Buying a Complete Rig

[jessd 0]

After how many jumps do people generally wait until they get their own rig? I'm just curious if I will be better off using rental gear for a while or if it is best to buy your own right away? I'm in the process of saving for AFF know and just curious to see if I should start saving for that as well.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away..."

[skybytch 259]

Start saving for gear now regardless - a good used rig with Cypres is going to cost around US$2500, new will be even more. If your dz has lots of rental gear available and reasonable rental rates it might make sense to do 50 jumps or so on their gear. If they only have a few rental rigs or if they charge a lot to rent them then it makes more sense to go ahead and buy your rig shortly after they'll let you jump other than student gear.

Whatever you do, be sure to downsize to your intended "first" main size slowly once you're done jumping student gear...

[billvon 2,476]

Finish AFF before you consider buying a rig. After you graduate, you'll have a better idea what you want to do, what size canopies you will need etc. You can get a decent used rig for about $1500, and a used cypres for another $600. I wouldn't buy a new rig right away, at least until ~100 jumps or so.

[CrazyIvan 0]

Finish your AFF first, rent a rig and put some jumps on it, then, ask your instructors to get you a 'starter' rig (used) according to your weight/height, after ~100 you can start thinking in getting a new one.

In my opinion, the rig should be the LAST item in your list, you better get a Jumpsuit, altimeter, goggles, gloves, helmet and an audible (leave the audible for last also, you better develop your altitude awareness to the max).

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[jessd 0]

I believe that it is $60/ day to rent from the DZ. I'm just the type of person that likes to have money saved in advance for these types of things. I hate using the credit card - I already owe my life in student loans.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away..."

[ladyskydiver 0]

I bought my rig after I passed AFF but prior to my A license. I think it was around 20 some odd jumps. I bought new - decided that getting gear that fit me perfectly was worth the investment plus I didn't want to keep paying rental fees. I had already bought my jumpsuit and altimeter prior to the rig and bought my helmet and Cypress at the same time as my rig.

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[jessd 0]

Do people generally get their own jumpsuit before they buy a rig?

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away..."

[dex 0]

> Do people generally get their own jumpsuit before they buy a rig?

Generally people get jumpsuits first... at least I did... It's cheaper then a rig and you don't have to worry about buying one too early... buy a rig too early and you might find it's not quite what you want after 50 jumps or so... if you live in good weather and things go your way 50 jumps can happen in a month easy assuming no day job gets in way ;)

Getting your own jumpsuit is handy because you never have to worry about not having one because there are a bunch of students your size jumping "your" rental jumpsuit... of course it always sucks more to land rough when wearing your suit so avoid that ;)

[winsor 192]

Quote

After how many jumps do people generally wait until they get their own rig? I'm just curious if I will be better off using rental gear for a while or if it is best to buy your own right away? I'm in the process of saving for AFF know and just curious to see if I should start saving for that as well.

You may not regret it if you buy new gear while still a beginner, but you would be the first in my experience if that wasn't the case.

I have known DZs that had starter rigs that were passed down to newcomers by people who had used them to gain enough experience to know what they wanted when they chose to upgrade. We're talking gear that's well maintained, airworthy and reliable as hell - but not stylish and pretty. Gear that will save your life every time and bring you to a nice landing where you want to be has a beauty all its own.

Even though I make something over minimum wage, I wince at the prices people bandy about blithely for gear of which they will shortly tire. I've seen someone drop close to $1,800 on a container that turned out to be unusable by them, only to take a major thumping when selling it.

My recommendation is to find a container that fits properly with a reserve that's big enough to survive a landing when unconscious and a main large enough that you can land it in someone's back yard without injury if you have to exit the aircraft unexpectedly (engines have been known to fail spectacularly with no warning at all).

A severely underloaded main (e.g., a 110# jumper under a Manta) is not optimum for learning to fly a canopy, and a main that is too fast and unforgiving won't allow you to make mistakes and stay out of the ICU or morgue.

It is axiomatic among photographers that the limits of the Brownie camera have yet to be fully explored, yet people buy Nikons in the hope that equipment will make up for a lack of talent. So it is with parachutes - people are getting gee-whiz canopies who couldn't do justice to an F-111 7-cell loaded at 0.7 psf.

If you can find a good, serviceable rig that's fully assembled, take a couple of jumps on it before you buy it.

You may want to keep it as a backup later, when you get equipment according to your improved skillset. Remember, if it is good enough to keep you out of trouble as a neophyte, it should be able to do that when you are more experienced.


Blue skies,

Winsor

[councilman24 36]

I agree with Winsor advice. But would like to add that I believe you should work on getting your own, used, rig as soon as you can. You'll feel more comfortable with one rig and one canopy while you learning to skydive. Graduating from student status means your just beginning to learn. Getting a rig that fits well and is appropriate for your canopy flight skills will make learning easier. Your freefall won't be affected by rigs that may be marginally to big, or too small. Your canopy flight skills will improve faster if your flying one canopy, then move to another when ready. Your rig will always be ready and available.

Of course I used my own rig for my first freefall, in 1980. A competition Para Commander (can't call it a PC or most of you will think pilot chute), a Security Crossbow harness and container (really were two separate parts) and a Crossbow reserve (round of course). But don't make the mistake I made for my first two rigs. They were the bare minimum airworthy for the time. When I was ready to move on, shortly, they were too obsolete to sell. It would be like buying an old two pin northern lite, an original swift reserve, and a X210 main. I know you don't know what these are but they are all 15 to 20 year old components. They might be airworthy but they are obsolete in saftey, design and performance.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[freeflyerno 0]

I see you've gotten several good replies from several experienced people. One thing most seem to ignore is the economics, however. Buying a used rig when you get off student status is also a good choice from an economical pov.
A brand new rig will see a greater loss in value during your 100-or-so jumps (which is what you can expect before you're ready for something else), than will a used rig. Also, renting a rig is money out of the window. You will get nothing back when it's time to buy a new rig.

Just something to consider.

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Unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers

[AntiPinkChrissy 0]

Quote

Do people generally get their own jumpsuit before they buy a rig?

That was my first big purchase. I bought a helmet (I couldn't stand wearing the DZ's protec's), altimeter, goggles and gloves. Then I bought my wonderful jumpsuit and bought my rig last. Used rig. I have about 300 jumps and am about to buy a brand new system. Yeah!!!

~La La Gang Member #2~

[PhreeZone 15]

Espen? Is that you? Should'nt you be on Rec?

I can't understand getting a new rig until you have done your first downsize myself. The cost of used is cheap and it works just as good and you don't lose your rear on the resale.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[freeflyerno 0]

That'ld be me. There's more to life than Da Wreck. Not much more, but still more

I agree with you on the used/new rig thing.

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Unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers

[scottbre 0]

I hear ya about those student loans. God those suck.

I started jumping my first rig on my 13th jump. I knew that I wanted to skydive a lot more after having done around 10 jumps. The rig was thusly very easy to rationalize. Paying 30 bucks a jump to borrow a rig is too expensive, and I figured my rig would have gotten me that much value after putting 50 jumps on it. The bonus would be that I would still have a rig after those 50 jumps, as opposed to having to give the gear back each time. And my first rig was my first downsize (from 280 to 220).

There are deals out there to be had. I got a very decent rig with a cypress for less than 1300. The order of the gear I bought was as follows:

rig
protrack
altimeter
rw suit

Still don't have my own helmet, and really need a freefly friendly suit, but after 230 jumps I have the same rig (other than the spectre 170 that I replaced the raider 220 with at around 100 jumps).

"Your mother's full of stupidjuice!"
My Art Project

[LoneRanger 0]

Yippie ki yay!