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JackR

Misrouted RSL

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Our local master rigger recently opened up someone's reserve and found clamps STILL ATTACHED to the canopy>:(

Learn about your gear, people... in the end, you're responsible for saving your own ass, and the fact that it's someone else's fault and/or you didn't know any better isn't much consolation if you're dead.



How will learning about my gear help me diagnose a clamped reserve hiding behind a rigger's seal?


Anybody who would close a reserve with clamps still on the canopy should LOSE HIS/HER TICKET. For life. this has killed people in the past. It's simply unforgiveable. And anybody who finds it and says nothing is an accomplice.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

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How will learning about my gear help me diagnose a clamped reserve hiding behind a rigger's seal?



For a guy who's generally pretty smart, I think you're intentionally missing the point. Obviously you can't inspect your rig to find internal rigging errors.

That said, if one learns about their gear, it might inspire them to become their own rigger. Or at least research the available riggers and choose one they trust.
"Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

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This safety day, I gave a small group of students a rig and we were going over basic gear check principles. A student, with 2 jumps, caught the exact same problem with the RSL routed below the guide rings. I have found this problem another time during a repack. I found the rigger who packed it, and working together we were able to save the packjob and route it correctly.
I may be a young rigger; but this problem really didn't raise the hairs on the back of my neck. Yes; the point is that the rings are there to prevent a snag, and if the main pin takes a slight bend on deployment, no stress; we get a new one. I contacted the rigger and we got it fixed up right away.
=========Shaun ==========


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It would add a machining step adding significant cost. I haven't found any real need for a more "pointy" pin.



How do you get the pin in then without damning someone to rigger hell? Do you have a trick or are you just that patient? Maybe it's me...:S
Scars remind us that the past is real

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How do you get the pin in then without damning someone to rigger hell? Do you have a trick or are you just that patient? Maybe it's me...:S



Hi Steven,
I use a closing loop made of spectra 725 finger trap about 10" in the center of it!
Try that and let me know!
Cheers,
Gus Marinho

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How do you get the pin in then without damning someone to rigger hell? Do you have a trick or are you just that patient? Maybe it's me...:S



Hi Steven,
I use a closing loop made of spectra 725 finger trap about 10" in the center of it!
Try that and let me know!
Cheers,


A guppy cord! Someone showed me one a few months ago but it was too big to fit through the cypres. I'll try to make a smaller one and see how that works.
Scars remind us that the past is real

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In reference to the difficulty of inserting a UPT Vector fat pin, try putting either your T-Bodkin or closing pin into the "circle" on the end of the pin and using it as a pushing tool. Hold the bodkin or pin close to the center, (so it is perpendicular to the pin) and push. Trick stolen from Johnny K who got it from Greg at UPT.

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It would add a machining step adding significant cost. I haven't found any real need for a more "pointy" pin.



How do you get the pin in then without damning someone to rigger hell? Do you have a trick or are you just that patient? Maybe it's me...:S



Try a "pin follower".

Para-Gear sells this variety.

http://www.paragear.com/templates/base_template.asp?group=29#S7935

Don't think it would work with the UPT "fat pin" though. :( ... but it works great with the standard Capewell straight pin y'all see on 90-something percent of the reserve rip cords out there.


Also, another tired and true "trick", if you've got the time, is to get the container closed all the way and when you'd go to put the real reserve rip-cord / pin in, just put one of those "pointy" Cypres Temp Pins in, place a hundred lbs of packing weights or so on the container, let the pack-job "think small" over night and come back the next day and pin it for real.

Also, also, remember not to make the reserve loop so short / the reserve pin so "tight" that it exceeds the 22lb (max) pull force on the reserve ripcord... and, same thing, different angle, remember that a too short reserve closing loop + using a positive tension device, etc. can damage the reserve loop anchor... I've seen one rig grounded for this (damage to the reserve loop anchor).




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Our local master rigger recently opened up someone's reserve and found clamps STILL ATTACHED to the canopy>:(

Learn about your gear, people... in the end, you're responsible for saving your own ass, and the fact that it's someone else's fault and/or you didn't know any better isn't much consolation if you're dead.



How will learning about my gear help me diagnose a clamped reserve hiding behind a rigger's seal?



After knowing someone who died because some other rigger left a clamp in the reserve pack-job of the rig she was jumping... this, in part, motivated me to "leare more about my gear" by getting my rigger's ticket.

A suggestion... "If you're going to use clamps when packing a reserve, make sure there is a very long and brightly colored lanyard / flag on the end of the clamp... consider too attaching the other end of said flag to something heavy; like a small block V8."

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Our local master rigger recently opened up someone's reserve and found clamps STILL ATTACHED to the canopy>:(

Learn about your gear, people... in the end, you're responsible for saving your own ass, and the fact that it's someone else's fault and/or you didn't know any better isn't much consolation if you're dead.



How will learning about my gear help me diagnose a clamped reserve hiding behind a rigger's seal?


Anybody who would close a reserve with clamps still on the canopy should LOSE HIS/HER TICKET. For life. this has killed people in the past. It's simply unforgiveable. And anybody who finds it and says nothing is an accomplice.


_______________________________

I have seen reserves packed by other riggers but, I've never used them. Ya' gotta notice the clamps when you put the canopy in the free-bag... don't you? :S Boggles my little brain.


Chuck

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Ya' gotta notice the clamps when you put the canopy in the free-bag... don't you?



It would appear not, but I don't use them so I wouldn't know.

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Boggles my little brain.



Your not the only one!
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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Ya' gotta notice the clamps when you put the canopy in the free-bag... don't you?



There are two ways to use clamps. If you use clamps on the outside of the canopy, on the high points of the cells (the method illustrated in The Parachute Rigger Handbook) or to hold the width-reduction folds or cocoon in place, then yes, you'd notice the clamps when you put the canopy in the bag.

The other way to use clamps is to hold line groups together, as an aid to going from over-the-shoulder pro-pack to layout on the floor. If you were in a hurry, you might miss the B-line or C-line clamp.

Either way, I'd think you ought to notice if your tool count was off.

Mark

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Ya' gotta notice the clamps when you put the canopy in the free-bag... don't you?



It would appear not, but I don't use them so I wouldn't know.

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Boggles my little brain.



Your not the only one!


___________________________________

Like you, I don't use and have never used clamps to pack a reserve. I've never been accused of an 'ugly' pack job or bad openin, either.


Chuckg

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Ya' gotta notice the clamps when you put the canopy in the free-bag... don't you?



There are two ways to use clamps. If you use clamps on the outside of the canopy, on the high points of the cells (the method illustrated in The Parachute Rigger Handbook) or to hold the width-reduction folds or cocoon in place, then yes, you'd notice the clamps when you put the canopy in the bag.

The other way to use clamps is to hold line groups together, as an aid to going from over-the-shoulder pro-pack to layout on the floor. If you were in a hurry, you might miss the B-line or C-line clamp.

Either way, I'd think you ought to notice if your tool count was off.

Mark


_______________________________

Thank you, for that! I think, one would notice them too. From reading this thread, they do get missed.


Chuck

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During the 2007 PIA Symposium, there was a rumor floating about UPT switching to forged pins for Sigmas.
Something about them being more difficult to bend - than the current stamped pins.
Mind you, any rigger that can bend those thick, stamped pins needs a lesson in loop length.

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When the Dolphin came out there was a lot of talk about catching the housing.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If the housing is properly hand-tacked, then snagging is no longer a risk.
The best rigs (i.e. early Talon) have a pieced of tape to tell you exactly where the end of the housing should be. As long as the housing is tightly sewn - with the end ferrule even with the edge of the tape - there is no gap for the RSL to snag on the end of the housing.
IOW many reserves use the end of the housing as the second "RSL guide ring."

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Wow!
Strato star,

We agree on a second point.
Whatever the fashion may be, I still pack in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.
Granted, this may mean grounding a NARO student rig ... because the last deployment bent the pin and we have been waiting X number of months for a replacement ripcord to come from South Africa ...

In the end, I still route NARO RSL's in accordance with the manual ... through BOTH guide rings.

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