Age of reserves used in 'saves'

[pchapman 261]

I was curious about how old reserves have been, at the time they were used. So I went through my own saves list of 49 so far.

This doesn't really mean much; it's just a matter of curiosity about the numbers, and something one can't see by looking through the typical saves lists on the web.

A histogram is attached, showing reserve ages at time of use. Data was collected by year only. The average is 10-11 years, with the most common age being 12 years. Only one was a round, the very first, 18 years old at the time. The oldest were 24, an original Swift deployed after a CRW wrap last year, and a Firelite in rental gear this year.

Saves on jumpers' own gear 15-20 years old is less, but certainly does happen.

The second graph shows the saves chronologically, and also breaks the gear down into the 31 owned by jumpers, 7 tandem rigs, and 11 other dropzone owned rigs (student or rental gear). That's just to give an impression of the type of rigs involved, but the different types used in different years don't mean much, as the amount I've packed for DZ's has varied greatly over the years. The DZ rig reserves have tended to be a little older, for the ones I packed.

[JerryBaumchen 1,048]

Hi Peter,

My current Rigger's Logbook only goes back to '92 but in July '64 I used a 24 ft Twill that had been built during World War II; so it would have been built about 1943 or so.

JerryBaumchen

[ruthers 0]

really interesting.

I paraglide as well as skydive and have often heard paragliders from the UK quoting their national association's recommendation to replace paraglider reserves more than 10 years old.

I had a look at Mr Chapman's website, and loved the old Canadian BSRs, especially the first few rules!

[Abedy 0]

I got spared from reserve rides until last year when I was due ;-) The reserve was a PD 176R from my first own rig (that I bought second-hand) and was about 15 years old. Took me home without any problems.

I like the old safety rules, too.

The sky is not the limit. The ground is.

The Society of Skydiving Ducks

[JerryBaumchen 1,048]

Hi Peter,

From those old 1958 BSR's:

No one will be allowed to join the PCC or make a parachute descent while influenced by a bet or dare.

Sure would be a lot less students in the good old US of A if this were the rule here.

JerryBaumchen

[phoenixlpr 0]

Quote

I was curious about how old reserves have been, at the time they were used. So I went through my own saves list of 49 so far.

This doesn't really mean much; it's just a matter of curiosity about the numbers, and something one can't see by looking through the typical saves lists on the web.

A histogram is attached, showing reserve ages at time of use. Data was collected by year only. The average is 10-11 years, with the most common age being 12 years. Only one was a round, the very first, 18 years old at the time. The oldest were 24, an original Swift deployed after a CRW wrap last year, and a Firelite in rental gear this year.

Saves on jumpers' own gear 15-20 years old is less, but certainly does happen.

The second graph shows the saves chronologically, and also breaks the gear down into the 31 owned by jumpers, 7 tandem rigs, and 11 other dropzone owned rigs (student or rental gear). That's just to give an impression of the type of rigs involved, but the different types used in different years don't mean much, as the amount I've packed for DZ's has varied greatly over the years. The DZ rig reserves have tended to be a little older, for the ones I packed.

The beauty of statistics that you are able to prove something or even the opposite of that depending of your methodology.

So, what is your conclusion to prove?

[pchapman 261]

Quote

So, what is your conclusion to prove?

No big conclusion, no null hypothesis to disprove.

Just one of those things where new information is extracted from a bunch of data. Never seen such info summarized before. One would indeed learn more from, say, checking the reserve ages of all jumpers at different DZs.

I just found it interesting to see the age ranges of reserves being used. They're certainly not all nearly new.

[cbrown1311 0]

Would it be safe to assume that most jumpers main and reserves are of similar age? If that is a safe assumption, I might say this data supports the hypothesis that older main parachutes are more likely to malfunction, as that could explain the "saves" from older reserves more often than newer reserves.

[theonlyski 3]

Quote

Would it be safe to assume that most jumpers main and reserves are of similar age? If that is a safe assumption, I might say this data supports the hypothesis that older main parachutes are more likely to malfunction, as that could explain the "saves" from older reserves more often than newer reserves.

I've seen people jumping with reserves that are quite a bit older than their mains.

Hey, they only use it once in a while, it's ok if it's old, right? Some people just don't want to buy new reserves (which is totally fine, provided they TAKE CARE of their gear and don't set themselves up for failure) I would feel comfortable jumping a 10-15 year old square reserve provided it was in good shape, appropriate to my wing loading, and not known for being a hard landing.

"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

[billvon 2,400]

>Hey, they only use it once in a while, it's ok if it's old, right?

Sometimes not so OK. A fair number of people have gotten hurt under old Micro Ravens just because they are a rather old design and do not flare like modern canopies*. That's one of the problems with older gear - it does not have the improvements that newer gear does, and sometimes there were good reasons for those improvements.

(* - they CAN be landed relatively safely, but nowadays most jumpers do not have the required experience under easily-stalled high wing loading F111 canopies to do so.)

[theonlyski 3]

Quote

>Hey, they only use it once in a while, it's ok if it's old, right?

Sometimes not so OK. A fair number of people have gotten hurt under old Micro Ravens just because they are a rather old design and do not flare like modern canopies*. That's one of the problems with older gear - it does not have the improvements that newer gear does, and sometimes there were good reasons for those improvements.

(* - they CAN be landed relatively safely, but nowadays most jumpers do not have the required experience under easily-stalled high wing loading F111 canopies to do so.)

I should've probably noted that I was being sarcastic with that comment.

"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

[judogirl5 0]

saved myself with a 21 year old fury friday. it did its job!