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QuoteQuoteWhy not?
It wasn't asked for. And it is overkill for a rigger to repack a main. When I was a more active rigger, my time was better spent on things that required my training, skill, and judgement. Packing mains is none of those.
Overkill for a rigger to pack a main??? I find it unbelievably bizarre....Im so grateful I have trusted a rigger with his training, skill, and judgment, after unpacking my main for inspection and adding a new PC... charging me $125.00 CAN. That I had to ask for a repack... I get it, really I do.
The mighty ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt. Even so, the true way has but one savor, the savor of freedom.
QuoteOverkill for a rigger to pack a main??? I find it unbelievably bizarre
I agree. When I inspect a main I prefer to pack it. And Stacy can tell you that is a good thing since on one of her reserve repacks I checked the main and when I went to pack it I noticed it had terrible porosity and as a result she replaced her main and is very happy with the results. When I packed her main this last time she said it was the only time that it opened on heading. As for the analogy that a rigger does not want to pack a main and be responsible for a malfunction just awes me because this is the same person that just packed the reserve.
Karri,
Taking your rig to a rigger is like any other business. He can't read your mind, if you want something done you have tell him/her.
Sparky
Taking your rig to a rigger is like any other business. He can't read your mind, if you want something done you have tell him/her.
Sparky
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals
ryoder 1,412
For the sake of argument, I'm going to play the devil's advocate here, and argue that you *DON'T* want the rigger to pack your main. This is based in my guiding principle: If you want something done right, do it yourself.
Now for work on the reserve, the FAA mandates that you must take it to a rigger. The only way around this is to become a rigger yourself. This is what I did. I don't do work for others.
Now here are two examples I have seen firsthand in the last few weeks:
1. Rigger assembled main to risers, and packed main. Jumper used it and landed w/o incident. Upon running line check, jumper discovered one steering line wrapped AROUND line group before entering guide ring.
2. Rigger took rig; Removed main from container and 3-rings; Repacked reserve; Reassembled 3-rings SWAPPED LEFT-FOR-RIGHT; Packed main; Result: low-time jumper opened to find herself flying backward; One reserve ride.
Now for work on the reserve, the FAA mandates that you must take it to a rigger. The only way around this is to become a rigger yourself. This is what I did. I don't do work for others.
Now here are two examples I have seen firsthand in the last few weeks:
1. Rigger assembled main to risers, and packed main. Jumper used it and landed w/o incident. Upon running line check, jumper discovered one steering line wrapped AROUND line group before entering guide ring.
2. Rigger took rig; Removed main from container and 3-rings; Repacked reserve; Reassembled 3-rings SWAPPED LEFT-FOR-RIGHT; Packed main; Result: low-time jumper opened to find herself flying backward; One reserve ride.
"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.
Personally, I prefer to not pack a main for someone else. I'm sure, I wouldn't pack it the way they pack it. If, the customer is 'instant' on my packing it, I'll do it, according to the manufacturer's instructions/recommendations. Yes, I'll charge for it... my time is worth something.
Chuck
Chuck
councilman24 36
A lot of riggers don't UNPACK the main. They either inspect and pack the reserve with the main in, or cut it away, remove it, but leave it in the bag. Then hook it back up and reclose the main container. I've listened to groups of riggers talk about the aid's they have to keep the risers straight; mats with velcro keepers, labels, etc. I frankly was surprised. I've never thought that was worth even the low risk of hooking it up backwards or twisted.
I tell all my new customers that they will get the main back unpacked but reattached and straight. I heard of one rigger who gives the main canopy back unattached (not right if he took it off) and some old time riggers didn't even want the main in the rig when it was brought to them.
Riggers aren't packers. Some choose to return the main packed but I don't. Each main is an individual and likes to be packed a certain way. I haven't packed most mains, only my own. So I don't necessarily know what a particular model likes, let alone an individual canopy. I also like a much faster opening than most newer jumpers.
Of course now with many jumpers NEVER packing their own main, I can see why they are dismayed to get their rig back unpacked. They don't know what to do with it! In the area where I'm at we have few if any packers at the DZ's so no one much cares that the rig comes back unpacked. Of couse old farts like me who only jump a main someone else has packed if they're borrowing a rig (and then may stll repack it) don't WANT their main packed. .
I pretty much won't pack a main even if asked. Only if someone wants instruction on packing I will demonstrate and/or help them pack it.
Chairmain, PIA Rigging Committee
I tell all my new customers that they will get the main back unpacked but reattached and straight. I heard of one rigger who gives the main canopy back unattached (not right if he took it off) and some old time riggers didn't even want the main in the rig when it was brought to them.
Riggers aren't packers. Some choose to return the main packed but I don't. Each main is an individual and likes to be packed a certain way. I haven't packed most mains, only my own. So I don't necessarily know what a particular model likes, let alone an individual canopy. I also like a much faster opening than most newer jumpers.
Of course now with many jumpers NEVER packing their own main, I can see why they are dismayed to get their rig back unpacked. They don't know what to do with it! In the area where I'm at we have few if any packers at the DZ's so no one much cares that the rig comes back unpacked. Of couse old farts like me who only jump a main someone else has packed if they're borrowing a rig (and then may stll repack it) don't WANT their main packed. .
I pretty much won't pack a main even if asked. Only if someone wants instruction on packing I will demonstrate and/or help them pack it.
Chairmain, PIA Rigging Committee
I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE
riggerrob 563
QuoteWhy not?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Superstition or bureaucratic cowardess?
Or maybe it was the hard time Fred gave me last year - the last time I packed his reserves and main on the same day.
Fred made a series of mistakes: exiting below 2,000', not waiting for his main to inflate, pulling his reserve ripcord next, being surprised when he found himself hanging under two canopies, THEN cutting away his main .... and trying to blame it on me!
The last straw was the cheap b#####d refusing to buy me a bottle of my favorite wine!
Hmmpf!
Sorry, but one a##hole ruined it for all the rest of you!
When my boss announced a new policy of returning rigs to customers - fully packed - I started quietly handing mains to any other staff packer who wanted the $5.
You may call my attitude "bureaucratic cowardess" because I believe that if enough people are involved, no single person is guilty.
It only takes one... huh, Rob!? Been there... done that! Just another case of someone not willing to accept responsibility for their own actions then, trying to blame someone else.
Chuck
Chuck
It wasn't asked for. And it is overkill for a rigger to repack a main. When I was a more active rigger, my time was better spent on things that required my training, skill, and judgement. Packing mains is none of those.
-- Jeff
My Skydiving History
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