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jmidgley

How to re-attach a bagged main...

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I was lazy - once and hooked my main up still in the bag. Despite being really careful, it was backwards. Lesson learned = time taken to re-pack is much shorter then any travel time to the emergency room! Stay Safe




Uh, you had to go to the emergency room?? what did you do try and land it!?

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what did you do try and land it!?



Landing a backwards canopy isn't that rare.

Here's one story, and there are tons more.



Yes I know it isn't that rare with large canopies.. my incident was on a stilleto 120.. i guess i don't know what the other guy was flying but still $50.00 repack or $xxx.00 hospital bill?

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No, I did not go to the emergency room. Yes, I landed it. It was a very uneventful landing on a Sabre 170. Winds, landing area and all other factors were favorable. Hence, I made my decision. In hind sight (20-20) I would probably chop it, but all control was good and I landed it.

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I'm thinking of transporting my rig in two bits (see all the airtravel threads). Has anyone got any snappy ideas for ensuring that everything is re-oriented correctly when I hook the main back up?



Taking the canopy out of the bag and repacking it is the correct answer, as everyone else is telling you.

I got away with hooking it back up from the bag for quite a while. However, then one day after doing that for years, much to my surprise, I found myself flying backwards after opening...

Now I unpack the canopy and do it the way everyone is telling you here.

But I realize that some people are going to try hooking it up from the bag anyway, regardless of all this advice. So here is some additional advice to improve your odds.

Mark your risers "RF", "RR", "LF" & "LR". This stands for "Right Front", "Right Rear", "Left Front", and so on. You can make these notations on the inside of the riser just above the confluence wrap, where it won't be obvious. This might keep you from doing something stupid, because you can check to see which riser is which.

Furthermore, put the same marks on the corners of your slider. This way you can stretch your lines out, opening the mouth of the bag, but leave the canopy inside the bag. Then you can see your slider grommets and these notations, and not have to guess as to which corner you have for a line set. Match up these slider line sets with your risers, and you've got it. Hopefully... Maybe...

That will assist in hooking it back up correctly.

But the correct answer remains: Just repack it!

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Why would you need to mark front and back?

Can't you just tell that by the 3 rings?
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

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Why would you need to mark front and back?
Can't you just tell that by the 3 rings?



That's true. We should also be able to tell if the canopy is backwards, because the toggles will be facing down instead of up, as the rig lays on the ground during packing. However, we skydivers sometimes ignore all these obvious warning signs, and do dumb stuff anyway. So I'm in favor of idiot-proofing to the degree necessary. I may need more idiot-proofing than others.

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because the toggles will be facing down instead of up, as the rig lays on the ground during packing.



Generally mains that are hooked up backwards have the risers correctly installed, just on the wrong side so that the main opens flying backwards and each riser has a half-twist in it.

Like you said, just take it out of the bag, do a line check and re-pack it, 10 minutes worth of work that can save a lot more time and money.

"Never underestimate your ability to screw up an easy skydive";)

Derek

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I was showing off my gear to a whuffo friend. She had a bit of a hard time understanding the 3 ring release so I chopped it to display. The D-bag was already out of the container (I had already gone through the deployement explanation) and I reattached it but 20-30 seconds later. The bag never spun about, it was laying on my couch, the risers neverleft my hands. I wasn't worried in the slightest that I had not hooked them up right. I even released one line stow thinking to myself "If I did twist up one of the risers, the twist could not have possibly passed this first stow."

All that resulted was one twis in one side but it was enough to make me realize how hard it is to tell that the twist was present... had there been more, I'd of possibly been looking at stuck toggles or a hesitant slider?... Meh, attach it while still in the bag and then take it out and repack, just for shits and giggles.



My Karma ran over my Dogma!!!

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Has anyone got any snappy ideas for ensuring that everything is re-oriented correctly when I hook the main back up?



Having said that, Snappy ideas? You could tape the risers -properly orientated- to the side of the d-bag. This way, they cannot move about and will be properly oriented when re-connecting them.



My Karma ran over my Dogma!!!

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