Common rigging errors

[Jessica 0]

What are they?

Riggers, what scary things have you found when opening up pack jobs? What have you had to berate apprentices for doing? What mistakes have you made that you learned from?

I guess what I'm asking is what would you tell the inexperienced rigger to watch out for in his or her own work?

Skydiving is for cool people only

[miller 0]

molar straps left around canopies, now that's a scary one...

seriously, one of the scariest things I find on a consistent basis is worn or frayed closing loops. I personally replace the reserve closing loop on every rig (except racers) every time I repack it, even if I was the previous rigger. maybe overkill, but that's how I approach the seriousness of rigging.

another mistake I found a lot was the misrouting of the cutaway cables through the reserve container on the older javelins with soft housings.

also very common: nasty nasty black cut away cables that haven't been cleaned forever. pull these things out, clean them up, wipe them down, flex the three ring system.. rant rant rant

i recently found some lead shot pellets from the previoius rigger's leaky shot bag.

misrouted bridals, flaps closed in the wrong order, lots of little things that probably wouldn't have affected deployment, but weren't according to the mfr's directions.

mike

[PhreeZone 15]

I saw one last month that the safety stow was broken on it. Gummy rubber bands on a racer, saw a grommet get ripped out of the back of a dolphin by an over aggressive master rigger.

Heard of a rig not having the closing loop running through the cypres cutter but beside it from when it was first new to jumping.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[councilman24 36]

Broken safety stows are common. Whether they were missed at the last pack job or broke since then the things you don't know. (Unless you did the last one.) The inner rubber core breaks at the end of the stitching but the nylon outter sheath looks fine. You have to feel this problem. Hmmmm I need to order some for the spring rush.

Untacked slider bumpers on reserves (or mains). I opened a reserve once and as I deployed it on the ground a bumper ended up about two feet up the lines. The only reserve ride this jumper had had was caused by the same thing on his main, on his wedding day, in his tux. I've seen homemade "nonTSO'd" TSO components, connector links that were damaged, toggles tied on wrong. I've never found something that would have failed, but some that might have contributed to a failure. One rig took 30 pounds of pressure to remove the freebag from the canopy stack. The jumper kept his rig in the trunk all summer and the coated bag stuck to the canopy. (I'm not exagerating, I measured it.)

And all the stuff that a lot of riggers won't deal with. Weak velcro (once on a throw out bridle that was a cypres save from killing a friend), loose grommets, kinked cables, broken stiffeners, damaged harness webbing, loose closing pins, melted rubber bands (on a pilot rig). Hackey handles coming off, lose PC apex lines.

The list goes on.

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

[Cornholio 0]

Quote

molar straps left around canopies, now that's a scary one...

Indeed, that would scare me immensly. Has this actually happened and what would the results be ? Would the reserve just not open, or would it eventually open ? And I take it that this is an apprentice mistake and experienced riggers usually count their tools afterwards, right ?

Butthead: Whoa! Burritos for breakfast!
Beavis: Yeah! Yeah! Cool!
bellyflier on the dz.com hybrid record jump

[Samurai136 0]

Sadly, there is no hope. If there is a Molar strap left on your reserve it will not open. Imagine how your main would open if you took a belt and looped it around the center cell between the right and left lines and it kept the slider up.

In an emergency situation you have seconds for the canopy to inflate. That problem would nor resolve itself before you reach ground level.

Ken

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[Mattias148 0]

Well...

In our Riggingloft we have a small satanic shrine were we worship our molarstrap. When ever we feel badgered from a tough case of "freebag stuffing" we go and pray for a bit and offer sacrifices ( and drink some softdrinks). Woe to the poor skydiver that expects us to actully use it though.

Seriously though; Worst I've seen is my master rigger packing a Javelin and closing all four (!!) flaps over the pilot, man was that an ugly rigg. I like zerox better if it's going to look like that...
And I remind him of that day as often as I can.

"Pull low, pack fast or boink your riggers girlfriend. 3 good ways to find trouble."

[MrHixxx 0]

One I would like to add that I have seen on three Javelins this year: The plate is bent up in the bottom of the reserve tray from a rigger over torquing the closing loop with a positive leverage tool. Only one of these was one of my customers ( a new one) and I sent it off the master rigger for surgery...

-Jon

[Spy38W 0]

Is it possible to use too much force while NOT using a positive tension device?

--
Hook high, flare on time

[MrHixxx 0]

Not very likely...

Jon

death,as men call him, ends what they call men
-but beauty is more now than dying’s when

[ernokaikkonen 0]

Does "positive tension device" here refer to any mechanical aid in closing the container(such as a crank) or just the gadget that was posted a couple of days back?

Are there many different aids for closing the container? I've only used a crank myself. I've also seen a strap that goes around your neck and shoulder, which helps you to use your whole body for pulling on the pull-up cord.

Are there others?

[Mattias148 0]

I heve seen quite a few closing aids. And I have bent a few kickplates instead of making the loop a bit longer...

The cheepest closing aid is just a 2-3 inch alluminum pipe with lots of rubberbands on it.

My best friend uses a modified version of the (hoover pipe) which is the same pipe, but thicker material, and instead of rubberbands he has made the surface rough (machined surface).

I use a verry small tube with a hole in one end and a narrow split in the other. The split is used to lock the pull up cord in place and in the other end you put a short rod through. When I twist this contraption with the rod the force on the cord is many times the force I apply to the rod.

All three solutions use a metall plate with a slit smaller than the gromet on the flaps between the gear and the mechanical aid.

I've seen the old "pull-the-cord-untill-you-snap" method in action on a tough rig. The rigger in question did a backflip in mid air and landed on his feet when the loop broke. This guy weighs about 250-300 pounds and does not have any experience with advanced gymnastics...
He is using the "hoover pipe" today.

"Pull low, pack fast or boink your riggers girlfriend. 3 good ways to find trouble."

[slotperfect 7]

Ditto on the saferty stow loops. I find them all the time. You really have to pull it out and check it.

I found an upper control line junction (cascade) with no bar-tack once while inspecting a brand-new reserve. We called the manufacturer with the serial number and QC number, then shipped it back to get it fixed.

I found a reserve that had been assembled and packed by the same person out of continuity.

I have found really bad CYPRES mod's too.

Arrive Safely

John

[riggerrob 561]

Frayed closing loops. loose grommets, tired Velcro and a huge variety of fugly knots for attaching steering toggles are all common.
Why canopy manufacturers don't simply fingertrap and sew the bottom ends of reserve steering lines is a mystery to me.

Broken safety stows are common.
Loose handtacking is common.

Last week I found a reserve A line that was fingertrapped to the canopy but not sewn.
Last week I also found a freebag that was missing a bartack.
The easiest way to keep track of a molar strap is to slide a B-12 snap onto it for closing. The fewer tools you use and the more often you use them during a pack job, the less likely you are to forget them. How you can forget a tool that you use for closing is a mystery to me.
Rubber bands tend to melt after two years, especially if the grommets are still bare brass.
My pet peeve is pilotchutes and canopies that get torn by closing loops when riggers use far more muscle than skill.

[MrHixxx 0]

At the rigging course I attended we had one girl pack a shot bag in a rig (it was only the second rig she ever packed). She is forever known as "shotsee".

count your tools, Jon

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

Lets see... what have I seen/caught myself when asked by someone else for a gear check or asked by someone with less experience to "give them a hand" or "hey, take a look at this"... or stuff pointed out to me when I was less experienced...

- Cutaway cables mis-routed.
- Reserve cables mis-routed... missed the ring on the end of the RSL... e.g. if main would have been cut-away, the RSL wouldn't have pulled the reserve even with the RSL hooked up at the riser end.
- More then one main toggle tied on wrong.
- Suspension lines & steering lines on mains hooked up to links/risers incorrectly... wrong order on the links... steering line routed around line group... steering lines not through slider grommet.
- Missing bar-tac on finger trap for lower control portion of steering line.
- Kill-line pilot chute hooked up wrong.
- Main D-Bag in-side-out.
- Foreign object stuck in main closing loop along with curved pin.

[Craig 0]

Here is a few things listed on one particular web site...

http://www.noexcusesrigging.com/ResInsp.htm
http://www.noexcusesrigging.com/user_errors.htm

[Jessica 0]

That's really good stuff! Thanks.

Skydiving is for cool people only

[Michele 1]

Stupid question alert!

Um, what's a molar strap?

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[billvon 2,463]

>Um, what's a molar strap?

It is a strap with a friction lock on one end. You wrap it around a pack job to keep it under control while dealing with the freebag.

[Michele 1]

Thanks, BV...not yet having my own gear and only watching one reserve repack, I wasn't at all sure.

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[PhreeZone 15]

Most riggers don't use one from what I've seen. They make controling the canopy very easy, but if you forget to remove it (its not that hard if you don't have a tool check list) then if the person needs to use the reserve it will probally end in a big splat since the reserve will be chocked off from opening properly. It will tie the slider all the way up with the cells unable to open.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[MrHixxx 0]

Another one I have seen is routing both the small and middle ring through the large ring on the Drings. This can cause the rings to jam and not release when you try to cutaway...

-Jon

[lummy 4]

Side question... The tool checklist is a use it if you want to kind of thing? Is it taught as part of the procedures when you go for your rigging ticket?
I've always gotten the checklist after a repack (along with the Inspection report) so I just assumed that it was all part of the process..

I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. eat sushi, get smoochieTTK#1

[Ducky 0]

Damn now I'm scared! Being a recnt new owner of my pre-second rig there is sooooooo much I don't know. I am not a verety trusting person with many things and am having a hard time not knowing more about my gear.

Heck I'm a crappy mechanic, but will do anything to fix problems with my own vehicles rather than trust a mechanic. I understand this is far from realistic with my skydiving gear though.

So my question is: How can I become more familiar with my gear?? Are there books you might recomend? Will my rigger be completely annoyed if I ask for some type of "get to know your gear" seminar?

I have had one reserve ride and I must say that definately helped boost my confidence in a riggers' ability. Yet I still feel a bit uneasy about jumping gear I don't fully understand.

kwak

Sometimes your the bug, sometimes your the windshield. Sometimes your the hammer sometimes your the nail. Question is Hun, Do you wanna get hammered or do you wanna get nailed?????