."

Go and jump the canopy without the breaks stowed. Just do it up high... That'll at least give you an idea of what will change...of course it will be more extreme than simply moving the eye by an inch. Learning is fun!

He meant Precision Aerodynamics....did have his coffee yet this AM. "...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..."

Over-engineering and over-building are not necessarily a good thing. In this case it results in a much heavier rig. Why? Because the amount of ballistic cloth needed to get the "shape" of the rig adds much weight...and cost. Do you know how expensive ballistic is?? It's very difficult to get a rig to take a nice shape...it takes long hours of design and redesign. Or you force the rig into shape by making it stiff...and heavy as a result. And regardless of how stiff you make it, if you overstuff it, the bad geometry shows through. This isn't usually true on a rig with sound geometry to begin with. The fact is, there have been several rigs built over the years that hand very good flap geometry and didn't need all that extra stiffener. The Talon II was an excellent example...as was the Vector II. There are others as well, but what all these rigs have in common is very good engineering. With that, you don't need to "make it work" by using ballistic. As for over priced....since when does price reflect anything about the function of an item??? All an expensive price means is that there are either a) expensive components in the item b) there is expensive advertising for the item that you, the consumer, are paying for and/or c) the mfg. feels the market will absorb the extra costs, so their is simply more available profit (sometimes referred to as market gouging). I don't think that any of the Mirage rigs are rigger friendly at all. They're very stiff, which makes getting them under a sewing machine very difficult. They use very complicated bits (especially in the Unysin harness) that simply don't need to be that complicated. And the rig is shaped so fat at the bottom that we have to place it against a wall to close the reserve flaps, or it scoots across the carpet (that happens to be a favorite prank for my riggers to play on new riggers without much experience...they travel all over the room trying to stay on top of the rig as they close it...it's comical! ) I have nothing against Mirage as a company. They make a fine rig and have good customer service. I happen not to like the rig very much for the reasons I've listed above, but there is nothing wrong with it. I take issue with the fact that the world seems to buy in so easily to print advertising. Obviously the Mirage Marketing department is doing their job better than other companies though! Look, I'm an opinionated guy, and in my opinion the rig is over-built and over-priced, that's all. If you like them, more power to you! Have fun and be safe...but be informed before you buy something based on advertising hype! "...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...they're over-built, over-engineered, over-priced and not very rigger friendly...but at least you'll be a cool-guy if you get one!! "...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 sounds like what is commonly referred to as a Pro-Stack. It does the same thing as packing over your shoulder, but you're doing it on the ground...it keeps the lines and folds cleaner and is actually quite fast when you get used to it. Kind of looks like a Flat-Pack but as you pull the sections over to you, you split them half-and-half so it ends up like a Pro-Pack on the ground. Some guys pack for BASE this way (it's especially useful on larger canopies). I've been packing reserves this way for many years...over 1600 reserve packjobs this way, and it works just great! "...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, there are sometimes different sizes and shape sliders for a given canopy model...just ask Icarus. Often, as a fix to a somewhat ill-tempered canopy, a different slider is installed to help stop the problem...and it isn't always simply a bigger slider! There are some general guidelines in canopy design that seem to keep openings tamed, but from canopy to canopy you see different trim, different airfoil shapes, different nose construction, etc... I'll agree with you that canopies generally need to fall within a certain range in their design specs (I'm sure some of the canopy Mfgs. that lurk here could lend more to this), but I still say that packing a canopy the same, clean way will help maintain constant, clean openings...they may be faster or slower, but they'll be clean. To control opening speeds, it's been my experience that slider size and shape (and most importantly, placement) are the major determinants of how a canopy is going to open. Too big a slider, the canopy opens hard...too small a slider, the canopy opens hard as well...you've got to get it just the right dimensions and just the right sq. footage! And, to answer another post in this thread, yes, I think that lighter grommets make a very big difference in slider efficiency. Of course, you've got to be aware of the impact of using brassies on a rig (ie- you really need soft-links or very good, often check slider bumpers). The lighter the slider is overall, the more efficient it can be in using the wind to combat gravity and hold your lines together as you decelerate! Always a good thing

I have line dump every single time I get out of the plane, never bothers my openings a bit. Now, bag strip (or bag dump) will screw you up.... "...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..."

Negative. In my experience, the pilot chute will get you to line stretch faster but it doesn't much change the way the canopy itself opens. Canopies open hard because of two things: the way they're packed and the size/shape of their slider. And even how they're packed is less of an issue than slider placement and size/shape. Line stows don't matter (as long as the bag stays closed until it's supposed to), deployment type doesn't matter, p/c size and type don't matter (I've jumped several canopies with about 6 different size/material p/c types...didn't do a damn thing to them). Some canopies open better than others...and even within the same model canopy you can run into random rogue canopies. Mfgs. can sometimes correct for this with different size (or shape) sliders. Ask the Mfg.! "...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..."

Keep in mind, riggers are just people with more experience than most. They still have opinions (not all of which are totally fact based) and biases. Many riggers like certain setups because that's what they were taught on, or that's what they see the most of. Some of them are tainted by the fact that they have certain mfgs. close to them and have more interaction with those mfgs. With this in mind, gear Mfgs. have their own opinions as well (Sunpath and their F1-11 pilot chutes, etc.)...so if you hang out in their circles, you'll probably be converted to that way of thinking. IMO, the best test of what works is what keeps selling. The market won't support junk...it may support products that aren't quite as good as other products (if there is good advertising), but it won't support junk...at least not for long. So, if your riggers disagree, it could be for numerous reasons. And that's ok! Gather all the info you can, then make your own decisions.