Learning to pack

[ripcord4 0]

I would like to contact any jumpers in central Florida - Leesburg or Fruitland Park area - that would be willing to teach me to pack a square. I'm just returning to flight after years away from the sport and need to learn about packing the square canopy.

Thanks, all!

Larry

[skybum1 0]

Are you for real? It says in your profile that you claim to be a senior rigger.

I would assume that a senior rigger would be able to find that information readily available on any manufacturers website or PPM, DZO packing class,etc. IMHO

My point is you shouldn't need to look any farther than your own DZ to learn how to pack.

"Remember to be nice to people on your way up cause you meet them on your way down." Jimmy D.

[tso-d_chris 0]

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Are you for real? It says in your profile that you claim to be a senior rigger.

Or maybe he made his jumps back when 3000 jumps was a lot. You know, back when most every jump ended in a round landing.

You haven't skydived until you've landed a round. Anyone who is willing to take that beating 2611 times, well, they've earned some respect from us newbies.

For Great Deals on Gear

[tdog 0]

His rigger note in the profile does say chest, not back. I agree - anyone who has landed a round once earns my respect... A few thousand times, and I am real interested,

[ripcord4 0]

Yep, Senior rigger for round, chest reserves. Having all the manuals, etc at hand still does not equal having someone show you the proper procedures. Did you learn to pack from a book or did someone show you how a few times? There is a BIG difference from round to square, and as it will be my a** hanging under the canopy, I want to make certain I know what I am doing.

And yes, learning at the DZ will probably be what happens, but I am looking for a local jumper that can spend a few hours in my backyard showing me the ropes without time pressure from being on the next load.

[Andy9o8 0]

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anyone who has landed a round once earns my respect... A few thousand times, and I am real interested

Oh, for cryin' out loud, guys, you make it sound like Para-Commanders were death rigs that pile-drove you into the ground. In fact, they were safe, reliable, and gave very decent landings to thousands of jumpers. I loved my first PC, and didn't have a single cutaway on it in about 150 jumps. (My first reserve ride was jump #57, jumping a cheapo, and that was a 4-pin ripcord hard pull-total; not a canopy malfunction.) The cheapos' landings were a bit harder, but not terribly so (for us skinny kids), and they opened quite reliably if you were a student with [ahem] stability problems. Oh, and one more thing: once you had a "perfectly good" round over you, it was almost unheard of that you might still die under it.

[mjosparky 3]

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anyone who has landed a round once earns my respect... A few thousand times, and I am real interested

Oh, for cryin' out loud, guys, you make it sound like Para-Commanders were death rigs that pile-drove you into the ground. In fact, they were safe, reliable, and gave very decent landings to thousands of jumpers. I loved my first PC, and didn't have a single cutaway on it in about 150 jumps. (My first reserve ride was jump #57, jumping a cheapo, and that was a 4-pin ripcord hard pull-total; not a canopy malfunction.) The cheapos' landings were a bit harder, but not terribly so (for us skinny kids), and they opened quite reliably if you were a student with [ahem] stability problems. Oh, and one more thing: once you had a "perfectly good" round over you, it was almost unheard of that you might still die under it.

I noticed from your profile that you are no longer jumping a Para-Commander or any other round for that matter. Why is that?

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[sid 1]

Larry, I almost wish I was back in Central Florida (until I saw "Dennis" and remembered my experience with three hurricanes last year) - I have a web site (It's free, no advertising mods!!!!!) called www.packingparachutes.com with full details of pro-packing a square. I also have a cd-rom available with some movie clips, but these are really aimed at beginners, and as a rigger, I feel sure you will do just fine with the instructions on the site. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.....

Peter (Sid)

Pete Draper,

Just because my life plan is written on the back of a Hooter's Napkin, it's still a life plan.... right?

[Andy9o8 0]

Hardy-har. Same reason you ain't either: cuz I ain't a skinny kid no more. I think my old gear's in the Smithsonian now...

[tdog 0]

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anyone who has landed a round once earns my respect... A few thousand times, and I am real interested

Oh, for cryin' out loud, guys, you make it sound like Para-Commanders were death rigs that pile-drove you into the ground. In fact, they were safe, reliable, and gave very decent landings to thousands of jumpers. I loved my first PC, and didn't have a single cutaway on it in about 150 jumps. (My first reserve ride was jump #57, jumping a cheapo, and that was a 4-pin ripcord hard pull-total; not a canopy malfunction.) The cheapos' landings were a bit harder, but not terribly so (for us skinny kids), and they opened quite reliably if you were a student with [ahem] stability problems. Oh, and one more thing: once you had a "perfectly good" round over you, it was almost unheard of that you might still die under it.

My point is that I see how far skydiving has come by looking at older equipment and the way thing used to be done... Someone who has experienced the changes and knows how to fly more than a square earns my respect. I am sure in 30 years I will look at my rig, which is cutting edge 2005 technology and think, "I jumped THAT?" and the new kids will be making fun of me.

[Avion 0]

I downloaded all the pictures and words I could about packing squares. For me, they just failed to fully convey the whole process. Flaking out the cells and bagging the main are the two usual difficult parts to learn. They're easy enough to do, it's just hard to grasp without having someone to give you an actual demonstation.

Cheers

[tso-d_chris 0]

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Oh, for cryin' out loud, guys, you make it sound like Para-Commanders were death rigs that pile-drove you into the ground. In fact, they were safe, reliable, and gave very decent landings to thousands of jumpers. I loved my first PC, and didn't have a single cutaway on it in about 150 jumps.

My first reserve ride was under a Security 26' Lo-Po. weighing (with gear) about 160 lbs, it was not a drastically hard landing by round standards, ending in a reasonably well executed PLF. Nonetheless, to steal a phrase from Tom Clancy, I landed with "a lung emptying thump." I found a square reserve soon after that.

Yes, modern gear is definitely easier on the body when used repeatedly. I just can't picture many 4 way teams cranking out 75 loads a week and landing under rounds every jump.

For Great Deals on Gear

[Andy9o8 0]

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My first reserve ride was under a Security 26' Lo-Po. ......I landed with "a lung emptying thump." I found a square reserve soon after that.....modern gear is definitely easier on the body when used repeatedly.......

No doubt about it; of course the squares are better than the old rounds. But that misses my point. First of all, a 26' round reserve, which was basically a cheapo-style canopy that was even smaller than the standard 28' or 35' cheapo main, landed a hell of a lot harder than the P-C main I was talking about. But my real point is my amusement whenever I see the occasional post by someone who wasn't around when good P-C's & French Paps were still being jumped who just presumes, for no other reason than because you no longer see those canopies being jumped anymore (because the technology has been superseded), that they were scary things that were as likely as not to either kill or femur you -- when in fact that was far from the case. That being said, sure, I'd never trade-in a ram-air for a round today. But to make an analogy, just because a 2005 Lexus might be a a better & safer car than a 1975 Chrysler, and hardly any '75's are on the road anymore, doesn't mean the '75's were all death machines back when they were commonplace. I don't know...maybe one simply has to live long enough to have watched 30 or so years of technology develop to understand that point...

[tso-d_chris 0]

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No doubt about it; of course the squares are better than the old rounds. But that misses my point. First of all, a 26' round reserve, which was basically a cheapo-style canopy that was even smaller than the standard 28' or 35' cheapo main, landed a hell of a lot harder than the P-C main I was talking about. But my real point is my amusement whenever I see the occasional post by someone who wasn't around when good P-C's & French Paps were still being jumped who just presumes, for no other reason than because you no longer see those canopies being jumped anymore (because the technology has been superseded), that they were scary things that were as likely as not to either kill or femur you -- when in fact that was far from the case. That being said, sure, I'd never trade-in a ram-air for a round today. But to make an analogy, just because a 2005 Lexus might be a a better & safer car than a 1975 Chrysler, and hardly any '75's are on the road anymore, doesn't mean the '75's were all death machines back when they were commonplace. I don't know...maybe one simply has to live long enough to have watched 30 or so years of technology develop to understand that point...

A 1975 Chrysler operates in largely the same manner as a 2005 Chrysler. It requires the same actions for accelerating, braking, etc.

The same cannot be said of skydiving gear during the same 30 year period. Capewells are gone, and we have pilot inflatable wings instead of riding passenger on an aerodynamic decellrator. You can't use the same procedures as with old gear.

IMO it took a much larger pair of cajones to jump out of an airplane back in the early years of modern skydiving, with very good reason, compared to now.

[Andy9o8 0]

Ok, not to beat this thing to death, but you're still going way beyond the narrow point of my post, which was really focused strictly on the canopy. My original reason for amusement at this subject was some time ago when I read, in a different thread, someone refer to the Para-Commander as a "death rig", and he got a reply from someone else who used to jump a PC, loved his old rig, and took issue with the slanderous label. I've tried & failed to make this a clicky, but here's the search string that (I hope) takes you to that thread/discussion.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=844438;search_string=%22death%20rigs%22;#844438


Since I've had similar conversations as that one with people, as I presume others have, I just continued the thought with my own post in this thread.

Oh, and as for my large cajones: thank you for the compliment.

[skylord 1]

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=844438;search_string=%22death%20rigs%22;#844438

I think this works......

Bob Marks

"-when you leave the airplane its all wrong til it goes right, its a whole different mindset, this is why you have system redundancy." Mattaman

[mjosparky 3]

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Hardy-har. Same reason you ain't either: cuz I ain't a skinny kid no more. I think my old gear's in the Smithsonian now...

But I still do when the situation calls for it. I would prefer to test nice ram-air canopies that I am comfortable with but the last couple of programs I worked were with 26 and 28 footers. Lucky me.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[SpecialKaye 0]

Larry,

I would be more than happy to give you the assistance you need. I have a rigging shop available and we could rig without distractions that are part of the DZ life.

Send me an e-mail here [email protected] or [email protected].

I live in Thonotosassa, just south of Z-Hills.

Blue skies,
Kaye