Beware of Kenny Ruetsch selling a Sabre 107

[JumpHog 0]

I can't believe that it has come to me having to post this on this forum, but I have tried all other avenues to make sure that no one gets hurt under this canopy. I am posting this with the permission of Sangiro. Kenneth S. Ruetch purchased an unairworthy Sabre 107 off of a DZO/Senior Rigger in the midwest for $69 on eBay. She very clearly stated that this canopy was unairworthy and should be used for decoration only. She also VERY clearly stated that it had 800 jumps, with 200 jumps on the new lineset. This canopy has serious issues that the previous owner was unable to resolve with an inspection and a new lineset. It does not fly right at all, does not flare, and collapsed on her at 50 feet, crushing her ankle. She is an experienced canopy pilot, and decided it was not worth putting another jump on. She sold it to Kenny, with the full understanding that this canopy was unsafe/unairworthy to jump.

Immediately after buying this canopy, Kenny placed it in the classified ads on DZ.com under his username of "airstream". He listed it as being in excellent condition, and only having 600 jumps, with 100 jumps since the last reline (all lies). He put it up for $500 with no mention if it being unairworthy. I stumbled across this ad, and contacted the previous owner, who sent him a long e-mail telling that this canopy WILL HURT SOMEONE and should not be jumped. She also offered to buy it back from him, at a loss. She also contacted Sangiro, who removed the ad and sent him an e-mail warning him not to sell this canopy. Kenny stated that the canopy that he was selling on DZ.com was a different canopy than the one he bought off eBay, and that the bad canopy was on its way back to PD. I know that this is BS, because before I made any accusations, I wanted to be 100% sure that this was the same canopy. I asked him to send me a picture of the canopy he was selling, and he sent me a picture that is definately the unairworthy Sabre 107. I find it hard to believe that he happened to buy an unairworthy Sabre 107, with a very distinct color pattern, while in the meantime, he was selling a perfectly good Sabre 107, with the exact same distinct color pattern. Not wanting to see this canopy get into the hands of an unsuspecting jumper, who might get hurt or killed under this, I offered to buy it off him for $500. Unfortunately, he says that he has already sold it. This canopy is DANGEROUS and should not be jumped, PERIOD. I still can't believe that Kenny has put another skydiver's life in danger, just to make a fast buck. If you have bought this canopy from Kenny Ruetsch, DO NOT JUMP IT!!! Kenny lives in the Columbus, Ohio area, so he made have sold it nearby.

Kenny also has a couple of other canopies listed in the classifieds, and I would not take what he says about those with a grain of salt. This guy makes me sick and ashamed that he is a fellow skydiver. After all of the warnings, he still sold this canopy to an innocent jumper. I couldn't live with myself if I saw that an unsuspecting jumper was hurt or killed under a canopy that they thought was perfectly good. If you have this canopy or know where it is, please contact me so we can see about getting it in the right hands. I've attached a picture below.

Blue Skies,
Paul Eriksmoen

[rasmack 0]

When something is declared unairworthy by a rigger in Denmark he/she is required to clearly state this on the unit in question. I suppose this is the reason

I sincerely hope noone gets hurt.

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[feuergnom 22]

sad news indeed

but one (maybe dumb) question rises: aren't unairworthy canopies marked in some way thus preventing such things happening?

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[Feeblemind 1]

Quote

sad news indeed

but one (maybe dumb) question rises: aren't unairworthy canopies marked in some way thus preventing such things happening?

I was wondering the same exact thing......

Fire Safety Tip: Don't fry bacon while naked

[diverdriver 5]

Do you know his home DZ?

Chris Schindler
www.diverdriver.com
ATP/D-19012
FB #4125

[meekerseeker 0]

I'm the DZO/rigger, the first owner of this canopy, the one who STUPIDLY sold it on ebay. I feel badly about this being out there in possibly unknowing hands, but when I sold this, I spelled out EXACTLY what problems it had. I was thinking someone (with more motivation than me) could do something with it and maybe make it work again.

I've accumulated the details on this if anyone is interested:
www.skydivekansas.com/107.htm

I know as it was when I sold it, this canopy had severe problems. Mains are not TSO'ed in the US and I've never heard of any requirements about labelling mains unairworthy. That would have been a good idea to somehow mark it, I wish I would have thought of that, but I thought I was doing the best I could at the time to make sure the buyer knew the problems.

I could kick myself for not imagining the scenario that someone could with clear conscience resell this thing to another unsuspecting skydiver. So now Paul (a good friend) and I are on an EDUCATION campaign, I guess, since that's all we can do. I applaud Sangrio from Dropzone.com for his quick action taking the ad down and his committment to ascertaining the integrity of the classifieds.

I wish I would have just cut the lines off of it and hung it up for decoration!

:Jen

[ccowden 0]

Thank you for posting this. Hard to believe that somone would intentionally try to profit on something like this and mislead the purchaser enough that it could end up hurting them or killing them!

[feuergnom 22]

clicky

The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle

dudeist skydiver # 666

[Amanduh 0]

This is absolutely revolting. I cannot believe it.

At least you two are trying to get the truth out about this canopy; that is very respectable.

I hope the 'victim' whom purchased this canopy hears the news in time before getting hurt.

[rasmack 0]

Just a stupid question. Is there any police station that would not take something like this very seriously? I believe that knowingly causing physical danger to other people is illegal in most places.

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[davelepka 4]

E-mail him again. In an attempt to clear his name, ask for the SN of the 'other, similar' canopy, then check with PD that it's a multi colored Sabre 107.

If he doesn't have that handy, ask for the name and contact info of the 'local buyer'. They have the canopy, and in turn the SN.

Have you called PD to inquire if they have your canopy from this gentleman? They may not want to give out specifics, but if they have a possible faulty product out there, I'm sure they would like to get it out of circulation, and possibly back in their hands.

Does anyone know this guy? I live in Ohio, and don't recognize the name, but I don't really remember names unless I've known someone for a year or two.

[CSpenceFLY 1]

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Just a stupid question. Is there any police station that would not take something like this very seriously? I believe that knowingly causing physical danger to other people is illegal in most places.

We don't need the police involved in our community.This should be handled from within.I'd get my money back and keep the damn thing.

[PhreeZone 15]

If it was sold to a local Ohio jumper this weekend is a great chance to bring it up at Safety day. Might even want to put up a flyer around the DZ with some details.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[divnswoop 0]

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sad news indeed

Unfortunely, this happens ALL the time. We had a guy at the dz this weekend who already got his hands on something he should have had 400 jumps to jump.....he only had 40 though
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1519684#1519684

[freakydiver 0]

Always inspect a canopy before a) buying it and b) flying it. That should be a no brainer to anyone trained in the least.

-- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." --

[FrogNog 1]

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Always inspect a canopy before a) buying it and b) flying it. That should be a no brainer to anyone trained in the least.

Is it clear in this case that an inspection of the canopy will reveal it is dangerous? I didn't think so based on the info. Absent an indelible "unairworthy" stamp on the fabric, inspection alone might not be enough here.

That's why I prefer to buy reserve canopies with at least one ride on them.

What's the serial number? (Note to self: record all gear serial numbers in a unified place tonight. I've been a bad skydiver.)

-=-=-=-=-
Pull.

[freakydiver 0]

Its just a generalization, but most unairworthy canopies I've seen over the years are pretty straightforward in detecting their airworthiness if you go through the full set of canopy inspection methodologies.

-- (N.DG) "If all else fails – at least try and look under control." --

[isaiah85 0]

I just checked to see if we had any canopies come it for any maintenance from Kenny. Nothing from him, if someone can get the serial number I can check and see if someone else sent it in.

Isaiah

[obelixtim 100]

Sorry, thays TOTAL bullshit.......

If someone spears in under this piece of crap, the police WILL be involved.......and if this idiot sells it under false pretenses then he should be at least threatened with the law......what if it was a member of your family or your best mate who innocently bought this canopy and jumped it....

This scumbag needs to be stopped........he doesn't qualify for any consideration or fair play whatsoever.......

If he sold a dangerous vehicle surely the cops would prosecute if a fatal accident occured...

I can't believe the brainlessness involved with selling an unserviceable main on ebay for $69, without making it permanently unserviceable.......

What the hell was the seller thinking......

Old canopies like that should be donated to your local infants school......they love them........

I hope this works out OK and lessons are learned....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[Bdog 0]

if WE don't police our sport there are those who will. every incident hurts us. some are unavoidable. others, like this one, can be stopped.

_________________________________________

---Future Darwin Award recipient-

[ChrisL 2]

If I understand the sellers comment correctly, they believed that the buyer was going to attempt to have the problems corrected.

I wouldnt hold the seller responsible for this, especially since they have made this situation public and have tried various avenues of tracking the guy down.
If I had an old car that was unsafe and unroadworthy, I would not trash it completely before attemtping to sell it.
The buyer might be buying a known junker to fix it up.
Happens all the time all over the world. As long as I accurately represented the condition to the buyer, thats all anyone can do.

If the buyer then turned around and attempted to sell it to a third person and misrepresented the condition to make a profit that is still not the original sellers fault.
The fact that they have made the whole thing public speaks to their character.

This is only my opinion.

__

My mighty steed

[AMax 0]

Unfortunately, we cannot completely prevent something like this from happening again.

Perhaps it is a good idea to modify unairworthy canopies to be sold on e-bay for decoration purposes in a way that they cannot be immediately attached to the rig and jumped by inexperienced people. For example, disconnecting the lines, or even partially disassembling the wing.

[kjarv 0]

I hate to go against the grain here, but who determined the canopies' airworthiness?

I respect your opinion's on the canopy and based on that I'd never jump it, bit it's your opinion--- the guy selling the canopy may have deemed it 'airwothy'

It is sad that he misrepresented the canopy though, and didn't express that in his ad, and I'm sure bad karma is heading his way for that, but before we accuse anyone of doing something illegal, I'd think a rigger would have had to deem the canopy unairworthy...

[marks 0]

an faa certified rigger deemed the canopy "not airworthy"

call the police!

if he missrepresents it, i would think you would at "least" be able to scare him with some sort of charge.


meekerseeker, is a rigger. "so he states" wich i would have a hard time believing he wasnt, seems honest to me.

[Praetorian 1]

NOTE THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK JUST AN OBSERVATION
IT IS NOT DIRECTED AT ANY ONE, BUT I AM USEING THIS QUOTE AS A CASE IN POINT

Quote

and I'm sure bad karma is heading his way for that,

Karma is a copout, if someone is intentionally bad (legally or morally) to me or mine ... which I like to think includes all skydivers ... I want them punished, or made to make right their wrong, in this life in some real tangable way ... not some mystic mombojumbo karma or heaven/hell next life I see this karma thing a lot on here, and it's lame if you don't want to try and fix the problem (and trying to fix the problem is what I see the original seller trying to do .. even though the mistake was honest and not intentionally "bad") don't make the failure of the system or the lack of attempt to bring justice feel any better to yourself or others by invoking the mystic warm fuzzy Karma poliece ... sorry for the rant

Good Judgment comes from experience...a lot of experience comes from bad
judgment.