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Shivon

Breathing life into old rigs.

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Since I started packing reserves, I occasionally come into contact with old rigs (ie, 15 year +) rigs which people keep refurbishing and putting back in the air. A friend of mine was recently given a container manufactured in the early 80s which he is cleaning up for use with a square reserve. New parts include new main and reserve bags and pilot chutes, along with main risers. I think he is doing it for the novelty more than anything (he normally jumps a very modern rig).

I was wondering though - does anyone have any horror stories of old rigs that have been put back into service only to have a major component (like a main lift web, or a riser) fail? Regardless of how good the harness looks, is there an age where we should no longer trust the reserve harness / assembly to withstand the required forces?

Shivon.

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A good friend was sold such a horror for his first rig. It had a square reserve in a rig built for a round reserve. The "rigger" had not seen fit to install longer reserve risers.

My friend merrily turns up and the other DZ we frequented (only 5 minutes down the road) and had his kit checked out for the tag each DZ supplies.

The riggers at this DZ at first broke down in fits of laughter before proceeding to explain to my friend why he should never to jump the rig and how he was most certainly never going to jump it at their DZ.

A pantomime ensued of trying to fly a reserve whilst being suffocated by the reserve slider.

He was advised to take the rig back and did so, exchanging it for something almost as heinous but at least airworthy - a "Jaguar" container with "Kelly Tyres" written across the back.

Funny thing is that a few years later the rigger remembers that event and cites it along with other examples of negligence by the first "rigger". He maintains a good degree of anger towards that other "rigger" for their continual flouting of regulations and serious rigging errors he’s always having to fix.

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Many of the old rigs were not TSO'd for use with ram air reserves. They will have only 1 riser per side and/or the reserve risers will be very short with without toggles.

Sparky



The mfg of my previous old rig made a set of 14 inch risers to attach to the harness at the L-bar link. The original 2-reserve risers were so short that the toggles were easy to reach (used it once). This was such a good way to get 4 risers out of an old rig. It also helped that I jumped where the rigs were made.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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oh does this bring back memories(bad ones).some years ago, a local skygod sold his old used delapidated wonderhog(first version )and strato star to an unsuspecting newbie with like 20 jumps.the purchase was done withoput consulting a rigger. what this guy gotwas definitely unairworty.the container was falling apart, and the canopy was so porous you could see thru it. .turns out it had over 1000 jumps and the seller had washed everything to give the appearance that it was still relatively new.we condemned it on the spot as it was un airwothy.

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People too cheap to buy modern gear can rarely afford to jump enough to wear it out, so structural failures are rare.
It is more the nuisance factor.
The other problem is the hundreds of dollars required to make them airworthy (replace tired Velcro, buy freebags, etc) is usually more than the cost of a decent used Javelin or Vector. When the cost of repairing an old rig approaches $300, I tell them to stop throwing good money after bad.
For example, last month, an old-school jumper brought his old rig by for inspection: Bullet (similar to Wonderhog) Security 26 Lopo and Strato-Cloud.
Manifest told me not to bother because: round reserves are banned at our DZ (something about a large river nearby) and she never expects to get paid for the repack.
Also, the GQ Defence (UK) manual says not to repack any of their gear more than 15 years old.

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Many of the old rigs were not TSO'd for use with ram air reserves. They will have only 1 riser per side and/or the reserve risers will be very short with without toggles.

Sparky



The mfg of my previous old rig made a set of 14 inch risers to attach to the harness at the L-bar link. The original 2-reserve risers were so short that the toggles were easy to reach (used it once). This was such a good way to get 4 risers out of an old rig. It also helped that I jumped where the rigs were made.



I doubt if it was legal since it was not tested with the riser extensions. It really changes how the load is applied to the harness.

Sparky
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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I doubt if it was legal since it was not tested with the riser extensions. It really changes how the load is applied to the harness.



Legal? The mfg suggested it, I asked him if it was kosher, he said don't worry, and since the mfg was doing it, I didn't question any more. I had doubts but didn't care because it is a completely non-invasive modification. The load is still applied to the L-bar links, not 'extending' or adding a second set of risers into the harness. Even when I moved away from the area, other riggers never questioned the mod. I certainly was glad a year later when I had to use it, a lot of tall trees surrounding that DZ, wouldn't have wanted to be under a round.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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I doubt if it was legal since it was not tested with the riser extensions. It really changes how the load is applied to the harness.



Legal? The mfg suggested it, I asked him if it was kosher, he said don't worry, and since the mfg was doing it, I didn't question any more. I had doubts but didn't care because it is a completely non-invasive modification. The load is still applied to the L-bar links, not 'extending' or adding a second set of risers into the harness. Even when I moved away from the area, other riggers never questioned the mod. I certainly was glad a year later when I had to use it, a lot of tall trees surrounding that DZ, wouldn't have wanted to be under a round.



The TSO was issued on the system that was tested. Making this kind of change to the harness, the way the reserve loads the harness means there is no TSO on that rig. The manufacture can incorporate minor changes into his production and QA SOP's but that is a major change in the design.

From TSO-c23d:

(vi) The quality control inspection and functional test specification to be used to ensure each production article complies with this TSO, as required by part 21, section 21.605(a)(3) and part 21, section 21.143(a)(3).
My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

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back in 1978 when para flite invented and then started selling the safety flyer(which for the un knowing was the first square reserve ever made)most rigs only had a single reserve riser on eack side. all the manufacturers at the time either modified or allowed a master rigger to modify the risers by adding a rear riser to the existing one.

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How did they add the riser? Take it apart and insert the second set? The mod done to mine seems like a much better alternative, and you get the right length.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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