rigging65

Natural, as far as I know. One of them used to jump up in Chico...I think her name is Sharron, but I don't know for sure. The second was a women down in Perris...about 6 years ago or so. I was down there and heard a bunch of commotion. Naturally, I went to stick my nose in it... Not pretty. I think she was European, on holiday. Sorry I can't do better than that... I think the biggest problem was the positioning and how tight they had the chest strap, not to mention a harness that was too big for them... "...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 certainly less safe to have anything hanging out out of your rig...and there is always the potential for problems any time you don't have all your gear covered and stowed. CReW dawgs rationalize this with the idea that they don't spend any time in the door, so there should be less of a chance of going over the tail. I'm not saying I necessarily agree with this, but you can see the argument. Unfortunately, buying a brand new rig to do CReW with is spending a lot of money for something that is going to get beaten up...and most people don't want to spend the money if they don't need to. Modern CReW rigs go to great lengths to cover more of your "exposed" equipment while at the same time keeping your openings simple and on heading. But, $$$ is the issue... "...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..."

Not being a woman, I can't claim to speak intelligently about this subject, but I do have first hand accounts (2 of them) of women with their chest straps fit snugly under their breasts having major damage done on hard openings. One of them, if I'm not mistaken, almost had surgery to reattach tissue internally. They were both well endowed, so I'm sure this had something to do with it, but think about it before you put the boys in harm's way! "...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..."

But based off common practice, the differential isn't going to allow the occupants to go hypoxic (assuming commercial airliner) or the placard ceiling limit will keep the plane low enough that the limited differential available doesn't exceed an altitude that is going to cause hypoxia, yes? "...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 are several different iterations of line stow out there using that method. Seems to work pretty well. I'm not sure where the stows are placed on Mirage risers, but my advise is to stow the excess line up from the bottom...this way, when you unstow the breaks, your not forcing the excess line into a 180 degree turn and rossing it along the tape as you pull it out. Does that make sense? When you unstow your breaks, you want to pull the excess line out in a manner of least resistance...else you'll end up destroying the line stows over time. Another good way to improve performance is to use elastic instead of tape. Elastic tends to hold the line in place better. It's still prone to damage if the lines are pulled out along the path of "more" resistance. "...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..."

Basically, your rig is designed to hold all the bits inside, under cover, until you deploy. The designs are mostly based off the "standard" type of equipment seen in the sport world (standard sized toggles, main canopies packed in a D-bag, etc.). CReW equipment is specially designed for the actions that go on during a CReW dive. We have oversized, wide open toggles so that we have an easier time getting our hands back into them when we let go of them. Since you're often switching between front risers, rear risers, toggles and grabbing canopy or lines while doing CRW, the ability to quickly and easily get a hold of different controls lead to the use of blocks on risers, oversized toggles, mechanical advantage dive loops, etc...all sorts of cool gizmos. Since these bits don't conform to the "standard" sizes/shapes found in freefall rigs, most rigs tend not to be designed to cover them up. Since CReW jumpers don't spend any time in freefall, having stuff hanging out of your rig isn't such a big deal. Since you're intentionally putting yourself in contact with the other guys' lines when you're docking, line burns on your gear (and sometime you!) are inevitable. For this reason, most CReW rigs you see will be old, beat-up containers. No sense in spending a bunch of money on something that's going to get chewed up, right? These rigs tend to be older, which means they may not have all the newest technology when it comes to "containment" (ie- many have velcro riser covers, etc.) which lends itself to more "stuff" hanging out than you might find on a newer Container system. Many CReW dawgs freepack their main canopy (no D-bag) using a tail pocket only. Containers (especially older ones) are designed to be used with a D-bag to contain the canopy, then the container flaps to hold the bag in place. If you don't use a bag, and your container was designed without wrap-around corners, it's common to have some of the canopy material slip out of the corners of the rig...no big deal!! This just further illustrates that the factors important to canopy openings are control of the lines and the slider...not how cleanly the fabric is folded. "...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..."

Some designs for holding the metal reserve handle in place (specifically when you sandwich the handle between two layers of the MLW) can result in the handle being kicked back out under opening stress. The MLW stretches, which forces the slightly "gapped" MLW halves together. Since the handle is "in the way" it is pushed out...thus putting pressure against the velcro closure and wearing it out prematurely. Eventually, the lower (usually) corner of the D-handle will start to pop out regularly. If it's not taken care of, the handle will start coming out more and more...as the velcro gets less and less effective. If you leave some room in there and take the stress out of the system (by using a piece of tape that is not integral to the MLW) you aren't allowing the strain on the MLW during opening to kick the handle out, thus you're not wearing out the velcro. Generally, though, you would place the pile side of the velcro on the tape (for ease of replacement) and set the hook part just a bit back from the edge of the MLW so that it is totally covered by the pile and doesn't snag on your jumpsuit. This isn't a problem with soft handles, only metal D-handles. "...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..."

Well yes, there is that... If you hook it really hard though, you can sometimes get them to actually generate lift!! "...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..."

A good trick to help with learning front riser dives is to think about pulling yourself up to the riser(s) instead of pulling the riser(s) down to you. This results in you using more muscles in your back and other muscles in your arms instead of just using your biceps. Try it, it helps! "...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..."

Ah, it only hurts if you take more than 3 seconds out the door! "...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 193 is significantly bigger than 193 sq. ft., so I would guess that the 193 vs. 220 comparison is probably valid. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, as I've only had my hands on a few Smart reserves, but they seem to be more in line with their published sizes...as opposed to PD's 'magic measurements'. "...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..."

CReW is a great discipline. It will help you with your canopy control, landing accuracy and confidence. I used to teach at least two CReW camps a year almost purely as canopy control-type camps. People are always so scared about docking canopies together...but when you explain to them that they are basically just shooting accuracy on a target (above them) they do just fine. If you've never done it, I would highly recommend you find someone with some experience and give it a shot. It's well worth the time, and you'll be a better canopy pilot as a result. FWIW, try and find a camp with a 'theory' section to it. Some classroom time really helps sink the ideas in! "...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 might also consider the Precision Aerodynamics rMax 208 or 228 (245 lb and 264 lb. 'Expert' loadings respectively). They're my personal favorite...mostly because I was there when the high weight, high speed tests were done. Very impressive... "...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..."

RWS has replacement tabs that they send out for Sigmas when the tabs break...they might very well be adaptable to older rigs. Call and 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..."

Ah, come on! That's not that bad! You should see half that crap that sticks out of my CReW rig...of course, a lot of it is canopy... But, as has been said, it just needs to get you out the door from a poised exit! Nothing finer than watching the expressions of the 100 jump wonder freeflyers as you walk out with a CRW rig on "...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..."

Nobody does, and nobody ever will...so you're in the same boat as the rest of us.

Yeah, that's pretty bad... He'd probably crap himself if you explained belly bands to him. "...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 you probably saw a C-Flex modified Reflex. It's pretty much impossible to pack the rig the way you state, as each of the four reserve flaps have a grommet that the loop has to go through. I'm not doubting that you saw something, but maybe it wasn't quite what you thought it was? As for sloppy packjobs; IMO, a rigger should know if there work isn't up to snuff. Just make sure you know what you're talking about before you go pointing fingers in public. If you're not sure, ask someone who knows more than you do. And for God's sake, don't start flapping your yap until you've spoken with the rigger who did the work first. There might be a reason why something was done the way it was, and if you go talkin' smack about the rigger who did it without first asking why, you can irreversibly damage his/her reputation, not to mention making yourself look like an ass. A rigger's reputation is a very important part of who they are professionally...it can make you, or easily break you. Everyone should be interested in how their gear works, and why things look or act the way they do, but don't get caught in the trap of thinking that just because something looks different its wrong. On the other side of that, don't be afraid to ask the rigger why they did what they did. Just think before you speak, that's all! "...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..."

Maybe, but I think you might be reading too much into it. Remember you're talking about an almost inline pull, through a flexible fabric. I can certainly see your point, but I don't really see it being an issue. Of course, I've never jumped one or really sat down and played with it, so what the hell do I know!!! "...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 you might be surprised. We did some pretty intense testing on the kits before we released them, and found that all you really need is just a bit of deflection and the whole problem goes away. In your circumstance, maybe not, but I'd be willing to bet it would have prevented the primi. "...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..."

What's the concern? The flutes are simply there to provide order to the lines, not really to hold them hard and fast in place because, as most of us agree, you don't need retention, just order. Like KellyF said, I would imagine that the fact they are elastic helps with that, but I'd say all they do in real life is keep order, end of story. "...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 hard to fault the rig for you not getting low enough in the door though, don't you think? For those that simply can't help the temptation to scratch their backs with the door frame, there are flap mods available to help protect your poor pop-top cap. "...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 one of the most unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) things about pop-top style rigs, is that your rigger really needs to be familiar with the system to do his/her best work for you. There are certain tricks and tips that make packing pop-tops easy. Unfortuantely, too many riggers don't take the time and go out of their way to learn them for the one or two pop-tops they see. In my travels, its been very rare to see poorly packed pop-top rigs on DZs with large, busy lofts. The riggers get more experience with them and they become easier to pack. This weighs in with this discussion because a competent rigger shouldn't have any problem telling when he's getting close to "the edge" with tamping a loop...whether on initial closing or when re-seating. From what I've seen, more common than not it's the customer tamping down their own pop-top that make it too tight. They're worried about getting the cap all the way seated, not understanding that you shouldn't be using the loop to make the cap sit down, rather the loop is there to keep the cap in place once you get it in position. If people work off the theory that the loop is only there to hold things in place after you put them in place, I think you'd see heavy pulls on pop-tops go away, for the most part. "...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..."

Yeah, but to be fair, before the advent of Ty XVII risers there wasn't much in the way of HP canopies. One of the big reasons why cables get trapped is because of how tightly the risers wrap themselves up (read: how fast and violent the canopy spins up). I'm sure there is some benefit to having more material (webbing bulk) that will keep some space in the riser twist to keep the cables a bit more free, but the key is how tight/fast todays canopies will spin 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..."

Not unless they've changed it from what they showed at PIA....which is possible, but I haven't seen it. Anyone else? "...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..."