Thanks for a save....

[skytribe 16]

As a rigger, when you have a save most jumpers I've found are thankful for their life buy a bottle for the rigger, express some gratitude to the rigger who packed the reserve.

How often have you experienced a jumper who doesn't even acknowledge/thank you for the save ?

[monkycndo 0]

No bottle? Next time, leave the temp pin in place.

Um, just kidding.

Tradition is important. I think some schooling is called for.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[piisfish 135]

skytribe

As a rigger, when you have a save most jumpers I've found are thankful for their life buy a bottle for the rigger, express some gratitude to the rigger who packed the reserve.

How often have you experienced a jumper who doesn't even acknowledge/thank you for the save ?

80% of the time not even a phone call to say it worked.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[SStewart 13]

skytribe

As a rigger, when you have a save most jumpers I've found are thankful for their life buy a bottle for the rigger, express some gratitude to the rigger who packed the reserve.

How often have you experienced a jumper who doesn't even acknowledge/thank you for the save ?

All the time with students and tandems. they usually don't even know who packed the reserve.

Regular skydivers? Never, they are always very grateful.

Onward and Upward!

[CTSkydiver 0]

So, uh, thanks for doing that job I paid you to do?

And, oh, here's some extra work for you, earlier than planned, that I will also pay you for, if you want it?

Oh. You don't? Well, dang.

...

I get the tradition argument; but actually asking for a tip, and / or getting slighted when you don't get the one you presumably think you're owed (because you work in an industry that actively works to perpetuate this specific tipping tradition) ... just seems tacky.

Is the bottle required out of gratitude because the reserve actually opened? Should that outcome ever be in doubt?

Why don't I just buy you the bottle now? You've already saved my life, presumably. Why wait for me to test it?

Or is it that the spirits are required in a timely fashion, to calm your nerves, right after your work was actually put to the test? ("Phew! That was a close one! Thank god it happened on one of the rigs I packed sober!")

...

Along these lines,

Thank you hero pilots, who landed the plane safely when the engine(s) stalled. Like we expect you to do.

And,

Thank you hero tandem instructors, who landed their students safely in one piece after that nasty malfunction, or that really bad spot you didn't ask a go-around for. You know; like we expect you to do.

Etc...

[piisfish 135]

I just expect a "Thanks for having done a good job". Nothing more.
Seems too much already. And some people seem assholeish enough to not even want to understand that.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[fcajump 153]

FWIW -

I try to thank my pilot even when they are "only" faced with a routine run. (I still forget too often, or they're up again when I'm packing to leave.) You bet I'd thank them for pulling off a save.

The rigger is often the worst paid (per hour) on the DZ, and yet holds one of the highest liability. Is it too much to suggest that after his handy work has saved your butt after you've rushed another pack job without checking your pin/loop/line-continuity/velcro/etc... (or paid someone where neither of you care about condition) you might want to give the rigger a little positive feedback about their work?

You tip a waitress for 'doing their job' when it was to get the right food from the back to your table.

Here 'doing their job' resulted in you living.

Think about it.

Just my $.02,
JW

Always remember that some clouds are harder than others...

[gowlerk 1,916]

I always tell those that ask that I do accept Guinness (out of tradition) I also make a point of telling them that I did not save their life, they did that themselves. Saying the rigger on a sport rig got a "save" is like saying the mechanic who installed the brakes on your car "saved my life at that stop sign".

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[riggerrob 558]

"..... You tip a waitress for 'doing their job' when it was to get the right food from the back to your table.

Here 'doing their job' resulted in you living."

...................................................................

As an aside, waitresses get tipped because they are chronically underpaid. Most waitresses cannot even pay their rent on their minimum wage. Tips encourage them to provide quick, accurate and polite service ... the same as riggers.
Decades ago, skydivers gained confidence that I would always save their lives, now they pay me for quick service and making their butts ... er rigs .... look pretty ... even when stuffing 10 pounds into a 5 pound bag.

I also suspect that the traditional beer was standard wages .... back when I drank heavily.

[skytribe 16]

Its not about a bottle, merely an acknowledgement of thanks.

I've had enough live uses of reserves I've packed and almost all have expressed thanks whether by a bottle of something or just by letting me know and thanking me.

Students I don't expect anything from. They don't know protocol. However licensed jumpers I think are a different matter.

One of the last ones was a reserve use which I found out was mine much later when I came to repack it after and it had been a dragged out repack due to them losing parts, then getting the wrong replacement parts and even when the correct parts were delivered got them installed within the hour.

Yet, still no acknowledgement or even a thanks from the jumper. Next time and I'm sure there will be a next time, I guess I wont go out of my way to work on his stuff as quickly. It just seemed to me to be a bit of a assholeish attitude that I rarely see and wondered how prevalent it was.

[Dopamine_Junkie 0]

I have saved hundreds of lives as a paramedic and ER nurse. I have gotten a few thank you's. Most of the time though it's "fuck you, I am suing everyone including you." Go for it asshole, I'll remember your address for the next time you code due to your shitty medical condition from a lifetime of being an jerk and not eating right or exercising. I would buy the rigger a bottle no doubt, but I believe in traditions like that and good karma.

[CTSkydiver 0]

Surely, it always pays to be nice to the folks you trust with your important stuff. Also, it pays to be nice to customers. The best relationships send appreciation and respect both ways.

As for Paramedics and ER nurses -- yeah, those are the people you are going to count on someday to save your ass when you've lost the ability to do anything about it yourself. It's not easy work, and it certainly is vastly underpaid and under appreciated. But not by me. I've never needed trauma assistance before, and hope I never do ... but I'm awfully glad its out there for me if I ever do.

[PhreeZone 15]

I've had customers that after using their reserve take their rig to another rigger instead for repack and never tell me they needed to use it or even let me try to pack it again that season and instead wait until the last minute in the spring and want it repacked for an upcoming weekend where the weather looks good.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[JerryBaumchen 1,050]

Hi skytribe,

Quote

when you have a save

I have never been thanked for a save.

Jerry Baumchen

[Anachronist 2]

Yes, it's not about the actual bottle, it is a symbolic gesture. A fun and lighthearted one in my opinion and it's nice to give and receive.

I've had two cutaways and bought both riggers a bottle of their choosing (and both chose something less than $15, I assume out of the whole mutual courtesy thing).

For the first one I drove more than a hour out of my way to do it and it happened to be a manufacturer's rigger who packs scores of anonymous reserves every year. He laughed and said that almost no one who wasn't a local ever thanked him, much less showed up in person to buy him a bottle. But he appreciated it and I felt good doing it.

If a local didn't at least acknowledge a save I think that would be pretty weak.

The "beer tax" for everything is stupid, but the bottle for the rigger tradition is one that I appreciate.

Oh, and as mentioned earlier, I also make an effort to thank the pilot for the ride if I'm close enough for him to hear me without yelling obnoxiously on jump run and when I see him on the ground.

[ronny2 0]

I am a lucky rigger

[skytribe 16]

Quote

I have never been thanked for a save.

So in all your years, no-one who has ever had to use your pack jobs has even bothered to come over and thank you or acknowledge that they used your pack job.

[JerryBaumchen 1,050]

Hi skytribe,

Quote

So in all your years, no-one who has ever had to use your pack jobs has even bothered to come over and thank you or acknowledge that they used your pack job.

No. About the most that I have ever gotten is a, 'Well, it worked.' I guess that would be an acknowledgment.

C'est la vie,

Jerry Baumchen

PS) However, I have gotten a thanks for doing the repack.