Mar 2, 2011, 8:11 AM
Post #1 of 30
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Cost of a reserve repack?
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Back in the day (72-75), I remember packing reserves for five bucks each. (That was when the reserve repack cycle was every 60 days).....With my new rigger seal in hand, I remember thinking, this is way too much responsibility for too little pay. In other words I didn't know much about rigging, but I was still packing reserves.
Jumps were $3.50 then, but five bucks still wasn't much cash.... Anyone else pack reserves back then?
(This post was edited by steve1 on Mar 2, 2011, 8:14 AM)
Mar 2, 2011, 1:35 PM
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Re: [steve1] Cost of a reserve repack?
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Piad $5 and $10 in the 60s and early 70s, then $20.
Lately I've been paying $40-$60. I tip the $40 guy generously.
What astounds me is how cheap jumps are today. Lodi still has $15 jumps and the highest around my area is $22. Man do we squeeze the DZOs hard. I sometimes feel guilty riding in their million dollar turbine jumpships that drink $5 a gallon fuel and have huge insurance premiums and maintenance costs.
In a just world we'd pay a lot more. Thank God for tandems.
Mar 3, 2011, 8:05 AM
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Re: [Gene03] Cost of a reserve repack?
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Yes.
Back in the day it was usually 5 bucks and a 6 pack.
The 6 pack was to prime the pump and get the rigger in the mood to pack it.
Through the 70s and into the 80s, I charged the price of a hight jump for a repack. At Palatka with 182s, it was the same as a 7,500' jump. Later at DeLand, it was the same as a 13,500 jump. Easy money. With rounds. Ram airs, a bit more involved.
In the mid 80s, I was the R&D shop for the Relative Workshop. Bill had set me up in the little block building beside the Airport Bar. On one particular day, I saw a rigger from another shop peddle up on his bicycle and walk past my window to the bar. A few minutes later he walked back with a six pack, put it in the basket on the bike and rode off. This happined 4 times over the next severel hours. Later that day I was talking to the guy who ran the shop that rigger worked for and mentioned it. He said, "Well, he only had 4 reserves to pack that day," No names in order to obfuscate the guilty.
Mar 8, 2011, 1:12 PM
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Re: [Mbranch202] Cost of a reserve repack?
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$5 in the late 60's in Ohio........moved to Calif in1973 and it was $10...found it was much cheaper to pencil pack it...60 repack cycle was ridiculous........... BL
Mar 10, 2011, 8:02 AM
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Re: [blongb] Cost of a reserve repack?
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$5 in the late 60's in Ohio........moved to Calif in1973 and it was $10...found it was much cheaper to pencil pack it...60 repack cycle was ridiculous........... BL
Bill, you have to remember that back then the rules were based on the old silk parachutes. BTW when I catch someone forging my signature on a packing card there next repack is double.
Mar 10, 2011, 4:38 PM
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Re: [WGore] Cost of a reserve repack?
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Correct me if I'm wrong on this but, there is no way you can pencil pack a reserve and still have a seal on it. The packing card is ALWAYS inside and a seal with the riggers symbol is on the pins in such a manner so as to be impossible to pull without breaking the red sealing thread. There should also be an additional card outside with nothing else but the repack date on it, vis a vis the date of the repack. At least that's how I did/do it....
Mar 10, 2011, 7:15 PM
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Re: [WGore] Cost of a reserve repack?
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Boz, I was always on the up and up when I was back in Ky, plus I packed a lot of reserves under Kenn's license while trying to get my rigger's ticket, including my own (I have 5 or 6 pack jobs that were actually used; mine once, very cool)
When I got to Calif., my attitude changed.
I never forged your sig..............honest............
Yes, that's why I wasn't too concerned since my reserve was not silk. I began to think the worst thing to do was to mess with a perfectly good pack job.
Mar 10, 2011, 8:37 PM
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Re: [JerryBaumchen] Cost of a reserve repack?
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Some guys did put another card inside to see if it was honest, but not THE card. Like PDs marking the tail. About 12 yrs ago I got a rig for repack at the Ranch NY. Guy getting back in the sport, it had been packed for 11+1/2 YRs. Pulled the handle POOF, looked like it would have worked as advertised. Forget what it was other than at the time it was a 15 or so YR old sport rig.
Mar 16, 2011, 9:46 AM
Post #24 of 30
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Re: [lodestar] Cost of a reserve repack?
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Correct me if I'm wrong on this but, there is no way you can pencil pack a reserve and still have a seal on it. The packing card is ALWAYS inside and a seal with the riggers symbol is on the pins in such a manner so as to be impossible to pull without breaking the red sealing thread. There should also be an additional card outside with nothing else but the repack date on it, vis a vis the date of the repack. At least that's how I did/do it....
Most of the new stuff doesn't have the internal pocket anymore. Even the ones that did, the outside card had to have all of the information in case of a ramp check.
Bill, I wasn't accusing of doing it, just that it has happened and that is my response to it if it is one of my repacks initially. I don't even remember having packed yours but that was a long time ago. A lot of brain cells gone south in those intervening years. One guy even brought one back (a pilot rig) with my seal on it and some fictitious name and license number.
Mar 16, 2011, 12:39 PM
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Re: [lodestar] Cost of a reserve repack?
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Correct me if I'm wrong on this but, there is no way you can pencil pack a reserve and still have a seal on it. The packing card is ALWAYS inside and a seal with the riggers symbol is on the pins in such a manner so as to be impossible to pull without breaking the red sealing thread. There should also be an additional card outside with nothing else but the repack date on it, vis a vis the date of the repack. At least that's how I did/do it....
At one time it was required to have a data pocket on the inside of the container.
Sounds like we might have been high.
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