Using reserve as main

[djro 0]

Is there any reason I cant buy a main (say 170) and a reserve (say 150) and when I'm ready to downsize simply use the 150 as the main and have the 'old' main packed as the reserve?

Is there a fundemental difference between a main and reserve?

[AggieDave 6]

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Is there a fundemental difference between a main and reserve?

Yes, no and maybe.

It depends on the make/manufacture of the reserve. Some reserves were used as mains, but those designs are older now. So yes, some used to be jumped as mains, and maybe you could do that, but that is if you have older gear and specific models. Even though you really wouldn't want to do that.

With your typical modern setup, say a Smart reserve and a Pilot, or a PDr and a Sabre2, no, what you are wanting to do is a bad idea. With a good master rigger, you could make one of those reserves into a main, but you really wouldn't want to.

Go to your DZ and talk to one of your riggers. See if you can watch him on a repack. Also get a good hands on lesson on the differences between the materials used on most mains and reserves.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[riggerpaul 1]

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Is there any reason I cant buy a main (say 170) and a reserve (say 150) and when I'm ready to downsize simply use the 150 as the main and have the 'old' main packed as the reserve?

Is there a fundemental difference between a main and reserve?

(AggieDave beat me to it, but since I wrote this, I'll post it anyway.)

It depends on the particular parachutes, sort of.

The old Precision Raven family of parachutes were used as either main or reserve. You were even allowed to jump your reserve Raven once as a main, and then use it as a reserve. (That was a manufacturer's restriction.)

But I doubt very much that you'd want to be jumping a Raven these days, and downsizing to another one is even less likely.

In today's gear, reserves are pretty much purpose built to be reserves. They don't usually have the D-bag attachment on the top skin, for instance. Sure, that could be added, but that's not the only important difference.

Reserves are pretty much all lopo (0-3cfm) fabrics, not ZP. Most are 7 cells, not 9.

PD reserves use uncoated lines that would not last as long as the sorts of lines used on mains. There have been instances where coated lines packet for a long time have been found sticking together. So PD chose to use uncoated lines on their reserves. The logic here is to maximize the probability of the reserve working, while not necessarily maximizing the durability of the reserve as you must in a main. Since reserve see far less abuse than mains do, this approach makes sense.

So, for all practical purposes, the simple answer is that, yes, there are fundamental difference between mains and reserves that make interchanging them a problem.

[NWFlyer 2]

AggieDave summed up the differences between a main and a reserve really nicely, but there's one other point to be made - if you're not ready to fly a 150 as a main, you're not ready to fly it as a reserve, either.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[GLIDEANGLE 1]

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Is there a fundemental difference between a main and reserve?

Yes, no and maybe.

What a perfectly vague and entirely accurate answer to this question! Well done!

The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

[lekstrom10k 0]

You can only do that with Tandems as one DZO would. Rag out the main then put it in as a reserve. Make sure your TI's dont find out. More towards your retirement fund

[AndyMan 7]

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Is there any reason I cant buy a main (say 170) and a reserve (say 150) and when I'm ready to downsize simply use the 150 as the main and have the 'old' main packed as the reserve?

I fine point that I think other people missed - I don't think people ever took mains and packed them as reserves. You would not put a few hundred jumps on mains, then decide to use it as a reserve. There aren't any TSO'd mains anymore, even if there were I would not deem a one with a few hundred jumps as airworthy for a reserve. Also, I don't think that ever actually happened. You could do the opposite, take an old reserve that had 10 jumps on it, and set it up as a main. That was done. Sometimes often.

Of course like others have said, canopy designs have changed a lot since then, and the kinds of canopies that we use as reserves are very different then the ones we use as mains. You simply wouldn't want to do this.

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[Beatnik 2]

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I fine point that I think other people missed - I don't think people ever took mains and packed them as reserves.

I have found quite a few canopies in vintage gear that I got that were without a doubt mains packed as reserves. I have had a few people pull the reserves so it wouldn't have been found out. I have heard some stories of people doing it as late as the 1990's.

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There aren't any TSO'd mains anymore, even if there were I would not deem a one with a few hundred jumps as airworthy for a reserve.

The Falcon, while becoming less and less common is TSO'd and most people that I have seen with them use them as mains.

[kellja2001 0]

Square 1 let me "demo" my reserve, by hooking up an identical reserve as my main (whilst my actual reserve stayed in my reserve tray).

I packed it carefully, and it still opened like a gunshot!

It wasn't fun to fly (less so than my larger main), and the flare was... odd... (7-cell, F111 etc.) - I suppose if I jumped it regularly, I could get used to the landings, but that opening... damn!

Edit: Should mention, it was also a sub-terminal deployment, as they wouldn't let me go to terminal before pulling... thank God!

Video of it opening (40 secs in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdEQhAP4tPE

[theonlyski 3]

Just FYI, I've never even heard of a reserve that has a collapsible slider.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[kellja2001 0]

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Just FYI, I've never even heard of a reserve that has a collapsible slider.

Hey!

It had a collapsible pilot chute, how was I supposed to know?!

[monkycndo 0]

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Just FYI, I've never even heard of a reserve that has a collapsible slider.

It is funny to see how our muscle memory is so ingrained. In videos of reserve rides, see how many people reach up to collapse their slider.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[AggieDave 6]

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Just FYI, I've never even heard of a reserve that has a collapsible slider.

It is funny to see how our muscle memory is so ingrained. In videos of reserve rides, see how many people reach up to collapse their slider.

I tried to take the slider off on my last ride.

It didn't work.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Divalent 89]

OT, but man, those are cool videos. (loved the sword fights in the "day 1-3" video, and the raft ride in "day 4-7")

[BlindBrick 0]

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There aren't any TSO'd mains anymore,

I think you can still order a Falcon.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[Unstable 8]

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I think you can still order a Falcon.

If you call up PD, can't you still special order a standard 7-cell F-111 Square canopy? That was my first main ~ it was an old military demonstration parachtue that was camoflauge colored ~ custom job. I just knew that If I ever cut it away, that baby was GONE because you're never going to find it.

=========Shaun ==========