foreign jumpers in USA - gear issues?

[bryanburke 10]

I've been working for some time on getting a waiver from the FAA to allow foreign jumpers to use their gear as accepted in their country of origin. Currently the FARs require that if any component has a TSO, it has to be maintained to US standards and packed by an FAA Rigger.

You can read more here: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FAA-2016-4527-0004

I could use some help from this forum. As far as I can learn, the US is the only country that holds the pilot accountable for inspecting the equipment for compliance with the FARs, and is apparently the only country that does not allow visiting experienced jumpers to use their gear as approved in their home country.

I've studied the documents of parachuting federations around the world and the US definitely seems to be an outlier.

Please contact me at my personal e-mail, bryantburke at Hotmail dot com, and put something like Foreign Gear in US in the subject line. What I'd like to know is -

Visiting the US with your gear after 2001, did drop zones require you to be in compliance with the FARs, or accept you and your gear as approved in your country? Please share your experience including the drop zones and time frames.

Do you know of other jumpers who visited the US with their own gear and had problems related to the American rigging/packing requirements?

Do you know of any country where the pilot is specifically named as a responsible party for ensuring jumpers are in compliance with equipment regulations? In almost every other country the Chief Instructor or their designee has this job.

Does an ETSO or JTSO have the same legal status with the FAA as a US TSO? As far as I can tell almost all European and South African rigs have a TSO to make them legal in the US market. How many harness/container and canopy makers are out there building stuff with no TSO?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this project.

Bryan Burke
STA at Skydive Arizona

[IJskonijn 38]

In four years of visiting the USA for jumping, I have never heard of practical examples where a foreign jumper was not allowed to jump their own gear while it was complying with their home regulations. This includes my own equipment, which is a Vector II rig, with PDR-193 reserve (both obviously TSO'd), which were packed by a Dutch master rigger who did not hold an FAA rigger rating.

Furthermore, I know of at least one company (SkyWide Systems, based in Ukraine) that manufactures rigs without a formal TSO rating. They state their rigs have been tested according to TSO C23d standards, but they don't have the formal rating due to a myrad of legal international relations issues. Several European friends of mine are jumping their rigs, and to my knowledge none have ever had any issues jumping at a US dropzone with their equipment.

Dutch law regarding skydiving operations do not put any requirements on the equipment used by jumpers, and deals almost exclusively with the pilot responsibilities regarding class of airspace, ATC contact, flight conditions etc. All skydiver-related regulations are handled by the RNAA (KNVvL in Dutch). Their regulations state that the jumper himself is responsible for ensuring their equipment is up to scratch (except for sub-A license jumpers who are not jumping their own equipement, in that case the instructor responsible for them is responsible for the equipment). Airworthiness and periodic inspections are regulated to be done only by Master Riggers and Senior Riggers respectively. Several regulations state explicitely that for foreign visiting jumpers, the relevant regulations of their home country apply instead.

If I remember tonight, I'll email you a list of my own interactions with US dropzones, none of which resulted in an FAA rigger having to repack my stuff.

[JeffBarlow 10]

Bunch of Europe based companies manufacture skydiving gear without FAA TSO certification. Some of them are even listed on this very website under Gear section.

[mr2mk1g 10]

It's been some time since I've visited a US DZ but I'm sure that when I did (post 2001) they honoured the UK's 6 month repack cycle even though back then you guys were on a shorter cycle - what was it 120 days?

Also, certainly did not require everyone to get a reserve repack from an FAA rigger, reserves were all jumped as packed by a BPA rigger.

[chuckakers 370]

JeffBarlow

Bunch of Europe based companies manufacture skydiving gear without FAA TSO certification. Some of them are even listed on this very website under Gear section.

TSO'd gear is not required for foreign jumpers in the U.S as long as certain conditions are met. See FAR 105.49 below


sec. 105.49 foreign paracHutists and equipment

(a) No person may conduct a parachute operation, and no pilot in command of an aircraft may allow a parachute operation to be conducted from that aircraft with an unapproved foreign parachute system unless— (1) The parachute system is worn by a foreign parachutist who is the owner of that system. (2) The parachute system is of a single-harness dual parachute type. (3) The parachute system meets the civil aviation authority requirements of the foreign parachutist’s country. (4) All foreign non-approved parachutes deployed by a foreign parachutist during a parachute operation conducted under this section shall be packed as follows— (i) The main parachute must be packed by the foreign parachutist making the next parachute jump with that parachute, a certificated parachute rigger, or any other person acceptable to the Administrator. (ii) The reserve parachute must be packed in accordance with the foreign parachutist’s civil aviation authority requirements, by a certificated parachute rigger, or any other person acceptable to the Administrator.

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX