Lazurus, Phoenix, you get the idea....

[cdunham 0]

Warning. This may frighten some of the more conservative viewers out there. You have been warned.
I just started jumping again after a six-year layoff. The first few jumps left me pretty sore the next day, using muscles that have been pretty dormant.
I did this on rented gear. Now it's time to drag my regular ride out of storage. It seems to have faired only slightly worse than I did, but I'm wondering what unused muscles it has waiting to be found.
Background: Racer Elite container (pull out, no ADD or RSL), Raven III main, 24' Phantom reserve.
Just so you don't worry too much, I am bringing it to the DZ tomorrow to get it checked out and worked on by a real rigger. I'm not dumb enough to just pop in on and go flying (desperate enough, maybe So here's what I found when I took it out of the bag. First, there is a slight smell. Gross, but not enough to gag, just noticable. Seems a bit musty, but there are no overt stains on the container or the main. The tube stows are the worse thing so far. They have slightly decayed, leaving some gack on the lines. Again, the lines don't look stained or worn, just have some dried tube stow gack on them here or there.
The stitching, webbing and velco all look intact and in the same condition I left them. The 3-rings are ok, the cutaway system looks clean and intact. There is some slight staining of the closing loops on the reserve. It may be from the pins?
The grommets on the slider and some of the other brightwork look a bit tarnished, but otherwise OK.
The main looks like it's in great shape. I stuck my head into each of the cells and looked at them from inside. I found about a 3/4 inch section of stretched material around a section of one seam, but this is clearly something that was already there. An odd thing I see is that some of the crossport openings are frayed. Again, this looks like stress that occurred during opening or flight, not storage, but it is kind of odd. I haven't ever really looked this close at the canopy before, so I don't know how long it has been like this. I bought the gear used from a rigger whom I trust with my life (duh), and he always took care of it even after I bought it.
All I have done is replaced the tube stows with SkyBands (I never thought I would be so turned on by elastics, these are great!). The rest is up to a professional. Wish me luck.
My biggest concern is the reserve. In case you don't remember or ever knew this particular canopy (it's round), it has a very "interesting" history. A small number (not a lot) of them were found in tatters during routine inspection cycles. I don't think fatalities were ever attributed to them, but they required special pH testing every 90 or 180 days. I assume this one doesn't have the dreaded "acid problem", but if it does, I may find a block of goo in the reserve container tomorrow.
Well, you made it this far, what do you think? Any similar experiences you have had or heard of? I plan to get all new gear as soon as I can get the $$$ together (this year's tax return wasn't pretty), but I would like to jump this gear in the mean time. I'll let you know how it goes after the big inspection.
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"Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down."

[ramon 0]

I think the 24' Phantom round had mesh on the back of it that required some pH testing.
There should be some blue marks on the webbing and some marks made by riggers that tested it. I beleive it was supposed to be tested twice in a row with no adverse effects for the life of the canopy.
Good luck ha ha ha.
ramon