Packing technique on military rounds

[377 20]

My Mom was a parachute packer in WW2. She said if I packed like she did I never would have any troubles. She just couldn't believe how sloppily skydivers packed their round canopies. "Appalling" is the word she used.

Actually I packed my surplus C-9 round canopy VERY neatly by skydiver standards but my Mom was not at all impressed. She proceeded to demonstrate how the skirt sections should be "dressed" after the panels were flaked. It looked picture perfect but I doubt if it served any useful function other than a cosmetic one.

When I had my first cutaway from a fouled up C-9 cheapo guess what she said? "I warned you honey. You just didn't listen to your Mom."

377

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[SCS292 1]

In the round days we didn't have "packers" for sport jumping except for student rigs. The closer you were on the manifest the sloppier the pack job would get, including using your reserve to hold tension and just giving the whole thing a good shake instead of flaking. I packed a few student rigs for a dollar apiece in Galveston. A student had a nice streamer on one of my pack jobs that opened slowly resulting in a nice soft opening shock. I got fired from packing but tried hard to duplicate that pack job on my own rig. Sometimes my rig seemed to open a couple seconds before I pulled, straining me through the harness.

[jimmytavino 16]

4 line it,,, of course
...and Then simply "shake it" " Flake it " " sleeve it "
" Stow it " " Close it "
and "hook Up the bungees " !!!!!

jmy A 3914
USPA # 9452

[377 20]

Right on Jimmy, my technique exactly.

I sure got a scare packing my 1951 C-9. I was jostling the sleeve which appeared to be in very good condition, no fading, and my fingers went right through the cotton fabric. It tore like paper. I could just imagine the canopy partially escaping though a big sleeve rip during deployment and giving me a malf.

Got a new sleeve ($35
377

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[BobBurnham 0]

It's an interesting trick to be able to create a streamer on an old round because of a packing error.

Years ago I wanted to do an intentional cutaway and wanted to cause a real malfunction to cut away. I tried rolling it in a ball and wadding it up in various configurations, but nothing worked. Finally I tied the skirt band together and that worked better than I had imagined.

I had always thought that just the pilot chute being out would pull you almost vertical, but no. My feet floated up in front of me before I cut it away. Scared the pee out of me!

[riggerrob 558]

Options vary.
Millions of military packers were taught "if it ain't perfect, you're gonna die!"

OTOH, Manley Butler told me "Nothing matters above the diaper."

Most packers are somewhere in the middle, trying to flake fabric outboard of seams (to prevent burns) while keeping the skirt even to prevent inversions.